Jeff Cavallo Quotations

I'm always preaching to the guys to play bigger than they are.

I give Matt a lot of credit for putting himself in that situation. Most players would shy away from it. That was a tribute to him and he made it.

He has great hands. We have worked on his foot work in a lot of agility drills. He does have a nice soft tough, which is rare for big guy. He's 10 times better than he was last year and he'll continue to improve.

Our whole purpose was to try to wear him down and make him play defense and to make him work for everything he got offensively. Of course he picked up some fouls and that really helped and our guys just executed the game plan really well.

Our whole focus was to wear him down and make him play defense. We wanted to make him work for everything he got on offense.

We had to play a near perfect game to win. They (Arlington) are the best rebounding team I have seen since I have been coaching high school.

We did want to move the basketball and get the best shot available. ... But to stall was never an option. We didn't want to approach it that way. We wanted to run our system against theirs.

We knew we needed a near-perfect game. And that they had to have an off night.

We knew the first few minutes of the second half were going to be crucial. We play the way we practice, which is to say is we were not going to take the air out of the ball, we were going to play to our strengths, it just did not happen the way we wanted it to.

We knew coming in we had to play near perfect to win, and they would have to have an off night.

You look at Hoosiers , Miracle on Ice , all those terrific movies in real-life stories, that's what we were hoping for. We weren't able to overcome their talent.

At the midpoint of the season, we played three overtime games in a row. We won all three and that really tested our resiliency, our ability to focus when the game is on the line.

Sometimes, it takes us two or three or sometimes four or five possessions before we understand what's going on. In this particular case, it took a few possessions and realized, 'OK, let me go through my reads.' When that happens, it goes to our favor.

I'm so proud of my kids. They worked so hard. They've earned the opportunity to go to state.

I'm so proud of my guys for the way they hung in there and executed the offense. Sometimes you get lucky, and this was one of those opportunities.

I felt the momentum start to change, but I never lost confidence in our team. Never for a second.

I couldn't be more proud of the group of guys I've had the opportunity to share this experience with. Obviously, I think Arlington Country Day is a terrific collection of talented individuals. But when you look at The Benjamin School, I think we're a better team in the true sense of the word.