Wojo Quotes

"He's probably the most underrated player in the country."
Shane Battier on Wojo

"These guys coming back have a great future. They're going to do some really special things. I'm going to enjoy watching them, where ever I might be."
Wojo

"The greatest thing is knowing that I loved you and you loved me back."
Wojo to Coach K in his closing statement of his senior speech at the 1998 Duke Basketball Banquet

"Somehow they got a fat little Polish kid on the cover of Sports Illustrated. I don't know how they did it, but I didn't ask any questions."
Wojo, when thanking Duke Sports Information during his senior speech at the Duke Basketball Banquet

"My goal as a Duke basketball player was to return this basketball team to the status they had prior to coming to Duke. I feel that along with some of the other upperclassmen, we have been able to set the table for the future. We were so close to making it back to the Final Four that it really hurts, not just for me, but for my teammates and all the people who have believed in us for so long."
Wojo

"You looked for him when it was over, because he is so much of what makes this game special. In basketball terms, Wojo is just next to no feet tall and his talents exude about as much style as a dock strike. But he was the heart of his team. To the enemy, he was fingers on a blackboard. He was body lice. Wojo the senior dove for his last loose balls on Sunday. A Kentucky giant fell on him. Wojo was hurting. Wojo got up."
Martin Fennelly, in an article in the Tampa Tribune after the Duke-Kentucky game

"I feel pretty empty right now. But this team accomplished a lot and ought to be proud. And when they do win championships, I'll always feel I was a part."
Wojo, after his final college game

"I enjoyed it. I hope he enjoyed it. What can I say? It's no big deal."
Wojo, on his scuffle with Jamaal Magloire in the Duke-Kentucky game

"Wojciechowski, a candidate for national Defensive Player of the Year honors, works like a cork. He latches on near midcourt, often making it difficult for opposing point guards to set up the offense, much less run it."
Doug Carlson, in his article in the Tampa Tribune

"He is the 5-11 scrapper guard Duke fans love and everyone else hates. Cheer him. Boo him. But don't take your eyes off him."
Martin Fennelly, in his article in the Tampa Tribune

"I can see Wojo on the docks. I'd go there with him. The docks, an alley, a war. I'd go with Wojo."
Teammate Trajan Langdon

"And in that instant, in a pale white blur, a tangle of arms and legs and heart, you'll understand why our subject has his own fan page on the Duke basketball Web site and how a name longer than some interstates - Wojciechowski - can become a four-letter word."
Martin Fennelly, of The Tampa Tribune, in his article on Wojo

"I just want to be remembered as a person who gave their heart and their body and their mind to Duke basketball. And the kid who helped Duke win."
Wojo

"He'd give three of his toes to win a game. He makes the rest of his team embarrassed if they don't play as hard."
Doug Gottlieb, point guard, Oklahoma State

"Without him, we're blind mice out there."
Shane Battier

"I'd bang on them. I used to muscle them down low to toughen them up. Steve always came back at you."
Ed Wojciechowski, Sr., Wojo's father, on how he wouldn't let his kids win at anything

"I'd do anything I had to do to support my family."
Wojo, when asked if he could be a longshoreman, his father's occupation

"I can never be asked about him too many times. I simply love the way Wojo plays basketball. You can start with the way he plays defense and go down the list of all the little things he contributes. Everything we do starts with Wojo."
Coach K

"You gotta love being booed. I love a battle. We're just two little white point guards. I love competitors and he's the greatest. He'd give up three of his toes to win a game."
Doug Gottlieb of Oklahoma State on his scuffle with Wojo in the first half of the second round game of the NCAA Tournament

"When we go into an opponent's arena, I've had people go after (Christian) Laettner -- and he's loved it -- and (Bobby) Hurley and Grant (Hill). I'm amazed at how they go after Wojo. I mean he's 5-10 or whatever he is, and he may score one point in that game. But our opponents just hate him, and so do the opposing fans. And he loves it.''
Mike Krzyzewski

