Craig Haase Quotations

Obviously, Polka is just a man-child. He's just a stud in the paint.

Obviously Charlie is a very good player, and our seniors have really accepted him. When he came back, he did give us an added scoring punch, but what gives us defensive pressure-wise makes our kids a little more confident. Our kids have accepted him and it's a tribute to our seniors that haven't let his distractions become the team's distractions. They've done a nice job implementing him back in the lineup.

Polka is just a man-child. The guy is just an absolute stud in the paint. We knew it was going to be a problem for us and we tried to dig as hard as we could.

John is exactly the kind of athlete every coach wants on his team. He brings knowledge and great work ethic to every game and every practice. He's always been a small kid, but, through hard work, he's improved his body a lot. That's a tribute to his dedication. He's the kind of kid every coach dreams about.

John Hoch really took control for us today. He's one of our senior leaders and he might have had his best overall game. He did a lot of good things. He not only scored but ran our offense and made some key steals. When he plays like that, our chances of winning improve a lot.

I thought our kids played with a lot of heart again tonight, and we battled them hard. But we ran into a man-child in Polka tonight. He's a stud in the paint. We knew it was going to be a problem for us.

I thought our guys showed a lot of poise when Watertown made that run. They didn't panic. We could have been in trouble had they scored two or three more unanswered baskets. That was a big part of the game. We kept working hard and eventually got the momentum back in our favor.

Playing on a big stage like this, at the Kohl Center, at the state tournament, I don't know if you ever expect to come out and shoot the ball like we did tonight. I had a feeling, though, we might have a good game. At the shoot-around on Wednesday, we made every­thing we threw up there. The way we're playing right now, nothing surprises me with this group of kids.

That's a very, very good basketball team we lost to tonight. We struggled at times, but our guys played hard. It wasn't our effort that hurt us. Central just had too many weapons. Every time we made a run at them, they had an answer.

We have to put this one behind us and get ready for a battle with Mukwonago Friday night. If we work on Friday as hard as we did tonight, we should be all right.

We have a lot of guys who can make shots. Obviously we shot the ball well.

What we have to do is take care of the ball and value each possession. It's probably going to be a defensive game. They play good defense and so do we. At this time of the year, the team that makes the fewest mistakes usually wins.

We've been playing hard and practicing hard all season, but we've been very inconsistent in games. This was a big step in the right direction for us. I thought a lot of guys stepped up today and did a lot of positive things.

We've had a good run the last five years and that's a credit to the kids and the coaching staff. We always seem to play our best basketball of the year once the tournament begins. And we're going to have to play well on Friday to stay with South. They've got a great team this year.

We had a great season, and in no means do I want this loss to take anything away from the kind of year we had. It's always tough to see the season come to an end. But I'll take this every year. Having the season end at the Kohl Center is pretty special.

We've got a lot of guys who can knock down shots. It felt like we were right at home.

Those two runs we made were huge when you look at the final score. We knew how big they were inside we so we had try and turn the game into a track meet. That worked pretty good for us tonight.

This was some kind of finish to some kind of game. This was just an outstanding atmosphere for basketball. Our kids just didn't want to let the chance get away. We battled right to the end. Both teams made some mistakes, but the pressure was on. I was happy when I saw the ball in Johnny's hands at the end. He's been our leader all season. I knew he'd find a way to score.

We shut down the rest of their guys.

We like to push the ball, get it in the lane and kick it back out. When we do that, we know we have a lot of guys who can shoot the ball and make shots. Obviously, we made a lot of shots tonight. We're playing with a lot of confidence right now, and we couldn't have picked a better team to be at our best.

That's kind of big game for Bobby on offense. He made two big hoops for us early in the game that gave us the lead. From there, his defense did the rest.

(They) haven't let his distractions become our team's distractions.

It wasn't just Polka, but their defensive strength. They were able to wear us down.

It's always big to score a basket like that at the end of a period. Schuster made a great pass, and Johnny scored. It gave us a big boost going into halftime.

It's going to be a big challenge for us to play against South. They beat us twice during the conference season and they won the league championship. They've got a talented team and a lot of guys who can hurt you. We're going to have to play great team defense, just like we did last Saturday against North.

The nice thing today was we had a lot of kids play well and we played very unselfish basketball. That's how we have to play to be successful. We don't have a bunch of superstars. We've just got a bunch of guys who can be pretty good at this game when they play together. I think we proved that today.

It's been the same old story for us all season. When we play as a team, make the extra pass, kick the ball out to the open man, we can be successful. We've got guys who can shoot the ball. The kids were very unselfish in the second half.

These two kids right here are pretty special guards. I wouldn't trade them for anything.

I like our chances when we give up 45 points a game. Bobby's our defensive leader and the other guys feed off of his effort.

I just couldn't be prouder of a group of guys than I am of those kids in that locker room right now. They battled all season. We were struggling early in the year, but they never quit. And because of that, we're going to the state tournament. This is something special for all of us. I'm just glad we gave the fans what they wanted. We believed we could do it, and so did our fans. Now we get to play in Madison.