Jim Calhoun Good Quotations

We've accomplished a lot. Twenty-two and two is a good start but we're going to have to finish the deal. The deal takes place over the next couple of weeks.

When we got into overtime, I said we're in pretty good shape right now. We had new life and we needed an adrenaline shot and we got it, that was great, new life, and it's only 48 hours removed from (the Washington game).

When we got into overtime, I said we're in pretty good shape now. We had new life.

What Louisville needed late in the game was experience. That's what we had, some guys coming down the stretch who know what to do. We turned our defense up in the last 4 1/2 minutes of the game, we took care of the ball, took good shots and made good decisions. This was a grind-it-out game.

We're going to have to evolve into a good road team. Right now we're not. We weren't at Marquette at least. (Tonight) will hopefully be the first step in that direction. And it is a highlight game.

We're going to have to develop into a good road team. Right now we aren't. We weren't at Marquette, at least.

We?re going to have to develop into a good road team. Hopefully, this will be the first step in that direction.

Magnificent is a good word. He put on one of the better performances I've seen in quite a while.

Obviously, the team was in very good spirits.

If we keep winning 30 games a year, I think we'll be in pretty good shape and we'll win our championships again.

I have been a big admirer of Don Haskins for a long time. He is one of the top defensive minds in the game and he is good man, a real coach.

I give him some credit for coming in, passing the ball, not trying to score right way, rebounding. He was doing good things.

I give him credit for coming in, passing the ball and not trying to score right away, rebounding, doing good things. I was happy with his play.

He doesn't have much street left in him; he is one of the nicest and most appreciative people. About the only place he has some of that street and swagger is in his game. And that is a good thing. He doesn't get rattled and relishes every challenge.

We just have superior numbers of people. Not even superior people because Robert gets them to play as well as any guy in this league. What he's done is instill, in my opinion, a work ethic that's as good as any team in our league and almost any league in the country.

He's as good a passer as I've ever coached in 35 years. He's capable of 10-15 assists every night.

I think in his second year with us, Caron started to realize in January just how good he could be with a lot of pushing and prodding. Ben was the same way. I think Rudy (Gay) is starting to understand some of the great gifts that he has and he's starting to showcase them a lot more and just becoming a better player.

Overall, I thought it was a good win for us, but I don't think we played as well as we're capable of.

Over 16 Big East regular season games, we were good. Over 29 games this season, we were good. But every game you have to show up. Today's 40 minutes are the most important 40 minutes. Our Big East season is over. Hopefully, this is a good lesson for us.

Out of 63 kids who had a fourth degree felony, three were thrown out of school, so the percentages were all in his favor. And he was thrown out for a semester for basketball. With that said, I didn't think he had a good game. I do think that things bother him.

Right now, that guy would be Denham (Brown). In the last two games, it's been Denham against very good defense.

Our defense was inconsistent. The defense got us going but that wasn't the key because we let up so many times. I think it was a good win but we didn't play as well as we're capable of.

That allowed Lewis and Thomas to do what they wanted. We got beat good in the post.

It feels good so many guys contributed. We, the coaching staff, to some degree, have become so reliant on Rudy and he didn't have a particularly good evening and that happens to great players and will continue to happen.

I still felt right to the end we would win the game. This team is walking out 30-4. If we keep winning 30 games a year, I think we'll be in pretty good shape and we'll win our championships again. We didn't get there this year, but we'll do that.

I think Indiana is a very good basketball team. I just think there were moments and minutes in that game where we were pretty special. It didn't matter who we were playing because we blocked everything, we ran out and we made good decisions. I'm very proud of my basketball team today.

I thought it was a good win for us. I don't think we played as well as we should have. ... Overall I think we did a decent job on defense, but the thing that is bothering me a little bit is we were inconsistent.

When teams feel good about themselves, you can tell. I get worried when we sometimes feel too good about ourselves. It's a fine line to walk.

We caught them when they were playing terrific basketball. And we caught them off guard. I could see it on tape that they just didn't expect us to be as good as we were. That may have been, at particular points, as good as we've played offensively. We really, really played well.

