Phil Colicchio Quotations

One of our goals is to always win the first three minutes of the third quarter. So what L.J. did for us gave us a big lift. I was all over him at halftime too.

I'm anxious to see how we come out against Rahway. That will say a lot about our team.

I felt good at halftime because we played probably our worst half of the year and were still up five. Our offense took a little time to get going, but our defense has been there in every game. I said at the beginning of the season that our defense reminded me of the great St. Anthony teams, so I have confidence in our defense.

He had to adjust to the speed of the game up (in North Jersey), particularly on defense. He is our best athlete on our team, and he had his ups and downs. He just didn't know how to deal with downs and ups at first.

We thought we were quicker than they were and I thought we could wear them down. Defensively, we just had five kids coming at them the whole time. Offensively, Darrell is instant offense, L.J. stepped up tonight and I thought Charles Miller was outstanding.

My son and Marty's son (assistant coach Marty Luc) come to every practice. My son Tommy is 9 and Marty's son L.J. is 7. They can't come on the court until their homework is done. Sometimes, when we have a late practice I'll walk into my office and our players will be helping them with their homework. When we went on a trip to Pennsylvania over the holidays, our players would play with the kids in the pool or take them to the mall. Most high school kids don't want to deal with that, but this group is special. My son's favorite basketball player of all time is Desmond Wade.

I think he's the most complete big kid in the state of New Jersey. He asked me at halftime if he could guard(Harris) in the second half.

We noticed they leave the backcourt open when they go to the boards. They have rebounding guards and we were able to take advantage of that.

We went with four guards and did a lot of trapping. Offensively, we started to figure out their zone and wound up with some easy attempts. Jerry Jones hit a big 3 to end the first quarter, then Darrell and Desmond hit some buckets in the second quarter. That seemed to loosen us up.

Without a doubt this is our best defensive team. We have nine kids who can defend. Our guards can stop you and we have big men who came step out and defend. That's been a constant all year.

We set basketball back about 100 years in the first half. They shut down everything we tried to do and we shut down everything they tried to do. So in the second half, I played dumb. I told the kids to spread the floor, don't run any sets and just play basketball.

We seem to be getting better with each game, if that's possible. It's not amazing me that we're winning, but the margin of victory. These kids seem to be on a mission.

We wanted to take away their penetration. Our big guys did a great job of meeting their guards in the lane.

We're taking it one game at a time. Right now our focus is on Phillipsburg. We can't look ahead. Last year, we kept focusing on Irvington and when we got to the final, we ended up playing Bridgewater and got beat.

Pressure, pressure, pressure. We want to pressure the ball, pressure the wing and pressure the inside.

Offensively, we were living and dieing with the jump shot. We were trying to figure out a way to get our big men more involved and it kind of evolved naturally in the second Plainfield game when Charles (Miller) was working real hard. Mohammad Wilkerson (6-6 junior) followed Charles' lead and those two have become forces in the paint on both ends of the floor ever since to give us a new look.

That tip-in was big. That was probably his career-high (in scoring), too. It's been a different person every night for us; somebody always seems to step up.

This is a total shocker. You don't expect to come in here and win like this, especially against a team of Plainfield's caliber. We just caught lightning in a bottle.

They're all lunch-pail kids. They come to practice and they play the games with little emotion. They just like to take care of business.

It seemed like every shot we took in the first half went in. But I told the kids at halftime that we couldn't continue to shoot like that and that defense was going to have to win it for us.

I know that if Doug invited us here, he has a good basketball team.

I had no hesitation playing him in a key spot.

His best basketball is ahead of him. I'm intense and I yell, and I just think he had to get used to my tone. I tell him not to listen to my yelling, but to what I'm saying.

I believe he has a chance to be our best player next year.

The last time we played them, we were a totally different team. Ahmad Harris wasn't even playing, Charles Miller wasn't starting . . . our whole personnel and mind-set have changed drastically. But they're a better team too.