Dave Odom Quotations

We stood up to the challenge. We played very well. We did not play well enough to win.

We needed a shakeup; we needed a change; we needed a different slant. I thought our team had a chance to win the game. I really did.

Some might say there was a team in the country that needed a win like this more than we did. I would argue that.

More is not always better, particularly with Renaldo sometimes, less is better. If you keep him uncomfortable, you've got a good chance of having a good game out of him. You want him uncomfortable.

I don't know that we could ask our team to play any better than they did these two games here. We were playing well at the right time. ... This was a special team.

I don't know that I've seen him play a better floor game than he played tonight.

I can just tell you there was nobody I recruited more. Nobody knew his high school coach more. Nobody had him on his campus more. Nobody offered him sooner. Why he went out of state, you'd have to ask him.

We're probably not catching them at a great time, but our guys want to win too.

To get back here and play in the world's greatest arena, this late in the season, for a university and a team who have a great deal of pride, it means an awful lot.

(His) play is on the rise. He's doing things now -- in addition to shooting the ball -- that we've been trying to get him to do for a year and a half.

We make no apologies about being here. We look at it as a special opportunity and we're excited about it.

I think we know how Michigan wants to play style-wise, but can we stop them - I don't know. In college basketball, it is always about style and how styles contrast. My guess is that it is going to be low scoring. We are not going to give up a lot of points. Whether we score enough points to win, I don't know.

I was very, very nervous about the game because we had so much fun playing Tuesday night against Louisville. Fun as in we won in a kind of loose fashion. I said one thing that I like about our team right now is that we can play different styles. We can play different types of games. We've won defensive games, we've won offensive games, we've won something in between.

Our team overcame more obstacles last week than any team in my memory that I've been involved with. To have our team remain above all that and play as well as they did and win, I think our team deserves a lot of credit. They certainly have every right to be proud of what they have accomplished up to date.

Renaldo knew going into today that he wasn't going to start but when the opening came, he was ready. He was ready because he practiced hard the past two days. Starting or not starting doesn't matter to Renaldo. He was ready regardless.

That confirmed what I thought might happen. They were much more physical. Somewhere along the way we were going to be exposed. I was hoping it would be a little bit later (in the season).

It doesn't look like it, but I think I've got one more week left in me. What a week that was, no question.

We couldn't play any better tonight than we played. You can always do something better, but given it's a championship-level game against truly one of the great coaches and he's playing in his hometown, to be able to win that game speaks volumes about our team.

We've had great efforts that has not been a problem. Finishing games has been. We finished tonight.

We're really right where we were at most of the year. The difference being, when trouble comes, and it will, we don't have a bench to go to if the trouble lurks in the post. We don't have a big guy to go to.

Three games going now we've turned it over a total of 22 times. As much as anything other than the wins themselves I'm very proud of that.

To be able to come back and play like that in the second half I think speaks volumes about where our club is right now. They still believe that they can play well, they believe they can win, and they believe they can win on the road.

When we've played well, he's done well. But some times he gets in there and gets tied up.

Tonight it was particularly good that we beat a really, really fine basketball team... and we did it in front of a highly supportive crowd led by our student body. I mean, they were terrific. I think our team certainly responded to that.

There is no league that can refurbish its rosters as quickly as this league, and I think the coaches have done that once again. The Southeast is as talent-laden as there is in the country. Coaches can go out and get (good) players rather quickly so it doesn't surprise me that our league is strong this year.

What that really did was open the door for us to go to the smaller lineup, which was death for (S.C. State).

We are obviously playing one of the best teams in the country.

We didn't play bad the first half. We just did not shoot well. When you don't shoot well, you don't look good.

Every coach makes a schedule that they think is right for their team. I've always believed that the fans deserve a good schedule, and I think to be the kind of program that Carolina fans want, we've got to play a demanding schedule with some national powers mixed in.

I've been seeing it coming. In the back of my mind, we're doing the right thing by getting the big guys ready.

Randolph Morris has to be more and more comfortable every time he plays. The further into the season he gets, I think he'll be better and better. The other thing is that I think a lot of Kentucky's struggles came because they did not shoot the ball the way they were capable.

Sparks ... shot the ball from the Rupp Museum.

Sparks shot that one from the museum some place. Even if we were man-to-man, I doubt we would have guarded him that far out.

This is a big thing for our team, school and our state.

All of our games are like that. But this is a group that is blessed with great resolve.

This is the time of year you either grow or you get worse. I prefer to look at it as it is time for us to grow up.

It was a much-needed win for us. What this win does for us, only time will tell. It couldn't come at a better time for us and it couldn't come at a better place.

It's one of those deals, you feel like you're capable of doing something special, but you haven't done it yet.

It means a lot to our team, our university, our state.

The bigger lesson is you affect the things that are still possible. And you do it in a positive way.

Not only is (Day) shooting the ball well and scoring well, his defense has improved and he is more vocal and more confident. I think he is not only growing as a player, he is growing as a person.

If you're not ready to play against a team like that, it can come back and bite you.

In the end, it comes down to you have to play good in the games.

I know (Kinsey) would have been here. It's one of those things: He wasn't here on time, so he doesn't start. That throws Renaldo back in there.

He's really persevered, done a great coaching job with great class and great dignity. You could see the warmth he received, he received it with great humility. No chest bumping or all of that. I'm not trying to get in their business, I just know about him as a person and him as a coach.

I didn't realize it's been that long. If we can do that, it would be pretty special.

I can't think of a team that needed that type win more than ours did anywhere in the country tonight. It's one of those deals where you just feel like you're capable of doing something special, but you haven't done it yet.

He's got a personality that, sometimes, he speaks his mind. And, sometimes, it doesn't come out right.