Aaron Gray Quotations

We started off real slow, and the guys did a great job of playing so hard and coming back. Our team was almost, like, determined at one point. We just didn't make the final plays to come down the stretch.

We're real confident going into NCAA Tournament. We beat three real good teams coming into (Saturday).

We're steps ahead of last year. We're playing more like a team. We have confidence in each other.

We want to send Carl out on top.

One of our goals is to get a bye in the first round of the Big East Tournament.

Maybe it was a lack of our defense. They got a lot of wide-open looks and they missed a lot of wide-open looks, too.

Obviously, it was a big concern. For the juniors, the people who only have one year left, it's sometimes hard to get a new coach and have a new system.

My teammates did a great job finding me. They were just finding me and I was converting. I should have made some more. It's nothing against (Providence), it's just that we have great players to play with.

Carl does so many things that people don't realize. He only scored eight points, and he was probably the happiest guy in the locker room. Obviously, he doesn't have a problem with it.

I felt confident. Ever since the Marquette game, every day I've been working on my free throws before and after practice with the coaches. Apparently, I just need to continue working on it. It's probably the biggest weakness in my game right now. I let my team down.

I feel that it is my best interest to declare for the NBA draft. The draft process will provide a great learning experience and will help me become a better player.

From the tape, I knew I would have to play good defense and avoid foul trouble. That allowed me to make some plays, and I was just able to come out and have a really good performance.

He does a great job of getting people to play their best. One of the reasons we are such a good team is that every day in practice is like a game to us. Everything we do is competitive, and everything we do we want to win, no matter what the drill is. He knows you have to coach everyone differently.

Guys are putting too much stress on the offensive end and not enough stress on the defensive end. I think that showed in the last game. We also have to cut down on turnovers. The biggest part of the meeting was cutting down on the little things. People don't understand that one possession, one breakdown can lead to you winning or losing the game. We've confronted those issues and hopefully we'll learn from them.

He let me know we're stuck with him. It's great, because he's a guy who's been here for everyone's college career, and we've had a lot of success.

There are so many emotional highs and lows. You play really well one night, and the next night, you don't play well at all.

I think the double-double definitely shows how hard a player is willing to work on both ends of the floor. But there are a lot of other ways you can help your team that don't show up in the stats.

Lacrosse is fast paced and I like fast paced games. It's demanding physically and has the hardest conditioning of any sport. You are always running if you are not sprinting. It's constant movement.

It gives us a chance to play teams from around the country. I'm really looking forward to it. It's the first year we've done it, and usually during Spring Break we flatten off because we won't play.

It goes to show how tough this team is and how much we believe in each other. No one gave up. No one had the thought in their mind that we weren't going to win.

I think that last 3-pointer he made was from 15 feet from beyond the arc. He's such a great player. When he's doing something like that, you just have to sit back and marvel at it.

People always try to focus on the inside part of our game. When you have guys like Ronald stepping up and hitting perimeter shots, it opens up everything else because they have to stretch their defense and play the perimeter. It widens the lane. It helps the big men out tremendously. The way he's been shooting the ball, it's been helping our team dramatically.

Other teams are keying in on him, setting whole defensive strategies around him. That's presenting opportunities for other people to step up. It's amazing. It seems like every game, it's someone different.

My offense was bad, and I had to keep taking three or four opportunities to get an easy basket.

That was a tough game. We played real hard. The shots just weren't falling tonight. It just wasn't our night.

We joke with him about his age a lot, but it's no joke that he's our No. 1 leader on and off the court with his experience and wisdom. I don't believe we'd be in the position we are without him.

We drew up a play and Connecticut did a good job of denying me in the post. It's a tribute to great Connecticut defense.

Without any pressing issues, there won't be a lot of change. Most people are pretty happy with who is running the board now.

We easily could have lost that game to Notre Dame. The way the young guys played, it just shows they're not going to give up. We don't want to lose. If we do, it'll add fuel to the fire.

We've got our church clothes ready for Sunday morning. You can write that down.

We didn't do anything special to prepare for the game or do anything differently. We put in hard work and prepared for this game just like any other.

Yeah, either that or I have to make a better move. When my teammates did find me, I wasn't strong with the ball. I made too many poor decisions.

We definitely feel like we control our own destiny, but at the same time, we don't feel there are any easy games that we have left. We still have a lot of good teams left to play, but we definitely feel like we're good enough to get through it.

We beat the No. 2 team in the country that got a No. 1 seed. Our expectations were higher.

True story. I knew my time was coming. I knew my teammates were going to be counting on me. I didn't want to let them down.

We watched a lot of film on him. He's a big key to their offense. When you're guarding him you can't leave him or he'll get an open shot. I also got great help defense from my teammates, and he missed some shots too. The combination is why he went scoreless.

Two tough teams went at it and they just came out on top. They're not the No. 1 team in the country for nothing.

Every time I touched the ball it seemed like there were two or three guys around me. I made bad decisions and turned the ball over.

We wanted to put the emphasis on our post game with Padgett out. We did that. We obviously got out to a big lead because of that.

There is so much stuff I can take away from this season and go back and look at. I learned about how to better prepare myself for each game, what I need to do on off-days, the type of stuff I need to do in between games so I stay fresh.

This team, we're winners. We hate to lose. We don't know how to lose. We have 13 guys who are willing to do whatever it takes to win.

