16 Quotes by Darin Hazel

Obviously, the dunk was huge because of the crowd. That dunk set the tone for the night, especially out of a half-court set. After that, it was our game to lose. The kids did a tremendous job of finishing it out.

He's a great kid. He plays hard at both ends.

It boils down to how well they shot the ball. If they don't shoot the ball that well, we could win that game. The McConnell kid was lights-out tonight. We knew he was good, but every time they needed a bucket late, they came up with a bucket.

Looking at tape, we felt a zone would be effective against them. They're so athletic and we had a hard time controlling them off the dribble the last time. What we wanted to do was get a fast tempo to start, get them a little tired and switch to a zone. I think that was really effective tonight.

I was hoping for a playoff type atmosphere. To be honest with you, I wish it would have been more a playoff atmosphere. We didn't get as much out of it as we wanted. I know we will play better in the playoffs.

It all boils down to Neil tonight. He's a kid that just does a terrific job on both ends of the floor. He's a kid we want all our youngsters to look up to.

We've told the kids that our best way to win a championship is through defense. I thought coming into the season defense would a strong point but I think we've gotten into an offensive frame of mind at times. We're trying to get back to basics with defense.

We just didn't take care of the ball. That's the bottom line. There's not much you can say. Too many mistakes where they made the plays when they had to. It was two good teams out there and a lot of things happen. Tonight they were better than us.

This was a tough place to play and we had to just go about our business. Give them credit, they played hard. We started to take control in the fourth. It was nice to see the kids face some sort of adversity, to be in a close game and pull it out.