Doc Sadler Quotes (41 Quotes)

I've said all along that we have to take care of things first. First, we've got to win Thursday. Then we get to Friday night. If they take two teams from our league, then I think the winner of that game will get to go (to the NCAA tournament).

This team has overcome so much adversity. It speaks to the character of the kids. It seems like every week they've gone through something. It's an unbelievable group of guys. You don't win as many games as these guys have and not be different. That's what they are . They're just different. I don't know how to describe it.

Randall did the scouting report on Tulsa during the season. Ed had Southern Miss during the season. So they were both already familiar with those teams. Southern Miss is a lot like ourselves. They are not going to do a lot of different things. They will do two or three things on offense and do them very, very well. They will make you guard everything.

Just more little things. Making free throws. You've got to do the little things to win basketball games -- especially on the road.

We're trying to sign three or four more. We are mixing it between junior college players and high school kids.

They are playing a little more man-to-man this year. But they play that zone. We will have to execute and hit shots. They want you to attack the basket, to think you are open. We will get 15-foot shots. We've got to take them and make them.

Yesterday was tough ... it was tough. I found out the results about 10 minutes before practice was over. It was an emotional situation.

Are they talented You bet they are. ... They are an awfully good basketball team. Do they wear you down Yeah, most definitely.

We played hard early and, unfortunately, looked at the scoreboard and our intensity fell off. When you're only playing seven guys, sometimes you try to conserve energy, and that's my fault. I thought they definitely outplayed us as far as effort in the last 20 minutes.

It doesn't get any easier. We're playing extremely hard, we're just not making the plays we need to make to win close games. We need to keep working hard. It's going to come.

I think what this does is force us to win the (conference) tournament. That's the bottom line right now. But we can't be concerned with the big picture. We haven't been all year and we can't be now. We've just got to play one game at a time and not worry about anything else.

We shot the basketball and that's what we have to do. If we are going to win at this time of the year, we will have to shoot the basketball.

The strength of their team is that they are able to shoot the basketball. They've got three guys averaging in double figures. The key to the game is that we have to defend the perimeter and keep them off the offensive glass.

That crowd was terrific. I don't know if we could have won the game without them. And I know there were people who couldn't come, sitting home by their radios, and they helped us, too. SMU is one of the top four teams in the conference and I'm glad we've got them out of the way. Our defense was key. Our defense is something we work hard on and something the kids have bought into. We also held them (the Mustangs) to only seven offensive rebounds. Doing that to a team like that is big.

This is a team that has very good guards. They have guards who are capable of scoring points. On the nights when they have scored, they have been very difficult to beat. They have beaten some people and they have played well against some good teams. They have gone to Houston and won.

Miguel went to the doctor today (Friday) and the doctor released him -- probably a week earlier than we had expected. Miguel will play some against Rice. John will play, too. His, as we have said, is a game-to-game deal. But he will definitely play, too.

We just need to continue to win basketball games. I think what's happening right now is probably going to be more important in terms of recruiting than what happened 40 years ago.

That's something I will have to decide after the 16th game. You can't make that decision until the 16th game.

You get it to 44-all, I think we got a little too excited. You're not going to score in transition against Syracuse at their place. I thought we forced the issue. Even when we got it down there, we took some bad shots.

Thursday night's game between UAB and Memphis could have decided some things. But it didn't. Other than that, nothing much is really decided until Saturday. There is still such a logjam in the middle. A lot can happen on Saturday.

We were down 12 on the road and we found a way to win. Give our guys credit. Give Southern Mississippi credit, too. But we have some experienced guys who have won some close ballgames, and that had to help.

He won't play this week. They won't give me a date (when he might return), but I know he won't play this week. It will apparently be week-to-week.

The thing about Southern Miss is that they've gotten better and better each game.

I think SMU is one of the top four teams in this league, especially talent-wise. They're getting better every game. I'm glad we've played them twice.

Alabama AM will be here expecting to play a basketball game. I know some people might think that because it's a non-conference game, it might not be as big. But at this stage of the season, every game is critical.

Rice has as good an offensive player as their is in the league. They start with him and that's important. Transition defense will be very important. They are a very good transition team. And defensively, they are doing a lot of different things.

Rice is a good basketball team. Offensively they scare you because Almond had scored (30-plus points) in their last four games. That especially concerns you when our strength is not scoring points.

This is a unique group. A group of guys who come from totally different backgrounds who have come together to build a basketball team. It's special. It speaks of their families and of the character of each one of them.

One play in the second half summed up this entire season. We were up by 20 and we had three guys diving on the floor for a loose ball.

It finally caught up to us. We didn't have any emotion. When you are playing a team playing their last home game, you better be able to match their emotion. This game can't be played unless you are emotionally ready to play. You have to give Central Florida credit. They were ready to play. They did that. They made some shots ... and when you are emotionally ready to play, you make some shots.

We had a member of the selection committee speak to our spring committee. He told us the RPI is not even considered by them. He said they do not even have access to the RPI ... that it is just something for the media to talk about.

It happened so fast, I don't think anyone knows what happened. When I feel like this basketball team is ready to move forward with Jason, then that's what we'll do.

I've always thought this team had a chance to be pretty good. The thing that concerns me is offensively, I don't know how much we can win without shooting the basketball better.

There isn't anybody who could have played the schedule they've played and have a very good record. When you look at the tapes, you see a very athletic team.

Hopefully it does. I don't think it's going to hurt because if you are a basketball player or in the family of a basketball player, you will go and see these kind of movies.

SMU is one of the top four teams in this league, talent-wise. I'm glad we've already played them twice.

I think we're still playing OK. We just don't have the depth at this point. But our effort has been tremendous. We competed very hard against Georgetown for 40 minutes when we had a chance to break a time or two.

If you had told me we would shoot 35 percent (actually 35.1) from the field and 52 percent (52.9) from the free-throw line, I'd have said we would have a very hard time winning.

I know several people have talked about it, and we will wear them. Right now, though, we haven't gotten the jerseys yet. With today (Monday) being a holiday, I don't know. But if we get them, we will wear them.

We had four guys in double figures and we had 22 assists. That means we were sharing the basketball and we were making some shots.

I think everybody was disappointed Friday. I don't ever want this program to be satisfied playing in the NIT. That is not our goal. But the NIT is a great tournament, the longest running tournament in college basketball. We're excited to be playing in it. There is always a positive in everything and the positive in this is that we get to play at home again.