Tulsa Basketball Quote Page on Selection to NCAA Tournament
3/11/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Head Coach John Phillips: "I'm very excited. I know that for the University of Tulsa to be back in the NCAA tournament where, I think, we belong. It has been a tough 24 hours from yesterday. I was just nervous about getting in, and getting this opportunity. All the players and coaches are really thrilled about being back in and to have an opportunity to play against the best."
On the team reaction: "It came up there so fast. Like a couple of years ago, when we were going to play in the east, going to play Duke in the second round. It came up so fast, I wasn't ready. I thought we were going to go to the west or somewhere where we had some time. All of a sudden it was there."
On Marquette: "I've watched Marquette all year on TV. I think both teams are very similar. They are very athletic and they play hard, extremely hard. They've had a lot of great wins this year and it should be a very exciting ball game."
On being one of the last teams in: "It doesn't matter as long as we are in. You know once they throw that ball up and start the tournament everybody has the same opportunity to win. You see it every year where that first ball game there is a lot of upsets. We will play hard and play to the best of our ability. Truthfully, the University of Tulsa and our program expects to go to the tournament and do well. It's good to be back."
On strength of schedule: "Well I am hopeful at some point at time, if the selection committee and the NCAA tournament committee are going to be using the RPI or a form of the RPI that somehow or another that schools, such as Tulsa, that want to play the top programs in the America are given that opportunity. Maybe the NCAA can require that those top-20 programs play a certain amount of schools similar to us. Or it maybe it becomes a point system where we can prove that we are requesting to play them. I can show them the letters that I have faxed to a lot of the top programs over the last three years and their refusal to play us. Then maybe we can get some type of credit on the RPI system, to say, hey they wanted to play a top-20 program but those programs refused. So they could give us points for at least wanting to. I don't know how that could be done, but it needs to be addressed, because schools like Tulsa are in a tough situation. If our conference has a low RPI then we are playing home and away with those teams in our conference that have the ability to strengthen our schedule, except our non-conference play. Our non-conference play is totally dictated by who we can get to play us. The University of Tulsa wants to play the best every year. And most schools like Tulsa want to play the top programs, but we just don't have the opportunity. I think the NCAA is becoming more and more aware of it, especially when schools like Tulsa win in the NCAA tournament. One point I brought up to our team was that a few years ago we lost a heartbreaker to Fresno State in the finals of the tournament and then went on to the NCAA tournament and won three ball games and got to the Elite 8. Last year the same thing happened, we didn't make it to the NCAA tournament, but we won five games in the NIT tournament en route to the NIT title. We have won eight ball games over the past two years after disappointing losses in the conference championship. It would be good to follow suit with our history. This team has responded positively anytime that we have lost a ball game this year, we have comeback and gone on a run. This is a good time of a year for us to bounce back and show their character on Thursday."
Tulsa Senior Guard Greg Harrington: "We're just anxious to get out on the floor and play basketball. We had a tough night last night, but that's behind us. It didn't matter what number came up next to our school's name. I know each game could possibly be our last, so we're just going to go out and have as much fun as possible and enjoy these times."
"We never really had any thoughts of not making the tournament or not having our name called. We were just really disappointed last night and to tell you the truth I take all the blame for that loss last night. But, we woke up to another day and we have a lot to look forward to and to be thankful for. We have to put last night's game behind us because we have some games to look forward to still. Every team in America started practice the same day and they all had the same goal in mind, which was to still be playing this time of the year. We're just fortunate to have this opportunity and we're going to go out and try to make the best of it."
On bouncing back from a loss this season: "It's not hard for this group at all because, more than anything, we have so much fight and heart in us. We all love this game of basketball. I think what happened last night was we knew we were in a perfect position to prove ourselves once again, and we started out kind of slow and I think we started thinking more than we should have been instead of just going out and playing. We know what we're capable of doing and now we have another opportunity to play basketball and enjoy these games with each other.
"I don't think yesterday's game will have any effect as we prepare for Marquette. They are a different team, one that we haven't faced at all, and it's just a different situation. We can't look back at anything at this point in the season. We just have to go out and play the team on the other side of the court. We have to go out and give it our all. The only thing matters is playing our game on Thursday."
On playing in St. Louis, Missouri: "We're just fortunate enough to play in a place close to Tulsa. I'm pretty sure we're going to have a good crowd there and it's going to be a great atmosphere for us. It ought to be a really good game."
