Mark Turgeon Quotations

We guarded out tails off all day. We got every stop we needed until the very end.

We're just happy to be here. It's been a great ride. Selection Sunday our name pops up and we're excited and 6 days later we're in the Sweet 16 and things change quick.

We knew we were going to have to play a heck of a game. George Mason is a really tough team, and then trying to play them in this building. We just didn't have it tonight.

We've got good players, and I thought we were in a pod we were very capable of winning if we played well.

We want to play well and take the 'co' out of co-champion.

We did exactly what we had to do offensively. We executed better, which is what we had to do.

We're 2-0 and we took care of our home court. This league is loaded. (Bradley) looked like a pro team out there.

We won the Evansville game differently than we won the Missouri State game, for example. Whether it's rebounding or free throw shooting or defense or offensive execution, it's been something different each game for us.

When we shoot well, we're pretty darn good. We always try to defend and rebound, but we look better when we make shots. Today, we were pretty hard to guard.

Sean's gotten stronger. He understands it better, so he's not out of position. He's guarded the best player some nights -- he's come a long way.

No complaints. We had the first game on our home court. This is probably how it should be.

Now that that's over -- it's been a long two weeks -- it's about these guys right here.

If we had boxed out, it wouldn't have gone to overtime.

I have been saying three or four teams the whole time. The last couple of days, we've gotten so much publicity that it's almost been negative.

I felt like if we could keep pressure on them and make them shoot jump shots.

I don't think we played particularly well in the first half. We didn't play together. We didn't play the way that led us to a league championship and the Sweet 16. Our shot selection hurt us in the first half.

I get so sick of losing to these guys.

He was the only kid that could make a shot. I was begging the guys, 'Give Sean shots.' It was hard to get him shots. When Sean banked the shot in, I really thought we were going to win. But they were just too good.

He had a tough night at Southern; it's as simple as that. He didn't play with the intelligence he usually plays with.

He has become much better on the post, which they do a great job of coaching.

What you have to understand is that at our level, reaching the Sweet 16 is like reaching the Final Four. It raises the profile of a program like nothing else can.

He's a great kid and one of our leaders. I think a lot of players watch his example. Chemistry is a funny thing with each team. I think with this team, everyone respects each others' roles and respects what each other can do. That starts at the top with Paul.

He's doing better this morning. It feels weak to him when he puts a lot of pressure on it.

His numbers in high school didn't lie. And then you start coaching the kid and he's so smart about the game. Those are the kind of kids we have to find to have a moment like this.

Hopefully, they'll start showing up on time. Showing up late to things is not the way to do it.

He's playing smarter than he has in the past. Kyle's made himself a little bit better athlete. He's been in great shape the whole time, which he needed to do.

I was just asking our guys to get it close and put the pressure on them.

Kids handle discipline different ways. Some get embarrassed. Some get mad. You just hope in the end they all use it the right way, and I think they will. I think the only way to get through to players today is playing time. It used to be running them, getting them out of bed and running them. Playing time, today, is really the answer. Hopefully, we won't have this again.

I think I probably built him up too high. He's struggled shooting the ball the second half of the season.

I thought we had them at that point, but they kept making shots.

I think a lot of things have to go right for us to win. They're that good.

I think it takes a significant amount of doing well in the NCAA Tournament before it changes your recruiting. But hopefully we'll get lucky over the next six months and get some good players.

I think that's the way to the teach the game. I want to be balanced. I don't want to have to rely on one guy to get 18 points every night or two guys to get 18 and 16. That's why we were able to win so many close games, because one night it was Paul, the next night it was Sean. The next night it was Kyle.

Last year I think we wanted to be part of the NCAA Tournament so badly we didn't worry about the things that we could control, which is making our team better. That's what we're doing this year.

I was just so proud and so happy. I can't even tell you.

I think they are a little more athletic ... but we are a lot alike. They have been much more efficient on offense than we have.

Our kids really stepped up on the defensive end. It was just a great team effort on both ends of the floor.

Our guards are starting to play better. We are capable of shooting it. We have good shooters.

Paul is very intelligent. He's very skilled, has great hands and can do a turnaround jumper from 6 feet to 18 feet on the block.

I was in a power position, obviously, so I drove a hard bargain. I wanted to make sure that Jim knew what I was looking for. Over time, through each contract, I've talked about 'This is what I'd like to have someday.' I think he got as close to that as he could.

I thought maybe we could do it. I've seen our guys get hot. But we could never get close enough to put pressure on them.

We feel good because of where we are. We'd much rather be one game ahead with two to go. Drake really challenges you and they're good at home. They've played everybody really tough in that building.

We were lucky. We've got to get better. I've got to figure it out.

We played like we've been here 20 years in a row. You never expect a game to be this easy, especially this time of the year.

We played like we've been here 20 years in a row.

We're really proud of what we've done, and we weren't going to let a bunch of people around the country who haven't seen us make us feel any different. We know what we have and it's pretty special.

We can't let one loss affect the next day. If we do, we're going to lose 16 straight in this league. We're 2-1. We're 11-3, and we've got a home game.

We were going to have to play an awfully good game to win here. We knew that. We know how good George Mason is.

We were so bad offensively in the first half. It was 15-6, and I thought we should be up 16 or 17 points right now.

We didn't establish Paul or Kyle. We were almost 10 minutes into the game and (George Mason) didn't have a team foul. We've gone through Paul all year, and we didn't do that tonight.

We didn't play together. We didn't play the way that led us to the (Missouri Valley regular-season) championship or the Sweet 16.

