Kevin Osnes Quotations

I'd lot rather seen them with my own eyes. Other former coaches scouted for me. The coaching fraternity has been very good to me this year.

I believe we are a real mirror image of each other. We're two of the top teams of the state. It is going to be a battle.

We've got to limit their second and third chances. One and out is our goal. We're going to use some things defensively that we saw other teams use on them with success: Double teaming in the post and flashing from different areas.

We're still trying to figure out how to stop him from driving to the basket.

We need to work on some things. I have to be aware of their legs going into the tournament and make sure we are rested, but we do have a few corrections to make.

We can relax and play now. We're in the big dance. Now, we want to play well and have fun.

We played a tough schedule this season in preparation for these type of games. It's paid off for us at the district and regional level and it did again tonight.

We really haven't played a lot of teams outside of our area, so there is a bit of an unknown going in. There are several powers that are always good on the A level Bradley, Emerson, Guy Perkins and Kingston. We just want to go down there and play our best basketball.

We didn't take care of the ball like we needed to, and it came back to bite us.

We opened it up a little outside. We had some kids like Aaron and Alan step up and hit big shots. Defensively, we extended their offense by getting in the passing lanes and caused some turnovers.

We've been able to control the tempo. We've done well on the defensive boards and our defense has been solid. We're a balanced scoring team with consistent offensive output and we haven't gotten rattled or lost our composure or patience even when we're down.

We have entered unknown territory. The kids are having fun. They are a bunch that love to play the game and play it well together.

That's why we call him the Big Dog. He makes big plays and the other kids follow him. He's an excellent player who hasn't got a lot of attention.

As a team, we have to understand that the game starts inside-out.

I haven't seen Bradley play but we've heard a lot about them. We know they shoot the ball real well and they're very athletic and rebound well. We've got to really work on blocking out and limiting their second chances to give us more chances on the other end.

It was a close game, but Aaron Mattox and Travis Smith really stepped up for us in the fourth quarter and made some big plays for us. Our kids play really hard and play well together. They have a lot of confidence that one of them is going to make plays.

It was a back and forth game. You have to take your hat off to Kingston. They battled us the whole way. We'd stretch it out and then we'd kind of coast for a bit.

The kids are really happy. Their goals for the season were to win the district and the regional. They've accomplished that. Now, we are looking forward to the state tournament and to see how far we can go.

That is a pretty typical game for Jackson.

They have everything in their favor. Revenge, the home court, the regional. We just want to play our best.

There were a lot of mixed emotions in that locker room after the game. Our season's so long and to be where we were right there with a lead in the fourth quarter with a chance to put it away and go to the state championship game was rather disappointing.