Kelvin Sampson Quotations

(My) team could get a lot better, though, and that's what's exciting.

I wish he'd already had that breakout game because you know it's coming. They're going to put it together soon, and Aaron is going to lead them.

When you ask how is recruiting going, I think it's going great because we're going to keep D.J.. To me, he was the most important recruit.

Kevin is the epitome of a student-athlete. He has all the values we really emphasize here.

I wouldn't pay a lot of attention to what they say. If I were putting together a 64-team (field), I think it's almost impossible to say Colorado does not deserve it.

Kevin's in all our drills, ... He's shooting, doing his hook shot, shooting free throws. He's doing everything except contact.

I am really thrilled to have Rob, Jerry and Jeff as part of our staff. When you combine them with Coach McCallum and Coach Meyer, our staff is as good as any team in the country.

I came to Indiana for one reason: I think you can win championships at Indiana. I think together we can do some special things at Indiana University.

I came to Indiana for one reason, I think you can win championships at Indiana. You think of Indiana basketball and you not only think of tradition but championship tradition.

Give that kid credit for making tough shots. He kept MSU in the game.

I don't think our league is different than anybody else's. A month ago Kansas was struggling. I think they are pretty good right now. A month ago we were struggling. We're pretty good right now.

But we're a little bit different team than we were against Missouri and Nebraska. There's no secret that our guards are playing a lot better now that we have them all.

He was in a group that could have made it or not made it. But I said there's no way we're going out of this country playing on a team without P.J. Tucker. That's one of the things the USA teams have missed in the past. We've taken cookie-cutter kids instead of kids with big hearts who know how to win.

I'm a huge proponent of weight training. We lift at 6 because of the work ethic required, the discipline and doing the right thing. It makes them accountable. It makes them be on time.

He's a unique player and he kind of does what we need.

He gives Texas an identity. An important part of being a good team is you're going to be known for something. P.J. gives them a toughness and orneriness because that's the way he plays.

That call could have could have went either way. Sometimes you've just got to have a break.

Recruiting is not something you can rush. You have to be patient with it. At the same time, you have to work behind the scenes with the coaches. Those are the people I want to get to know the best.

I think everybody has so much respect for coach Sutton. When something like that happens, we all feel our own mortality. He and the Oklahoma State family are in our thoughts and prayers.

I remember thinking he's lucky to be alive. That was my first reaction. But the more I heard, the more I wanted this kid on my team.

Jimmy is great. To me, he's great with the kids and he's excellent for your program.

I think this is going to be a fun team to watch. I'm really looking forward to getting started.

I thought he played like a veteran. His play is so important for us. He makes all these guys better.

I think Texas is good, but I don't think there's a lot of difference between the two teams. I thought Gibson was a lot more active today. Texas was good today, but I was more disappointed in our team than I was impressed with Texas.

It is a little bit embarrassing to stand up here and be asked about NCAA violations, but you also have to realize we're human and we make mistakes. I made a mistake but we've corrected it and moved forward.

I think we've just got to learn to sustain. Turnovers can come in a lot of forms. Sometimes a bad shot's a turnover. Shot-selection turnovers. It was a frustrating game.

I think I talked to a group of kids that desperately want a coach and need a coach right now. I need them right now because I left behind an incredible group of kids (at Oklahoma), and I think they need me, too.

I think we're a top 10-type team. If this team stays healthy, we'll be hard to beat.

I think we had a chance to build a lead or take the lead because we were getting stops. We just didn't get it done.

We were happy we won those games, but you could just tell that we didn't have our edge. When you lose your edge, it's hard to get back.

The problem with being ranked so high comes if you don't play up to expectations. But we never had our guys. We were always saying what would happen if we could ever get them back. We expected to be a good team, but we weren't the only team to go through some injuries.

I would like to have seen Colorado get in because of their body of work, 9-7 in the league. But I'm a Big 12 guy. There are so many deserving teams you can make a case for. I'd hate to have the committee's job. It's tough.

We haven't changed anything, we haven't added new plays. We've finally started to put it all together.

We're all trying to get that one little thing to get us going. Whichever team does that has a chance to finish higher in the standings.

