Denis Freeman Quotations

Peter is very talented. He has a tendency once in awhile to get loose and nonchalant. He's 6-5, he can shoot it, he can put it on the floor, he can pass, he can rebound. He's a very talented basketball player.

Carlson is just a great ball defender and really sets the tone for us defensively.

From this point on we're not going to be patient any more. I think we're capable of more. We have kids who have strengths and we just have to get them to play to those strengths. That's the most important part at this point.

I thought they were going to stay in the zone but they came out kind of aggressive on the guards. John, being experienced, popped out and got the ball. We were stressing the whole second half to attack the seam in the zone and John has the ability to do that.

Our pressure defense really started to work. We didn't let Morgan settle into their offense and when we forced a turnover, we converted on the other end.

Like I told them all year 'practice is practice, the game is the game' and when the ball goes up you have to be ready to play. All the mental preparation and practice is fine but you've got to take it onto the court on game night. Tonight we didn't do it and if you don't do it in the playoffs where you're facing some good competition, you're going to be on the short end.

Manning doesn't miss many good shots. And the other kids around him understand their roles. George does a great job with them.

You leave your man and you double-team and you try to gamble and create some chaos and that worked out. We got steals and some easy hoops.

We've been fortunate to win some close games and the credit goes to the kids because they're mentally tough and have been making the plays.

The defense and the rebounding have been great all year long. The offense was a bit of a concern, but lately it has been coming around.

We have been inconsistent on offense this year and we were today. I was pleased with our defense. We held a good team to 45 points, but we had bad stretches on offense. It wasn't just the shooting, it was the execution.

This was an exciting game, a good game to watch. The atmosphere here is always great when the gym is packed. How could you not be fired up to go out and play hard?

This year has been a struggle for us, the way we are winning games. Nothing comes easy. We may have had one more loss at this point last year when we won the state title, but it was completely different.

Dylan and Seth Hansen sparked us. Seth did a great job. He made a couple of great moves, he rebounded, he played defense. Dylan hit his shots and made some foul shots. The whole momentum kind of changed in the second half.

Sometimes you're better to be lucky than good, right? Yeah, you bank a shot in like that and its luck. But these kids don't quit. If you keep hanging in there and working hard sometimes the lucky guy wins.

It's just a great bunch of kids. Like I said last year...you've got to be good but after you're good you've got to be lucky. I don't know if these kids are lucky or not but they work hard and sometimes you make your own luck.

It was crazy. I never saw that in 30 years. I've seen water. I was worried that we weren't going to clean it up. The coach and I were talking about what are they going to do if they can't clean it up...play tomorrow? Play in April?

It was quite a night. As much as you want the home court advantage I think playing at home adds a little pressure to it. And the kids played tight. They loosened up in the second half. They all hung in there and just like they always do...they find a way to win.

It was the first time I blasted them all year. You can always accept physical mistakes. But there were 5 or 7 times where we got the ball inside and the guy didn't even make a move to score. We've just been struggling on the offensive end.

I told the kids, what did we do good tonight? We made so many mistakes. This was the first time I've been disappointed in our defensive effort.

It's been like that all year. At the end of the night we just seem to have more points than the other team. And you look back and think we made so many mistakes. We shouldn't even have been in this game.

It took us about half the year, but now they know their roles and are feeling comfortable with each other. Cassius did so much for us and we missed him early. It took a while to see what kind of team we are.

He's not afraid to take a shot. Dylan's only a sophomore and he's gotten used to his role as a player off the bench. He takes the big shots, he gets to the rim and isn't afraid to get fouled. It just happens that his two best games of the year have come off the bench against North Branford.

The last two minutes of regulation and then overtime we played with a sense of urgency.