We have to keep reminding them they?re the No. 1 team in the country to get them to truly believe how good they are. I mean, I spent two hours against Albany trying to get my team to truly believe that. Let?s put it this way: For 28-3, we?re not an overly confident basketball team. On the contrary, this is a team that sometimes has had crises of confidence.

We know they run. We know they have three or four good players. Within the next hour or so, I think I'll know them a lot better.

We know they have a very good defensive team. We know they hung tough against Villanova. We're looking forward to going down there and not having a letdown. We have much bigger fish to fry.

We did things necessary to stop our opponents at crucial times and win games. Defensive rebounds and taking good shots in the last four to five minutes.

We'll talk about that. You've seen it. And there's a pretty good chance you won't see it again.

We're trying to put pressure on Craig ? and I mean positive pressure ? and give him the reinforcement that he needs to take a few chances. You can't make good plays unless you make a few mistakes.

We're trying to give him a lot of reinforcement, tell him to take a couple of chances, make a few mistakes, because you can't make good plays unless you make a few mistakes. Craig becomes more important down the stretch.

We really caught them off guard. I can see it on the tape that they just didn't expect us to be as good as we were.

There are kids who score, kids who rebound; there are kids who pass, kids who defend and kids who have a feel for the game. He has all those attributes. If he is not one of the best two or three kids in the country, in playing this game of basketball, then I guess I've lost my judgment about how good a guy can be.

When you have a kid who's been with you for three years say that to you, whether it happens or not, at least for the moment you feel pretty pretty good. It's good to hear, even if he's lying to you.

Facing Syracuse up here is obviously a task. They looked very good against Cincinnati. They wore Cincinnati down.

This team, at times, can be overwhelming to handle for certain teams. It can dominate through size. It can mismatch you in so many different ways. As long as the guy who makes us go (Marcus Williams) has good games, they we can play with anybody.

This was the first time Hilton's taken over a game in his entire career. He's had good starts to games before. Tonight was the first time he's been able to maintain it throughout.

We've proved that we're ready now. Whether we're ready to win Tuesday night on the road remains to be seen. Do I think we're good enough? Yes.

Both of our NCAA Championships (1999, 2004) came in years where we won the Big East Tournament. Time will tell if that's an automatic correlation. There are no good losses. No moral victories. But I do know this team is one to be reckoned with at the NCAA tourney.

Everyone's talking about how many we'll send, let's see if we can get out of the league first. People who are good are going to rack up a lot of losses. ... I'm afraid we will beat each other up so much that records won't be truly indicative of how good a team is.

There's no good losses, no moral victories, nothing of that nature. But the champion in them did come out. They weren't going away without trying to win a game.

The second half would have been a good night to play against anybody. Every time you made a change ... You pressed us? We dunked it. You zoned us? We 3-pointed it.

The thing that scares me always the most and the thing I caution our players on is that next week, you go home. You go home for the Big East tournament. And then next time you go home, we pack up the uniforms. And this team is good enough to get to Indianapolis. Will it get to Indianapolis? I have no idea. ... Maybe the first round of the tournament some team gets up, plays us tough and we don't execute.

Right now, we have to prepare ourselves for a team that feels very good about itself. We have to tighten our defense.

Rashad wanted to be so good tonight, and of all guys who I thought wanted the limelight at home, it's really unfortunate he didn't have the kind of game he's capable of having. He's a terrific basketball player ... the best sixth man in college basketball.

Rashad doesn't mind who he takes a three on. We put him at point guard and every play worked its way to be for him. That's kind of unusual. He will be on track to be the greatest 3-point shooter we've ever had here, and we've had some pretty good ones.

People had the misconception that if you have three 6-10 kids, all of a sudden you have a good basketball team. The game takes instinct.

No matter how his shot looks - funny to all of us - or if someone is right in his face, it doesn't matter. He only sees orange, that little round thing. As long as he's squared up, he'll make shots. He's too good a shooter. And he really works so hard at it. This, by the way, is far and away his best season.

Coaches all understand. Coaches aren't responsible for the actions of their players, but if you're a good coach you feel very responsible for their actions.

This is our team and it's a pretty good one. When Rudy didn't play well, Denham stepped up. There were other guys, too. We appear to be a pretty good team with a lot of answers.

