Jim Les Quotes (50 Quotes)

They're just awfully talented. They're getting great production from their bench and do a number of things well. Our defense is going to be tested.

You always in the back of your mind are comparing yourselves to those teams that play on TV, to those upper echelon teams To me, it's a great opportunity to see where we're at.

We play in a major basketball conference. There are some awfully good players here. Some players who were snubbed a little bit at the higher schools, and they've got a chip on their shoulders.

That was an awfully good basketball team we played. And I think in order to win this game, we had to play our 'A' game. The reason we didn't is because of what they do and how they play.

They trap in a lot of areas. We thought with good spacing and spreading them out, we'd make ourselves tough to cover.

He's very good at attacking penetration and making people adjust shots. He's our mistake-eraser.

This is a competitive group. What really matters is how we feel about ourselves inside. We think we're an awfully good basketball team that can compete on any given night against any given team.

These guys worked themselves into this position and nobody gave them anything, much less a chance. It's great to see Bradley put back on this stage. It's something that has taken a lot of work, but it was certainly worth every ounce of sweat by a lot of people.

We don't want them to take for granted that there's a lot of support for Bradley basketball. So many people commented on how they stood the entire game. I didn't see that from the Kansas fans. I didn't see that from the Pitt fans. Our fans gave us fire. I want our guys to acknowledge it. I didn't tell them to go into the stands. They took that on their own.

It was a long day. It was even worse today. I thought it would get better as it got closer but it actually got worse. The hours and minutes got longer.

Apparently, it was for a show of emotion for the second time after a call. That's the way it was explained to me.

Really, I think a lot of the fallout occurs from lack of knowledge. From people that haven't seen a Valley game or half a game.

We needed to play our 'A' game tonight, and we didn't play our 'A' game. But that was because of what they did. That's a very good basketball team.

Somebody asked the question what changed in the last three or four weeks with this team. It's the mentality. We haven't let our offense dictate who we were defensively. Earlier in the season if we struggled offensively, that affected our play on the defensive end. I don't care what happens on the offensive end. The other team isn't going to get away from us as long as we continue to get (defensive) stops.

Early on, we let him get going with some of his pet moves. Then he developed a ton of confidence, and even when we contested some of his shots, he knocked them in.

In the MVC, we don't have the budget or resources that Pitt or Kansas has. But we have awfully good players, and great coaches, and communities that love basketball.

Bradley basketball is back on the map in a big way. I am proud to be a part of it.

He was absolutely a project. We thought maybe by his junior year he'd be ready to make an impact.

The fact that the administrators and the community here welcomed me back with open arms says a lot about what they think of their own. They handed me the keys to drive the car and with that I've taken a lot of pride and responsibility in trying to restore Bradley basketball to a level everyone can be proud of.

Being in this league, this is my fourth year and I've got a lot of respect for the level of basketball. We're continuing to make this upward climb to get national respect.

These are rare opportunities that you don't get second chances at. That's the one point I keep emphasizing over and over. And I think we've managed to keep it all within our 24-hour rule -- you can only celebrate a win for 24 hours or pout about a loss for 24 hours.

We'll throw our best punch and see what happens. I don't care what anyone says. Our league is a major basketball conference. It's a battle night in and night out. We play against a lot of different styles. We're prepared to play against a physical team like Pitt.

We lost to them in an overtime game, and they handed us our lunch with a loss at home. We definitely owe them one.

I can certainly make a case for another league team or two being here because I've played those teams.

Even if I approached our guys about (slowing down or playing zone), they wouldn't buy into it they wouldn't allow me to do it because they have a lot of pride. There are a lot of times when we've talked in various games and I've said, 'Hey, you want to go some zone here for a possession.' Every time, they say, 'No, Coach. Put it on us. We'll guard them.' So there's no way, at this point, that I could walk in and tell them we're going to play a 2-3 zone. They would ban me.

