James Augustine Quotations

We're going to look awful on the film. You feel like you played well during the game and then you go watch the film. It's about an hour long, and Coach is stopping it every 10 seconds.

Last year, there was a little more pressure. We're more of an underdog. We want to be special and get back to the Final Four.

I felt like it was the last day of my life or something.

I don't usually get nervous for games, but I was nervous. I was sitting on the bench with two fouls and couldn't get calmed down.

I get it all the time. Even when I'm not in foul trouble, I hear about it.

He was all over me. Once I met Dee, I was pretty locked into Illinois.

We just have to get ready to play Thursday. None of the records matter anymore. No one will remember if you won your conference or your conference tournament. It's all how you finish. That how you'll be remembered.

We just have to find out where we stand on Sunday and get back to practice. If we lose one more game, we go home for good, and Dee's and my career is over.

We took a punch in the stomach and couldn't get back. You have to come ready to play. Some people came, and some people didn't.

Hopefully they'll be able to keep going and the program will get better. Coach Weber does a great job of recruiting and a great job developing players. They have a good base with a majority of players coming back. I don't see why anything would change.

We looked at the scoreboard and knew we had to pick it up. We took (their run) and then kind of bounced back.

We are going to need a little help. We need Ohio State to lose but I hope (we can repeat). I need another ring.

It could have been broken, but luckily it turned out to only be a sprain. I got the boot off and I've been riding a bike, lifting and doing treatment to get stronger. I have no clue when I'll be back but hopefully within the next two weeks. I just need time, then I need to get back into shape.

I thought we were going to come back and win it. You've always got to have confidence.

I thought we did a great job on him. All he shot was a lot of free throws. He's a great player, but we took him out of his game for the most part except for the free throws. I guess he did a good job of getting in there and drawing the fouls.

I think we just sucked it up a little bit and one thing led to another.

I think we just looked at the scoreboard and knew we had to step it up a little bit. One thing led to another, and everybody kind of fed off of one another.

I think we played harder. That's why we were able to get back into it. But we had more game to play. We had to keep playing.

I will not be (strutting around) about it. It is no big deal as long as our team wins.

Our fans are spoiled. We're 20-4 and people are acting like it's the worst year in history. We have two home games in a row now and we have to be ready for them. We can turn this thing right back around.

Some of the players on our team have never lost at home. Dee (Brown) and I have only lost once, and that was a pretty bad feeling. It gives us motivation to win.

That'd be the best. To do it at home on Senior Night, to do it with Dee. It would be a special night.

It doesn't feel good. It was a fun ride, but right now it doesn't feel that good.

That was probably one of the best offensive exhibitions I've ever seen. Like he said, we had confidence in him and he took care of business.

You have to feel proud of your teammates for coming back and playing. At Iowa we just gave up. Tonight, we didn't give up.

We have to step it up that extra notch and play hard.

We have to win it to stay in the running. We've been making steps. Hopefully, we can go to Wisconsin and pull it off and play the same way we do here.

We know the feeling of having lost at home. That's the type of pride Dee and I try to take into every game. The other guys have done a great job feeding off of us and kind of understanding it. It's a bad feeling to lose at home, and we hope they never have to.

To break the record at home on Senior Night, that would be the best.

We were a little lackadaisical on defense at first, but winning by 24 points is pretty good.

We obviously want to be Big Ten champs, and we want to go into the (NCAA) Tournament with the highest seed. We want to be the best team we can possibly be, and make a run at it in the tournament. I think we can do that, but we've got to put it together in (regular-season) games, especially on the road.

We focused on him a lot, but we're going to have to do a better job than that from here on out.

We lose one more game, we're going home, and that means Dee and I, our careers are over. We have to come ready to play as a team.

This shows we're making progress. This is one of the first times we put a team away. Maybe Oregon. But we really made a statement that we want to get better. And we are.

Every game is going to be a battle and you have to play 100 percent every time. I think the young guys are starting to realize that.

Someone told me I had five assists at halftime and I just laughed. It's nice, but the win is more important.

Someone told me at halftime I had five assists, but I just laughed at it. The win's more important.

Dee was hitting everything. We had confidence in him and he took care of the business.

Coach has been on us. But the guys have been taking it pretty good. When you're winning, you kind of get cocky. You're like, 'Let's keep doing what we're doing.' Now people are more excited to learn. A lot of people are listening.

Coach (Weber) always talks about how good of a team we can be. Like, he gave the example of how we beat Georgetown at home, and Georgetown beats Duke. I know it's a home win for us. But I think we're up there with some of the best teams. If we keep winning on the road and showing some character and keeping playing solid basketball, I think we can make a run at it.

