Jordan went down to visit Florida, and they did a great job on the visit. His host was (current Grizzly player Anthony) Roberson, and he loved him. He had a really good relationship with Roberson. So when he came back, he was really leaning that way.

Jordan was masterful down the stretch at handling the ball and really doing a good job for us.

I thought they were terrific. They did an outstanding job of dealing with our press. We were trying real hard.

Our trainer did a good job snapping it right back into place.

I thought Jordan did a great job late in the game. My expectation is for Jordan to be aggressive and look to go to the basket, but he made some great plays on the defensive end.

I was really hoping we would play really well tonight so he and his family could enjoy that in the hospital room that he was in tonight. You know, in terms of what he means to the program, he's the patriarch. He is why this program is where it is. It's one of the elite programs in the country and has been since he started that job in 1948.

We were the tentative ones in the first half. I think we did a better job of playing way more aggressively at both ends of the floor in the second half.

Florida was terrific. Credit Billy Donovan. They were really well coached. They did an excellent job handling our pressure.

It was another outstanding job defensively. In the second half, we did a much better job of getting to the line and getting fouled.

They did a great job defensively. We got sped up.

Arizona has played the toughest schedule by far in our conference, playing some of the top teams in the country. (Olson) had done a good job of what works best.

Their defense was terrific. They did a great job defensively. We got sped up. We got a little hurried. We had opportunities to actually come into the paint and stop, but we were moving too fast.

Their defense was terrific. They did a great job defensively. We got sped up. We got a little hurried. We had opportunities to actually come into the paint and stop, but we were moving too fast.

He's the patriarch. He is why this program is where it is. It's one of the elite programs in the country, and has been since he started that job in 1948.

Last time I checked, Larry Brown started in college, for example, and he might be one of the top coaches.

I'm so happy for our guys. I'm most glad we're Pac-10 champions. We decided it ourselves. We don't have to wait for anybody and get in backdoor. Any time you win a championship it's special.

I'm so happy for our guys. Any time you win a championship it's special.

My biggest thing with him is he would never take any time off. He was sneaking in the gym. We got beat by West Virginia and all of a sudden he's back in the gym that night shooting for two hours. It's actually counter-productive when you wear your body out that much. It's like a marathon runner getting ready to run a marathon by running five marathons the day before he's going to run the marathon.

The repair to Alfred's left knee is less severe than his right, so the rehabilitation time will be less. This will be a quicker healing process. It's all good news, much better than expected.

They're obviously a great shooting team. Any time you shoot 39 percent on the year from three as a team, that's outstanding.

They can't wait to play. We're having fun. This is the greatest time of our lives right now.

Any time you're the conference champion, you get probably more votes for your players. As it should be.

The last time I checked, we were one of two schools ... that had played against five top 50 teams in the country. The RPI that they're using for the NCAA tournament is largely based on strength of schedule and we were fourth out of 330 teams, so we've absolutely been tested.

We're 18-2 and it doesn't feel that way. I don't feel overly comfortable or ecstatic. I just like where we are right now, but I know that there's a lot in front of us, so I'm not ready to make any defining statements yet. We've played pretty good basketball, but I don't know that we've played an exceptional game at both ends. So I think there's a lot of room for improvement, a lot of room for growth.

When I look back, that's probably the one thing that I'm going to remember more than anything, not so much the championships, the wins, but I think we made the Big East take women's basketball seriously. I think we made people around the country pay attention to what we were doing. Because of that, it showed a lot of people out there that there's an unbelievable game out there that people were missing.

She's come a long way with this team. She's one of the great people in the game and I'm happy for her.

Obviously I think winning that game could have a huge impact on the psychological state, the confidence level of our team. That's obvious. But at the same time, we're home. We're Connecticut. Everybody think we're one of the top-10 teams in the country. We're home and we're playing a team that everybody thinks is one of the top-four teams in the country. Going into the game, yeah, we expect to win this game. That's what you're supposed to think if you're us.

