Gavin Miller Quotations

She was always willing to do whatever I needed her to do. If I needed her in the paint, she would go play inside. If we needed a spark from behind the arc, she was there and willing. She even handled the ball some for us this year and did a good job with that. I'm just very pleased, very happy, with Taylor. She is leaving some big shoes to be filled.

If they have a bad start, its a struggle for the night. I don't care what the level of the opponent we are playing, it doesn't really matter. If we don't come out on fire and energized, its a struggle for us. And that as got to change.

I thought Natalie Hayes played good defense on Amber Hacker. She's their leading scorer. I told (Natalie) before the game, I said, 'I just got a feeling you're going to have a big night.' I thought she played good defense.

That's the type of game coach (Jeff) Walk likes to coach. They are real physical. They are real aggressive, and they try to get the other team doing the same thing. He does a good job with these girls over here.

We jumped on them early and got them thinking about what we were doing instead of them thinking about what they should be doing. Portageville is a good team. They were the No. 3 seed at the Twin Rivers tournament, so overall we did a good job tonight.

We had a motto before the game, just basically coming into the game was let's live 'til tomorrow, find a way to get to tomorrow night and not be satisfied with getting there. But, from this point on, boy it's one game at a time. You can't look forward two or three games down the road.

We played with a different level of desire, a different level of passion that I've been trying to preach all year long ... I don't mind turnovers, I don't mind mistakes, as long as we're doing it with as much heart as you can and as intense as you can. That was a big key for us (Saturday).

The good thing about Amanda is she might get a little taller, and she'll definitely going to get stronger and faster. And that's going to allow her to do a lot of things on the court. She's just going to become - what I think is one of the premier players, if she chooses to - one of the premier players in Southeast Missouri.

You can just about guarantee that Taylor is going to get 18, 19 or 20 points a night.

Right now they just don't have that passion. Without that desire and love for the game, we are going to continue playing like this.

Offensively, we just really moved the ball much better the second half. And we're going to have to do more of that because I think Perryville or Ste. Gen, the winner of that game at district, I think will zone us. They've always played zone defenses.

A sleep. They just weren't very physical, they weren't alive. They didn't get any loose balls and every time we turned around they (Bluff) were trying to double us and we didn't see the open people... they were just not with it. And that type of play will get you beat.

That was a big shot. We really needed somebody to step up so we could get over the hump -- because we tied it a couple of times before that -- and get the lead.

I try not to brag on certain people, but man, what can I say? She's been my leader this year. She works hard in practice. She tries to get better every day. She does the little things extra to get better. When she's struggling, she finds a gym in the evening somewhere.

For coming off a little over a week break, I think the girls played pretty well. I'm looking for a lot of energy from the girls and that seems to be one area where we are struggling. Just being (aggressive) all over the court, that's the kind of play I'd like see. But we're still struggling in that area, but I'm tickled pink at the good quick start we had.

It just proves to a lot people that you worked hard and you've done things the correct way.

Again, it goes back to not a whole lot of passion.

I'm just real pleased with our effort tonight. When you play a team like that, they are going to force you into a lot of turnovers and they are going to force you to do things you don't normally do, or typically do, our want to do. A couple of weeks ago, a game like this might have hurt us a little bit.

Holy cow; that's a big deal. That's the first time ever for Dexter to be ranked No. 1 in the poll. That is just a really big honor, because even last year we were never No. 1.

All that is, is focus. It's focusing on the moment. Focusing on what has got to be done and what you are going to do to get it done.