Charde Houston Team Quotations

It was one incident in practice where coach got on my case. After that incident it was an eye opener. I feel good. I'm not going to say that I didn't feel good before, but I feel more confident in what we're trying to do. Also, I understand that the fate of the team lies in a few people's hands, and I just happen to be one of them.

We know that right now it's one and done. It's not like the regular season where (if) you lose to one particular team and just say, 'It's OK. We'll get them next time.' There is no next time.

Our confidence has always been there, but I think we needed that just to show what we can do. And being able to struggle and come out with a win that shows that we have the ability to pull out wins like that. But we also understand that, against better teams, if you make mistakes other teams will capitalize off of them.

Now, it's been a little bit easier. Just understanding and not having coach yell at me. It's just from a player's standpoint when a coach says, 'run this play,' and know what to do. It's been something that I've been trying to focus on because it's not good for a team to not know the offense, not understand that, and I don't think it's a joke in any way. I'm really focusing on getting the plays.

Anytime you face a team like that, you have to be excited. We have to play our hearts out to be satisfied about what happens at the end at the buzzer.

We had chances where we could win the game, but it's just a simple fact that I didn't come to play. The team had to carry their load and mine. It just wasn't fair.

I was excited just for the simple fact that we were able to move the ball and not stand around on offense. Also, we knew that they were a fast-break team and we wanted to pretty much match that. Coach always tells us that when you play teams like this, your post players have to run and that's what we really focused on tonight.

I'm disappointed in myself. We had a chance to win the game, but the simple fact that I didn't come to play and the rest of the team had to carry the load, it just wasn't fair.

You have to be mentally strong. Mentally tough. ... The minute you think about being tired, being sore, that's when teams take it to you.