At times we played hard, but we didn't play effective enough. Unfortunately, we worked so hard to get back into it, at times we gave up such easy buckets.

Not only are we defending the crown for ourselves, we're going to try to play at home for our fans because they've been so, so supportive and they've traveled everywhere we've gone.

It's become a numbing factor. It doesn't matter.

Across the board, Tennessee's size is significant. Now, if their bench continues to get more and more effective and help consistently, I can't imagine what it would be like down the road.

North Carolina, on the bus ride home, will feel like they were in a war. I hope they do.

Duke now has speed and is as gifted athletically as they've ever been. They have a tremendous amount of depth.

Every single team that we played, bar one or two, had some exceptional talent on their team.

Every place we walk into is like this. We're going to get their best shot and you know that going in, so what are you going to do about it?

The opportunity to lock up that No. 1 seed is coveted by so many teams in the conference. For us to do that this year under some of the circumstances and some of the obstacles we've dealt with is pretty amazing stuff.

We said, 'It's not going to happen just because you're playing at home. You're going to have to go out and make it happen.'