We feel fortunate to win this game. But you know what? Five months from now nobody's going to ask you won it. We're 19-6 and now we move forward.

Whoever got Mike Neal was getting an impact guard, and we obviously knew that coming in. A lot of times shooters are one-trick ponies. Michael is an outstanding shooter who happens to be a really good basketball player.

Who knows what will happen in February? We dug ourselves into a hole early. But I like how we're playing heading into this stretch of the season.

We played tough, we played with great determination. This was a very important game for us. Not just because we avoided going 0-3 (in the Big 12), but it is good to win and then have a week off to practice.

We couldn't have played any better for 34 minutes. We had the crowd out of the game. It's disappointing. This one is hard to handle because I thought we outplayed them for a long time and they outplayed us the last 6 minutes.

We had no answer for Blalock and Stinson. Iowa State has the two best guards on a single team in the Big 12.

That was a mistake that we made. There really is no excuse. . . . I don't know that as a staff we took that rule seriously enough. I think if you look back at the compliance of our programs over the last 19 years as a major college head coach, we've never had an issue with NCAA rules, nor will we again.

That was an important game for a lot of reasons. I kept telling (Everett) that he was one good game away from breaking out.

That would probably help. I think P.J. is probably going to class now.

We're playing good enough to win, and that's a great attribute to have. Our kids know how to win games.

We're good at the guard position, but I don't think you can have two point guards. I think you need one. We've got to figure out who we're going to play there.

You look up and we're up 10, we miss a 1-and-1, we miss three free throws and it's like 'How do you lose a lead?

We won the league last year and didn't get to play in Oklahoma City.

We weren't as good as them for 38 minutes, but we were for 40.

When North Carolina won the national championship last year, they had a lot of two-year players. You get them at the front end or back end. It just depends on how you want to look at it.

We felt like if there was an area we could dominate, it would be the boards. It's comforting to know we don't have to shoot well and we have a chance to make second and third shots.

Duke is the premier basketball program in the nation. For us, this is a great opportunity, and to me, it is an honor to go to Duke and play. Playing Duke will be a great experience for our kids and will certainly prepare us for the wars we are going to have to play in the Big Ten.

D.J. has been at every practice. He's our hardest worker. There's not a day gone by where we haven't called each other. He was the most important recruit.

Confidence is like a drug. Right now, we're playing with a lot of it.

We don't run a motion maybe in the pure sense. We run some sets, we run some continuity. We've been able to do it different ways.

Is that good or bad? The league is so talented, I don't know what advantage it gives you. There are about four or five teams in this league that are good enough to win it.

I've been at Oklahoma for 12 years, but I don't remember many times that I've left the court where I was embarrassed as I was tonight.

They are a good defensive team. We were trying to score as much as we could, but they just wouldn't let us.

The defenses they play, they play very well.

We're three points away from being 2-0 in the league. But we're 0-2. Unfamiliar territory, but I look at situations like this as an opportunity to bounce back and do something unique.

I see this as something like a snowball. Get it rolling, and it's got to start somewhere.

The strength of the team is up front now. But we don't have a guy who you know can give you points when the going gets tough.

The second half, we did a great job of running our stuff. We had great movement, we set great screens.

When the game got tight, out of every timeout we would run something for Michael.

You have to take what you're good at and work with it.

Tonight was a little bit of an ambush. I just didn't see this one coming. If we can't find a way to get this turned around, we're probably going to have just one more game.

Tonight we took a step forward and you have to look at the positives. I'm not the type to sit around and analyze what we don't have. I'd rather emphasize what we do have. I emphasize rebounds with our guards.

Brandon can be as good as he wants to be. Had he been a little better in Chicago (NBA pre-draft camp), he wouldn't be here. He's a pro. There's a reason he was in Chicago. Guys that athletic and guys that long usually aren't three-point shooters. But there's no area he's not good at.

Texas has kind of separated itself. They're the one team that cannot be at their best and win, because they're good. There's not that much difference between the rest of us right now. We're all searching.

I want a staff that could relate to young people, understand our values that our program will have and that will not only serve as a source of motivation but also guide young men to become better players, better students and better people. These two guys will be tremendous representatives of our program and our university.

