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.

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.

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.

The Padres asked us to find a consistent backup man. Steve did a nice job for us on Aztecs basketball, he's well known in San Diego, so he was a very logical and very good choice.

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.