«I am really proud of our players because there has been a lot of hard work on their part. The thing I'm really excited about is we will be playing on neutral courts. It was a tough route going up to Connecticut last season. We can deal with altitude but it's a lot more difficult to go out and play on a home court. Louisiana Tech is a great team. I know Chris Long well and he has done a great job as a first-year coach. It will be a tough one out there but it's something we will look forward to. We know we have to go out to Denver and take care of business. We can only take it one game at a time and we won't look past anything.»

«We were obviously thrilled when we were approached with the opportunity to light the spear. Obviously we have so much respect for our football program and to be the first team to experience that lighting of the torch for a special occasion is really awesome.»

«The altitude is going to be a factor in the sense that physiologically it will affect but it's going to affect all of the teams. The way you handle that is what's important. We're going to go out and we're going to play hard. We're going to do what we can to prepare for the altitude but then we're going to go out and play the ball game and not even think about it.»

«Our seniors have been able to do so much.»

«That's exactly what we were hoping for.»

«The important thing for us, we are not playing the program, but a basketball team. We will work on the types of things we need to do to match up with a very good team.»

«Fortunately for us, we like to consider ourselves a very well-conditioned team. I don't have a team where one player is the superstar. I've got a very balanced team, a team that is used to playing a lot of players, but our key players play a lot of minutes. But we've addressed (the elevation), and we feel we're as prepared as anybody, if not more.»

«It is so important for our program to develop awareness that there is life outside of basketball. We want to continue to connect with young people and others in need.»

«It's all about the game. Game, game, game. They know the big-picture stuff. ... I don't think I've had a team as determined to move forward as this one.»

«Not only can she penetrate and score around the basket, but she can shoot the deep three. There are not a lot of players out there who have both elements like that. We've really got to find her (tonight).»