Every workout we've had D.J. has been there. He hasn't missed one thing. And he's been great. I love his attitude and his work ethic. He's working hard in the weight room, and he's working hard on the court.

You would think we'd never, ever, ever scouted an opponent or worked on defense or any of those things. We tried to man them. We tried to zone them. We couldn't get them to miss.

Amazing thing is he tipped it in with his left hand, and it's broken.

This has been a frustrating season in a lot of ways. This is the first of my 12 teams that practiced harder than they played. Come game time, we didn't always play as hard as we should have.

They run out there behind that three-point line and it's kind of like a sea to them. Kevin doesn't guard three-point shooters . . . In the back of Kevin's mind, when he gets that far out, the first thing he's thinking about is getting beat off the dribble.

Sometimes recruiting is either through convenience or necessity. We can't go into next season with the team we have right now up front. We have to have some help. And if you need immediate help, the best source for that is junior college right now and that's where we'll go. We need some size.

People can say what they want and think what they want. I like Eddie Sutton. I respect Eddie Sutton.

We had a couple of sand bags in the dike, but it's just embarrassing. I don't know what else to say.

This isn't Cinderella. This is the security guard at the back door. They'll beat you up.

You may upset one team, but you don't sneak up on the next one. This team is not Cinderella. This team is the security guard at the back door. They'll beat you up.

This is the first of my 12 teams at Oklahoma that have practiced harder than they played. They practiced and competed hard this week. But come game time they didn't play as hard as they should have.

I've had some great conversations with these guys and I'm not trying to talk them in or talk them out of anything. I'm just trying to get to know them and trying to do that in the best way possible. You have to respect these kids. I'm also dealing with it on the other side (in Oklahoma), and it is sensitive.

Indiana is one of those special places where you say 'basketball', and Indiana is an automatic word association. Every coach sees it as a great basketball state with tremendous high school coaches and players, and we will do our best to keep those players in the state.

Iowa State deserved to win. They outplayed us for 39 minutes.

Iowa State deserved to win. They out-played us for 39 minutes. We had no answer for Blalock and Stinson.

I'm happy with the win, but disappointed with the effort.

I have no desire to go anywhere. I have a desire to make my team better. . . . It ain't time for me to go yet.

In order to say you got lucky, well you've got to be good enough to get lucky first of all. We won the game, so give Oklahoma some credit. They could have won it, but we won it. That's why you give our kids a lot of credit.

Oklahoma was the difference today from the first game. We just didn't have it today. I thought Texas played good against us the first time. But we didn't show up today. It was simple as that.

SMU was his school. Jimmy is my guy and when that job came open I wanted to do everything I could to help him get that job.

I just believe in our program. I told our guys today that these are the games we've always won.

I'm proud of my guys for hanging in there. I leave here encouraged, playing in this environment, with that group of guards.

I'm going to be really patient, and I want to help them. But I want them to make a decision that is best for them. And I just want to facilitate it. It's not a hard sell. It's these kids' lives. And that's more important than anything else we're dealing with. The most important entity here is these kids and their decision, and I'm dealing with it on both sides.

Confidence comes through in your swagger. Our program has always had a swagger, regardless of where we play. This team is just now starting to get it.

It takes time. It's like stock. You go up and down with it, but if it's solid and it's a good stock, it will pay off. This is a good investment. For this community and this county, I think it is absolutely the right thing to do.

If you told me before the game we would have a 29-20 rebound advantage and shoot 54 percent (28-for-52), I thought we would have won. It felt like they shot 105 percent.

I really didn't know Jimmy when he applied for the job. I knew he was a worker, a good recruiter and a good people person just from watching him recruit over the summer. The head coaches know who all the workers are.

I think a big part of tonight's win was having been in so many of these things. I didn't see anybody lose their composure, I didn't see anybody lose their poise. I think we're getting better at being in these close situations.

I just know that Ricardo does a great job there and he's got his team in the tournament and a guy who does that needs to be rewarded.

I just think for us to be the best we can be, Terrell has to be able to score, too. I'd like to pitch it up to him in transition so he can attack the basket then, and that's when Chris comes into play.

I just think he's a good player that fills a need for us. Every time he and I have talked, I left with a good feeling.