Halftime Quotations

The most insignificant score is the score at halftime.

While the Super Bowl still smashes records for butts in the seats, eSports often run longer and never blinks. There's no commercial break. There's no halftime show. From start to finish, someone is going to walk home a champion, and you don't want to miss a second of it.

CBS's halftime show during the 2004 Super Bowl was a new low for television.

I would have felt better if we were going into halftime about three minutes earlier. We held them to zero points for the first five minutes (of the second quarter) and then we started fouling them and sending them to the line.

I guess I need to figure out what I am saying at halftime and stop saying it.

I was pleased with our defense. We made some adjustments at halftime to correct some mistakes and it really improved us defensively.

Nick has been facing that all year long. It's no secret they're going to put their best defensive player on him, and at halftime we told Nick he had only taken three shots, but that's his unselfishness.

We needed a wake-up call. Coach Marsh just gave us a great halftime speech, and that was all we needed.

My girls never gave up. We were down by 16 at halftime and we lose by 18. We lost the second half by two points against a very good team. I'm very proud of how they played.

Some of it was nerves. It's happened before. We missed our first couple of shots and they made theirs. But we hung in there. I felt like at halftime we had the momentum.

One of my teammates joked with me at halftime (of the first game) that I better put up some numbers or my ticket home would be booked. Let's just say I'm not ready to go home yet.

One thing that maybe helped us at halftime was the nice, calm conversation I had with the guys about how they were playing, ... We just challenged 'em.

One of my assistants suggested it, and it became one of our themes at halftime that we have to make some shots against their zone if we were going to keep the lead and win.

One of our goals is to always win the first three minutes of the third quarter. So what L.J. did for us gave us a big lift. I was all over him at halftime too.

One of our points of emphasis at halftime was to stop the unforced turnovers Susquehanna committed 12. We also had to find a way to get defensive stops.

No excuses. We didn't play as well as we should have. But it's halftime of a game that's 180 minutes long ? and maybe longer. These guys know they can do it, but they won't do it playing like they did tonight.

Obviously, their coach told them at halftime not to let me get to the post. It was hard to get it in there.

I got on our guys pretty good at halftime about rebounding better. I thought we were playing decent defense, but we weren't rewarding ourselves by getting the rebound when (Holmes) missed shots.

I got on them a little harder during halftime tonight than on Thursday night. I told them that it was their championship to win.

I got upset with them at halftime because we weren't doing what we talked about. We were not attacking the zone. We were trying to attack it from outside, but whenever we got it inside, we were OK.

I don't ever remember having a team that came from 20 points down and win. Of course, I don't remember being down 20 points at halftime many times either.

If we could have gone without a halftime and right to the second half, we may have had a different start. When halftime was over, we came out flat.

I don't know. We could take a halftime and do the orange slices and all that kind of stuff. I'm not worried about it.

Leaving the floor with a 31-30 halftime lead was big for us. We seemed to loosen up after that. We were patient offensively and that helped. We were able to cut and drive toward the basket. That freed up the perimeter.

Last year, senior year, and we don't want to let anything go. We've got the district title, and we're trying to defend it. At halftime we just talked and came out strong.

We're not coming out at halftime with the intensity we need.

We made an adjustment at halftime and we were able to put more pressure on their outside shooters. That?s a credit to the adjustment the kids made.

When you come into this gym, you never know what's going to happen. The fact that we came out here and presented ourselves strong in the first half, I think we set the tempo for the rest of the game and our kids got confidence when we had a 12-point lead at halftime and it just flourished into the second half.

Shannon (Brown) was very unselfish today and Maurice (Ager) came to me at halftime and said, 'I made some good shots in the first half and in the second half I'm going to go out there and put them down.' That to me is a great feeling knowing that the relationship between the coaches and the players is that confident.

She came to me at halftime and said that she could take (the player guarding her). Tara thinks she take any defender. But, we knew that she would have a mismatch. She proved she can play inside as well.

(LSU) coach (Pokey Chatman) challenged me in the locker room at halftime to get as many boards as possible. I just picked up my energy in the second half.

I would've been very happy to go into halftime at 6-0, but we had a couple upperclassmen get their bells rung and we didn't have the depth to cover it up. That touchdown was a back-breaker,

I wouldn't be surprised if they shot 60 percent. I told the guys at halftime that if we played good defense and they were still hitting, I would be the first to go and shake their hands.

Halftime Highlights. It was a milestone in TV sports coverage.

This was one of those games where we simply got the breaks we needed. We could have been down 2-0 at halftime as Huntington North hit the crossbar twice but couldn't get in.

I am really proud of the job the girls did in the second half; we talked at halftime about

For us to be tied at halftime with the way we shot was a blessing. We were in position to win the ballgame and just faltered down the stretch.

