Pat Flannery Quotes (39 Quotes)

I havent had any questions about the kids and where theyre taking shots. I get excited when were aggressive coming off screens and taking shots, even when (defenders) are trailing. But I cant force them. They are the ones playing. They have to make those decisions.

I thought we did a good job defensively in the first half of taking them out of their offense and that really set the tone for the game. We kept our intensity in the second half and did a good job of putting them away.

We'll start grinding as soon as we leave here. (Today) we'll go back in there (for practice) and Tuesday as well.

You knew they were going to hit some deep shots, and we just had to keep grinding and grinding. I thought Donald Brown on the boards in the second half really mixed it up. I thought we played with great energy in the second half.

Teams just havent shot the ball well against us. We have five guys who believe in playing defense. They work hard at it. Its an attitude, a way to establish themselves.

I thought the tone was set at 119 when Knight drove the ball and they called a foul on Abe. The clock stopped, and they're scoring points. That's the worst thing.

To be honest, we don't know a whole lot yet about Arkansas, other than that they played very good basketball down the stretch.

It'd be a lot easier if they took away the 35-second clock. Our team fits our personality and the type of kids we have. We play defense, take care of the basketball and we're going to go in and play.

We found a combination there that was moving the basketball, and I thought we were pretty fresh with it. We got the spurt. I thought we were getting better and better shots.

The last two games, Charles has been our rock. He was a big key.

Charles used to drag Donald (Brown) to the gym every day. (Lee) worked with (Brown), helped him with his confidence.

I dont see him playing this year. Hes really not getting a whole lot better. Theres been nothing official yet. Were just going to wait until (classes) get back, talk to the doctor and go from there.

I thought we got a good boost from our bench early. They really got us going.

We havent even mentioned that. It was fit into our season, but its in the middle of our league schedule. Right now, the league is most important.

I think going to Pitt and winning and Saint Joe's got the ball rolling and as we went along we got confidence.

I think a couple of those baskets when we started the second half were kind of like inside baskets, where we stretching a little bit and then going. I thought we weren't as impatient as we had been earlier in the game.

I thought we had to go out there early and make them respect us. I thought we did a great job of that.

Its a chemistry situation defensively. The way we play, it does take experience, just like with a motion offense.

This is so neat for the school and everything like that. I won't play it down because it's wonderful for people to have that kind of respect for our program. At the same time, we have the kind of kids who can take it in stride to be ranked among that company.

Our place is filled every night and buses come with us on the road. This has created such excitement and as long as we take it in stride, we have some size and some handlers, the components to be able to compete with people.

I don't want to go there. I can't look at that. They're good enough just by getting in passing lanes. We have a good basketball team, and we'll play another day.

Those kids know what to do and to not play to the crowd. He knows the rules. He needs to be smart enough not to do something like that.

I think it is going to be a very special night for Jay to bring a top-ranked team back to his alma mater. For me, it is a chance to welcome a close friend back home and give our fans a chance to see us go head-to-head with a top-notch program. I know for our players it is a game they are really looking forward to.

I told the team they can either embrace the rankings or get cocky. I told them they havent been (cocky) all year. They have stayed focused on the task at hand.

I think we have to take care of the ball in order to get some quick shots against them. They are obviously great athletes, great players. They get the ball up and down very quickly. We are going to have to find a way to work with that so we can get back and give ourselves a chance to defend.

I think the kids were really focused on yesterday's walk and practice. There was an edge to everybody, because Friday night nobody was very happy and that really carried over today.

I don't mean to be a tyrant. A couple threes here and there, and you want to go and slop it up. That's not these kids. They haven't been like that all year. I wanted to remind them the time of year it is. That's disrespectful, and that's not our team.

I thought we were a little flat in the beginning (against Army). I was thinking about taking a time-out and getting on them a bit (after Army started with a 19-9 lead), but I have trust in them to get themselves through it and turn it around. And they did.

People haven't shot the ball well against us. That's what happens sometimes. As far as what we want to do and how we want to do it, we have five guys that believe in playing the way we are playing defensively, and that attitude is what allows us to establish ourselves sometimes.

We know we're a good basketball team. Even with rankings and all that sort of stuff, if you really knew our program you'd know these kids play for each other.

Everybody in the program is very excited about the schedule. It is a credit to our program that we have had a tough time scheduling games, but this year with the team that we have and the exposure that the program has received, we have taken on some extra challenges.

We're going to do what we've done all season. We're taking them one game at a time.

This time, we know the task that is in front of us. We came here to play two games. Believe me, we're enjoying it, but we're not getting ahead of ourselves.

It is a big game in a sense of being a TV game that's big for our conferences, but first we have a league game that's huge. Then we'll be on a national scale and it will give people a chance to see us again and for us to put our best foot forward.

They're everything they are built up to be. The biggest compliment that I can pay is they play so hard. They're the No. 1 team in the country and they play hard every day. The key to them is Williams and he was just a man (tonight). He does everything and we just didn't have another answer besides Chris McNaughton.

To be given a nine seed, the highest ever for a team from the Patriot League, shows that our program earned the respect of the selection committee and college basketball followers across the country.

More than anything, it has been trusting and having confidence in our kids. It has been a lot of fun this year. Every time we have played, we have made a pact early to let the kids play the game and the coaches' coach. That is really what we did all year long. We have changed up some routines to enjoy it more. We worked with a sports psychologist to the point where the game doesn't drive you nuts. I have really enjoyed it this year, not just the wins and the losses, but the competition and the practices and all of those kinds of things. It's a learning process that we all go through.

It was a great game. The kids left it all out there. It was the kind of game where you thought you had it, and it got away.

Three-pointers are part of the game. Obviously we have some guys that can shoot the basketball, that's why it ended up being along the perimeter because they were so strong physically inside.