Ben Howland Team Quotations

For us to beat us the team that I think is still going to be right up there for the league title is great.

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.

He's going to be with our trainer all night. It will take a team of horses to keep him out.

Our team is definitely playing its best basketball right now. If you look over the course of the last eight games, we've really been playing great defensive team basketball.

I think our team embodies the spirit of what Coach is all about, which is teamwork, which is unselfish play, which is a commitment at both ends of the floor to play together, team defense, team offense, giving yourself up for your teammates. As we continue to win, they all get recognized.

Usually, the team that makes the most mistakes is going to be on the wrong side of the win/loss column. Credit Florida. They were terrific. This was their night.

We beat an NCAA Tournament team without question. It's not even an issue.

What I think it's done is made us better. This team has gone through more adversity in terms of injuries than any team I've ever heard of, ever been a part of, for sure.

What a great feeling, to still be playing and to beat an outstanding team like Memphis. I'm really proud of the defense we played today. The defense was just incredible.

What a great feeling. To still be playing. To beat an outstanding team in Memphis. We're thrilled to be heading to Indiana.

They take a punch and keep on going with it. It's just a testament to their toughness and their character, and to the different guys on the team that get a chance to step up.

I've had more injuries with this team than I've ever had in my 25 years of coaching. (Almost) all our minutes are from underclassmen now.

I mean, come on. That is very, very unfair of him to characterize his team like that after the kind of year they've had and some of the quality wins they've had.

I'm glad we got that win. That's a tough, hard-nosed team that came in determined to beat us on our home court. We were fortunate to come away with a victory.

I'm really, really excited about the team defense we played tonight. We came at 'em so hard with our double teams, we took them out of what they wanted to do.

It will take a team of horses to hold him from being able to play.

It's hard to beat a team three times. They're improved.

The formula we're using is not new. It has been set. Our team embodies the spirit of what (Wooden) is all about, which is teamwork, which is unselfish play, which is team defense, which is giving yourself up for your teammates. As we continue to win, all of that gets recognized.

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.

This was just a great gut-check win for our program. We beat an NCAA tournament team tonight, and to come out in this type of environment and play so well is a testament to our guys.

This team never, ever gets affected by it. They just continue to battle back. There's nothing that they haven't seen in terms of adversity that's going to bother them.

This team never, ever gets affected ... they just battle back. We're playing our best basketball of the year by far right now.