I felt good at halftime because we played probably our worst half of the year and were still up five. Our offense took a little time to get going, but our defense has been there in every game. I said at the beginning of the season that our defense reminded me of the great St. Anthony teams, so I have confidence in our defense.

I felt like our girls came out scared and intimidated. We played very hesitant and afraid to make mistakes. At halftime I just talked about how you can't play that way.

I felt like at halftime we were in pretty good shape. I felt like we could win the game. We just missed too many chippies.

But the Trinity defensive guys kept talking trash, and that just made our line mad. At halftime they told me that they'd just have to open the holes a little bit bigger. And they did.

What I said about Pistons fans during halftime was a joke, nothing more. If I offended anyone, I'm sorry. Clearly, over the past 10 years, we in L.A. have taken a commanding lead in post-game riots. If the Lakers win, I plan to overturn my own car.

Having our top player out is not an excuse. We came to win and we didn't win. We had the lead at halftime and we didn't get it done as a team.

We are flattered that a star of Tim McGraw's magnitude wants to dedicate one of his songs to halftime of 'Monday Night Football,'

We threw the ball away with a lot of turnovers, and that's been killing us all season long. At halftime I just told the guys, we got ourselves into this mess, let's get ourselves out. Everybody went out and played with a lot of heart and passion. We just got it done. I'm happy.

We told Doug at halftime that we really needed him, and he came out and gave us a gutsy performance.

We told our guys at halftime that the first three minutes of the second half would set the tone for the rest of the game, and we didn't get it done.

We told our kids at halftime that football is a game of peaks and valleys. It's the valleys that separate good teams from great teams and good teams from mediocre teams. I think our kids showed character and responded when we needed them to.

We told the kids at halftime that the first thing we wanted to see was for them to compete in this kind of situation. We didn't want to hang our heads. We wanted to go out and play as a team.

We told the kids at halftime (with Whitefish leading 20-6) that Polson had comeback in previous games and was a quality team. They were up for it, but some miscues (four offensive plays) ended up being big turning points in the game.

We told them at halftime that a two-goal lead is the most dangerous in soccer because the next goal gets all the momentum.

We told them at halftime they needed to reach down and find it in themselves to be able to pull out this win, and that is what they did. Chris Pitts did a great job for us getting rebounds.

We told them at halftime to keep plugging away. Our second quarter was just awful. I saw a couple pouts out there and I told them to turn those frowns into smiles and pick it up and play basketball like we know how to play it.

We told them at halftime we had to run to the ball and not think so much and hopefully we could create some big plays defensively, which we did.

We talked a lot at halftime about how the first five minutes of the second half were really important. I thought we did a good job of establishing our inside game and defending.

We talked at halftime about a couple of things. First thing we fixed is that we weren't playing a physical game in the first half, and secondly we moved Matt Mikhail to midfield to get more possessions on the ball.

We talked at halftime about being the first team on opening day to score on a kickoff and punt return.

We talked at halftime about character, composure and about this being a season-defining game for us. When I said that, I hoped we'd win.

We talked at halftime about defensive intensity, and we got it. We did a good job of locking them up.

We talked at halftime about giving up easy baskets in the first half. I think half their points were on transition off from our misses and turnovers. We got about five or six stops out of seven of their possessions. I think the first four or five minutes of the third quarter we played great defense.

We talked at halftime about just not fouling them. We definitely did a much better job on offense in the second half. At the same time, we made them score on their own instead of giving them so many free throws.

We talked at halftime about playing the best second-half defense we have played all year. And we just clamped down.

We talked at halftime that if our defense could buckle down and keep them out of the end zone that we would win the game. That was the key.

We talked at halftime that this was a dangerous team if you let them get back in it in the third quarter, and that's exactly what we did. We just couldn't stop them in the second half. They shot over 70 percent. You're not going to win very many games giving that up.

We talked at halftime that we have had letdowns in the third quarter. So our emphasis in the third quarter was just to come out and push the lead.

We talked at halftime that we have to learn to put people away. We had a big tendency last year to get a 10-, 17- point lead and let everybody hang around. We came out with a lot more intensity and it showed.

We talked at halftime that we were going to get the good basket. We knew we're a good enough shooting team that they were going to fall sometime. They weren't falling in the first half.

We talked at halftime that we weren't attacking the basket enough. They were playing out on (Michael) Brown, which means we had lanes to attack. We just had to get to the baseline or get the ball reversal to the basket. All our kids like to pound the glass. When we missed, we went and go it again.

We told them at halftime we were going to beat them. We didn't know if we would, but we thought we could. They hadn't really done anything to us. We had breakdowns on special teams. Too many new kids.

I looked up at halftime and saw (on the scoreboard) that our bench had scored nine points, and Winter Haven's bench had zero. That was big. We were able to rest our people a little bit through the first three quarters and they weren't.

