Matt Osborne Quotations

We didn't want to be stagnant. We wanted three or four guys besides Zack taking shots.

We have a pretty good defender to put on him. Zack played straight man and held him to 11 points (in the first meeting). I don't think we'll change up.

If we defend better and offensively get everybody else involved and looking to score we'll be all right. And definitely, we need to keep them off the offensive boards.

Getting to the Arena is a huge step for our program.

He does it every night, basically. I think the rest of the team knows that. He's the guy we're going to turn to when the going gets tough and he just does everything for us: Rebounds, plays their big guy, hits the big shots and brings the ball up when we're having trouble. He's just a complete all-around player.

We're probably play a little more up-tempo than last game.

He didn't get many looks at the basket. But he picked it up defensively and he had six rebounds and six steals.

I think it's going to be a real battle. Hopefully we shoot the ball a little better. We'll change some things defensively to hopefully slow them down a little.

Last year, our other guys ran into the problem of sitting and watching Crawford and Thomsen. Players used to get out of their way. This year, they know they'll get the ball and they know we need them to score.

Parks was open, just sitting there. It was just a scramble and then just a little jump shot.

I was hoping he could at least see out of one eye, so he could still shoot.

We were in the double-bonus real early. We seemed to be a step quicker than them and they were fouling us and we knocked down the free throws.

We got a lot of points inside and we really hit the offensive boards, which I thought we could do a better job of.

Especially coming off the third quarter, we really put the pressure on them, turned the ball over and got some easy baskets.

I've seen him do it 100 times in practice. The guys know if they get open, he'll find them.

That game was definitely a boost. We know we can play with anyone. We have much higher expectations now. These guys are hungry. The players have put in a lot of hard work, and it's good to see we're finally there.

They sound a little bit like us. They don't have great size and they're not that deep.

They're very good. They use a lot of movement and take good shots.

The biggest thing is he makes everyone around him better. He was a great leader on the team.

They were bigger than us, but they didn't shoot the ball real well from the outside. We wanted to make them beat us from the outside.

I knew they had only lost one game. But I think we played our best soccer today. We passed real well and we finished.

He's the ultimate team player. He plays both ends of the floor and probably plays harder on the defensive end. He knows everyone needs to be involved in our offense, so if he can beat a guy or two, he's going to dish for an easier shot.

He's like an extension of me out there. He has such a desire to play and win. He knows where everyone is on the field.

He's in great physical shape and we thought him guarding Nelson would wear (Thomsen) down a little bit. He's mentally so strong he just kept working at things. I told him his shots would fall and he'd get some open looks after a while.

These guys definitely overachieved. If you had told me at the beginning of the season we would be here today, I wouldn't have believed you. We play bigger than we are, we hustle and we play with a lot pride. That's all you ask for really.