Mark Borders Quotations

No one on our team has ever gone to the NCAA Tournament. No one on our team has had a chance to say they've won a Sunshine State Conference Championship. Those are two major things I would love to have on my resume.

My work ethic now is nowhere near what I had at high school. I owe that to (coach Richard Schmidt ), the University of Tampa and most of all my friends and family for always believing in me.

Right now we need each other more than anything in order to get into this tournament. We're not trying to get on you like coach does. We're just trying to get everybody on one page in order to get what we want. One person can't want something. The whole team has to want it.

At first, Coach (Richard) Schmidt looked at my stats and didn't think I could play. But he saw I led the team in assists and decided to give me a chance. He believed in me and made me work hard.

It's just a blessing. When I came (to Tampa), I already set it in my mind to be the best point guard I could be. I knew playing Division II, it might not be as easy to get the recognition. But I had set my mind to work hard.

After the Nova game we huddled up in the locker room and I told everybody to look at the scoreboard. We're better than that, I told them. So now our mind-set is just getting back to playing D. That's what got us off to our 3-1 (conference) start.

That's all we're focused on, making the top eight in the region and getting that at-large bid. We have a purpose for the way we're playing right now. We're trying to get in.