"I didn't see myself ending up on the shower floor, naked."
Wojo, after pushing himself through illness to dehydration during the ACC Tournament

"One of the reasons why I've always preferred the college game over the NBA, or basketball over football or baseball, for example, is a player like Steve Wojciechowski."
Bill Brill, sports writer

"If there were, I would use them."
Wojo, after the UNC game, his last game in Cameron, on not being able to come up with words to express his feelings

"He's as valuable to our team as any kid is to any team. All his intangibles make everybody else better. Our guys feed off him. He's our leader. He's our guy. He's very, very unique because of his leadership qualities."
Coach K on Wojo

"Wojo is our leader. He led us to this victory. I don't care about assists or points or anything. He led us to this victory with his tenacity and his will to win."
Elton Brand after the Carolina game in Cameron

"Most of my turnovers were my fault. It's trying to make the tough play rather making the easy play. I can't say it's the other team's defense. Sometimes it is, but most of the time, it's my fault."
Ed Cota, taking much of the blame for Saturday's loss, but perhaps neglecting the fact that Wojo recorded 3 steals

"I'll take my point guard with me through any alley or dark street. With everything on the table, he had 11 assists and inspired our team to play the kind of man-to-man defense it is capable of playing. His performance had to be one of the great one-point efforts in the history of hte game. He wouldn't let us lose his last game here."
Coach K after the North Carolina game, his 500th win

"I truly love Wojo."
Mike Krzyzewski the night before the Duke-Carolina game

"We've had a goal to be ACC champions. We've done that, and we have another step to go."
Steve Wojciechowski

"Elton was a great player. Elton IS a great player. It's an unbelievable feeling having him back."
Wojo on Elton

"The only thing he can do is help us. What he gives us is an inside presence. Elton was a great player. It's just an unbelievable feeling having him back."
Wojo on the return of Elton Brand

"Battier amazes me. Jamison is a physical specimen, and for Shane to up and block him like that is just great."
Wojo on teammate Shane Battier's key block with less than a minute left in the Clemson game at Littlejohn, as quoted in The Chronicle

"For Trajan, it was a big-time night by a big-time player. And it wasn't like Clemson was giving him any open looks. He had to work for everything he got."
Wojo on fellow co-captain Trajan Langdon's clutch performance against the Tigers at Clemson, as quoted in The Chronicle

"It's not just the guys for N.C. State. You've got the fans who give them energy and momentum. You've got to beat those people, too. It's funny to me. A little guy like me, who not so long ago nobody cared about, now everyone has an opinion about me."
Wojo, as quoted in Journal Now

"He's an outstanding player. He does a great job of seeing the court, penetrating and delivering the ball. I don't think I rattled him."
Wojo on Ed Cota, as quoted in The Daily Tar Heel

"I ain't gonna lie. I was playing soft, knowing how I could beat him. Then he started grabbing me, smacking me up. Toward the end of the game, I just started taking it to him."
North Carolina point guard Ed Cota, as quoted in The Daily Tar Heel

"Wojo is clearly the most irritating player Duke has put on the floor in years. His on-court emotion is often considered infectious and contagious."
Aaron Beard, the sports editor for The Daily Tar Heel, North Carolina's student newspaper, when asked by The Sporting News who was the current Duke player you should hate the most

"I've seen a couple of players who looked like they wanted to fight me after a game."
Steve Wojciechowski, as quoted by Andy Jasner, a sportswriter on CBS SportsLine's staff.

