Jay Herkelman Quotations

Once he knew his family was OK, he was a lot better.

Slack just had a tremendous, tremendous tournament. He showed people he's one of the best forwards in the country.

He's just really been focused. He's had the talent all year. Early in the year, he didn't understand how hard you have to play at the college level. But the last half of conference season, he's really given us good minutes.

We've had a close relationship from the day he got here. I've always had a connection with the guys in (Kennedy's) program, and all the players from New Orleans over the years. But the stuff he had to go through in the fall, obviously it was hard for him emotionally. We just did what we could to help him.

We've had 85 practices and every day starts with defensive stuff. We know if we play defense and rebound the ball, you're going to have a chance to stay in games. You have to develop that mentality.

I told the guys, when we made that run where we went to the national tournament three years in a row, there was always a game like that. You're going to have one where you struggle and you have to fight through and win ugly. That's what we did tonight.

Barry was really good, and he was good yesterday. He's been really focused. We knew he's had the talent all year. He showed some spurts midway through the season, and late in the season, he's giving us good minutes. He has the talent, and now he's figuring out what to do with it.

Our main talk was about their perimeter guys and keeping pressure out there and guarding the ball screens, we wanted to go under the ball screens and try to head them off before they could turn the corner on us.