Frank Haith Quotations

The point guards were so good in this league last year. It was incredible.

We're getting better. There's no question about that. They're starting to feel good about what they're doing.

We knew we were getting crushed on the boards. They overwhelmed us on the glass. He took ownership of that.

We're not good enough to win many games when those guys shoot poorly.

When you run at him or you double him, he's a team player. He does a great job of looking for open teammates.

We did do a good job of breaking them down. They're so aggressive on the ball we felt like that was something we could do.

We're playing better. When you're in a tournament like this, the more you win, the more guys realize they're playing for something.

We're above.500 (in the ACC) at the halfway point and you have to be pleased with that. But we have to understand that we're a long way from where we want to be.

We didn't want Carolina to get into a rhythm. We played a lot of zone, but we played some man. We switched defenses as much as we could.

We've started well. We really wanted to emphasize how we started ballgames. And we finished well. A couple losses we've had, that's been something we haven't done very good. ... We've really worked on our late-game situations.

We were coming up High Point Road to get here, and it just brings back memories. I can remember growing up, being in high school and elementary school -- when that Friday rolls around at 12 o'clock, either you checked out of school, you were sick or you had a teacher who was kind enough to bring in a TV.

When they took the lead, we showed some toughness.

Like anything you do, it'll work for a short period of time. But he's so intelligent that he's going to keep working.

Last year was our first year in the league and my first year in the league as a head coach. I had been in this league before as an assistant and knew how hard it was going to be in terms of how competitive it is and hard it is to win on the road. I think our kids are better at it after going through it one time. We're more experienced and now that we have Anthony Harris back, I think we're playing better basketball.

Obviously we're disappointed. But we've got to get ourselves emotionally ready to come back. That's what this league is all about. This league is that good.

Obviously, this was very special for me, growing up in North Carolina, growing up on ACC basketball and being an assistant in this league at Wake Forest.

Obviously, it's a great win for us. I just think we're playing with good poise, good patience.

I don't know a kid who worries about their future and what they are going to do afterward who plays well at this point. You've got to be routine in what you've done thus far and keep that focus.

I don't know. That's the official's read. We showed some toughness, I thought. I'm so proud of the way our guys executed.

But we've played in some tough places this season. We've been to the Dean Dome, Cameron Indoor Stadium, Maryland and Michigan. It's not like we don't know what it's like to play in a hostile environment.

BC is a smart basketball team. They've got experience. They know how to play in those situations.

I love being at Miami, and we have work to do.

For us to be good and take the next step in our program those guys have got to be better, and we've got to have production out of those guys.

If we play as hard as we can play we can live with what happens at the end of the game.

He went against the grain and made a nice play. We wanted him to take the last shot.

He had a tough night. I thought he tried to force some things and made some poor decisions.

He had shots. But they were making sure every shot was a contested shot.

He had one of those nights. He's a fabulous player and showed it tonight.

He drove the ball in the past but he avoided the contact. Now, he's jumping through the contact. He's confident. He's a senior that wants to win, that knows this is his last go-around and he's going at it with a lot of passion.

Having vocal leadership is important to this team. He's taken that role on, and the guys respect what he says. To me when you don't have him on the court, that's what you're lacking.

He's a fabulous player, the best point guard in this league, and he showed it tonight.

His two years here he was as exciting a player as I've been around. He's living a dream right now.

We lost our focus a little and they got some shooters loose, and they made shots to their credit. Then when we have some opportunities to score we didn't shoot the ball well. We don't have enough in the tank when Guillermo doesn't score and Anthony doesn't have some kind of night. It's going to be tough for us.

He's playing at an unbelievable level. He's taken a lot of stuff about not playing big in big games, but he's our most consistent player this season. He's in a tremendous flow right now.

He just didn't have it. He was out of it most of the night.

Guillermo's had two great performances back to back. He played really under control. We did a great job of getting him the ball.

Guillermo felt that this was the best time for him to enter the draft and I support that decision. In the two seasons I've been at Miami, he has been as exciting a player as I've been around.

