"We put our careers and everything we have into him. So what he says, we go with regardless. Whether it's right or wrong, we know in the end, everything will be right.
"We can't have everybody have their own way of playing basketball. It has to be everybody on the same page, and he's the guy we look to for that. We assessed it and we started going in the direction he wanted us to be going in, and we just ran out of time. Time was not on our side this year."
The Wildcats (25-8) spent every week of the season in the top 10 of the AP poll. They began the season ranked No. 5 and got as high as second. Expectations were running rampant on a team that had traveled to the Sweet 16 and the Final Four in the two previous years.
But after struggling mightily just to advance past a No. 15 seed in Robert Morris, the Wildcats saw their season come to a close against a No. 10, albeit a very good 10.
"We didn't finish the way we'd like to finish," senior cocaptain Reggie Redding said. "Everybody wants to win the national championship. Everybody wants to be Big East champions. But we never quit on each other.
"No matter what happened with anybody, we stuck together. We fought through it. We never quit on each other. The coaches never gave up on us. Nobody in the program ever gave up on us. I love these guys. I love playing with them and I'm going to miss them."
Samhan the man
Omar Samhan is one cool customer. He smiles easily. He obviously enjoys the competition. At one point in yesterday's game, he was fouled while making a shot, then turned to the crowd and put his finger to his lips to shush the 'Nova supporters.
The 6-foot-11 fifth-year senior from San Ramon, Calif., also is composed on the court. He made 13 of 16 shots from the field and scored 32 points, one short of his career high, in the Gaels' victory.