One of the things we put on our board when we talk about pressure is when we see a level of frustration, it's time to turn it up a notch. Our pressure did frustrate them some.

I tried not to get too caught up in thinking too far ahead and the consequences of coming in here and doing what I thought we could do.

I've had a taste of his cheesecake. I'm a cheesecake connoisseur and it was awfully good. How serious is he He's serious enough to be studying it every day in his classes and have an internship last summer. It's something he's always desired to do.

There's going to be a lot of close games. It will come down to which team can make the big plays.

I was scared to death. I didn't know if they realized what we were facing, all the different things they're experiencing. I was nervous about it. I wasn't sure they were comprehending the magnitude of our opportunity. But they seem to be able to enjoy it and step back focus on it at the same time.

You can look back to five or six years ago when scholarships got trimmed from 15 to 13 I think that created a lot of parity around the country. Maybe those guys who may have gone to bigger schools now were more receptive to coming to a smaller university and being the big fish in a small pond.

We don't want to be a one and done, to take these strides to get back in it then fall back off the map. We want to make it a constant that we're in the hunt every year.

I'm probably not well-versed enough on the process other than to think that the way this team has been playing the last three or four weeks, I find it hard to believe that we're not one of the top 34 teams around the country. It's just going to make for a long week, I can tell you that.

At this point sleep is way overrated in my opinion. What little sleep I did get last night, my wife said I had a smile on my face. ... There's plenty of time down the road for sleep, so we'll worry about that later.

We don't want to be content. We want this to be an annual event.

Just as we talk about fast-break offense, we work on fast-break defense. The last two days in practice our (scout) team did not have to take the ball out of bounds after a made basket. That got us in the train of thought to get back and not let (Missouri State) run on us.

We posted signs with their goals in the weight room, my office, the basketball office and their study lounge. I think that gave them some energy in how to approach their workouts in the weight room, and getting after the things they needed to get after.

Being part of this program spanning 30 years ... to see the jubilation on the faces of those people, and getting the calls and text messages from people enjoying this run, that gives me tremendous pleasure. Bradley basketball is back on the map in a big way.

The locker room was pretty subdued and business as usual. We want to be proud, but there's still work to be done.

I don't think there is a clear-cut favorite. The strength of our league is parity. There is any one of seven or eight teams that could win this tournament, get hot and win three or four in a row. It's going to come down to making plays at the end of the game and executing in the crunch.

Being a player is more of a personal satisfaction. Now it's like being a part of the tradition and history of Bradley basketball and being a part of putting it back on the map. ... Seeing all the people now that have been affected. It's more fun to be a part of that.

The perception is I want him to come back and am steering him that way. That's not the case. What's happening with Patrick is great for our program. I want to make sure that whatever his decision, that it's good for Patrick, the person.

My players have a lot of pride, and we talked about how we lost two games to these guys. I think they took it in the manner, 'You know what. I've got some pride. He's not going to get the better of me tonight.

It's a couple of things. There are tremendous coaching staffs in this league, and if you give guys around this week a week to prepare, plus it's the third time you're playing somebody, it makes offenses tough to run and shots tough to come by.

We usually have a 24-hour rule to celebrate or pout after a game. We moved the clock up a little bit. They were jubilant on the floor, but by the time we got back to the locker room, they were looking at me like what do we need to do next.

I'm excited for Patrick. This is a great opportunity for him to explore this opportunity. It's good for him to do this. It's the smart thing to do.

We weren't finishing games. There were stretches where we just shut down during the stretch, especially on the road.

We don't want this to be a one-and-done. Heck, I want to put pressure on myself to make this a yearly event, and that will trickle down to the expectation of our players having gotten a taste of this.

It's bittersweet. When we get back home and sit back and look at our body of work for the year, I think this team, this program can be extremely proud. Now it's the goal to continue to build on it.

We're a team that makes a run at some point in the game. Unfortunately, our run came late when we had dug ourselves such a big hole.