It is pretty amazing. A lot of what Tyler is is just sheer determination. Usually that's the thing from high school to college that takes time kids to adjust to. He's at warp speed right now.

I thought we did a good job changing defenses and playing well inside as well as on the perimeter.

I thought our kids competed and we played very hard. J.J. is a phenomenal player. He wasn't just great tonight, he has been great all year. I think he is the best player in college basketball and he showed it tonight.

I thought our guys held excellent poise down the stretch. We played with a tremendous amount of composure. We knew Carolina was going to make some runs, particularly there in the second half. I'm just so proud of how our kids handled that.

Lawrence (Gilbert) is a multi-talented player who can do a lot of things on the basketball court. He can score, rebound, pass and defend. He has excellent court vision for a player his size and makes everyone around him better. He will be a tremendous addition to our program.

I think they did a good job defensively, but we just didn't shoot that well. Some of the shots were contested, but we missed a lot of wide-open shots.

I thought we were a soft basketball team tonight. Virginia was physically tougher than we were. When we had guys take the ball out of our hands, well, that's toughness. And that No. 11 kid, he played hard.

Our kids have just had some poise and played with some savvy. If you've got good guards, you've got a chance, and our guard play has been really good and of late it's been excellent. ... The biggest thing is we're just starting to play with a lot of savvy.

Palacios and Padgett can step out and shoot the ball. They have great low-post moves. Our post guys might have to come out and guard a little bit more away from the basket.

My thing with Duke is they are a high percentage team, so I'm real pleased with the fact that we held them to 41 percent shooting. But J.J. is a great player and when the game is on the line your players have to make plays. He knew he was going to try to make a play and he did.

I'm happy at Miami. I've agreed to a deal and I'm not interested in other jobs.

I was proud of our team's effort. There were a couple of plays that I thought we botched there at the end that could've given us a better chance. But, I can't fault our guys' effort and how they competed. Duke played well down the stretch when they needed to and J.J. made all of the big plays.

We have one of the best guard corps in the league, and BC's low post is the best in the league, if not in the nation. They have size, strength and experience.

We played great defense. It was a night where we didn't particularly shoot the ball well from deep, and we found a way to win.

We have to sustain our own energy and bring that killer instinct. We planned for Sacred Heart one day after playing Louisville. I'm not making any excuses, but that's a tough deal.

We had won six games in this league in large part because we played really good defense. We didn't have the same type of presence or assertiveness on Sunday.

We had guys that haven't made plays all year make plays for us.

We could have easily faltered right there. If you look at it, you've got the game won with 1.7 seconds left. They make a play and it looks like they've got all the momentum.

We have to win games. That's pretty much the way it is. We have opportunities. I just want to go out and compete and let that stuff take care of itself.

We were still right there, in position to win the game. You just have to make plays. They made their free throws.

Yeah, they all can shoot threes. Everybody made one for the most part.

We need him to be assertive like that and be a low post presence for us to be good.

We'll have a different look, but I don't believe it's going to be an issue. We'll create more from our defense than we did this past season.

We're not totally out of it. Obviously we need to win (today) and we need to go into the (ACC) tournament and win one and, maybe, two games. As much as (FSU is) playing for something, we have to understand we're playing for something, too.

We played with no toughness. Virginia played tougher. ? When they have guys rip the ball out of our hands, that's toughness.

We have five games left in league play. We're 6-5 (in the ACC). Obviously it's a tough stretch, but we knew that going in. Surely, we would have liked to win our two home games, but we didn't. That means we just have to find a way on the road.

We kept stressing to our kids to understand where we're at. We didn't win some of those (previous) games on the road, but we knew we could play better. We were not at full strength. We knew there were still a lot of games to be played. But we needed a good win to give them that confidence.

We're not mentally tough enough to finish games right now, and that's the problem. Their players ... stepped up when the game was on the line. That's the bottom line.

