Frank Haith Kids Quotations

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 obviously a huge boost for us. The biggest thing for us is that even when we were struggling, our kids never lost faith or focus. The win against Maryland gave everyone confidence.

I've had a couple of those situations happen before to my teams. One time at Providence one of my kids got hit by a bottle of water and got his nose broken.

I'm really proud of how our kids competed under those circumstances. We just didn't finish.

I knew how hard it was going to be in terms of how competitive it is and how hard it is to win on the road. Our kids have gone through it one time and are better at it. No question. We're more experienced and have (injured) Anthony Harris back and are playing better basketball.