Grant Billmeier Quotations

Losing Kelly and Donald, that's a huge loss. They got us 18 wins. Without those guys, I don't know if we would have gotten 10. They were leaders on and off the court. I'm real thankful for that.

Most teams would drop their head. We found a way to make it positive. We figured a lot of teams might not think we're that good, so we've got to go out and earn our respect back.

I don't feel that we're too confident. We've seen their record, that the Missouri Valley Conference is an excellent conference even though they don't get a whole lot of recognition. We know they've knocked off some big teams. We know they're more than capable of pulling some upsets.

He's good guy and a good coach, so I hope people give him a chance before they jump to anything. I know he's a competitor and he's a very energetic coach that likes to get out there. He talked about winning right away, getting to the tournament. I like the impression he gave us.

I wouldn't be surprised if they go out and get the next game. Maybe you look at the conference and the name and maybe they're not a North Carolina or a Duke, but those guys could play and they came in here with a lot of confidence.

Kelly and Donald really set the tone. We wanted to do everything possible to get this one for them. For four years, they've done everything they could to help the program.

Our goal is to get into the N.C.A.A. tournament, and we've never lost sight of that.

That's the type of team we are. We weren't going to sit around and feel bad. We had a chance against another Top 25 team, and we took advantage of it.

We had heard the rumors all week. Even though you hear the rumors going on, it's a tough thing to really prepare for. Of course, in my opinion, I would like to have him back. I'm not exactly sure why he wasn't asked back.

We certainly didn't walk round campus with our heads held high. We were embarrassed. When we came back to campus our fans laughed and made fun of us. But the only way we were going to erase that memory was to go out and have some positive wins.

Coach Orr is a great role model. I wouldn't want to play for any other college coach besides him.

A lot of guys are talking about it. Coach Gonzalez said he hopes they get to know him first. I hope they do, too.

It looked like everybody in there just won the lottery.

I'm just so happy for those two, especially.