679 Quotes by Jim Calhoun

Regardless of our success over the years, whatever it may be, Providence has always played us close. Providence has given us a lot of problems.

We became a terrific basketball team. We have had some times when the expectations weighed heavily upon us. As the season wore down, we saw our window of opportunity start to become more limited. The greatest thing we did was we kicked the window out and we made the opportunity for ourselves.

I don't think we played an ounce of basketball after that.

In those 11 games, we did all kinds of things. We played and got better during this period. And I don?t know if we ever peaked, per se, nor did I want us to.

It's just going to happen because of the parity. It's getting closer and closer. Every year I maintain, you're going to see more upsets.

Sometimes it can be the best thing in the world for you. A lot of times when you go through a down period, you find out a lot more about yourself than times when everything is flowing and you're winning. To some degree, Kentucky is already tournament-tested. They've been playing games with tournament implications for a while now.

Regardless of our successes, failures, whatever it may be, it seems like Providence always plays us close. I think it's 3-3 over the last six games. Our national championship team (2004), they showed up at 12 o'clock at the (Hartford) Civic Center and beat us pretty good.

We'll talk about that. You've seen it. And there's a pretty good chance you won't see it again.

I don't think we shot well (38.7 percent), but I think we played well and yet it took us 30 minutes to shake them, maybe 35 minutes to shake them. That's just by their tenacity and how hard they played. Providence has a young team. The three guys who I think played really well for us happened to be seniors and that makes a difference in college basketball.