courtesy of Jack Alden
Related pages | "One of the best college games I’ve ever seen was
when we played Texas last year in Austin. I didn’t think we would
ever top that, but tonight may have been that. I’m so proud of our
team. After the last two losses, we’ve got such good kids that they
care about things and they start feeling the stress and feeling the
pressure, with people wondering what’s wrong. I think sometimes
that’s the only bad quality you can have, as good of kids as they
are, that they worry so much more than if I had a bunch of jerks who
would probably just blame it on the coach.
"“We were stressed early, and we were tight early, and the kids were filled with some doubts. I kept trying to push them to fight through it. At halftime we talked about how I’ve never had a team that hoped the other team would make mistakes. I have always had teams that tried to force the other team to make mistakes, and I’ve always had teams that were very aggressive. Coach Robinson and I both gave those little speeches at halftime, and I think in the second half we were much more aggressive. Nick Collison, unbelievable on the backboards. 24 points and 23 rebounds. If we hadn’t had him, I don’t know what we would have done on the backboards. We’ve got to get Jeff Graves out of foul trouble. Yet Bryant Nash, Michael Lee, and those guys who came in off the bench had some good moments for us, as well. But a fantastic basketball game, and a fantastic Texas team. "Rick Barnes grabbed me afterwards, and I told him I love his team , and it was a heckuva game. And he said, ‘I didn’t get a chance to grab both Kirk and Nick, and I don’t know if we’ll play again in the tournament, but it was great competing against those guys.’ For him to say that that quickly after the game I think says a great deal about him and his beliefs in college athletics. "(After Jeff Graves fouled out) It was more than likely they were going to try to foul. They were in a press situation. I’m not comfortable with Moulaye handling the basketball. It was when Nick fouled out that I put in Michael, and then when Jeff fouled out I put in Bryant. We gave up some size and knew it was going to be tough to rebound the basketball, but thought we’d be better ball- handlers, better free throw shooters. Then when we got on the defensive end, they were probably going to shoot three-point shots on the perimeter, so we had to match up with their shooters anyway. I wish Keith had made the two free throws. It would have made the last few seconds not quite as hairy as it was. "I can’t say enough about how much I like Texas’ team. T.J. Ford is just so relentless, coming at you all the time. Mouton does some nice things. James Thomas is just one of those blue-collar workers who works his butt off and defends and rebounds, and he had 10 points and 14 rebounds. "Coach Holladay and I told ‘em, if it were us we’d still be jumping around, but they’re so dadgum tired they can’t jump around much. But we got a little jumpin’ around going as soon as I got in the locker room, because I frickin’ wanted to jump around some.” |
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