Josh Boone Quotations

If we don't have the most talented team in the country, we are among the top three or four.

No one was willing to accept the fact that we were going home.

My knee has been bothering me a little bit but not enough to affect me. It's just one of the many things that's not going well for me right now.

Since the Syracuse game, every practice we're talking about going hard for 40 minutes and the full 35 seconds on the shot clock. That's definitely been a point of emphasis.

Making the first shot ... that would be a bit easier. But when you have 21 offensive rebounds, you can't really complain.

Mainly it's Marcus, to be honest with you. Marcus is telling me a whole lot of times where to go. He'll just come up to me after a play and say, 'Next time slip that.' I'll be like, 'All right,' and he'll just throw a perfect pass. It just really helps to have a guy like him on the floor leading us.

I have been a part of one of the greatest comebacks in college basketball history when we beat Duke two years ago. This tops that.

He's a big dude. He's talented. He's skilled. When you have a guy that big who can really play, it's always a tough guy to handle. But we're going to throw a couple of things at him. I'm going to try to big-to-big a little bit, just because he's so big. Hopefully, we're going to try to box him out a little bit and keep him off the boards.

There are no perfect games in the NCAA Tournament. It's just survive and advance. The bottom line is we're not going home. I was sleepwalking this morning. But you know you have to get up and do it again today.

He loves to be in the spotlight, the center of attention. And as you can see, the kid makes some fantastic shots.

We traded baskets with them a little bit in the second half. We can't do that on the road and we can't do that down the line in the tournament.

Just never let up. I thought we had really figured that out, but tonight was one of those nights where it happened. I don't think it will ever happen again with us.

Just really being stronger was important for us, and being tough on the inside. A lot of times we were able to get the ball inside in the last game but they would come in, and you've got guys slapping at the ball and everything and we were getting it taken from us. This game, we made sure as soon as we caught it we were ball-tough and that nobody could take the ball from us.

I saw him score three or four quick buckets and I just said there's no way he can score anymore. If he does, they're going to try and take over the game. He was doing a great job out there and I just figured somebody had to step up and lock him down.

Just being tough and running. Those are the two main things. We?re going to have to be tough every play. We?re going to have to not let them force us out of our offense, and we?re going to have to run as much as we can, especially the big men.

I think at this point just about everyone knows when they come down the lane, even if they do beat the first man, there's going to be somebody there to challenge the shot. Whether they block it or just alter the shot.

Over the last three years at Connecticut, I have played with, and against, the highest level of competition in college basketball. I feel now is the time for me to explore the option of testing my basketball skills against the best players in the world.

I think he realized the situation and that this probably wasn't the time for screaming. He did a great job of motivating us and getting us to focus on exactly what we need to do and block out all the other stuff and don't worry about the score.

I wish I knew. Otherwise, it wouldn't have happened.

It felt good to make a play like that at a time like that.

I think that?s having nine guys who can come in and play. That?s having guys like Denham Brown and Hilton Armstrong, senior leaders, who have been there before. In tight situations, you know they?re going to make good plays.

It always is. That's how they really stayed in the game. They were just really, really tough tonight. They didn't let us get a 10-point cushion. They kept it within four or five all second half. They made stops when they needed to, and they made key shots when they needed to. So, it was close down the stretch.

We have to think about how we played the last 10 minutes. We?re not ready to go home yet.

We have so many guys we can go to. I think we had seven or eight guys score 20 points. That speaks to our talent and the depth of our team.

There are a ton of big names out there. That's a very tough bracket. It doesn't matter where you go, it was going to be a very tough bracket.

There are a ton of big names. That's a very tough bracket, but just about anywhere you go, it's going to be a tough bracket.

We are a businesslike team. We know what needs to be done.

When you are a 16 seed playing a 1 seed, you've got nothing to lose.

We contested every shot. We tried to get around screens a little more than we have.

We're getting better every game and every day. Hopefully, it's just going to continue into this game and next weekend against Villanova.

