Lawrence Jr Quotations

When we got it to 42-35, I think our guys tried to make it a 20-point lead in the next 30 seconds.

We were in a delay, but then I changed the setup where it was a three-man delay with our three guards and Durham's guy backed off him a little. That's not the way I would have drawn it up, but it was within what we were trying to do at that point.

I wouldn't draw up that shot, but he has a lot of confidence. I drive my assistants nuts sometime, but I want to make sure these guys maintain their confidence.

Free throws are one of those fundamental things we did not do well. We're basically all juniors and a sophomore, and we're learning. Every day is a learning experience. We don't like losing while we're learning, but tonight they just beat us start to finish.

We told the kids to expect a run and that was for sure what happened. Naperville got us on our heels. That team is physical. Fortunately, we made some big free throws down the stretch.

Mike has been playing better but he hasn't always been a great free throw shooter. Those were big foul shots he knocked in with the pressure on.

We wanted to make Sandburg work for everything. Sandburg is good when they are allowed to set up something. We wanted to keep Sandburg from establishing a comfort zone. We figured some pressure would keep Sandburg on the run and prevent that comfort zone.

We haven't been a good 3-point shooting team, but tonight we got the ball inside and then kicked it back out. That gave us a better look, and then the kids were ready to shoot.

We're not really a great 3-point shooting team, but we do better when we get dribble penetration and then kick it back out.

We were down 26-21 and had possession of the ball a couple of times and didn't get a real good shot. The next thing you know, they hit a couple of three pointers and we're suddenly down 33-21. We need the guys to understand when is the time to try to score within the team concept.

A win is a win. We'll take them any way we can.

This is an incredible feeling. When we went down nine, we were going with our press. We knew we would have to take some chances, but the big thing was we had to stop fouling. We did that, played better defense, and the kids made the extra pass to get the better shot.

This is obviously a huge win for us. It gives us a chance in the conference. This makes us 4-2 in the league heading to Joliet Township Friday. I'm really happy with the way we came out and competed.

This is an emotional game. We looked like we controlled our emotions, but we did not execute. If you play off emotion only, sooner or later that is going to run out.

There were times we cut the lead to single digits and then I'd look up and they'd be up by 16 again. We missed a lot of shots, but we also didn't play good defense. To give up 70 points twice in a row is ridiculous.

That just shows how far he has come as a player. He may have missed all his shots, but he wasn't afraid to take one under pressure, either. He's developed as an overall player, too, realizing that when a team is focusing on him like Sandburg was, that he can contribute in other ways.

It very possibly was our best half of the year and certainly our best half since the New Year. I'm really pleased with the way we valued the basketball. We really did some good things at times.

They believe they can win. They have to come in here Friday and play another good team. We could get beat by 30 points, but I'm not going to take anything away from what they've done to this point.

I have one senior playing (Michael Cole), and that's a big advantage. This season has been an emotional rollercoaster, but I'm blessed with a young group that has a lot of talent, and the learning curve is right there in front of us. We can see it.

In the stretch where they got back in it and you have to give Lincoln-Way Central credit for doing that we started shooting the three without investigating the inside. But for the most part, I thought we shared the responsibility offensively, and that was a key.