Jim Calhoun Quotations

The only difference between Providence and maybe somebody a little bit higher in the standings is the young kids. Providence is talented but they're young. Young teams make mistakes.

The person who believes less in Josh is Josh. It's a daily progress with him to get him to believe.

We've accomplished a lot. Twenty-two and two is a good start but we're going to have to finish the deal. The deal takes place over the next couple of weeks.

We are lucky to have him as a part of our staff and this promotion is a well-deserved acknowledgment of the part that he has played in the phenomenal success of our basketball program.

We're incredibly happy to be a No. 1 seed. We were 13-3 against top-50 competition. We were 7-2 against top-25 competition. These kids are deserving of a No. 1 seed.

We're incredibly happy at being a No. 1 seed. We're honored to be a one. I think the bracket looks, superficially to me, just looking over it, to be the toughest.

We don't have anybody on our team, through our first Big East game, that plays like an all-star. I'll probably have to make some changes in the starting lineup because there's a couple players, some big names, who aren't doing very much.

Whether it was 50 bucks being sent to me at school, traveling through a snowstorm to see me play, coming to a football game in high school, all those things gave me a sense of love and belief and those things inspired confidence.

We've always treasured it and we still treasure it. If, after the game, we say it wasn't that important to us, we're lying to you. It's important to us. Is it the most important thing? No. But we'd like to be Big East champs.

We're going to need some help from some of the guys that are struggling. Josh (Boone) is struggling a little bit. Certainly Denham (Brown) is struggling a lot. We're going to need those guys' offense to help us.

What this is for 64 teams is a great opportunity. It's a great opportunity for Connecticut. It's a great opportunity for us and it's a great opportunity for Albany. Both teams have something at stake. Both teams want to move on. There is no feeling like it. I've been a 16, a 15, a 1, and I've been all places in between. Each one is exciting.

What they need down the stretch is experience. It's what we have. Our experience and our toughness won this game.

When we have to play them again, we'll look at exactly what we did (Monday).

When we got into overtime, I said we're in pretty good shape right now. We had new life and we needed an adrenaline shot and we got it, that was great, new life, and it's only 48 hours removed from (the Washington game).

When we got into overtime, I said we're in pretty good shape now. We had new life.

What Louisville needed late in the game was experience. That's what we had, some guys coming down the stretch who know what to do. We turned our defense up in the last 4 1/2 minutes of the game, we took care of the ball, took good shots and made good decisions. This was a grind-it-out game.

We're going to have to take care of the basketball; we're not doing that. We have to start blocking shots around the rim to change games. We're not doing that in this tournament. And then, just defense.

We're going to have to evolve into a good road team. Right now we're not. We weren't at Marquette at least. (Tonight) will hopefully be the first step in that direction. And it is a highlight game.

We're going to have to develop into a good road team. Right now we aren't. We weren't at Marquette, at least.

We?re going to have to develop into a good road team. Hopefully, this will be the first step in that direction.

Very few players maintain the pace, obviously, he's on. Brian Fair, Ray Allen, Ben Gordon, the great shooters we've had here, if anybody could ... I don't think anybody we've ever had could get as hot as he could get. I think Ben Gordon and Ray might be better shooters, but I'm not sure anybody can get as hot as he could get.

Very few players are able to maintain the pace he's on. I don't think anybody I've ever had can get as hot as he can get. Ben (Gordon) and Ray (Allen) are probably better shooters, but nobody gets as hot as he does. He's done that against a whole bunch of folks. It's not the first time.

We're rooting for everybody we beat. That's the best way to put it.

We've got an awful lot of stuff to cram in.

We have no one like Brandon Roy. Nobody does.

When he got a rebound, nobody was going to take it away from him. For a freshman to go in and make that kind of a stand is very significant.

We did it, but it's tough to get all the way through. It won't surprise me to see somebody playing a fourth game in four days, the league is like that this year. This was the most games that came down to last three minutes, at least our most in 10 years and yet we were 27-2, which means we were there to finish the deal. But in a one-game tournament anything can happen.

There are no easy routes in this tournament. I thought we could eventually take control of this game, but Kentucky kept fighting back.

We're a new league, a league of 16. But this seems like the old wars of the '80s and '90s.

When I did my voting, it was very difficult. Normally I can get a better feel. But there were so many kids that had so many great seasons.

When I walk down with Cousy I'm walking in as the face of New England as the face of so many people who weren't fortunate enough to get into what I got into.

