16 Quotes by John Tharp

Since Sunday was a day off for us, it's OK for our guys to take this moment and enjoy it. It's pretty neat for our players, since they've worked hard to get here.

To do what we've done, what people don't realize is 13 of our 22 games were on the road. We were in this building only nine times during the regular season. We did it being on the road a lot of times. This place can hold (enough fans) and do what it's supposed to do.

Well, you look at our record. A lot of guys have contributed to that, obviously. But those two guys have played such a role in what we've done and what we've accomplished.

Our kids are very unselfish and very basketball intelligent. The only way we can win is to play that way.

Those guys have made us focus every day. It's not as if I have to motivate them or remind them. They understand what we're trying to do. If anybody steps out of line or doesn't work as hard as we think they ought to be, the seniors set them straight.

We can't play individual ball against them, because their top five individuals are better than our top five individuals. We just kept on clawing.

You don't think about it as a coach at the start of the season to win every single game and receive all this attention.

It's a dream to have a last game like that, to send our seniors out undefeated in front of a crowd like that. It just took us 20 minutes to get going and get aggressive, but we did.

It's been fun because this is new for us and our program. It's been interesting. The kids have handled it very well. They are very level-headed kids. They understand how one game changes things quickly.