22 Quotes by Joe Aiello

Letting teams back into games that we should be closing out has nothing to do with who we are playing and the level of competition. Every game we should be trying to improve and do what we do better whether we are playing Clovis West or Fresno High.

We talked all week about having the instinct needed to put teams away but sure didn't show it tonight. We get up big and then seem to give our momentum and it just kind of snowballs.

Jackson really hurt us offensively and Shelton seemed to tip the ball or alter just about every one of our shots. But it was their other players who hurt us the most as we didn't do a good job stopping them when they were on the floor.

Kenny got hot early in the game and then started forcing things a little. But he really has become much more of a complete player who brings the ball up, scores from the outside, drives to the basket and really has started to hit the boards.

I think the guys were a little anxious out there early on and the shots just weren't falling. But we got the shots we wanted and were in the right spots to score, so that's all you can ask. As long as we do that, the shots are going to fall eventually.

I thought Aaron had a very good game against a very good player in Shelton. It was encouraging to see how he stepped up and proved he is one of the better players in our league.

I thought we played very hard on the defensive end and really looked like we wanted to deny Bullard anything. But that's the kind of effort it takes to play good defense - you almost have to take the other team scoring personally.

I thought we came out and played fairly well in the first quarter and kind of neutralized their strengths. But Clovis West proved why they are the odds-on favorite to win the state title as they are very quick, extremely strong and physical as well as being deep.

Our players didn't come out and compete at all. It came down to leadership and we didn't show any. It looked like our players were hiding and just gave up. Trust me, we will address this in practice.