This proves that you can't just show up in postseason play, because instead of going to practice and preparing for a game tomorrow, we have to wait a week. Next time we lose, we're going home.

The only place down the road I want to see them is in Indianapolis at the Final Four. They come loaded and knock you down. That is a great team with heart.

We've taken the quality of teams and just increased them in quantity. I don't think anybody truly understands how difficult this league will be day in and day out.

We're going backwards. I'm real concerned about that. We've been taking all kinds of time at it, and we're getting worse at it.

Like Hubie, and sometimes like Jim, I can be rather lengthy.

Magnificent is a good word. He put on one of the better performances I've seen in quite a while.

Let any person who hasn't sinned cast the first stone. And the stones still came in like crazy.

Many of those kids were passed over by Big East schools and others. I tip my hat to their courage. I feel a great deal of inner joy for what they are going through right now, something they probably couldn't have imagined.

Seton Hall looked mentally tough. They looked like they knew they were going to win.

Six games to go. Obviously there is significance to it.

My fear is being flat (for the start of league play). When we lost to Boston College last year to start the Big East, we couldn't raise ourselves to that level. Having not played that kind of competition recently, I have concerns, but we have to play these two games first.

Of 1,100 basketball games I've been fortunate to be involved with, I've never been involved in anything like that.

No one in the country has guard play like Villanova.

My greatest concern is ball-handling and getting the ball inside. If we get the ball inside, we'll be successful.

My dad never coached me, but he was always there, ... He liked to sit out behind the center field fence.

Maybe it was subtraction by addition. I'm not sure of anything because I'm so stunned by the way my team played.

No. I don't buy a lot of things they say. And they, if they're smart, don't buy a lot of things I say. It's kind of mutual respect, in a perverse sort of way.

Now the game has taken me back to Springfield and I am so deeply honored and humbled to be in such a sacred place.

Neither of the two kids will be in a Connecticut uniform practicing or playing until at least the end of this semester. When they return is up to the school administration.

Obviously, we are disappointed that Jeff will miss the game at Providence, but the rule as stated in the rule book is very clear. Other players will have to step up and make up for his absence and I have complete confidence that will happen.

Obviously they're a tournament team. I thought they were a tournament team yesterday.

Obviously, the team was in very good spirits.

People will fall in love with Jeff Adrien. All he does is come to work, put the hard hat on, just keep getting balls off the glass. Hopefully, as we move up in caliber and size, he's still able to do that.

People were watching to see history being made but history wasn't. Albany was magnificent for 30 minutes. But we were equally magnificent for the final 10 minutes.

Points for him are like oxygen for the rest of us.

My understanding is the athletic director is going to now, hopefully, put it on the front burner this year. In my personal opinion, they were going to fix football before they fixed basketball. I know a couple of the people are basketball people who gave money to football and that's fine. They gave money to the university.

On paper, we seem to be a deep, big and experienced basketball team that should be ranked in the top 10 teams in America.

Only two of the six kids have college degrees - my brother, who is a cardiologist, and me, ... We were a large Irish family, and in those days, the boys went to college. My sisters gave me $50 here and there and came to my games. They all gave me something. When people love you and believe in you, it instills confidence. Confidence comes from the people around you.

I would have never thought that would have happened.

I wish to God they were in the NBA.

If we're not playing defense and I call time out, I can tell you right now it's going to be X-rated. I'll go after some people or make some changes. It's not like this is the middle of the season and we can get it done next time. We're all here and it's a perilous journey. It's a wonderful journey, but the band plays on if you lose.

If we're No. 1 in April, it would be great. Right now we'd like to be No. 1 in the Big East, which is going to be tough to do. ... We've got some bears coming up. We've got all kinds of trials and tribulations.

If we keep winning 30 games a year, I think we'll be in pretty good shape and we'll win our championships again.

I don't have a number, but I have a strong indicator that it will be settled before we play next weekend.

I don't have any question that was a very well-coached basketball team. He's got complete control of the way that teams runs.

I'd like to congratulate the St. John's team for a terrific effort.

I don't expect us to play poorly, although I could feel entirely different a week from now. What we do know is that this team is a lot better; we've gotten better. Everyone has improved, and that makes us able to play a lot of different ways in February and March.

I don't find it unusual for Kentucky, with its incredible history and a great coach like Tubby (Smith), for it to turn into that type of game. I thought Kentucky played awfully good.

