J. Horton Guys Quotations

I actually didn't think my floor routine was that good. It was pretty shaky to me but some other guys made some mistakes. I stuck most of my passes, a small step on my dismount. On rings, my strength was hard. I was breathing hard through the whole thing and I lost my lower back muscles it felt like during my handstands. I was able to stick my dismount and I came out with two first-place finishes.

I was just trying to get guys involved and work against their zone. Dion and Ronnie were really knocking down shots, and we wanted to get them the ball.

I think you'll see them in more of a flow this game. We'll have better chemistry. As far as working those guys in, hopefully, it can do wonders for our team as far as taking care of the ball with two seniors back and then get good shots on offense and be a better defensive team as well.

We have two guys as talented as they are and they make a big difference. The practices leading up (to the NIT opener) allowed us to get our chemistry back.

Those guys make a big difference in our team, Lester with his aggressiveness and his toughness and Chris with his basketball knowledge and his savvy to make plays defensively and to make shots on offense.

You almost have to be in the room to see the respect they have for him, the love. I have never been around anything like that. These guys will do anything for Coach LeBeau. It's not tough love. It's soft love. He says: 'I'm going to show you that I care about you. I'm going to ask what I want. I don't have to beat it out of you. I expect it.' It's different, but it shows you can treat (players) like men, if you have the right group.

That was our focus, stopping him. I saw the film from other games and I went, 'Oh, are you kidding me? This kid is for real.' We have two guys who can guard a guy like that and we were lucky we did.

We have to go in there and be tough. Playing an IU team you have to be mentally tough. Those guys play really hard and they take pride in playing at home. We have to go in there and be tough, execute and value the ball.

Coach asked me to be our best worker and best player a long time ago. I've done my best to try and be that. These guys have really bought into practicing hard every day. That's not something we've always done.

You see him in the huddle really challenging the guys on the short yardage situations, the third downs, and you see him go up and down the sidelines on the offensive side, encouraging when we need to be encouraged.

I'm in shock. I'm in awe. These guys I've been honored to coach have kept surprising me and surprising me and surprising me. This is the greatest turnaround in Cal State Fullerton history.

It's guys in there we know who have been through it before, who have worked hard every day for four years. We have each other's backs out there. It's not that we don't know that with the other guys, but you feel it a little more when it's a guy you've been on campus with since Day One.

You certainly can't blame our guys for getting caught up in the competitiveness of it. I was disappointed with the way they handled it though.

It's not quite as bad as it was after Hurricane Andrew, when there were literally workers jumping from one truck to another. But guys are walking up on job sites and trying to recruit your workers for more money.

It's not going to snowball. These guys in this locker room won't let that happen and neither will our coaches. We've lost worst than this before. We'll be ready for Ohio State (Thursday).

I don't think that's the problem. I'm in the best shape ever in my life. We had four guys run a five-minute mile. But we have to get used to the energy and the emotion that you have to have to do that.