Paul Hewitt Quotations

We're not going to shy away from our goals. Our No. 1 goal is always to get back to the NCAA tournament.

... When we get youth involved I would hope we have an impact on our school-age people. Whether we're in the schools or outside of (them), as long they (know) the risks of risky drinking I think our goals are being met.

With the plays that we run, there are a lot of opportunities for open baskets, and, when we are making our shots and being more aggressive, we can be a pretty decent offensive team.

We've tried to remind him that he's a very good player and he can make plays for us. That's a nice boost for his confidence going into our last game.

The product and service we require meets with our customers' and our expectations.

The one thing that those guys do is they try to beat you every possession, which is a mentality we have to recapture around here.

We're just getting a little older. The calendar is aging them and I'm aging them.

My first year at Siena, my first year here, they were teams that people looked at and were scratching their heads thinking, 'How are they ever going to win a game?'

No disrespect to North Carolina, ... but this was no upset out here today. To be written off was kind of amusing to me. This team has played in big games, has won big games and demonstrated again it can still win big games.

If they do play each other, it's going to be a hell of a game.

If they go in there and win two games, I think they're in.

I'd be surprised if Air Force doesn't make the NCAA tournament, with the way they play and run their stuff. This is an opportunity lost for us. Now, we've got to try to build it back up and get to a point where we get this kind of chance again.

I felt like he hit some big shots that really took the air out of us.

I felt like I was watching a school yard game.

I find myself very lucky to have this job, and I just want to go out and do it. Coaching in the ACC is privilege, and I've tried not to look at it as a hardship. This is a talented basketball team we have. We shouldn't be 3-8, but we are. We've got to try to do something about it here down the stretch.

For this entire streak, for some reason or another, we just can't some out of the locker room with the type of energy we need. As I told the guys, it's obviously something we're doing as a coaching staff. We just can't seem to get things going at the start of the second half.

He had the call. I'm not a referee. ... Every coach is going to disagree when it doesn't go their way.

He hurt us really, when you look back at it, on second-shot opportunities and transition. I can't remember the last time I saw a freshman run the floor that hard.

He'd shoot free throws left-handed and still beat us. He'd make 17-foot hook shots and beat us in H-O-R-S-E.

He made the shots that took the air out of us. Our players knew they had to be on him 10 feet beyond the 3-point line, but it didn't matter.

He might be pressing a little bit. He's a kid who really takes a lot on himself. Maybe this will help him to relax a little more.

We talk about the tradition of Georgia Tech basketball when we go out recruiting, and in some sense, I feel like I owe those guys something, ... Now, we've built on that tradition, and now here we are in the Final Four.

He's a great athlete, and I always remind him that he can make plays off the ball. I don't think he understands how much ground he covers. I think you're starting to see that. He had three steals today. He's starting to see the floor better.

He shoots it from very, very deep. I really think he surprises some of the defenders with how deep he can shoot that basketball.

He's gotten better every year. He's one of these kids that listens to his coaches and works on his game. He's tough to handle because of his skill and size.

He's going to have to earn (the starting job). I don't think you give a role that important, you don't just give it away to somebody. He's definitely one of the two guys, three guys we're looking at.

He's going to have to earn it. I don't think, for a role that important, you just give it to somebody. I feel like I have a good handle on what he's capable of from a basketball-playing standpoint. But there's a lot more that goes into the starting point guard role for our team. I have a tendency to be hard on those guys.

We may not have one name that people can latch on to, so we're somewhat nondescript. But this has been an excellent basketball team the whole season.

I think it's an object lesson that paying the cost of Social Security in the future is going to depend upon economic growth. If you don't have growth, our pensions and other obligations are going to become unaffordable.

I thought when we executed well, we got some great first attempts. ... There were a couple of breakdowns (and) in a game like this you can't have the breakdowns. You have to try to win every possession.

I thought we were ready. Wake took it to us physically and we didn't respond.

I think the election of 2002 will be about Social Security reform. The situation is very polarized.

I thought we got into trouble when they started pressuring us and the five-count was on. Instead of taking them off the dribble, we got tentative. I just think we stopped attacking.

I thought some of our aggression just went away. It's tough to explain. It wasn't like they were thinking the game was over at the half. In the last eight minutes, they made more plays than we did.

I think we may have gotten a little tired mentally. I'm not sure if we wanted it bad enough or not. Maybe we did, but I do know Clemson wanted it more than we did today.

