He was a Hall of Fame coach in his own right at UMass, ... But playing in the Yankee Conference, he was never going to get the recognition.

He likes playing here. We may move all of our games here.

I think we showed up like a team that had glanced at our record and saw we had beaten Syracuse handily both times. My point is that in a tournament, no one really cares what seed you are or whether you beat someone before. It's the 40 minutes you're playing today that's important.

I think as we've gotten down to the time of the season where you're playing for a chance at a Big East championship, playing to get a bye in New York and, obviously, playing for seeding in the NCAA Tournament, there's no room for experiments or getting young kids some experience.

Over the last 15 years, the type of players we've had here, the fortune to be successful, we've had the bull's-eye. Now there's the added bull's-eye of a new league, being No. 1. They just pile up. That's exactly where you want to be. You want to be playing from the top. I hear guys say they like to be the underdog. But there's a reason you're the underdog. I'd like to be playing from the top any time I can.

I wish we were playing tonight. Especially after our experience last week.

I think Indiana is a very good basketball team. I just think there were moments and minutes in that game where we were pretty special. It didn't matter who we were playing because we blocked everything, we ran out and we made good decisions. I'm very proud of my basketball team today.

That's the price you pay. And that's the price you want to continue to pay. We're not playing better or worse because of any kind of pressure. We're just not playing as well.

We caught them when they were playing terrific basketball. And we caught them off guard. I could see it on tape that they just didn't expect us to be as good as we were. That may have been, at particular points, as good as we've played offensively. We really, really played well.

When we're executing and blocking shots and playing defense and you don't get us in a situation where we have to create plays, we're absolutely terrific. But we're a flawed team.

We worked on the 1-3-1 for three straight days this week and it paid off. It means a little something extra to go home with a win against such a great team. The enthusiasm of each shot is big when playing in such a hostile environment as we were today.

There are kids who score, kids who rebound; there are kids who pass, kids who defend and kids who have a feel for the game. He has all those attributes. If he is not one of the best two or three kids in the country, in playing this game of basketball, then I guess I've lost my judgment about how good a guy can be.

This weekend might be like root canal in the sense the way Seton Hall is playing right now. That's the first order of business.

What really hurt us a lot of times is another team playing well and us not playing so well.

Bobby Jones looks to me like a guy who can make a living in the NBA just playing defense. He's an absolutely magical player defensively.

Sometimes it can be the best thing in the world for you. A lot of times when you go through a down period, you find out a lot more about yourself than times when everything is flowing and you're winning. To some degree, Kentucky is already tournament-tested. They've been playing games with tournament implications for a while now.

said Pat Calhoun with a laugh. ''It doesn't matter to him whether he was playing for a state championship or a national championship.

Denham is playing the best basketball of his life. This is the guy we had while winning the Maui Invitational. Denham had some roadblocks but thank God he stayed with it all season. But that's the story of this season. It's all about who can persevere.

This is where you want to be. You want to be playing from the top.

It's going to be nice playing an away game, too. I'm looking forward to that.

It's going to be nice playing an away game. I'm looking forward to that. I think that part of the system is really working out to protect the ones.

It's amazing that we were playing Kentucky for the first time. But we're trying to earn (recognition) as a lead program in America, and hopefully we continue to do that. It was obviously a tremendous, tremendous basketball game.

It won't surprise me to see someone playing their fourth game in four days on Saturday. I just think the league has been like that.

The two guards are just absolutely playing terrific.. Whitney has really become a force in this league. They're the kind of team that feels good about itself and those kind of teams you cannot give an opening to.

I'm so proud of my kids. We took every shot Kentucky had. It's amazing we were playing Kentucky for the very first time.

I think all 12 teams in this tournament are capable of playing in the NCAA tournament and doing well in the NCAA tournament. That is incredibly rare.