They've caught some magic in my opinion and they're feeling really good about themselves. When a team feels good about itself they're really tough to beat.

They run very good offense. If you're not on top of your game, they've got guys on this year's team that can make plays. I think our kids are going to have to pick it up a level.

A lot of beat writers asked the question, 'Do you think you looked by this game with the Villanova game coming up?'. We didn't. We didn't look by it. The first 25 minutes was a pretty good indication of that.

A lot of times games are built up and they don't fulfill their promise. This game more than fulfilled its promise. Villanova may be, pound-for-pound, the toughest team that we've played anywhere, any time. Early in the game, we had to match their toughness. They were getting every offensive rebound. They were hustling like crazy. Unless you have a tough team, you cannot win this conference. It was like an old Big East backyard ball amongst two really good teams.

They pass exceptionally well. They have three seniors and they have very good big people. The most disappointing aspect was that one-on-one, our two 6-10 kids could not guard their two 6-7 kids.

They gave us a good old-fashioned butt-whipping. We were god-awful. For the first time, I'm wondering if a couple of our kids are as good as they're supposed to be.

This league will not allow you to breathe. If you're not good every night, you're going to get beat. It's that difficult. In all my years in this league, I've never seen anything like it.

They're a good basketball team. They're going to be very tough out in their league. We gave up 24 points in a very short period of time.

It seems like there are more overtime games, more tough games and the reason is there are more good teams. Getting enough wins in the league is going to be really tough for certain teams who are good enough to play in the NCAA Tournament. Some teams are going to play really well and lose.

It's a tribute to the hard work the kids put in because they played in the best league in the country. I think our kids should be honored. We have an awful lot of good players in this league. I couldn't be prouder of our kids.

It's always good to be No. 1 in anything but it's not great at this time of year. I want it at the beginning of April, but I'll take it now. Being No. 1 isn't a goal of ours like the Big East championship or the national championship, but we feel we're one of the better programs in the country for the last 15 years and being No. 1 is another notch for us as a total program.

It's an important time because no one wants anyone else to get off to a 7-0 start. The league is off to a good start.

Everybody's talking about how many teams we'll send. Let's see if we can get out of the league first. My greatest fear is that we might beat ourselves up so much that records won't be indicative of how truly good a team is.

It seems Ed picks up fouls quicker than any guy I've ever had. And I don't know why. Ed is a very good basketball player and yet I don't think he ever gets recognized for that. He automatically gets tagged because he looks strong and muscular. Well, he's a very good player.

The two guards are just absolutely playing terrific.. Whitney has really become a force in this league. They're the kind of team that feels good about itself and those kind of teams you cannot give an opening to.

Exact opposite teams. We've got to be good at what we do.

I'm going home feeling good because I think we're getting a little better. And I think we'll get a lot better.

I'm not that impressed by my team very much, but we were very good tonight. I can't think of a game where we shared the ball so well and ran so well.

I'll be honest with you that on Sunday all I'll look at is the bracket and see if it's a good bracket. But I'd rather go West. I think New York City is not good for us. There's too much family around. I like having control and not have other people thinking about the wrong thing.

If he's not one of the best two or three kids in the country, then I guess I've lost my judgment about how good a guy can be.

I do know the feeling of being a 15 or 16 because I was there myself. I know how exciting it is and I know all Albany wants is an opportunity to show how good they are.

For the first time, I'm wondering if our kids are as good as they're supposed to be. I'm not sure of anything because I'm just stunned.

For the first time, I'm wondering if a couple of our kids are as good as they're supposed to be. They were in Maui, and they aren't now. Marquette had a lot to do with that.

You can?t predict this thing ... two, three, four all gone. How do you predict these things? The whole idea that No. 1 gets the easy route ... there are no easy routes. Those teams at 16 are really good, and they have incredible desire to win. By the time you get to 8-9, you?re facing really good teams.

The college game is controlled by guards, has been and will be. You guys are going to try to name all the great big men who have carried their teams to Final Fours recently. You're not going to come up with any. You're going to come up with teams that are dominated by good inside play and terrific guard play. In the college game, guys that control the ball control the game.