Lou Palkovics Quotations

When they went ahead 10-0 at the beginning, my head was spinning just like the girls'. Everything we did, we didn't execute. I said, 'It's time to stop looking up in the stands. It's time to stop being star struck. It's time to play.' But we went on a run and that was a great answer.

(Mitchell) shouldn't be able to dribble that far that fast. (But) we got her to take a bad shot. She made it.

I felt like we did everything right in the first half ? our inside game, our outside game, we were finding people, defensively. I thought we got very stagnant in the second half.

From a coaching standpoint, I was very concerned not as much with the score, but more so with the fact that we weren't doing anything right. Everything we practiced the day before was not running correctly. We really needed to settle down.

I expect every team in the state playoffs to make a run. It doesn't matter how far ahead you are. And I expect us to make those free throws in the end.

Out of my nine years I've been coaching here, this will be the fourth time I've faced Cheltenham in the finals. Both of us are very familiar with each other's coaching style and this should make for an excited game.

I wasn't too concerned near the end of the game. Sure, we have gotten tentative in finishing two games. But, a win is a win, whether it is by 10 points or four points.

We couldn't get a shot off, then (Gold) hit that 3-pointer right in front of me. We were struggling for points. And Erin stepped out and hit that shot from two feet beyond the (3-point) line.

We knew that sooner or later our shots would start falling. Sometimes kids get frustrated. It was good to see them bounce back after the first quarter.

We love it. The crowds are always good. We always play top-notch teams. Our goal is always to win our league, but you want to see how you measure up on a higher scale.

Those type of things always seem to be big. There's no doubt that eventually played a big role at the end of the game.

We missed two many shots and had too many turnovers. They did a good job, defensively, on us, and when they expanded their defense, our guards didn't take advantage.

You look at every one of those games we've played against them and you can just see the level of play getting bigger and bigger. You see girls diving into the front row. You see teams coming back on one another. That just shows you what these games mean to these girls.

District I is a very strong division and going on a five-game run throughout the tournament is great, but we still have the state tournament ahead of us.

I've been coaching for 16 years, nine of that with girls. When you finally make it to the big game, you want to be prepared as much as possible. If you don't and lose, you feel as if you let the game go.

After the coin toss, third was the best we could expect. I'm happy with that. (But) these coin tosses are ridiculous. You don't need a tie-breaker. You send intelligent coaches in there, and they should decide who the best team is.

Addie does so many things that don't end up in the box score. She is great at all the little things that don't steal the headlines. She is such a great leader for us on and off the court.

It's so hard to make these kind of runs. I told the girls, 'Don't take this for granted.' It's hard to sustain a run this long. I had expectations, but when you get a win like this, you can't help but be so excited.

Cheltenham was ranked higher in the state prior to this game and I think many people believed that we weren't as athletic or talented. There is no substitution for heart and how hard we played Friday night. Cassie Willard set the tone in the first quarter as she dove for a ball going out as she knocked her head on the scoring table.

I could tell she was upset with her performance up until that point, but she hit the biggest shot of the night and in the end that's all that matters. She continuously gives us amazing performances and has been dominant. Sure she missed some open looks and had an off day, but she has been awesome in the last 8 games. For her to have an off night 1 of every eight games...I'll take that.

The districts were the end of one season, and now another season begins with states.