Jim Calhoun Great Quotations

What this is for 64 teams is a great opportunity. It's a great opportunity for Connecticut. It's a great opportunity for us and it's a great opportunity for Albany. Both teams have something at stake. Both teams want to move on. There is no feeling like it. I've been a 16, a 15, a 1, and I've been all places in between. Each one is exciting.

Very few players maintain the pace, obviously, he's on. Brian Fair, Ray Allen, Ben Gordon, the great shooters we've had here, if anybody could ... I don't think anybody we've ever had could get as hot as he could get. I think Ben Gordon and Ray might be better shooters, but I'm not sure anybody can get as hot as he could get.

When I did my voting, it was very difficult. Normally I can get a better feel. But there were so many kids that had so many great seasons.

The only place down the road I want to see them is in Indianapolis at the Final Four. They come loaded and knock you down. That is a great team with heart.

Many of those kids were passed over by Big East schools and others. I tip my hat to their courage. I feel a great deal of inner joy for what they are going through right now, something they probably couldn't have imagined.

I don't find it unusual for Kentucky, with its incredible history and a great coach like Tubby (Smith), for it to turn into that type of game. I thought Kentucky played awfully good.

I am so proud of my kids and the way we took every shot that Kentucky gave us. But I don't find it unusual for Kentucky, with its incredible history and a great coach like Tubby, to turn it into that kind of game.

I can't remember the last time we were up three with 11 seconds to go and lost. We got beat by that shot by Gerry. Anything can happen in overtime. We made the decision of who would have the assignment. Gerry made a better play and hit a great 3.

He's becoming a tough guy not to play. You know he's going to guard folks. You know he's going to fill the lanes; he's a great fast break player. And you know he's tenacious.

He's a terrific kid who made a dumb, dumb selfish mistake. He's not the first and he won't be the last, unfortunately. Hopefully, it's not going to be on my watch. I'm a great believer that people should be allowed and are allowed a second chance.

He's going to go through a very, very interesting time. He's grown a great deal. I think it's been a very negative experience for him. Which it should be. He put himself in this position.

He's going to be something very, very special. Right now, he is a terrific college basketball player, not the great, great dominating college basketball player that he would be if he stayed in college. I don't think the circumstances are going to allow it to come, unfortunately. I just think that's the way it is.

He's done a great job there. He has a team that puts constant offensive and defensive pressure on you. They're deep. They run. They're quick. They're just a relentless team. A lot of that has to do with his personality. That's how he coaches, and he doesn't accept excuses when it comes to effort.

He learned at the feet of the master, ... To have someone full-time for basketball issues is a great, great situation.

Kentucky gave us a great shot, but we're going to D.C..

Khalid El-Amin put up with a great deal of grief on the road. And it was the best coaching that anybody could have done for me, because Khalid loved every single second of it. He loved to show you.

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.

I thought the shot was going to go in. He had a great angle, great shot at the end to go in and I truly believed it was going to go in. But it didn't. We got the shot we wanted.

I think this is really a great opportunity for Ed. He clearly has the talent to play basketball at the professional level, but if anyone can make this transition, it is him. He knows he has our support and we will do anything we can to help him make this move successfully.

Overall, we just kind of overwhelmed them. When we play offensively like that we're very good. And this was their third game in five days so it made it very difficult for them to stay with us. Our depth is going to wear you out anyway. We didn't play great defense but we ran the court well.

Our strengths were not our strengths today. We've been talking about the things we don't have. The things we do have were our biggest weakness today. We've never been overrated as a team. We've just been, quite frankly, misconstrued as a team at times. But we have great heart.

Marcus made a mistake, like every other student on this campus. I don't feel there's any question that Marcus has profited. Some people miss shots and continue to miss shots because they don't learn. Marcus has learned a great deal.

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 think he?s become a lot more mature about a lot of different things. I think his life, because of the situation that he was involved with, has matured him a great deal.

I think he feels a great deal of pressure. He's a human highlight film, but he's a young player who is learning how to be good. This tournament could be an opportunity for him to break out a little bit. He kind of got worn down by the pressure of expectations.

We'll tire ourselves out where we need more people in the game. But anytime your eight goes against our eight, we think we have a great advantage.

Thus far they've given me no great reason to worry as much as I do with other teams. Because they don't fool around in games.

When you watch Roy play, you're watching, really, from a coaching standpoint, everything you want a player to be. He can pull up and make mid-range shots. He can pass the ball. He can rebound. He plays with great composure. He seems to want the ball in tough situations.

We worked on the 1-3-1 for three straight days this week and it paid off. It means a little something extra to go home with a win against such a great team. The enthusiasm of each shot is big when playing in such a hostile environment as we were today.

You have a great team. You did a great job.

We went to see 'Glory Road' the other night and it was a great film.

Craig is a very confident kid, without being arrogant. I thought he really looked like a point guard tonight, with a great deal of composure.

It was tough, Albany just played great basketball. My hat, my gloves, my shoes, I'm going to tip all of them to them, because they were absolutely terrific.

Sometimes the NCAA Tournament can overwhelm a team. Others come in and see the great opportunity and play with a sense of looseness, even better than what they had. ... George Mason was never scared off by the NCAA. As a matter of fact, they were inspired by the NCAA.

Denham had arguably the best performance of his career at a great time.

They didn't play scared. He wanted them to attack, intelligently, and they did a great job of that.

This league is a bear. I have great respect for Pittsburgh. For us to go anyplace, we have to beat Pittsburgh. For Pittsburgh to go anyplace, they have to go by us.

It was really fitting that Denham had such a great game. He was a horse out there, as far as handling the ball, especially when Marcus played such a poor first half. We sat Marcus down, talked about the Dow Jones and some other things. He came back and got us going.

It's a great opportunity for us and a great opportunity for Albany. I think coach (Will) Brown knows what a win can do and his kids know what a win can do. It's a great time of the year.

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.

I'm incredibly sad to have to face this group because I've told everybody how much I love them and how much I'm going to miss them. I miss them right now. I don't want them to leave. They are great kids.

I like the way they attack. I like (Will Brown) saying he expects to win. If he said anything else, I'd be disappointed. Someone said, isn't that bulletin board stuff? No, it's not. It's what a man does or a woman does when they're passionate about something. They truly believe they can do it. I like people who want to win. Obviously, they're coming off a great streak. We're not coming off exactly a disaster. We're 27-3.

He threw a couple passes that went off people's hands, but he also threw some passes that we haven't had thrown all year. That's to be expected because he's a great passer.

He threw a couple of passes off guys' hands. But he also threw passes that no one has thrown all year. We expect that from him because he's such a great passer.

He's an incredibly gifted kid with great potential who probably needs to come back next year but can't, because he's going to be drafted in the top five, probably. He can't come back and pass on millions and millions of dollars. That's our system. I hate it, but I'm going to tell him if he's going to be in the top five, which I keep hearing, he needs to go.

He's improving every game. He's getting tougher every game. He's a kid who's just turned 20 and he's getting better right before our eyes. Rudy is starting to understand there are some great gifts he has and he has gotten to showcase them as he has gotten better.

He plays a great game with great enthusiasm. What a wonderful thing.

He plays a great game with great enthusiasm. He's dedicated himself the past year to be a starter this year. He was the difference maker today. He cleaned up the middle by blocking shots and obviously scored a few baskets for us.

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.