You look at the stats and you'll wonder how we were even in the game. They're just really smart defensively.

We can't make a jump shot.. It's wearing on us.

The reason you can be confident is because our league is so good.

We kept going to him, kept thinking he was going to get tired. He was tremendous in the second overtime.

When you do that, you've almost had a perfect day.

We had some unfair scrutiny, but we didn't feel the pressure. I think this obviously helps. It helps Craig Littlepage. I think he feels a little better about the Valley.

Finally, we made the shot. I'm excited. I'm happy. I'm tired of it happening to us.

We've had a lot of practice the last two weeks and it showed today. When we shoot well, we're pretty darn good.

This team has figured out how to win games.

We got nothing out of P.J.. He didn't give us defense and that's usually what he gives us.

We have done a lot of nice things here in our first six years. We have gotten better every year. We have won a lot of league games. We learned how to win on the road. We've won a league championship. Now we need to figure out how to play well in St. Louis. Creighton has figured that out. That's why everybody knows who Creighton is.

Both Jared and Gabe are fine young men, and I wish them both the best in their future endeavors.

There's no question were gonna get their best shot. Hopefully, we're up to the challenge and we'll match their emotion early in the game and let them know we're for real.

There's more pressure on us to play well.

It was very frustrating to see us play like that. I told our guys that I didn't know who that team was out there tonight ? four guys standing around while one guy went one-on-one. We didn't play our game.

Our shot selection hurt us in the first half, hurt our defense, and that was really disappointing.

Our shot selection hurt us in the first half. After that I thought we (gave) a valiant effort.

Our execution was really, really good, especially in the second half. We only took three bad shots the whole game. We really played unselfish.

Our execution was good. We worked really hard this week. Not knowing who you were going to play really helped us because we worked on us, and I think it showed today in our execution.

You never know what kind of competition you'll have (for MVP), but usually the teams at the top have a chance to be MVP. I always felt he had a chance to be one of the better centers in the league.

You never forget a night like that, senior night and a guy hitting a shot at the buzzer.

You never want to say you're in because you don't want to jinx yourself. We're going to prepare like we're in that tournament, and I think we've earned it.

They got out of the gate hot and that was the difference in the game.

You don't want to notice them. You don't notice the really good ones. Those guys ref the game the way it's supposed to be called. Simple as that.

This league is good, from top to bottom. The coaching is good, the players are good. I wouldn't have said that three years ago, but I really believe it now.

They're better than they were last year and then they were pretty darned good. It's hard to get an open shot against them.

They're gonna be taller more athletic than we are, and they can jump a little higher. We're definitely not flashy. . . . We try to guard and rebound, just try to play together on the other end. We don't blow anybody out. Everything is a battle for us.

It's just something that doesn't go away. Sometimes you talk about selfishness and it goes away. This one, it creeps back in and you have to handle it again. I'm on them all the time.

It wasn't our best possession. They switched out and we couldn't get it to him ... we panicked.

It's a big win because of the way we won. That wasn't our style of game. I told them at halftime that we're not very good at football, but we've got to play football. We had to be strong and go at the basket.

It really helps playing Drake. Only having one day to prepare, it was easier for us. I don't know if it was easy, but it was easier.

It's like a a gorilla has been taken off my back because the fans and the city wanted it so badly because it has been 23 years. This is what we all wanted.

It's a lot of guys we had that were our top officials that just went away because they could make 6, 7, 800 dollars more going to a different league. Our league's gotten so much better. There's so much at stake. You don't want to, for a few extra thousand dollars, not do what's best for your league.

It's been a great ride. On Selection Sunday our name pops up there, and six days later we're in the Sweet 16. Things change quick. But we're the same level-headed team that went into the tournament last weekend.

It's something the people here have wanted for a long time.

It's just a basketball game. It's just played in a bigger arena with more people watching.

I told anybody who asked me that I thought we were going to play well offensively. We were fresh. We might have figured out a way to win the game 65-63 if we didn't make shots. But because we did it looked easy, even though it actually wasn't.

It's great one of us is going to the Elite Eight. It's great for the Colonial and great for the Valley.

It's hard not to hit a bump in this league because everybody is so good. We're playing a little better. I think losing a couple of games might have brought us together as a team.

I've heard from a lot of people. It's amazing how many Valley fans have called. And he doesn't call anybody. Maybe his wife.

I want to give George Mason a lot of credit. They came out of the gates hot, and that was the difference. That said, I don't think we played particularly well in the first half. We didn't play the way that led us to the Sweet 16. Our shot selection hurt us.

They were aggressive when we were on our heels.

They hit shots, and we didn't during that stretch. We had two wide-open threes and missed them both.

They've just been really playing well. I think they just keep the same system and plug him in there.

They've got great players. Mac's a great coach, but you don't win without great players.

It's not a hump, it's a mountain. My AD knows. My fans know where we were when I took this job. My first year, we lost 11 in a row and I didn't know if we were ever going to win a game. My third year we were 3-3, and I wasn't sure I would keep my job. We lost at home to Kansas State and ever since then it has been a tremendous run to get where we are today. We accomplished something we haven't in 23 years, we won a championship.

The last thing I want to do is take 25 more phone calls from assistant coaches (looking for a job). When I get an assistant coach, I'm going to announce it as soon as I can.

I just want to get this out of the way: I'm staying.

I kept saying we weren't any good when practice started, and now we're part of the Sweet 16. We just keep getting a little bit better.