Steve Alford Quotes

"I think the majority of the players who leave early aren't successful. You have more failure stories than success stories with that, but that's the nature of our game right now."

"I think some people would say the numbers are the same. But with the casinos, we're fighting a trend and everyone else is going down, ... The fact is, we're not going down. Our people do go to the casinos, but they don't go up there every day."

"Obviously a tremendous, tremendous win for our team and our program. We're in the midst of a very special journey right now."

"It was a great journey this year. It's hard for the seniors that their last game had to be like this."

"I think he'll be okay. We can get him a lot of rest heading into the weekend. Hopefully he'll be okay."

"I know Jeff was very much in pain. But he was phenomenal in the second half."

"We had good leads in both halves, and we couldn't complete either half."

"It hit us at a good time. We hadn't had a break for a while. We got away from basketball Sunday, and we got away from it (Wednesday)."

"It wasn't the start we wanted. I've always felt like the team that plays Thursday has an advantage in the Friday game, but we weathered that and found a way to move on."

"This isn't the end of the season, but it's a bad defeat."

"We appreciate the hard work and efforts that Rich and Greg have extended on behalf of this program over the past seven years. With 46 wins in the last two seasons and six straight winning seasons, they have contributed to a lot of the successes we have enjoyed. In my long?term commitment toward the future, I wanted to move Brian to director of basketball operations and felt these moves were necessary for the continued progress of the program."

"It's a tremendous win for our program. We're in the midst of a special journey. We're trying to win something. It's going to be an incredible battle, but this was a big hurdle."

"Both Alex and Carlton expressed their desire to explore other options. We wish them well and will provide assistance as they search for a better fit."

"People who come for the dogs come here primarily to eat, drink and have a good time,"

"It was the same scenario. The last 5 minutes, I just thought they were the tougher basketball team."

"It?s something coach Knight used to always do. It?s a long season. It?s a grind. Back when I played, there were 18 (conference) games. It gets to be very long and can mentally really wear your team down."

"There was a lot of emotion for the seniors, but not just for them. Sometimes it's what your teammates do (on Senior Night), and I think we saw that."

"I couldn't be more happy or pleased for our seniors to go out this way."

"He's kind of evaluating what he wants to do."

"When you end up getting into the profession, you end up learning how important that end is. This is a group of guys who have gotten older and matured through the Big Ten. ... They understand the benefits that go into defending."