Mark Gottfried Men Quotations

I've tried to explain to (Davidson) the advantages of him as a senior here, which I think would far outweigh any gamble. He's got a chance to be one of the top big men in the nation.

As soon as I heard about it, I thought, 'I'm going no matter when it is,' ... It's a tremendous opportunity for us to show our troops how much we appreciate what they're doing.

Our team just needs to be careful of that whole concept of whether we're a bona fide NCAA tournament team or not. We've got to play better.

This will be the most freshmen on the floor that this series has seen in a long time.

I think it's a statement for our players. I don't think that they ever allowed Chuck's injury to be a built-in excuse for them.

(He) has come out of nowhere. I mean my goodness, I don't think there's a whole lot of freshmen in America doing what he's doing. He has been terrific.

They've got a number of young players. We have a bunch of young players as well, so there's probably going to be more freshmen on the floor than we've had in the last number of years playing in this game.

It was sure a relief when our name came across there. I'm excited for our players and our program. It's quite a statement that this is five in a row for us.

Those guys, for young players, are doing some amazing things in this league. They played us tough at home, and we know it's a tough environment for us to win in Starkville.

The fact we don't play on the first night of the tournament is big. That was important for us for a number of reasons. No. 1, it gives you another day or rest. No. 2, it's one more feather in your cap as far as how you're perceived by the (NCAA) selection committee.

First of all it's going to be a tremendous challenge. They are ranked third in the RPI and eighth in the AP. They are very underrated and will pose problems for us. On the other hand, our guys are very excited about having the chance to upset a team that is highly ranked.