I can still see Calvin Murphy getting 62 points, and I can still see flashbacks from the pictures of Wilt getting 100, ... You go from the biggest to the smallest. The wonders of the game, from the guys playing pickup to the kids shooting in Indiana to the inner city kid who finds a way out through the sport of basketball - and I don't mean necessarily to the NBA - are embodied in this game. It doesn't take wealth or pure size. It takes heart, repetition, talent. All that stuff is embodied in the game. When I walk through that building, it's embodied there.

We did it, but it's tough to get all the way through. It won't surprise me to see somebody playing a fourth game in four days, the league is like that this year. This was the most games that came down to last three minutes, at least our most in 10 years and yet we were 27-2, which means we were there to finish the deal. But in a one-game tournament anything can happen.

We're a new league, a league of 16. But this seems like the old wars of the '80s and '90s.

We've taken the quality of teams and just increased them in quantity. I don't think anybody truly understands how difficult this league will be day in and day out.

My fear is being flat (for the start of league play). When we lost to Boston College last year to start the Big East, we couldn't raise ourselves to that level. Having not played that kind of competition recently, I have concerns, but we have to play these two games first.

From top to bottom, this league is terrific - Notre Dame, is a fantastic team, they sit at 1-5, but they're not a 1-5 basketball team. That's the unfortunate thing about the league. You can't have an off day, or an off couple of minutes, or you'll lose.

We just have superior numbers of people. Not even superior people because Robert gets them to play as well as any guy in this league. What he's done is instill, in my opinion, a work ethic that's as good as any team in our league and almost any league in the country.

I think clearly this is the best league in the country.

We're a league of 16 now. It seems like the old wars of the '80s and '90s again. Every game comes down to 10 kids on the floor after loose balls, someone making a big play, someone getting a big rebound, someone making a stop.

This was an advertisement for how hard the teams in this league play. Increasing our toughness was one thing I thought we had to do. We knew we could score, but we had to show we could come up with that kind of game like we had other times this season.

This was an advertisement for how hard the teams in this league play.

This was a year that if you relaxed, you were going to get beat. Here's Marquette picked 12th, and they have a bye. It gives you a sense of just how strong this league is. It's almost impossible to imagine that a couple of years ago. The diversity and depth of players make it almost impossible to predict.

To get through this league is one of the most difficult walks you're going to have. I've never seen a league like this. I've never seen as many tough, tough games as this league has provided.

Everyone's talking about how many we'll send, let's see if we can get out of the league first. People who are good are going to rack up a lot of losses. ... I'm afraid we will beat each other up so much that records won't be truly indicative of how good a team is.

Don't get too carried away. Get around this league, go to some of the places, get on the road and see some of the friendly faces in this league and maybe we'll see you another time.

I've been in the league 20 years, and this is the most competitive that it has ever been.

I've always thought he was unappreciated, ... It wasn't until he got to the Final Four in the Meadowlands in 1996 that I felt he was truly appreciated. I remember the first 10 years in the league I had to answer why Jim can't win this or that. We're the old guard of the Big East.

That's what this game is all about, getting ourselves ready for the next three games and then head on into our league games.

They played some big games last year without Curtis. They can still win the league but it's going to be tougher. They scare me because of the way they spread the court and make you play small ball.

This league will not allow you to breathe. If you're not good every night, you're going to get beat. It's that difficult. In all my years in this league, I've never seen anything like it.

This league is a bear. I have great respect for Pittsburgh. For us to go anyplace, we have to beat Pittsburgh. For Pittsburgh to go anyplace, they have to go by us.

It seems like there are more overtime games, more tough games and the reason is there are more good teams. Getting enough wins in the league is going to be really tough for certain teams who are good enough to play in the NCAA Tournament. Some teams are going to play really well and lose.

It's a tribute to the hard work the kids put in because they played in the best league in the country. I think our kids should be honored. We have an awful lot of good players in this league. I couldn't be prouder of our kids.

It's an important time because no one wants anyone else to get off to a 7-0 start. The league is off to a good start.