When you want to stop, and you don't think you can give any more, you think about that Pittsburgh jersey in here. Looking up at the scoreboard, seeing that you're down 10 at the end of the game. That gives you a little extra motivation.

Things just haven't been going my way the last couple of games, but, you know, as long as the team keeps winning that's all that really matters. We're doing well. We're 14-1 so I can't really worry about myself too much.

When we want to, we can put points on the board and its just a matter of really focusing in on the team. It took us a couple minutes to focus, but once we did we showed at times how good of a team we can be.

When we want to, we can put points on the board and we can stop people. It?s just a matter of us really focusing in on the game.

The Villanova loss was tough but we showed a lot of grit and poise bouncing back from that game.

We all felt that we had a team that was capable of making a championship run. It didn't happen this year. It was close, but getting close doesn't always do it.

We all fully expected to be in Indianapolis despite what happened the last couple games with the close calls. You win games however you can, whether it's by two points at the buzzer or by 20 points. The bottom line is we were winning games up until (Sunday). We came up one game short.

Rashad gave us a spark in the beginning. We had a lot of people step up tonight. This was definitely the kind of game where we needed everyone.

That's when we all realized that we weren't going to take any pushing anymore. We were going to push back.

There's going to be a whole lot of pushing, a whole lot of shoving, but that's the type of game that they like. We do play well in those type of games. We're a running team, but I think we've proven throughout this year that we can be a physical team as well. We're just going to have to prove it even more so.

There's really no excuse for it. But also I think we showed a lot of heart in the last few minutes and put the foot back on the pedal.

There's really no excuse for it. We're too good a team.

This game we really tried to work hard on our defense and work hard on getting to the offensive glass. We started to run a little bit more and it's one of the things we're going to have to do to be successful this year.

I have no idea what I'm doing next year. I'm not worried about that right now.

Nothing to lose. It makes you feel looser and play a little more freely. When you do that, you start to have a little more fun and things start to go your way more often than not.

Once again, we've had another wake-up call and we know we can't sleep through a game.

It's great to see him playing well and great to see him playing defense, doing all the things he's been doing for the last four years.

It's great, especially in a game like that, to get a win like that against a great Kentucky team, but at the same time we still have a lot of work to do. Coming in, it was 80 minutes until Washington. Now it's 80 minutes until Indianapolis. That's what it is, and it starts with 40 minutes against Washington.

That's definitely the strength of their team. They force you out of your offense, they bump you on all your cuts and front you in the post. They never give up. They fight you for everything.

It helps a lot but it's not just experience. It has a lot to do with conditioning and the depth of our team. The last couple of games we've really been able to just wear other teams down toward the end of the game and really start to pull away.

I realize this will require a great deal of hard work on my part, but believe that I am prepared for the challenge of playing in the NBA.

I honestly had to force myself to watch part of the (Big East title game) on Saturday. It's just so tough knowing it could have gone so many different ways and it was just the fact that we didn't show up ready to play. Instead we kinda showed up to play 10 minutes into the second half.

I honestly had to force myself to watch part of the game with Syracuse and Pittsburgh. It's tough knowing it could have gone so many different ways.

Honestly I don't think that will happen just because of the way our team is. We realize that our strength is on defense and in order for us to win games, we have to shut teams down. In practice (Monday) we really concentrated on stopping their stuff as opposed to running ours.

I don't think that is the case at all. We come out there hard to play everyday and we always give it our all. I just think we have a hard time focusing at times.

He's our heart and soul. I doubt we could have made it this far without him.

They were so tough and physical we found ourselves having to match them. That was the roughest game I've been in.

They came in with the mentality that they (Villanova) are the toughest team in the Big East and we came in with the same one. It was just a matter of us matching that same intensity and giving it right back to them.

It was just a matter of being ready to play. It's a matter of being ready as soon as they throw the ball up, not waiting 10 minutes. ... I hope we look at this and realize we can't ever do this again. Because if so, that's going to be the last game for a bunch of us. This is that final wake-up call.

