Pat Flannery Quotations

We're going to do what we've done all season. We're taking them one game at a time.

When we get back, we'll have some beers.

We're honored and tickled about playing a 9-8 game in the NCAA Tournament. It's quite historic for us as a program and we're just real happy. We've had a great year and we're looking forward to the tournament.

We know we're a good basketball team. Even with rankings and all that sort of stuff, if you really knew our program you'd know these kids play for each other.

We did it the right way, we scheduled the right way.

More than anything, it has been trusting and having confidence in our kids. It has been a lot of fun this year. Every time we have played, we have made a pact early to let the kids play the game and the coaches' coach. That is really what we did all year long. We have changed up some routines to enjoy it more. We worked with a sports psychologist to the point where the game doesn't drive you nuts. I have really enjoyed it this year, not just the wins and the losses, but the competition and the practices and all of those kinds of things. It's a learning process that we all go through.

Because of the financial situation, we used to get to the end of the steak dinner, and then you ask them to pay 42,000 dollars, and that was usually a deal-breaker. Now you can sit there and you know that, at the end, there's a little bit of a rainbow if it's a kid you want.

I did feel like the game was there for the taking from the beginning.

I almost threw them out. It was more like (the players saying), 'When's the game going to get here?

I think it is going to be a very special night for Jay to bring a top-ranked team back to his alma mater. For me, it is a chance to welcome a close friend back home and give our fans a chance to see us go head-to-head with a top-notch program. I know for our players it is a game they are really looking forward to.

It comes down to wills, and these kids didn't quit.

It is a big game in a sense of being a TV game that's big for our conferences, but first we have a league game that's huge. Then we'll be on a national scale and it will give people a chance to see us again and for us to put our best foot forward.

I think the kids were really focused. There was an edge to everybody. As we went out there, we knew we were going to get American's best shot. We always played good defense.

I think the kids were really focused on yesterday's walk and practice. There was an edge to everybody, because Friday night nobody was very happy and that really carried over today.

I thought we did a good job defensively in the first half of taking them out of their offense and that really set the tone for the game. We kept our intensity in the second half and did a good job of putting them away.

I thought we got a good boost from our bench early. They really got us going.

I thought we had to go out there early and make them respect us. I thought we did a great job of that.

I thought the tone was set at 1:19 when Knight drove the ball and they called a foul on Abe. The clock stopped, and they're scoring points. That's the worst thing.

I think we have to take care of the ball in order to get some quick shots against them. They are obviously great athletes, great players. They get the ball up and down very quickly. We are going to have to find a way to work with that so we can get back and give ourselves a chance to defend.

I think a lot of things happen that we play the way we do.

Our inside effort really took it in the second half.

People haven't shot the ball well against us. That's what happens sometimes. As far as what we want to do and how we want to do it, we have five guys that believe in playing the way we are playing defensively, and that attitude is what allows us to establish ourselves sometimes.

I think going to Pitt and winning and St. Joe's got the ball rolling and as we went along we got confidence.

I think going to Pitt and winning and Saint Joe's got the ball rolling and as we went along we got confidence.

We could have a 10th spot, if we find the right kid. But that?s still to be determined.

Three-pointers are part of the game. Obviously we have some guys that can shoot the basketball, that's why it ended up being along the perimeter because they were so strong physically inside.

You knew they were going to hit some deep shots, and we just had to keep grinding and grinding. I thought Donald Brown on the boards in the second half really mixed it up. I thought we played with great energy in the second half.

We found a combination there that was moving the basketball, and I thought we were pretty fresh with it. We got the spurt. I thought we were getting better and better shots.

With 10 minutes to go, we felt like we had the game. But we learned what that kind of speed is. You cannot simulate how quick they are.

This time, we know the task that is in front of us. We came here to play two games. Believe me, we're enjoying it, but we're not getting ahead of ourselves.

You have to keep going and realize it's part of life. In that, we want everyone to share in the things that have happened to us.

We just wanted to enjoy it for so long.

We just had to keep grinding and grinding.

To be honest, we don't know a whole lot yet about Arkansas, other than that they played very good basketball down the stretch.

To be given a nine seed, the highest ever for a team from the Patriot League, shows that our program earned the respect of the selection committee and college basketball followers across the country.

Brown has been tremendous all year long, at the beginning, I don't know if he was wound up a little bit or what. He made some great plays down the stretch and he really came through at the end.

The way it's gone down here, a dogfight to the finish, last shot would have pleased me just fine. We have that much respect for Lehigh. The way the last couple minutes went, I was glad our kids did keep their composure. This is a confident bunch. Not cocky, but confident.

The Thomas kid is doing it for them lately.

Teams just haven?t shot the ball well against us. We have five guys who believe in playing defense. They work hard at it. It?s an attitude, a way to establish themselves.

This is so neat for the school and everything like that. I won't play it down because it's wonderful for people to have that kind of respect for our program. At the same time, we have the kind of kids who can take it in stride to be ranked among that company.

They have about 14 guys we can talk about. Washington runs the engines so quick. He does a great job getting them into their tempo. They're very impressive. It starts with him.

They're everything they are built up to be. The biggest compliment that I can pay is they play so hard. They're the No. 1 team in the country and they play hard every day. The key to them is Williams and he was just a man (tonight). He does everything and we just didn't have another answer besides Chris McNaughton.

It?s a chemistry situation defensively. The way we play, it does take experience, just like with a motion offense.

I told the team they can either embrace the rankings or get cocky. I told them they haven?t been (cocky) all year. They have stayed focused on the task at hand.

That?s pretty impressive, nationally, that they think of us as a ninth seed. I think it?s recognition of who we played and who we beat.

The biggest thing for me has been enjoying my kids and enjoying the game. It has been a lot of fun this season.

It was a great game. The kids left it all out there. It was the kind of game where you thought you had it, and it got away.

They look so big on film. They?re all so long and athletic.

It was just the kind of thing where we didn't read it well. That was a miscommunication, and they happen in the game.

I'm not a guy that goes anywhere, but tonight I am.

In the first half we were a little impatient. They knocked us out of some things we were trying to do.

I haven?t had any questions about the kids and where they?re taking shots. I get excited when we?re aggressive coming off screens and taking shots, even when (defenders) are trailing. But I can?t force them. They are the ones playing. They have to make those decisions.

I think our kids were a little rushed. It's playoffs and we played that way. We played really fast.

I think our feet have touched the ground, but just barely.

I don't know if you can step out of character. This is a group of kids that's level-headed, they realize how big things are and how important things are, but they have fun. They've taught all of us to have fun.

Charles used to drag Donald (Brown) to the gym every day. (Lee) worked with (Brown), helped him with his confidence.

I don't want to go there. I can't look at that. They're good enough just by getting in passing lanes. We have a good basketball team, and we'll play another day.

I don't mean to be a tyrant. A couple threes here and there, and you want to go and slop it up. That's not these kids. They haven't been like that all year. I wanted to remind them the time of year it is. That's disrespectful, and that's not our team.

The last two games, Charles has been our rock. He was a big key.