Jim Roffler Game Quotations

Omar hurt his wrist in the Tacoma game. He didn't play his best game tonight, but he contributed in other ways and ran the break well early, which got us off to a good start. We know he'll be there for us down the stretch. When he gets back 100 percent physically, he'll have a lot more confidence.

Obviously this was the biggest game of the year for us because it allowed us to get back in first place and re-establish ourselves. We had a tough loss on the road at Tacoma that we shouldn't have lost, but we did. The guys have responded well from that, particularly in the second half.

Nick is getting better and better with each game he plays. He's been out of basketball a couple of years and he's starting to get some of his old habits back. He played another great game for us and we expect great things from him in the future.

We knew it was going to be a really tough game. It's always a tough game coming up here. Especially this year. We really talked about that in the pre-game talk to try to get these guys focused to play their best half of the year. I think we answered the bell.

We have to come out and focus on team defense. We need to play with a lot of emotion and intensity. We're a good offensive team with good balance, but we need to have our 'A' game defensively.

They (the Warriors) had a great respect for our inside people, so when the ball went in against either a man (to-man) or zone defense, we had a little rotation that moved E.J. into some spots or gaps where he was open. That's the same thing he did here last year and he also hit some big shots for us in those games. His game accentuated when we get into a two-man game where the ball goes in then back outside because he's a pure shooter.

They (the Titans) made 29 percent of their shots, and I don't recall ever losing a game when the other team shot that poorly. Ryan Campbell guarded Chase for a lot of the game, and if he wouldn't have made those shots we probably would've won.

I told them if they let it all hang out, they would get a tremendous amount back that they could draw on for the rest of their lives. Very seldom did we play a solid 40 minutes during the season. Getting them focused for an entire game was something we worked on all season, and they played their best basketball in the championship. We finally realized our potential in that game.

It's hard to win when Omar had the game he did. I think he was pressing a little and trying too hard. He's a competitive guy and wanted to win another championship, but I think he got a little competitive early on.