I looked up at the scoreboard at halftime and we were tied. The next time I looked up, we were up by 20. We were on fire. Our shots started falling and everything started falling into place.

I actually thought we'd come back after halftime with a little bit more fire because we had a pretty good talk.

How will we handle that close ballgame? ... How are we going to handle being down 21 points at halftime to Boise State? Is everybody going to push the panic button, or can we stayed poised ... ?

We made some adjustments at halftime and began stunting up the middle and that disrupted their option game.

We made some adjustments at halftime and came out and played more physical. We played our type of game in the second half and broke them down.

We made some adjustments at halftime and our team really picked up the intensity.

We made some adjustments at halftime and the kids started seeing the flow more. We gave it an effort. Defensively, we just didn't play as well as we have been.

We made some adjustments at halftime that paid off for us. In the first half we were a little impatient and forced some things that weren't there. In the second half we took care of the ball and ran some time off the clock.

We made some adjustments on our press in the second half and played straight man. We tweaked our the high-low. It was good to be able to show them some things at halftime and actually have them come out and execute it.

Heck gave us some problems. I thought maybe we needed to introduce David Patten to him at halftime so Dave would know who he was guarding.

I am happy with the effort and with the result, but not with the execution. We made more than our share of mistakes. We challenged the guys to come out and play well on the heels of last week's win and they did. We had some miscues, but we were able to make the necessary adjustments at halftime and we played better in the third quarter. That is the good thing about this team, we have a lot of veteran players who can come back to the sideline and tell us what is going on out there so we can make the proper adjustments. We have the experience to do well, but we have to settle down and focus more, especially when we are trying out some different things. It was a good effort.

I am happy with the performance of the team but we should have scored more goals and their goalkeeper played very well. I told the players at halftime to finish the game off but we couldn't get the third goal.

I always wanted to coach against the guy who jumped up and down on the sideline and got up on the table at halftime and hollered. Put it like this: When you line up and a guy knocks the slobber out of you, you're not thinking about what the coach on the sidelines is telling you.

He was trying to do too much too quick when he got in there. We told the kids at halftime that going into the fourth quarter, we wanted that lead cut in half. We did better than that.

Holding them to a 7-0 halftime lead was huge. But we just couldn't get anything going offensively.

He came to me at halftime and told me that he'd take care of it.

We talked about the fact that rebounds would be the difference in the game. We were getting out-rebounded at halftime and to finish the rebound with over 50 rebounds just says so much about our heart, effort and determination.

He gutted it out (Monday) night. He was hurting. He came in and we looked at it at halftime and taped it up. He said before we went out there that I'm going to give it a shot, but if I feel like I am hurting this team I am going to take myself out and I want you to know that. I told him I expect you to do that. Only you know where you are at with it.

We totally broke down. I didn't expect that ending at halftime when we were rolling ---- or going into the third period, either.

Joe spent the entire halftime throwing up. He said he didn't have any energy. But he kept fighting.

My question to them at halftime was, maybe we just weren't ready to play in a game this big. In relation to our season, and the goals that we have, this was a huge game. A league game, at home, coming off a disappointing effort ... we had very high expectations of ourselves today. For one half we met them, and for one half, we did not. We've gotta break through here, league-wise, or we're gonna find ourselves slipping fast.

My team needed me out there to get some things done. At halftime I just told them it's time for me to wake up and just go out there and win the game.

My team's looking to me to be more effective because the last couple of games I haven't been playing like myself. At halftime when coach (Rick Comer) was lecturing, I was thinking to myself that I have to pick it up.

I was wanting more from Amado Guevara tonight. I told him at halftime there are times we have to defend with the 10 guys who are on that field and at times he doesn't do that. When you look at it, you want Amado Guevara on the ball a lot more than what he did tonight.

I went in at halftime and you could just tell he was hurt. He had tears in his eyes because he loves the game so much. To go down like that and know that you might not be able to play, it hurts.

Looking back over my 30-year career I have to go back to the 1987 regional finals against Cairo to find as big a comeback. We were 15 down at halftime against the fourth-rated team in the state and beat them by two. I have been there before, but this is as big as any I've been involved in.

Some guys were frustrated, and some guys were down. But definitely the locker room at halftime was more lively. Usually we just sit in there and wait for Coach Williams, but everybody was talking and being positive with each other.

That drive was all about heart. Derrick was kind of upset at halftime because he felt like he could do some things on the outside, but we weren't getting him the ball. I told him to be patient.

I ripped some girls at halftime and challenged them, and they stepped up and did the job tonight. She looked me in the eye and said, 'I'll get the job done,' and I think she did a good job on Whitney Lindsay in the second half.

Paris was playing us a tough game. And we made two many unforced turnovers. We talked about halftime about playing good, sound defense and eliminating our mistakes on offense.