Alexander Johnson Quotations

We're better than that, and we've shown it.

We have to get it anyway we can get it.

When he misses, he always misses on the side or it rolls around and comes off on that side. I'm thinking, 'Ralph's shooting this, so I'm going to get on that block this time.' Usually I go back down the court. And he shot it and missed and it went right on that side.

Now we really have to get the Duke game and the Miami game. We've been in this situation plenty of times, so we're used to it. But this year we've got to get it done. We've come too far as a team and as a staff to let this season slip away like this.

He's going to make a lot of guys better. He's working hard, and that's just letting me know that he's going to be ready to play next year. He wants to win.

Playing behind Kobe, he's not going to get too much playing time. But the most important thing is he reached his goal. He wanted to get there, and he got there. If he would have stayed another year, it probably would have worked anyway. But I still feel it worked out the best for him.

You have seniors that aren't doing anything pretty much in the league and (around) D-I basketball. That just shows you how hard he works. If you put in the work, you're going to be successful whether you're a freshman or a sophomore.

We're just an immature team. We win two and then we always fall down on the third one. We'll be thinking that we're satisfied.

We panicked; something we hadn't been doing lately. We just panicked, man, down the stretch.

We went in thinking we needed another win -- and probably another win after that.

You're going to need those extra guys to step up. That's what a team's all about.

They're an experienced team that punished us every chance they got. You're going to have at least one game like this year a year. Hopefully, this is it for us.

It's the NIT, but I still want to play. I still want to win.

It's kind of like Christmas. You'll be waiting and waiting and waiting, but you try not to think about it.

It just feels like we're headed in a better direction.

It's going to be a challenge, but I'm coming at him regardless. He's going to make me work and -- trust me -- I'm going to make him work.

That last game doesn't matter. We won this one fair and square.

I kind of anticipated Ralph missing the second free throw, I've been watching them go out for a while. I just faked to the middle and went outside on the guy who was covering me. He was a smaller guy, so I knew I could get my way.

I'm just trying to recover from this loss right now.

I'm getting a lot of deep touches. And when I screen, they kick it out and I'm open. I'm making all the easy plays. I'm not trying to make anything hard or overdo things.

I had to do something to get a smile on Coach's face.

I'm not trying to do four or five dribbles to get where I want to go. If I can't get anywhere in two dribbles, I pass it out.

If you don't win, you're going home. You have to leave it all out on the court.

I just played ball because I didn't want to think about that. I kind of let that stay in the past, never looked back at it.

I know I need to be out there giving a very physical presence inside. It hurts, especially being in Coach Ham's system. If you get two fouls, that's it. I don't care who you are.

I just feel it. I'm tired of losing. We're tired of losing. Being quiet isn't doing it. So, maybe I'll start talking and see what that does.

Being quiet hasn't done much, so let me start talking and see what that does. Why not go all out and go all you can and try to get (to the post-season) like all those other teams. We want to be playing in March and April, too.

He's probably the most talented guy we have on the team. He can run, block shots, defend and he can shoot the ball. I just hope he doesn't get discouraged and continues to work hard. That's the same thing that Al did. He knew he was good but waited his time. And when his time came, he took advantage of it.

The first nine or 10 games was a false sense of security. We didn't really play anybody. We'd never been down and didn't know how to react to the ball pressure and the intensity. I just think we were not prepared.