March 27, 2008

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HEAD COACH Brian Gregory

"It really came down to an eight minute stretch in the second half. They came out early, and I thought we were going to weather the storm, but then all of a sudden, we looked about half a step slow. Maybe it was fatigue, or maybe we were just beat up from that game on Monday. Whatever it was, they got a couple of inside baskets, which led to some big threes and them pushing it out to double digits."

"We did a good job on their first options, In fact we may have played Jamar Butler as well as anyone this year. He's a heckuva player. But unfortunately, they had some other guys step up. Jon Diebler, who has not had a good year shooting the ball, hit a couple of big threes."

"When you are playing a team like Ohio State - on their court - you need big games from people. We got good games offensively and defensively from guys, but not the big games we needed."

"Two weeks ago I told the team I didn't need a selection committee to validate what they have done, and tonight I told them I didn't need a trip to New York to make me appreciate them any more. We played with a lot of heart, faced adversity and overcame it, and got off the mat time and time again."

"You can't win 23 games without great senior leadership. Not just on the court, but behind the scenes...in the locker room, on the bus, in hotel rooms, everywhere. Those three seniors accepted the responsibilities that go with leadership, and they deserve a lot of credit for what we accomplished. The best thing the underclassmen can do to honor them is to take what they learned from the seniors and raise the bar even higher."

"I don't think we will feel the impact Brian (Roberts) had on the program for a while. Years, maybe. He put us on his shoulders. He set the tone by the type of person he is, the type of player he is, and the way improved at both every year. He and Jimmy (Binnie) and Andres (Sandoval) laid the foundation for our program."