Jamie Dixon Played Quotations

When you're undefeated, that's what people are going to point to. I'm not going to lose sleep; we've played good people.

I think we passed the ball well and got a lot of good performances from guys on the court and off the bench. I thought all of our guys played very well.

This was a great win for us. I think we were anxious at first and rushed a bit. But we calmed down and played a great last 30 minutes. They're a very good team, ranked 19th in the RPI, so they're battle tested and very well coached. Their size and versatility make them hard to play against. I thought we did a good job offensively, especially running the clock at the end and getting great shots towards the end of possessions. Our defense still has a long way to go though.

It's not a surprise. We've done it often. It's a good look for us. West Virginia is smaller and perimeter-oriented. We've played with it a lot. It worked well tonight.

I didn't think our defense was good early on, but they had something to do with that. We played well in the second half.

Sam played well. He gave us good minutes (season-high 28).

Sam played well against West Virginia the previous two games. He finished well in the second half. He got great passes from Aaron a couple of times. He's just a freshman playing against seniors. That's why he's getting better.

I didn't recognize our team on how we played early. Our patience wasn't there. Clearly, it wasn't our day.

We've been pretty good in all the months, but I guess that one stands out. We had a lot of confidence in the freshmen, but I am surprised at how well they have played defensively. That's always the toughest thing for freshmen and they still have a long way to go.

It's certainly a setback. But it's not as big as some make it out to be. The difference (Monday) was we played much better in the first half.

We'll be ready to go. Our guys will be anxious to go. We took care of business (Saturday). We played very well throughout.

I had a lot of confidence in some of the guys that hadn't played a lot before this year. Their numbers didn't stick out from the previous year.

We've always thought he was a very good player and always believed in him. He just happened to play on some very good teams behind some very good players. Last year, he developed and got better. He played in a lot of big games against a lot of good people.

We've always played three guards in certain instances over the years. A number of programs do that. Oftentimes, your smaller players are your better players. Last year, our bigger guys were our better players.

They made plays at the end. Their seniors stepped up and made big plays throughout the game. They played well and deserved this win. I thought we would have played better.

We had good execution throughout the game. We recognized some things of how they played and executed our plan.

It's hard to say you played good defense when somebody scores 37 points, but I thought we did. I'm sure I'll see that guy scoring in my head the rest of the night. The guy made some unbelievable shots.

We haven't played in so long, it seems. I know the guys are anxious to play. I'm sure glad it's Saturday. I don't know how much longer we could wait to play a game. The guys want to play, and I'm ready to play.

Their experience is a major issue. They have so many experienced guys who have played together for so long. They are a team that has grown together.

We played well in the first half, and we should have been up by more. Teams lose. It's how you respond, and we've always responded well.

We played well early. That would kind of make you think the guys were obviously ready to play and there was nothing else on their minds. During the first five or six minutes, we were about as good as we've been all year.

Novak was more of a catch-and-shoot player when we played them in the tournament. Now he can put the ball on the floor. He can run the floor. He's agile, a quicker player. He's just a much better player.

Our guys were ready to play. We played hard. It was just bad execution. We rushed things. Our poor offense lead to our defense deficiency. Both teams battled on the floor and were going hard.

We came back and played better in the second half. But we just didn't execute as well as we needed to. They were aggressive and that had something to do with it. But it was not a surprise. It was exactly what we thought.

It wasn't our prettiest game. It was tough, and we battled through. We had guys in foul trouble. Aaron and Carl played the whole game with their hands in their pockets. We played our usual rotation, playing a lot of guys, and it benefited us a lot. We'll continue to do that. It's the best thing for this group. So many guys made big plays.

In the first half we played very well, we defended very well, which got our offense going.

He played so good the other day (during Friday's 65-61 loss to Seton Hall). He had 11 assists. He started out great with the passing. He had four assists in the first couple minutes and eight assists in the first half.

Our conference has prepared us better than any other conference since I've been around the Big East. I'm not surprised how it has played out because of how many good teams there are here.

These guys are good players. They're experienced guys. We know them from last year. They bring a different dimension. They're very active, athletic and quick. They are probably the best all-around big guys we've played so far.

We did a lot of things well, we battled, we played hard. We have to do some things better, take care of the ball better. We need to get to the foul line more.

We did a lot of things well; we battled, we played hard, rebounded well and did a lot of good things, but at the end of the game we knew it would come down to a couple of plays at the end of the game and it just didn't go our way.

I thought we battled, we played hard, we got through some adversity with the foul trouble. We made some shots at the end but we didn't make them consistently throughout the game. They're a good team, but we need to play better.

The energy was there in our preparation for St. John's. I'm not going to say anything to disrespect them. They played hard, they played well, they deserved to win.