Dale Layer Quotations

It certainly would be nice to have some buzz around the state. It sure would be nice to give people something to talk about in January besides football recruiting.

I was confident that he would make a big play and it didn't happen.

I thought we did a pretty good job on everything except threes.

I thought that we played extremely hard tonight. We didn't get any breaks on the floor and they made some adjustments that hurt us.

I thought Sean Morris sure bailed us out of some tough jams there, with three straight threes; one that put us into overtime and two in overtime. He was sick and he's been struggling from the field, and it was great to have him break out and give us a terrific game.

I thought our guys played with great heart, but just did not hit enough shots. (Air Force) hit huge shots down the stretch.

I want to thank Sean for his contributions to our program the past two seasons. Everyone associated with our program wishes him the best of luck in the future.

I think our team's playing well. Does that mean we can win four games? I don't know. I don't know if we can win one game. It's more important right now that we play well.

I think every experience in the Pepsi Center is a good thing. How much it helps, I don't know. But I think there's certainly an adjustment we will have made that maybe they won't.

I think this will be a good learning experience for Thursday. It was important to get a game under our belts. Our kids figure to be more relaxed.

We wanted to mix it up a bit. I think it put them on their heels and gave us some momentum.

We're not that far off. It's not like we had to revamp everything.

We didn't stop No. 1 either time. He made huge shots, especially in the game at our place.

We didn't have enough fight. We got in a hole early.

We shot 48 percent from the field which I will take on the road. It wasn't an effort problem tonight, it was execution.

We've got to be prepared for a physical game. They're much like us. With a few breaks, they could have had a few more wins.

We had a hard time managing Ainge, he set up a lot of people. He was probably the difference in the game.

We have to continue to get better and in the last 10 days we haven't. That is on me, I have to make my team better.

We are typically a good free throw shooting team. It's a different environment and there's a little more pressure. I think our guys will learn from this and respond well heading into (today).

It was ugly at times, but when we had to make stops over the last few minutes, we did. Our kids knew if they lost they go home, and I think they showed a lot of emotion and some big hearts.

It was ugly at times. Both teams had the jitters. I thought the last two minutes of the game we had big hearts, stopped them when we needed to, got big rebounds and made just enough free throws to pull it out.

It was ugly at times. Both teams had some jitters. But in the last two minutes, we had big hearts and managed to make some shots at the end.

They made some shots and we didn't tonight. It's disappointing because I thought that we played hard tonight.

It's a lot easier said than done. We know what we're trying to do to him, but I'd rather that not be in the paper.

Stuart was probably the most consistent player tonight, I have great confidence in him.

It's certainly a risk, but we felt like it was a risk worth taking.

They've had positive influences on everybody who's been in our program throughout their careers. They're the epitome of student-athletes, and they'll both be successful in life, whatever they choose to do.

They've had good teams, good coaches and it's a tough environment.

Air Force is an NCAA Tournament team, no question. They deserve it. I thought they hit huge shots down the stretch.