Noah is incredible. Usually kids that are that big, even if they're that athletic, they don't have the ability to play every possession at the intensity level that he does. I don't know many guards that can do that, but he does that at his size. That's what makes him unique. |
Not once did they mention he's a good shooter. I thought that was such a breakthrough for him. He's made himself a complete, all-around player. |
Now that we've got a good thing going here, I'm happier that it worked out that way. Everyone feels they earned it. You kind of know who your friends are. There was plenty of time for people to show whether they were loyal to the program or not. |
Obviously Allan is very fortunate to have come through a potentially dangerous injury with these positive results. |
Obviously this was an incredible Big East battle. We just said to ourselves, this is BIG EAST game No. 1 - it tells you what this league will be like...Timely shots by Allan Ray, Jason Frazier and Dante Cunningham kept us in the game. Every time Louisville made runs at us, those guys made big plays. Game number one in the Big East, that's what it's going to be like. |
Obviously, that was an incredible Big East battle. I think that's what this league is going to be about. We haven't played a team this good in an environment like this. I was actually prepared to come in here and lose and learn. |
Obviously, we always want to have Allan on the floor. But to beat a good team, you've got to be able to recover from that. |
Offensively, in the first half, I thought we played all right. Also, we just couldn't control Quincy. Second half, I thought we spread the ball out pretty well. |
Old school, split the house... It was cool. |
On behalf of Allan, his family and our basketball family, I would like to thank everyone for the well-wishes and prayers Allan has received in the last 36 hours. Obviously Allan is very fortunate to have come through a potentially dangerous injury with these positive results. |
One guy, Speedy Claxton. He reminds me a lot of him. You ask how does a guy 5-10 make it to the NBA? That's the kind of things Speedy did. He's the only other person I've seen do that. That's why he's special. A lot of guys say, 'I'm a point guard. I set people up, that's what I do.' Kyle's a ballplayer. He says: 'I'll do anything I have to do'... The point guard is not supposed to do that. A good team can block out four guys. You're not thinking about blocking out the point guard, but he loves that. That's a basketball player. |
One of the areas the NBA has affected college basketball is the big guys. If they're very skilled as young guys, they take them early. The guys who are able to benefit from maturing four years in college are the guards. |
One of the things you can't hide is how a player is going to play in the most stressful conditions, when the big lights are on. You throw them into the fire, you see how they respond. You know if they're a player or not. You can just see it in their face. You can see it their confidence level. And in those two, they responded the best in the biggest game. |
Our biggest concern was let's not let what happens at Cincinnati affect the next game. In the Big East, you can't let one game affect the next one, because if you've got any little hangover, you're going to get beat. |
Our coaches and our guys have a feel for that team. We know them and that should help us prepare for them. But, on the other hand, they know us too. |