Ben Howland Good Quotations

He is so sharp mentally, it's incredible. But the key to his run was recruiting good players who were good people. Good people last a lifetime.

I feel very bad that Hassan is not here. Hassan Adams is a great kid, a great competitor, and he's going to really bounce back and do great in the NCAA tournament. But we need to beat Arizona. It's hard to beat a good team like Arizona three times. So it's going to be a big challenge for us to come out and have success.

I feel very fortunate. I thought our defense was much better in the second half. If that's not a very good team we just played, I don't know what is. We knew they were very, very good and we feel very, very fortunate to move on.

He's a great kid and a great competitor. He's going to bounce back and be great in the NCAA Tournament. We need to beat Arizona, but it's hard to beat a good team like Arizona three times. They've improved since we've last seen them.

If that's not a very good team we just played then I don't know what is. We feel very, very fortunate to move to the next round.

Jordan was masterful down the stretch at handling the ball and really doing a good job for us.

Jordan went down to visit Florida, and they did a great job on the visit. His host was (current Grizzly player Anthony) Roberson, and he loved him. He had a really good relationship with Roberson. So when he came back, he was really leaning that way.

Our trainer did a good job snapping it right back into place.

Our transition defense was so good. It had to be because Memphis is so good at pushing it.

I was uncomfortable just standing there, it was so hot. I kept getting water after water, out of the machine. But this kid had such good fundamentals.

We can play any way you want to play. At the end of the day, we have to defend, rebound, take good shots and take care of the basketball.

There are a lot of games yet to be played. It's going to be a great year. The thing that's good about the Pac-10 is anyone can beat anybody on any given night. And Oregon is playing solid basketball.

To me, the image of L.A. is hard-working, good people, who play together and are tough. (They) just happen to live in the greatest place in the world.

We've played some very good teams this year. And I'm very pleased with how our team has responded to all the adversity. If we get everybody healthy, I think we have a chance to be an outstanding team.

Brandon is just absolutely terrific. Looking at the stats, it's amazing how good this kid is.

Our defense is what kept us in the game. I thought Oregon played very good defense as well. Somehow we hung around because we were playing good defense, playing every possession really tough.

Florida has a great offensive team. It really is going to be a big challenge for us to be able to try to defend such skilled players and good passers. Everybody can shoot it.

I laugh at some of these commentators who say they are not a good defensive team. They hold opponents to 43 percent from the field.

I had no idea that he was that good of a passer. It causes you to pause in what you do (double-teaming). He was just terrific. The best thing about him is that he doesn't even care if he scores. That kid is all about winning.

It's good to see him getting close to where he feels real healthy again.

Arizona has played the toughest schedule by far in our conference, playing some of the top teams in the country. (Olson) had done a good job of what works best.

If you want to win, you've got to play hard. You've got to play good defense.

I don't think Stanford's streak means that much to most of our players. What it says is how good their program has been over the last 15 years. They execute extremely well, and they come to Pauley with a lot of confidence. We have to be ready for that, as well as the start of Pac-10.

They've got really good quickness and push the ball well. They force a lot of turnovers with their pressure.

It's that magic third year. That's the plan. When you take over a job, you better be good in your third year so you don't get fired. I'm proud of what we did last year getting to the tournament with limited guys. We had four guys on the perimeter playing down the stretch. Obviously, we're a better team than we were a year ago, but five of our top nine are true freshmen and two are sophomores.

The repair to Alfred's left knee is less severe than his right, so the rehabilitation time will be less. This will be a quicker healing process. It's all good news, much better than expected.