14 Quotes by Russ Bartlett

We did exactly what we wanted to do. The pace was what we wanted, we rebounded the ball pretty well and didn't give them many second-chance opportunities. I told the kids we dictated the tempo, we just had to make shots and we didn't.

Jordan's a much better player right now than he was last year, he's got to be a big concern for them.

I thought the key was whoever got in foul trouble first between Jordan and Sean. We wanted to protect Jordan a little, and Sam and Max are competitive. Sam is 6-4 and Max is 6-2, and I thought if we could get through the first half with those guys doing what we needed them to do against Sean, then we could have Jordan match up with him in the second half. But it was effective enough to stay with it, and it worked.

Other than (Kelly), I thought we did a great job defensively.

You know what to expect from him every night on both ends of the floor.

You can look at it as flash versus fundamentals. They're the most athletic team we face, so we have to be fundamentally sound.

We went basically eight deep tonight, and I thought all eight did some good things, especially on the defensive end.

At the Auditorium, I had to yell to get people to hear me. Tonight, I didn't yell so much.

Offensively we're a much better team this year. Last year we won with defense and one really good offensive player, but this year we've had three consistent scorers night in and night out. Last year we had to search more for those second and third scorers.