I don't know what kind of adjustments you can make when Allan Ray is hitting 28-footers. Villanova is a very unique team for anyone to play.

I don't care who we are playing. We have so much to gain. It's a wonderful opportunity for these kids. I would hate to leave the floor and not have given it our very best.

I can feel the emotions start to build, ... I've had conversations with my first recruit at Northeastern, with eight kids from my Dedham High School team that won 21 straight games, a lot of phone calls from my former players ... it's an exciting time for me.

I am so proud of my kids and the way we took every shot that Kentucky gave us. We're trying to earn our ropes as an elite program and we're still trying to do that.

I am so proud of my kids and the way we took every shot that Kentucky gave us. But I don't find it unusual for Kentucky, with its incredible history and a great coach like Tubby, to turn it into that kind of game.

Certainly Hilton will come in with a lot more attention than he had before. A full 40 minutes of focus is what we?re going to need.

I lost my dad when I was 15, ... Those were the best 15 years of my life.

I have been a big admirer of Don Haskins for a long time. He is one of the top defensive minds in the game and he is good man, a real coach.

I give him some credit for coming in, passing the ball, not trying to score right way, rebounding. He was doing good things.

I give him credit for coming in, passing the ball and not trying to score right away, rebounding, doing good things. I was happy with his play.

I give him credit for coming in and passing the ball, not trying to score right away, rebounding. I was happy with his play.

I felt bad for Rashad. He wanted to be so good. It's really unfortunate he didn't have the type of game he's capable of having.

If, in fact, you felt it was a mistake of malice, a mistake of violence, a mistake repeated, those are all factors.

I feel so good, (even) with my own sadness. I can only imagine, and probably better than most, the feeling they must have in that locker room and on that campus. Those kids, many of them were passed over by Big East schools and others, and I tip my hat to their courage ... to the incredible coaching job that Jimmy did and to everybody at George Mason University. ... I applaud them. I share in some degree Jimmy's joy because as a friend, I know what he must be feeling in his heart.

I didn't have any preconceived notions that he couldn't play. When a prideful kid comes in working like crazy, he doesn't realize how much better he's gotten.

I can't remember the last time we were up three with 11 seconds to go and lost. We got beat by that shot by Gerry. Anything can happen in overtime. We made the decision of who would have the assignment. Gerry made a better play and hit a great 3.

I can tell you right now, it will be X-rated.

I can only imagine the feeling they must have on that campus, in that locker room. It's something they probably never imagined.

I can only imagine the feeling they must have in that locker room, on that campus. They couldn't have imagined this, but they've done it. I applaud them. They deserved to win.

From Caron Butler - and there's no validation this automatically has to happen - to Ben Gordon, it looks like Rudy is starting to make the move to where we think he can be. He is going to get there, there's no question. It's just that every kid gets there at different times.

From top to bottom, this league is terrific - Notre Dame, is a fantastic team, they sit at 1-5, but they're not a 1-5 basketball team. That's the unfortunate thing about the league. You can't have an off day, or an off couple of minutes, or you'll lose.

I don't think we played an ounce of basketball after that.

I don't think we shot well (38.7 percent), but I think we played well and yet it took us 30 minutes to shake them, maybe 35 minutes to shake them. That's just by their tenacity and how hard they played. Providence has a young team. The three guys who I think played really well for us happened to be seniors and that makes a difference in college basketball.

I don't want them thinking about Marquette and LSU next week. We've got to get by (Quinnipiac) on Friday night.

I don't want our kids playing the scoreboard because, quite frankly, we won't always be here at the Civic Center. In the second half we matched baskets and we won by five. I don't think we should do that. We should take more pride in what we're doing.

For us to tell our kids that this is just a regular season game ... we've always set goals, to try to win the Big East championship. To back away from that a day before or two days before the game would be foolhardy.

For us to go any place, we have to beat Pittsburgh. And for Pittsburgh to go, they have to kind of go by us.

I always thought he had quick feet. The only thing he never had quick confidence, therefore he never ever believed he could do it.

He was very outspoken and talked about the kind of sacrifices he was willing to make for the team to win. You can't get a kid to do that unless it comes from the heart. And trust me it does.

He's comfortable being the best sixth man in college basketball.

He's becoming a tough guy not to play. You know he's going to guard folks. You know he's going to fill the lanes; he's a great fast break player. And you know he's tenacious.