Al Gooden Quotations

We knew we were going to have to run the offense more and move the ball quickly around the perimeter to create shots. We were patient and took good shots.

I'd like to think it's how we play, not just because of who we play.

I felt comfortable with James in that role Nov. 4 when we first started practice. We went through the summer time and talked to James about it, and James himself became more comfortable with it.

He has taken a pounding in there, but people are finding out, he is a lot stronger than what they think he is. He has taken it in stride like a man and is doing the things we need for him to do to win.

It has been a long, tough year. We have the nucleus we get back here again.

We were up and down, trying new kids in new spots, nobody was familiar with each other. The kids finally got used to it and got used to playing well with everybody. It just comes from practicing all the time and doing what you do best.

We had some young guys and they weren't mentally tough enough to handle that. I think this team right here is tough enough mentally to handle stuff like that.

We want to get back to state anytime, regardless of who we're playing. We wanted to get back to the championship, but what playing Forest Park does is they can put faces with that team. When you say Forest Park, they can see those guys and understand who they are from playing them last year.

We sit down in that zone and guard the perimeter, and kept our feet and quit reaching. That's why we went to the zone, because we were reaching too much. I think we did a good job of shadowing them and kept them from penetrating. And it prevented us from getting deeper in foul trouble.

We had them right there at the end of the game. We got the steal and came down and Pryce got inside and couldn't get the ball up. He did a good job getting down there.

These new guys are excited, but you can't teach experience.

That's what we wanted to do, get it to him as much as we could.

You never get used to it. It is a traditional thing wanting to get down here.

It's been tough this year, it's been tough. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you a story. It's been tough, and our kids struggled. But it's a tribute to them how they hung together.

They bring good size. They aren't so big for us because we play a lot of teams with size, though. Hopefully, we will be used to playing with teams that size, which I think we are.

It was great to see Jermaine there. He had been telling me all week he was going to be here.

Not very. You go ask the teams who didn't get down here how disappointed they are. I am here playing for the state championship. It is not frustrating or anything like that. You want to win, but as a coach, you ask your kids to just play as hard and give it all they have.

The kids played hard. As a coach, that's what you want to happen. We hit some shots (early), forced some turnovers. But they're a good basketball team. They're not here for no reason. They did a good job coming back.

Their guards did a good job, and they were the key. We knew we were low on guards, and they had two quality guards.

I don't know (how the opponents prepare for the Hawks' quickness). If you don't have it, you can't prepare for it. For us, we practice against quickness every day. We've got some good, quick guys on the reserve.

He told us before that regardless of what happened, he would come back and finish out the year with us. We said OK. J.J. is one of us, one of our own.

How many teams do you know that would like to be here right now? It's hard to be disappointed or frustrated when your team is here fighting for a championship. Yes, we are disappointed with the result, but, overall, I couldn't be happier for this group.

The guys off the bench really gave us the effort we have been looking for.

You've got to be able to play both ends of the floor or you're not going to play. If we can settle down and play defense, we're going to be pretty good.