We got a lot of people out on their shooters and didn't give them many open looks. We think we're a good man-to-man team and we can be physical.

We got a lot of confidence from it and it's something we're going to use in the NCAA tournament. The Big East tournament is a lot like the NCAA tournament. You're playing games back-to-back. You're playing against great teams every night.

We got a little bit away from what we wanted to do. We were playing like we needed to win on that one possession and you can't do that.

We just really stressed getting the ball inside in the second half. We were all making plays. That was the main difference in us winning the game.

We got so many guys from New York, and they know what it means to play there. It's just a great place to play.

We're going to try to have as good a game as last time. We take pride in our defense here. It's going to be a battle, but I'm looking forward to it.

Every game, you have to bring it or you're going to lose.

That's when I play my best, against the best competition. Sometimes my problem is playing against guys who don't have much of a post presence. It will be a great challenge. I'm looking forward to it.

This is a typical Big East game. Even this game came right down to the last shot. The guys did a good job fighting back. It's going to be like this day-in and day-out. There's no gimme wins in this conference.

A lot of people didn't think we'd be where we're at. A lot of people were criticizing the way we finished the season. They thought we could have come in here and been one and done against Louisville. Just goes to show how tough this team is.

They got me tired, but I had to push through it. There are points in the game where my teammates feed off me. I have to make sure I get back on defense, and just get in position where I can make plays.

They had four or five guys they were sending in throughout the game and I wasn't really thinking much about scoring against them. My main emphasis was rebounding.

There was just a lack of defense on our part.

Absolutely, we'd like to play them again. I feel like we will play them again. If we played 10 times, it could go either way all 10 times.

It's just another challenge. I mean, it's a great team. They have a great coach. They have great guards. Even their big men have been starting to step up.

It's a great achievement. It's a great compliment to my team. I couldn't have done it without them. The support the coaches and my teammates gave me is probably the biggest reason this happened.

It's another season now. We know where we stand: You lose and you're done.

It's going to be interesting to see where we end up. That last game is very important.

It's going to be a great challenge and a great test for our team. New York is where most of our team is from, and with all that excitement in the crowd, we're going to have to perform well.

That put them up one point. I felt we were very confident that we were still going to win the basketball game.

It's something we're going to have to recognize early, and, hopefully, I'll be able to make good decisions when I get the ball.

Everyone got their feelings out. We accomplished a lot just by being able to talk to each other. Now, we're getting ready to go in not only physically prepared, but mentally prepared.

No matter how much money the NBA offers, that amount won't be able to buy back my senior year at Pitt.

They definitely wanted to control it a little more. It was a little weird that our three top players had two fouls in the first half and they didn't have any of their top players in foul trouble.

They've got some big boys that are very good. They were sending two or three guys at me, which was getting frustrating, so I knew I had to get offensive rebounds. The few times I was open for a split second, my teammates did a great job of getting me the ball.

I want to make sure that when the June 18 deadline comes, it will be my decision, not someone else's or any outside reason, whether I stay or go.

In discussing my options the last couple of weeks with my family and Coach Dixon, I feel that it is in my best interest to declare for the NBA Draft. I will not hire an agent, leaving me the option to return to the University of Pittsburgh for my senior season. The draft process will provide me a great learning experience and will help me become a better player.

I never really got into the flow of the game today. I struggled offensively and defensively.

I never really got into the flow of the game. I struggled offensively, defensively. A few times I made some bad decisions. I felt I got the looks I wanted to get. I just didn't finish a few times. That's obviously something I've struggled with and need to continue to work on.

I just want everyone to know I'm going to make the right decision. Whether it's for me to stay or go, I'm going to make the right decision.

He's really coming into his own. He has such high expectations coming in. He has surpassed everyone's expectations. It's his team. He's making his own coaching decisions, balancing a 9-, 10-man rotation -- which not a lot of guys can do -- and keep everyone happy and focused on winning.

I didn't really come through the way I should have. I was just never able to get into the flow of the game.

I don't think we did anything different in the way we went about our business of preparing for a game. We put in the hard work that's needed. We expected to make those shots.

I couldn't believe when he hit that last 3-pointer from about 15 feet beyond the line, but what can you do? He was unbelievable.

He played with a chip on his shoulder. He was more physical. It was his Senior Day. He was on tonight.

The guys did a great job of getting me the ball. The guards were doing a great job of hitting shots, and they couldn't double down. We knew with Padgett out we could utilize our post game. We did that. We got out to a big lead because of it.

A lot of times my offense is so bad, I'm just glad even with my offensive struggles that I've been able to get offensive rebounds.

The draft process will provide me a great learning experience and will help me become a better player. Academically, I am well on my way to graduating and earning a degree and that is a priority for me.

The coaches just told me to be patient. I get real anxious when I see teams are playing me man-to-man. Early on, I had a lot of bad turnovers. I think that goes to the fact that we hadn't played in eight days.

All of the guys made sure to get us big guys involved in the second half and we were able to get a tough win on the road.

All the great people learn from the people before them. Chris took one approach and did things the way he wanted to do it. Carl took a completely different approach and did the things the way he wanted to do it. I'm not saying either way is right or wrong, just a different approach.

The mental mindset is great because of our strong performance in the Big East tournament. A lot of positive things came out of it.