Gail Gladding Quotations

I thought we'd be in the middle of the road this season, so I'm just shocked to be here. Now we've played 21 games together.

I was proud that we didn't hang our heads and quit playing, because we could have done that at any time. We played hard. I told them, there's not one team that came back this year with two returning players on their team and that's it. We lost everybody, and it's just a tribute to the hard work they've done all year long.

We're not used to having to play against a man-to-man, and a full-court press. I think it did hurry us a little bit in our offense. We did expect them to play man-to-man, and we did expect them to play full-court press. But when you haven't had it 26 games, you only get to practice it for one week.

We knew it was going to be tough. But our feeling was if we could tire them out we were going to win the game. And that's exactly what happened.

We had somebody on Morton from one end of the floor to the other. I just told them, 'Don't let her walk. Make her run.' I didn't care if she got baskets, as long as she had to run to do it. And I don't think she had the legs for shots or foul shots by the end of the game.

It means a lot to me. Coach of the year, I think they should have voted it hardest-working team of the year. It's not just me. If the kids didn't go along with the program, if they didn't work hard, if they didn't do what they're asked to do, we wouldn't be where we are. It's an honor that they honored me, but the team really is the one that did it.

It may be a little different to their senses, because it's a little more crowded here. We feel pretty confident on our home floor. We haven't lost a home game here in four years, maybe more.