Dan Monson Quotes
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Every team begins the year with the goal of going to the NCAA tournament. Until somebody takes that dream away, you pursue it. The reality is, we're a long way off from being in the NCAA tournament. For us to do that is a pipe dream. But if we were to win our last four, we're 8-8 in the best conference in the country. We'd have an opportunity.
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When you play Northwestern, a key is that it's so good at controlling tempo. When they get a lead, they go from good to great. They were in control of the tempo for the majority of the game, and we had to play from behind.
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Last year's team, you didn't know if we were going to win or lose, but you knew we were going to fight. We have some different ways to score now, but do we have the same type of personality?
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What's impressive to me is how (Illinois) plugged into their roles and identity of that basketball team. What is our identity What end of the court Who is doing it How are we going to win games
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We got caught in the middle some and they made us pay.
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We did some better things offensively. Obviously in the last eight minutes, we reverted back a little bit.
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We couldn't play them the same way we did the first two times. It just wouldn't work. We needed something to change that, and we challenged Vince earlier in the week.
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To me, when guys beat you down the court, that's unacceptable. Randle's effort and energy, he's athletic and brings energy, certainly busted it open in that stretch.
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I think people look at recruiting and they don't realize you've got to go back four years ago to get this senior class. Sanctions don't hit you the first year. They hit you down the road. Unfortunately, that's what has happened, to a degree, to this program. I don't want to put it all on that.
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People remember you as you leave a program not in the middle of it or how you came in. And I think that's something they're all trying to focus on.
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If we somehow could win a couple, our last 10 would be a very good record against top 20 teams. We have to keep grinding because that's what the Big Ten is about. We're playing against teams that beat us the first time, and we're trying to show we've improved by getting some of these guys on the way out.
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We just couldn't play Horton the same way we did the first two times. We challenged Vince early in the week, and just giving a potent point guard a different look was important to us.
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It was a one-play game, four or five different times, and we just didn't get it done. We just need to get some wins to build some confidence. Our guys are just really hurting right now.
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We've got to win some games to get some confidence.
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You're waiting for something good to happen to get going, but it's a catch-22. You've got to do something to get yourself going.
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We never got into a rhythm of getting stops and when we did they did a good job of scrapping up some rebounds and keeping it alive against us.
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You don't win games with being just good basketball players. You need toughness. You need heart. You need some feel for the game that isn't in the box score.
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I think it was a real credit to our guys that they believed in the game plan and how they had to play to win.
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I thought we did a lot of good things to get a win. But you have to make free throws. And when you have a chance on the road, and we had many, you need to learn how to grab it by the throat and finish it.
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I don't anticipate having him in the near future. But as I told him, we're nearly two months away from playing games, and a lot can happen in two months.
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When you have a chance on the road, and we had many, you've got to finish it. Right now, (we're) a team that didn't take it by the throat and finish it when they had an opportunity.
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He lost some timing when he got hurt. Our defense is not going to be able to create for him as much as it did last year. He gets a lot of his baskets in the open court, and we're not going to be able to get that for him as much this year.
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When you have as many opportunities to win on the road against a quality team as we did and don't come out with it, that took its toll. Physically, but more importantly, emotionally. We have to get our confidence back.
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I think we've got a little bit of an identity right now that we didn't have in the beginning of the season. Back then, we didn't know how to win. I think we have guys right now that understand what they need to do. Now we have some semblance of a team. It took a while for our guys to figure it out. That put us in a whole, but we're better now.