John Beilein Good Quotations

We heard a lot about their defense, and it is flat-out terrific, but we play pretty good defense too, and we've been able to score on a lot of good teams.

I don't do an awful lot of that vibe stuff. It's good for our fans that they've been down there before.

Kevin came in here on a mission. I thought we were a little bit out of character at Pitt. We probably tried to do a little bit too much and probably didn't realize what good defense Pitt plays. We took shots we thought were good and they weren't because Pitt guards you.

I thought we put on a pretty good clinic for most of the game. Kevin is really playing well and developing into a complete player.

It felt like 10 years ago that we had beaten a really good team. We didn't have that quality win yet.

I think he has to dunk on you, like two times, before you realize you're playing against a giant of a man. Hicks is as good a player as there is in the league and certainly a player who will merit (All-Big East) first-team considerations.

We have been successful against a No. 1 and a No. 2 seed, and that's pretty good to beat both in the same year.

We know that they're going to play good defense. We call it the New Jersey defense, the strong, tough defense. We knew that they were going to play that way.

We started to shoot too quickly, maybe we played too smart and stopped attacking. We had good shots and didn't make them and that other team was charging. Then Kevin hit that big shot we really needed, the big dagger.

Tonight's game wasn't about who had better players or better coaches. That shot was all about luck. We had some good luck and they had some bad.

When you play a team like Southern Illinois, you're looking in the mirror. They are a very good team that has had a very good season, or else we wouldn't be playing them.

We just try to get good shots. We take what's given.

What's good about it is we played both Pitt and Louisville the past two weeks. We'll be prepared to make the final adjustments Thursday afternoon.

We're very excited about our television schedule. To go from one or two national games a year to possibly double-digit games on national television is good news, but you can't get on television unless you play the top teams in the country. It speaks well about the direction of our program.

Rather than those gut-wrenching last seconds, it was good to just get some of these guys out of there and let them enjoy the experience of playing in the NCAA Tournament.

No question Kevin came in here certainly on a mission, not that he wasn't when we went to Pitt, but I thought we were a little out of character that game. We tried probably to do too much and we didn't realize how good their defense is and we took shots that we thought were good shots, but in retrospect, they weren't because Pitt guards you. This time, Kevin was a little more patient and the result -- he scores 26 more points than he did the first time.

They played tremendous defense on us. They frustrate you. They're very good defenders, and we as a team have to learn how to handle it when that happens. ... I don't like the way we handled a lot of things, but we are going to learn from this game.

It's really good news that we're not living or dying by the three. And now we can look at the next game. Everybody knows who we play.

I've got to think they're certainly good enough to be in there.

No matter what, it's always a good game. I don't know if it will add anything new to this game. It can't get any more intense.

It was a great basketball game. I'm very proud of our young men the way they fought back in the second half. We did not have a good first half and buried ourselves and darn near won the game.

Their top six guys are tremendous players who all hit good shots.

I'm trying to stress with (my team) how good this win is.

I don't know if there is a team in the country that can shoot 20 percent and still win the game. I thought we got good shots, but just didn't make them.

Good players are worth nothing if you don't have good chemistry. Good players are good teammates.

He's incredible. There is not a defense for some people, and Chris Quinn is almost impossible to defend. You look at him and think 'Here's this choirboy. He's not going to be able to do anything.' But he is as tough and as good a guard as there is in the Big East.