It goes without saying, we start all over, we start from scratch. It's unfortunate that what took five years to build was wiped away with one season.

Panic can't be apart of our equation right now. We just have to win.

Over the time I've been recruiting in Memphis and West Tennessee, I've seen that the shooting is very good. Whoever is teaching these guys how to shoot is doing something right.

Thaddeus didn't shoot really well the other night, but the good thing about him is that he's not just a scorer. He can do other things, too. We also really liked his transcript. He's a Georgia Tech-type of kid.

Maryland was outstanding defensively. They first half, they forced us into a lot of contested shots. We could've helped ourselves by moving the ball a little bit better, but defensively, they were sharp.

We haven't taken care of the ball. It's been so hard for us to put together consistent stretches in games.

Willie plays his best when the weather gets warm. He turns it on during tournament time.

We couldn't get anything to fall. Their defense was a good part of the reason we didn't make any shots, but we had some roll off.

We executed well in stretches, but . . . we took a couple possessions off. It was finishing off the execution. Three times we had (Anthony) Morrow open in the corner. They didn't see him. I guess he blended in with the crowd.

We played pretty hard, but their defense was the reason we didn't get into a flow. They really did a nice job of taking away our two primary threats in Morrow and Dickey.

We couldn't allow him as many touches as we did before.

We had our chances. It came down to 3-pointers. Even if they were semi-open or semi-contested, they still knocked them down.

You know, it happens like that some nights.

We haven't changed anything. What I plan to do, probably around Oct. 1, is cut back on individual instruction and do more team stuff.

We haven't changed anything, ... What I plan to do, probably around Oct. 1, is cut back on individual instruction and do more team stuff.

Those are the kinds of things you look back on and realize that so many people benefit from passing along their experiences, their successes and their failures. It meant a lot to me.

We'll do the only thing we can do: Get back in the gym. All you can do as a coach is stay positive and see what happens.

You look at the stat sheet and see we had 27 turnovers, I don't think there's anything else I can point to. They're long and they really got out in the passing lanes, and we didn't react to it very well.

We obviously played pretty well for the first 35 minutes. But we made some mistakes and some breakdowns we just couldn't overcome.

We can't panic. We have a lot of games left. Panic can't be a part of the equation here. We have to keep working at it.

We said if someone's going to beat us, let him be the guy. We didn't want him to be that wide open, but they have a lot of shooters.

We need to do a better job of getting the ball in his hands. That's something we did not do well in the Air Force game. It's something we made a point of today, especially with Mario West out, to try to get him more touches and more involved. I still think, actually, he can get some more shots.

When you don't do the little things - the boxing out, the transition defense, all the things you have to do - you leave it to a chance or you leave it to a bounce.

The good ones understand that their role begins and ends with the scoreboard. The scoreboard will tell you if you've been successful or not. That's it.

This was the first game in about a month where I don't feel like we took a step forward. We'd been improving every game up until today.

We knew coming into the game that defending the 3-point line was going to be a big part of our job and obviously we didn't do that very well.

You have to get lucky in recruiting and stay injury-free. There are just so many things that can impact your success, it can really be out of your control.

Virginia Tech got into the passing lanes and really rattled us.

Believe me, I understand the whole aspect that kids have to represent their team and their school and their family, but mistakes are going to be made. Because somebody is an 18-year-old basketball player doesn't create a situation where that person is going to make decisions that are any more mature than another 18-year-old.

Binge drinking is defined as ... five or more drinks in a sitting (which is approximately two hours) for a man and four or more drinks in a sitting for a woman. EE-CARD has two main focuses, one being educating youth and (the other), raising the awareness of our community.

It wouldn't make any sense because there's just too much time between fifth or sixth grade and the time a player is a high school senior. Kids mature at different rates -- not just physically but with their basketball skills.

The statement that college basketball isn't a business -- let's be real here. It can be a business that can be a very positive experience for athletes, coaches, for schools. Kids learn responsibility, coaches learn how to put together a team, and administrators learn how to build some momentum, build a lot of school spirit based on that one entity -- the program. It doesn't have to be a dirty word, something sleazy to say it is a business.

