John Pelphrey Hard Quotations

I feel very fortunate to win the award. There are some great coaches in this league...Basketball is a team game and any award that I win is a direct reflection on how hard our team works.

We have been working really hard here the past three years. We've had some hurdles like all rebuilding jobs. This year we have more players. We have more experienced players. The first-year guys we have signed are making contributions. We're kind of getting it from everywhere. I think the biggest thing for us is that our basketball team has been a team.

We play New Orleans, it's always a battle. I told our guys we can't look at the records in conference play...New Orleans has had a tough situation all year long and I am impressed with how hard they play.

They have the ability to compete with anyone in the country. It's hard to compare them to the 2000 team. They are better in one sense, they won more games in the regular season. But that team really didn't get hot until the buzzer-beater against Butler.

Everyone contributed tonight as a team and I couldn't be more proud of how our guys competed tonight. It was a hard fought physical basketball game tonight and our guys found a way to dig it out.