We didn't get his name in the book on Senior Day. He didn't start, and it really bothered me. I wanted to make sure he had a chance to start.

We had a couple of plays down the stretch that we botched up that could've given us a better chance. But I can't fault our guys' effort, how they competed.

We've got to find a way. It's been this way for four to five games now.

We had a rough start. ... but we played a really good schedule. Going into North Carolina, we had been on the road a lot. That helped.

Those threes hurt. They hit them back to back to back.

We just dug ourselves too big a hole. We made some bad decisions and got out of character a little bit.

We just kept going to him. He made plays. He had a couple plays where he got in the paint, and he was able to finish and take a hit.

We just gotta take baby steps. Hopefully we'll be playing in the NCAA next year.

We weren't good from deep, but we found a way to win and that's key. You're going to have nights when you don't shoot as well.

We have to do a better job marketing college basketball and with our game operations. They have to understand that having a sixth man is important.

We had the ball with a chance to cut it to three or two points but Harris took a bad shot. That was a big turnaround.

(Virginia) is almost like a mirror image of us. They play a lot like we do. Their guard play is very good. Their post guys are very physical. They're aggressive and they play extremely hard. Dave's done a great job of getting those guys to believe they can be successful in this league.

We are going to have a good basketball team. We are going to be fine.

We had our opportunities. It is disappointing because we want to win those games and we had opportunities to finish the game off.

We wanted Anthony's involvement and post presence. We called his number, and he made some plays. It's good to see. As we progress this season, we need that out of him.

Everybody is disappointed, but we've got to get ourselves emotionally ready to come back.

Duke played well down the stretch when they needed to, and J.J. made all the big plays.

There's no question that affected us. I think we had some really good looks. We had some clean looks; we just weren't able to knock them down.

It would be huge for this program. If we get to New York, what it does for our program from a recruiting standpoint and exposure, there's no substitute for that.

Our effort was there, and that's all you can hope for is if our guys will have that kind of energy, that kind of effort the rest of the year. You give yourself a chance, and that's what you want.

Anthony wouldn't say a word when I first got here.

Anthony Harris' three was really huge. We had a timeout and he had missed his last two or three in a row and I told him, 'You're going to make the next one.' He stepped up and I think the three he made gave us the lead in the second half. Once he made that three I don't think we gave up the lead.

That's Guillermo's guy. He's got confidence in him. Denis has been a streaky shooter this year, but one thing about him is that he's got a lot of toughness. He believes he can make plays, which can be good and bad. In that particular play, I knew he was going to shoot it. That's just the way Denis plays, he was going to take the shot.

You're playing to be one of those teams that doesn't play on that first day. Right now, everybody's so jumbled up, somebody's got to separate a little bit here to get themselves in position.

You never felt like they were rattled, even when we got the lead. BC is a really smart team. They're very experienced. They know how to play in tight situations. They've been in it.

This is our second year (in the ACC), and I wanted our guys to understand the passion for basketball (in the conference).

They were just tougher than us in the final five minutes, and that's something we have to fix.

They got some really good looks in terms of us being able to move the ball and make good decisions. Those guys made big plays.

There was too much pressure on those two guys. We need to get other guys involved.

They're an outstanding team and J.J. is terrific. We executed our game plan. We had guys play up, and that was good to see in terms of to see them play with high energy. The difference in the game? We make one three, they make 13 threes. We make 10 free throws, they make 29.... When you look at those two numbers, it's hard to win.

They're a great shooting team. They put five guys out there that can make threes.

They're a great shooting team. A lot of those shots were contested. They're going to find the open man, and then everybody they throw it to can make the shot.

As you can see, it didn't help because he still got 30 points. He finds ways. He is smart. It is like anything you do, it will work for a short period of time.

It's been something our kids have really worked hard at. When you lose tight ball games, tough ball games. ... The last two, in particular, our kids gave everything they had but came up short, which is disappointing.

It's just something we do. I think our big guys understand their role and what we want them to do. They know that (offensive rebounds) are a big part of our offense.