Arizona Player Quotes

Michael Wright -
"I really took it upon myself to take over inside and really give it to those (Stanford) guys. I just did all that I could, and I think it was enough. Without Loren (Woods) in there, we were at a little bit of a disadvantage, but it did not seem to matter. I just got in there and took care of business. My jumpshot was working, so that was a big help.

"After the Oregon road trip, our confidence was not very high. That really hurt us because we did not just lose, we did not play well. Tonight is going to give us a lot more confidence, but we still have to play a tough game on Saturday. All that we can do now is take things one day at a time.

"We have to get out there and play hard. There is no way around what we have to do on Saturday against Cal. We have the opportunity to go out and win the Pac-10 Championship, now we have to take care of business. We have to come in focused and get the job done. This is just a step to the Pac-10 title and a No. 1 seed."

Richard Jefferson -
"You look at some of our wins agianst Michigan State, Stanford twice and Texas. But then you look at some of our losses, and we have lost some bad games to Oregon State and New Mexico. We have even lost here at McKale Center. We have not brought our 'A' game every night. Now is the time we have to do it.

"We were able to take care of it tonight when the pressure was on. We were not able to do that at Oregon. We had a 17-point lead up there and lost it. Tonight we had a big lead and almost let it slip away. But we were able to be focused enough and win.

"The coaches kept telling us to keep enough defensive pressure on them on the perimeter. We started to get better at that and did not let them hit as many shots in the second half.

"I had been reading in a lot of publications that Stanford was the team to beat in the Pac-10 now. They were saying they are the new power. That's just not true. Arizona is still the team to beat in the Pac-10. As long as I am here, and as long as these other guys are here, we are going to be the team to beat. Stanford may have taken the No. 2 team over from UCLA, but we are still the team to beat."

Jason Gardner -
"Luke Walton looks incredible tonight. I think he had a double-double with about 15 points and 12 assists. He has been playing very well tonight, and he just stepped up to another level tonight. Richard came through tonight, too. Especially in the second half, he did a lot of things that really were key. We kept getting the ball out to him on the same plays and he was making it happen.

"We wanted to pressure them on the ball everywhere they went. We can still beat anybody. In a tight game like this, we had to do the little things like block out well and get all of the rebounds. They also have a lot of shooters, so we were able to keep them in check for the most part."

Luke Walton -
"I just started to get in a little bit of a groove tonight. I saw a lot of the openings they were giving me, and for the most part the guys were just finishing on the passes I gave them. They did a great job inside, Mike Wright and the other guys.

"We were switching a lot on them on the defensive perimeter. Every other play I was guarding the four, three or two, so that was something that was tricky to take care of. Everyone on the team stepped it up though. There was no one person who won the game. It was a complete team effort."

Stanford Player Quotes

David Moseley:
"We've lost two tough games. They had a great game plan. I think we won the battle of the boards."

"I really wanted to keep us in the game. If we're down by 10 with 5 minutes to go, we've got a chance to win. We just couldn't get the stops we needed."

Casey Jacobsen:
"This is the toughest arena to play in all year. They play with a lot of poise. It was the exact same thing as last weekend. Arizona just played better than us. We are very, very disappointed. Who cares about the stupid seed crap?"

Mark Madsen:
"We had very little heart out there tonight. We froze up on offense and defense. I've never won here. Give them credit. They played a great game. We didn't."

"This game is behind us, we've already regrouped. We're going to bounce back strong."

"This is upsetting, it's bothersome. But it's behind us. We've already regrouped. This team is not going to fold."

"I've never won a game here, it looks like I never will."

Ryan Mendez:
"They outhustled us, they wanted it more. Walton diving on the floor, Arenas diving on the floor, and Gardner making plays. With Woods out and Wessel out, we've got to take advantage. We've got some of the best post players in the nation. We didn't take advantage. They set the tone offensively and defensively."

On Richard Jefferson:
"He hit some key shots, he was relentless on offense and defense. He was like Michael Jordan with the 15 foot fadeaway. There's not much you can do about that."