The talent is definitely stretched a little thinner. In terms of the concentration of top 100, top 200 players -- it is spread out a little more. You think about going all the way back to Princeton, N.J., where you had the best 200 players in the country. Then, you went to two camps and now we're at three camps. I guess it's not all bad, because now you give more kids an opportunity to be seen. And we tend to lose sight that the game is supposed to be about opportunities for kids to get an education or be seen and do something better with their lives, as opposed to making it sane for college coaches.

People seem to understand even in the NBA when a really good team loses its players it's going to be a struggle,

People don't appreciate the way the game is supposed to be played.

Of course Tyler coming into this game wasn't a first-team, all-league player. I would say he made a pretty good statement here tonight.

Again, we have a very challenging schedule facing us, and we're looking forward to filling that last open date. Our team is looking forward to making another successful run.

You realized very early on it wasn't just about basketball. It was a platform to help people. The winning of the game became somewhat insignificant.

This is Social Security, and the government is not going to get itself into a situation where it has to cover for a lot of cowboys out there, ... There will be standards and they probably will be written tighter...we have a pretty good private pension system and it's very regulated, and there are surprisingly few blow-ups.

This group has slowly figured out that we can't blame it on anybody else, that we can't hang our heads. If we want to change this, it's got to start inside our locker room. I would say over the last week or 10 days, we've really practiced extremely hard every single time.

This is a 401(k)-styled defined contribution plan, ... It has performed very, very well.

There were mistakes (against Maryland) that we could have controlled. When we executed well, we got some great looks. There were a couple breakdowns and in a one-possession game you have to win every possession.

They're long and they really got out in the passing lanes. One of the things we talked about was using pass fakes, but we didn't do that.

At a meeting in St. Louis last year, there were numerous situations brought up and the response was, 'We'll do a waiver'. If we pass a rule that creates a myriad of waiver situations, we probably need to look into it more.

For Eureka, things we can do (are) speak one-on-one to our neighbors and friends (and) to our elected officials (about risky drinking).

It's taking awhile to get off the ground. We're still really in the toddler phase; we're still trying to find our legs.

It just makes you realize how blessed you are.

That kid can really run the floor, and you have to give him credit. He works very hard. I can't remember the last time I saw a freshman run the floor that hard.

Talent-wise, I'm convinced we can be competitive. But we've suffered injuries to Lewis and now Mario. It's a long season, and we're getting better.

It seemed like a lot of balls rolled right off the rim. We were getting some good looks. They just wouldn't fall.

They have to prepare for the best punch everybody has to offer every game. How those guys don't get worn down by it year after year after year is a credit to the coaching staff and the young men who come in and put on that uniform.

They know when it's crunch time, they've got to get the ball to Craig Smith or they're getting the ball to Jared Dudley. I appreciate watching them - unless you're on the other end of the bench.

I knew it was going to happen because I know his talent level and I know what he's capable of. But when he was in rut he was in, I didn't know if he was going to work his way out of it.

I just think we stopped attacking. We started getting tentative, getting on our heels and used up all our timeouts.

I remember one game we played and the team was pressing us and I had him bringing the ball up the court. A fellow coach, a friend of mine called me and said, 'Either you're a genius or you're crazy. How do you have a 6-10 freshman bringing the ball up the court? Don't you realize that every NBA team will see that?

He's starting to understand some of the little things you have to do. He's a talented, gifted scorer who can rebound. Defensively, off the ball, he's much, much better than he was last year or even earlier this year.

I don't know if we wanted it, but Clemson wanted it more than us.

Certainly what we're discovering all over the world right now ? that the entire industrial world looks like it's poised to enter into a serious deficit problem.

He's unbelievable. It's rare to find such an all-around player. He's a good student, he's a good person, he's a great player, he works at his game, he's humble. I don't care what field you're in, it's rare to have a person that has that combination.

He's an outstanding player. The thing you like about him is that he's gotten better every year.

He's not going to miss that shot. You've got to contest it.

I continue to see improvement on the defensive end. Over the last three games, I think we're doing the right things. The last game against Air Force, a team that had shot 49 percent, we held them under 30, and to follow up today and hold another team under 30, I like the improvement there.

The kid can really run the floor and you have to give him credit. He works very hard. We told our guys coming in that he probably runs the floor harder than any freshman I've seen.

The underage drinker is not only at fault, but there is an adult behind that. If they're drinking underage (they're) breaking the law and whoever provided that alcohol is breaking the law.

The effort level the last couple of games was much better. We've started to get better at holding on to the ball, but we've got to avoid the rashes that we've had that allow other teams to go on a run.