Coaches Quotes from the Big Ten Championships finals
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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
03/04/2001
J Robinson, Univ. of Minnesota coach First place team "Anytime you win, you feel good about it. We had some different goals this year. We have a high confidence level. We had high expectations. We came here to win. We thought we paid the price and earned it." "This is a stepping stone for us. We go back home now and start over. We focus on one event at a time. We have to step it up another level. The national tournament is another level." "The thing about this team is its air of confidence. Everybody on this team believes. In 1999, there were a few guys who might have been scared or worried. The more concrete stuff you have, the more you believe. They will ride home tonight, and are the Big Ten Champions. We are not there yet. Iowa is the reigning champions. We are going into a hornet's nest. They won't give up anything." Mark Johnson, Univ of Illinois coach Second place team "We had two Big Ten champions and placed second as a team. You have to take steps to beat Iowa before you can win a national tournament. Every time you do well, you have new confidence." "We have a strong nine guys going to the nationals. This is as strong a group of seeds as we've ever had. We have a chance to do well." "We always tweak some things at the end of the year. Five years ago, Nate Patrick and Pat Quirk wrestled in the Illinois state finals. People asked me why did I recruit them both. Well, this is why. They are some great young men." Jim Zalesky, Univ. of Iowa coach Third place team "In a tournament like this, when you don't have the horses, you won't win. Not scoring points at 197 and heavyweight hurt us. In the finals, we wrestled well. We won nine of 11 matches today. Our athletes wrestled very well today. This was a good test for the NCAA Tournament, and to see where we are at. We just didn't do the job yesterday." "It was positive in the finals. It's not that they won, but the way they won. They wrestled with dominance. This will give us some momentum going into the NCAA Championships. Hopefully, the other four guys on the team will step it up too."