It's definitely going to be fun. I haven't been able to get back in a long time, but the bottom line is we're playing basketball. It's going to be good to see people, but at the same time, we need to focus on what we need to do.

All those things - the (recruit Doug) Wiggins thing, the (charter) plane thing - may have fueled this. There was trash-talking, pushing and shoving. It was more intense because of all that.

All that I'm thinking about is the game: what we could've done better, what we needed to do better to win. That's the only thing I'm thinking about, right now.

And hopefully by that time things will be worked out. Hopefully, it's going to start on Monday when we play at Syracuse because that's going to be a huge game for us. Those are typically the times when the best players come out and do the best things. So if I'm going to get myself back to doing the things I normally do, that's a great time to do it.

A chance to redeem ourselves. We just weren't ourselves in the Villanova game. They took us out of our offense and defense and in the second half we didn't get out on shooters as much as we could. If we do the same thing against West Virginia, it's going to be the same thing because they're a great three-point shooting team as well.

It's tiring trying to deny him the ball and going against him. You can't let up for a minute.

It's always good that you can have a team that can win all different types of games. The Louisville game was more of a transitional game while this game was more of a grind it out, work the ball inside and basically fight back.

It?s almost like playing a wing. He runs around a whole lot of screens, he can hit the 3, and I guess this year he?s been in the post a lot more. It?s hard to play a guy who can score that many ways.

That's really going to tell us how good we are. It will be a good gauge as to where exactly we're at right now.

That's really going to tell us how good we are. We know right now that we're a very good team. ... All three of the teams we're playing have been playing really well recently. It will be a good test and a good gauge of where exactly we're at right now.

That's one of the best things we do. Everyone on our team can get to the offensive boards. When we do that, it just makes our jobs that much easier.

That's a big thing, to have a banner up there and to go into the tournament knowing that you won the regular season.

It seems like either we've gotten a lead and let up a little bit. But I think we've done a very good job of working through those lapses. We were also able to come back. We've been able to win.

It's just a matter of seeing the situation and knowing that somebody has to step up for us to win games like this. When (South Florida) came back, somebody had to make a play, get a rebound, make a defensive stop.

It's just a matter of us really focusing on what we need to do and not letting other outside things throw us off track. I know we've already experienced a bunch of things throughout this year with things happening outside the court and expectations and thoughts about what people should be doing and everything. I think so far we've done a really good job of playing basketball and not worrying about all that other stuff.

We got lucky on that one. They didn't get a chance to steal that momentum.

It's about time. I haven't been playing the way that I can. Once we established that we weren't going to allow them to push us around and poke us, they got a couple of quick fouls, and once that happens to you, you can't play as physical as you want. Once we saw that, we just took it to them more.

We kind of let down in the second half, we let them come back. We kind of got out of our offense. We were looking for somebody to step up.

We just want it so bad. I'm sure George Mason wants it just as bad. It's 40 minutes to Indianapolis.

It's frustrating when you see a 19-point lead vanish so quickly. If something didn't change quickly, it was going to be a bad outcome for us.

It's always fun to come out here and perform. We'll help the young guys out. It's going to be everybody's job to keep them focused.

They're on a roll, they're playing really well and it's basically going to be a home game for them. It's going to be a little bit tougher on us, but we're going to have to put everything aside and just play basketball.

If I could put a finger on why, then I would have been not struggling by now. I might be thinking too much, but it's just kind of hard not to think about it when it just keeps happening. It's just a matter of me having that one good game and everything is going to be all right.

I don?t think there?s anything that you can really build on. It?s just the knowledge that you need to approach every game like it?s the last game you?re going to play.

He played a great first half. He was scoring at will. He was finding people for the wide-open shots. He was rebounding, too. He was doing basically everything. It was almost like a Jason Kidd-type game for him.

All that stuff, the Wiggins thing, the other thing, might have fueled what you saw tonight. There was trash-talking, pushing and shoving. I think the game was more intense because of that stuff.