Jamie Dixon Great Quotations

Carl set the tone with his nine assists. That makes us hard to guard when he's playing like that. It was a great team effort. We had a lot of guys step up.

He is a great shooter, so you have to make him take tough shots. We tried to contain him, and to do that you've got to make them tough.

He's a great player. He's been a winner from the day he got here. The guys know that. They can sense it. It carries over with his competitiveness. The guys are watching, and I think Carl enjoys it. He relishes it. He's proud of what he's done here, and he should be.

He's a great player, a tough kid, a former McDonald's All-American. The key is we have tough guys who can battle down low, and we're deep, so we can keep rotating guys in to play him very physical.

We made some great adjustments against the zone in the second half. We had a little more penetration and movement.

I think we should have nine teams in the NCAA tournament. I think we should set a record. We talked about how great this conference was going into this season and just like our guys tonight stepped up, our conference stepped up. We deserve nine bids. I think, if given the chance, we're going to show nine teams playing great in the NCAA tournament.

We didn't shoot it great tonight and a lot of that has to do with the zone. I thought we got the ball inside when we wanted to. I thought we did a good job attacking but don't read too much into it. It was two teams playing hard and we came up a little bit short.

This was a great win for us. I think we were anxious at first and rushed a bit. But we calmed down and played a great last 30 minutes. They're a very good team, ranked 19th in the RPI, so they're battle tested and very well coached. Their size and versatility make them hard to play against. I thought we did a good job offensively, especially running the clock at the end and getting great shots towards the end of possessions. Our defense still has a long way to go though.

Sam played well against West Virginia the previous two games. He finished well in the second half. He got great passes from Aaron a couple of times. He's just a freshman playing against seniors. That's why he's getting better.

Antonio's been playing great in practice and it's been carrying over into games.

You're never perfect. But you're always trying to play great defense, do things right, and you have to continue to do it on the next play and the play after that. It's also about sticking with roles and principles. We're getting better at it in some areas, but it's something you constantly want to improve at.

It's just more of the same. The names have changed, but you know you're going to have good teams every night. We're playing against the best people. There's a few more, but they're all good. To be in the best conference in college basketball is a great thing for the university.

They deserved to win. They did a great job.

It was just a big effort. Our shooting percentage was terrific. We just came out and made shots. They were good shots, but I thought we made some great decisions to get there.

He played so good the other day (during Friday's 65-61 loss to Seton Hall). He had 11 assists. He started out great with the passing. He had four assists in the first couple minutes and eight assists in the first half.

These guys don't faze me. We've had a great year.

The great passes ... the shooting percentage shows the passing decision-making our guys made throughout. Great job passing it and finding the open guy and recognizing their double team (on Gray), which we knew they were going to do.