I don't rank coaches. In my mind, in the modern era of basketball, he [Carey] is the guy that started it. He came here in the early 80s and turned us into a real quality basketball program, known nationwide.

This school's athletic programs, in particular, football, basketball and baseball are known nationwide. Basketball-wise it's because of him [Carey]. When you mention Garden City, people know where that is.

The biggest thing that stood out with me for Jim Carey was how he looked after his kids [players]. He wanted them to go to class, to graduate and then go on to four-year schools. He just looked after them, they were family for him.

I've said this many, many times: I don't need to be validated, not in basketball, ... I've won three championships. I was on the all-defensive team (nine times).

Sometimes scoring can be a bad indicator with the way you are playing. In the game of basketball, teams make runs and you hit shots in bunches. Though we got down early, in our system we were executing it pretty well. We were just hoping they weren't going to be keep hitting the shots they were.

We started three guys who haven't played a minute of Division I basketball in this type of environment, and I thought they showed a lot of poise right from the beginning. I thought we competed on every possession right to the end of the game, which was what we had hoped we would do.