Obviously, coming off a game like that, we've got a lot of work to do. It's never easy to lose, and especially difficult to lose when a conference championship is at stake. It's magnified when we play as well as we did for 15 minutes and then go completely the other way. It takes the life out of you completely.

I would say for 32 minutes we were pretty good. Six or seven minutes I think in that first half maybe weren't that good, but I think this was as complete a game at both ends of the floor as we've had in a while.

I don't care if you have the best team in the country or are Cinderella, this is the hardest game to play in that you'll ever play in. The goal for most people is to have an experience of being in the Final Four. After you've been to the Final Four there's no experience like it, except winning a national championship.

I believe the way the game played out at Rutgers really stung them like nothing ever did before. I think there was a tremendous amount of soul searching and really trying to come to grips with who we are and what our strengths are and what our faults are and what we need to do.

Certainly it has become the game that everybody in the Big East points to.

I think the game was pretty much indicative of what a lot of what this season has been all about. Nothing's come easy. You can't count on anything any more. Everything's a struggle, and maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.

I thought we executed the game pretty well for thirty-some minutes. This is as much as a complete game as we've had in a really long time.

I thought that we executed our game plan pretty well for about 30-some minutes. This was as much of a complete game as we've had in a long, long time and I'm really happy for our guys.

I think a team like ours, they need to be constantly reminded of how hard every game is. This isn't the old St. John's where you're up 25. Those days are behind us. They need to know that every team we play, whether it's Cincinnati, St. John's, it's going to be tough.

I think we came out of the game feeling that Pitt lost rather than we won. We didn't really come out here and beat Pitt like we did so many other times.

Last year I didn't like the fact that you never what the starting lineup was going to be. I'd like it settled by the time the first game comes around. I'd like to be settled. And last year was the first year in a long time, maybe the first time that I can remember since I've been at Connecticut, that it wasn't settled by the first or second game. It never seemed to get itself settled.

I said going into the game they're going to get 60. I told the coaches that; I told the team that. And I never in a million years thought that we couldn't get 60.

Renee Montgomery had maybe the best game she's had since she's been at Connecticut. And I told her (Monday) she should transfer. I asked her, 'How does Mel Thomas have more steals than you? You've just got to get more involved. You've got to do more.' So (Tuesday) she's attacking the basket. She's stripping kids. She's playing like a basketball player. That makes all the difference in the world when you have guards that play like that.

I think this was as complete a game on both ends of the floor as we've had in a while. These guys are really committed right now to keep playing for as long as we can. I love the way we played.

I'm sitting her speechless. And that's not me. I feel at the end of the game I'm powerless. I can't instruct. I can't coach. I can't direct. I'm used to being able to do certain things. Our guys come out on the floor and play a certain way. And none of that is happening right now.

That would be pretty ironic, wouldn't it? Maybe it's meant to be that way. Hard to say, but it would be pretty neat. How about she's in the starting lineup at the Final Four and knocks in the first play of the game and scores 30 and is the MVP and rides off into sunset? You never know how it's going to be.

That was one of the all-time favorites because we were accused of making the roof leak on purpose. We don?t want to win by too much. Let?s create a diversion, so we stop the game for an hour. ... yeah, it?s been a while.

We were lousy. I told the players the one good thing that game out of this was we won the game. Other than that I can't think of really anything that came out of this that was good.

We came out of this game feeling like Pitt lost the game rather than we won the game. We didn't beat them like we have so many other times. They are one of the most aggressive teams we have played this season. We won because we have a little more talent and little more experience.

When you lose this game, there's nothing worse. There's nothing worse because this is the game that gets you to the place where all good things can happen. This is the hardest hurdle to get over, because you need 12 more months then to get back here and you didn't put yourself in a position to win the national championship.

You gotta be able to play with the game on the line.

Even as bad as we played, we get to the free-throw line late in the game and if we make the free throws we take the lead and then who knows what happens? Our guys missed the free throws, they make them, they deserved to win.

February is an important month at Connecticut. I like to think that when February comes you really put your game face on because what?s happened up to now it?s all going to go away if you don?t play well the next 60 days. The next 60 days for us, that?s the real season coming up right now.