Russ Bartlett Quotations

We did exactly what we wanted to do. The pace was what we wanted, we rebounded the ball pretty well and didn't give them many second-chance opportunities. I told the kids we dictated the tempo, we just had to make shots and we didn't.

Jordan's a much better player right now than he was last year, he's got to be a big concern for them.

I thought the key was whoever got in foul trouble first between Jordan and Sean. We wanted to protect Jordan a little, and Sam and Max are competitive. Sam is 6-4 and Max is 6-2, and I thought if we could get through the first half with those guys doing what we needed them to do against Sean, then we could have Jordan match up with him in the second half. But it was effective enough to stay with it, and it worked.

Other than (Kelly), I thought we did a great job defensively.

You know what to expect from him every night on both ends of the floor.

You can look at it as flash versus fundamentals. They're the most athletic team we face, so we have to be fundamentally sound.

We went basically eight deep tonight, and I thought all eight did some good things, especially on the defensive end.

At the Auditorium, I had to yell to get people to hear me. Tonight, I didn't yell so much.

Offensively we're a much better team this year. Last year we won with defense and one really good offensive player, but this year we've had three consistent scorers night in and night out. Last year we had to search more for those second and third scorers.

Deering did a great job. It was more of physical game than we expected. When they weren't calling fouls in the first half, we could score, but when they were calling fouls in the second half, we couldn't score.

I'd say it was a wash. They really let them play inside, but they called it consistently.

The crowd isn't as on top of you. It's not as loud.

The difference in the game was as simple as rebounding. In the first half we didn't block out. We forced tough shots, but we gave them three or four opportunities. In the second half we owned the defensive glass and that made a difference because we only had to defend for three or four passes and then we forced tough shots and rebounded the ball.

The last time he had 35 against us. I said if we could just keep him under 20 we'd control the game. He's going to score, you just have to make him work as hard as you can to take tough shots, be careful about not fouling and then go get the ball.