That's why I'm not so emotional about it. It's more of a basketball game than Senior Night. If we don't come out ready to play, they're going to beat us.

That's fine. It's easy for us. We watch the same film and maybe the (last) game to see what we did right and wrong. The scouting report is the same. So it's easier on the coaches and easier on us.

This is obviously not a very good feeling.

They sprang it on us and it obviously worked. I think they were in kind of a weird zone. There were times when they were in a 1-3-1, it looked like, and times they were in a 2-3. They did everything they needed to do to stay in the game.

They switched everything and denied passes and did a good job of taking away what we wanted to do. We just played a lot harder when we were playing well.

A lot of it has to do with using a lot of energy, and teams kind of figure out what we're doing. Today we did a good job. A lot of it has to do with letting our offense dictate our defense. We didn't let that happen too much. We missed shots and still got back on defense.

They have four, five, six pro prospects on their team. They'll have a lottery pick coming off their bench. They're obviously more talented.

They're a great team, they played Michigan State tough, they've been playing well at home. They're one of those teams that people overlook and at the end of the year they always knock off a Wisconsin or an Illinois and mess up the Big Ten running.

They're a dangerous team. They're smart and know how to take care of the ball. We're going to have to play solid.

It's just a new thing every day. I hurt my hand three weeks ago and had it X-rayed. Then I got it hit in the game (Saturday) and it swelled up again. I can't really bend it.

It's a whole different atmosphere now. It takes a whole lot of heat off me. They make my job so much easier.

It's a nice place for the families to go. We're just going to play basketball. I know if we were playing on Mars, our parents would have come anyway.

It really hasn't settled in yet that it's almost over. It seems like yesterday that we just got here.

It's more about what our season is this year. Last year is in the past. You don't think about it too much. We're focused more on having lost to Penn State at home and staying in the race for the Big Ten championship.

It's more of what our season this year had. I think last year is in the past. You don't really think about it too much. I think we're more focused on (The fact) we lost to Penn State at home. We're more focused on coming off a loss and coming off a bye week and just staying in the race for the Big Ten championship.

It's frustrating because you want to be out there. But you have to trust your teammates.

It's not a good feeling. Now we're in a situation where our next loss is our last one. We have to step it up.

The bench did a great job. The other starters did an unbelievable job just to make our night special. I think they consciously wanted to go out there and play hard for us, and to win another game in the conference.

Once he starts hitting, you just set screens for him and he does the rest. When he hits a big shot, he gets that swagger and you just know it's gonna happen.

Against Michigan State, we just played lackadaisical. Here, it's a different setting. You hit one shot, and the crowd gets into it.

It's not a very good feeling. If it happens one more time, we're going home for the rest of the year.

I'm glad it's over. I wanted to go into Michigan State not having to answer questions about it. I'll be happy about it when I leave, but for now we have more important things to take care of.

I'm not going to be a total post player. I'm not big enough. I have to work on my outside game.

I'm disappointed and surprised, because you'd think people would have been ready to play. We played lackadaisically in the first half, and that's not acceptable. After the Penn State game, it is hard to grasp that we came out casual today.

I like playing against them and we just went through their stuff and practiced for what they do. So we should be able to get ready in a hurry.

I'm just going to try to enjoy the ride I've had playing with Dee, the coaches and the team. That's what's going to make me happy right now, thinking about the run I've had here.

I never get nervous for games. I don't know why, but I couldn't calm down. I was even sitting on the bench with two fouls being nervous.

If you play Friday and lose, then you play one game in two weeks. (Winning) is a confidence booster.

If you look down our bench, they're doing what we expected. Sometimes they have limited minutes, but they do a good job of coming through when we need it. They've done a good job of knowing their roles.

Being more active takes a lot of the pressure off Dee. He's been carrying us lately. I wanted to come out with energy and hit the boards. I didn't play well the first time against them.

He's expanding his game. He's been working hard in practice. He tries stuff he's not been able to do in a couple years.

He's the same size as Roger, and he's a little quicker. He's amazing. He has a tremendous vertical jump. He can jump out of the gym. He's up there with Brian in jumping ability.

He played great. He made the big play. He did what seniors are supposed to do.

Coach Bruce Weber told me in a meeting that all I have to do is play pretty well. The rest of the guys are doing well now. It takes a lot of pressure off Dee and especially myself. Luther and Deron and all the assists and rebounds and all the points that were lost, somebody has to make them up. In reality, you can't do all that.

The coaching staff did a good job with the scouting report. They handed out the tape and I watched a couple of times. We knew a lot of his shots would be 3-pointers. We tried to contest those and put a body on him, and it worked out well for me.