Darin Hazel Quotations

It all boils down to Neil tonight. He's a kid that just does a terrific job on both ends of the floor. He's a kid we want all our youngsters to look up to.

I was hoping for a playoff type atmosphere. To be honest with you, I wish it would have been more a playoff atmosphere. We didn't get as much out of it as we wanted. I know we will play better in the playoffs.

Looking at tape, we felt a zone would be effective against them. They're so athletic and we had a hard time controlling them off the dribble the last time. What we wanted to do was get a fast tempo to start, get them a little tired and switch to a zone. I think that was really effective tonight.

Offensively, I thought it was one of the best games we played in years. The kids moved the balls and were unselfish.

Their press really hurt us. We just made too many mistakes. We are getting close to where we want to be but give them credit they forced us to make mistakes and the turnovers allowed them to get into their offense.

We've told the kids that our best way to win a championship is through defense. I thought coming into the season defense would a strong point but I think we've gotten into an offensive frame of mind at times. We're trying to get back to basics with defense.

Obviously, the dunk was huge because of the crowd. That dunk set the tone for the night, especially out of a half-court set. After that, it was our game to lose. The kids did a tremendous job of finishing it out.

He's a great kid. He plays hard at both ends.

We certainly didn't make the shots when we needed them. We can't continue to play with just two players (Lewis and Matthew Brown), we need kids to step up. This game hasn't changed in a million years, kids just have to hit their shots.

We just didn't take care of the ball. That's the bottom line. There's not much you can say. Too many mistakes where they made the plays when they had to. It was two good teams out there and a lot of things happen. Tonight they were better than us.