"You don't truly appreciate Wojo until you play with him. He is just a great basketball player. You talk about doing all the little things -- controlling the tempo, being a great leader, getting loose balls...it's the combination of those things that make him a great player."
Shane Battier, as quoted by Al Featherston of The News & Observer

"To me, he can stop just about any point guard in the country. That's his game. It's not scoring; it's not just assists -- which he has a lot of both -- it's that defensive factor. Game after game, Wojo plays hard and stops other point guards...Even in practice, he's diving on the floor, he's screaming, he's playing Jay Heaps the same [as he plays in a game]. You see it on TV and think he might just dive on the floor to look good, but he's diving on the floor to get the ball. It's not about numbers. It's what he does for the team."
Elton Brand, as quoted by Al Featherston of The News & Observer

"I truly believe in Steve. He's terrific. He's the leader of this team and will have a huge impact on how good this team is."
Coach K on Wojo

"I see him lead, and I just want to follow. Without question, he's making me better. He's making me mature quicker. He's playing me hard, every day in practice. I'm going to be a better player next season because of what he's teaching me and showing me. I'm going through a learning process because of him. That's preparing me for next year."
Will Avery, as quoted by Al Featherston of The News & Observer

"A couple more inches."
Wojo, when asked by The News & Observer what he wanted for Christmas 1997 to add to his basketball repetoire

"That's got to be a typo. We didn't have him in the top 25? That's ridiculous. He should be in the top five."
Dick Vitale on his preseason magazine's top 25 point guards

"Contrary to the inaccurate reports, he was not outplayed by Duke's Steve Wojciechowski in the Maui title game but, rather, was undone by difficult officials calls that limited him to 27 minutes of mostly playing to avoid disqualification."
Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News on Mike Bibby, obviously knowing more than Lute Olson, who is quoted below

"The game has never really come easy for me like it has for a lot of guys.''
Wojo, as quoted in the News & Observer by A.J. Carr

"He was truly a hard worker. Most of the time he did a good job [mowing]. If he didn't, we'd make him re-do it. He [also] had a good little personality and seemed to get along well with everybody. I never had any trouble with him."
Steve's mother, as quoted in the News & Observer by A.J. Carr

"When I think of Wojciechowski, the words that come to mind are 'overachiever,' He's unbelievable. He has a big, big heart. Nobody plays harder.''
Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins, as quoted in A.J. Carr's article in The News & Observer

"We are getting back to the early '90s and late '80s. It's been a process. For the four years I have been here, we've gotten better each year. It all comes back to the standards people hold Duke basketball to. But that's why you come here and why you play for Duke because the standards are high and you have a chance to do something great."
Steve Wojciechowski

"There's no question we have a lot of talented guys, but I don't think chemistry is going to be a question for this team. Trajan and I are going to make sure it's not a problem.''
Wojo

"I definitely think our expectations are higher than they have been in the three years I have been here. Guys think we have a legitimate shot at competing for a national championship. . . . It's just a feeling we have. It's something you see when we walk on the court and come to practice. The bar has been raised again. We did it as a team, players and coaches. It wasn't specifically spoken, but in the way we handle things and the way we practice and the way we play, I think it's clear."
Steve Wojciechowski before the Maryland game

"Wojo knows one speed when it comes to playing basketball and that speed is called all-out competitive."
Johhny Moore, Blue Devil Weekly Basketball Yearbook

"I think my competitiveness has been one of the main reasons that I have been successful at this level, and it has made it so I can play at this level."
Steve Wojciechowski

"It's not something that I can turn off. I guess it's in me, it's innate."
Wojo on his competitive nature

"Wojo and I were both at a crossroads in our lives. It was after the [1994-95] season ended that we really got to know each other...No one really thought that Wojo could do it, but I saw something in the kid that maybe reminded me of myself."
Quin Snyder

"It is one of the most satisfying feelings I could have as a person, to know somebody who is at the top of his profession, who will go down as one of the greatest coaches of all-time, would believe in a little fat polish kid from Baltimore. For him to do that and choose me with that belief is just an unbelievable feeling and something I will always cherish and always treasure."
Wojo on Coach K

"There are a lot of cliches about putting your heart on the floor and you can use them all, they equal Wojo."
Mike Krzyzewski

"Wojciechowski, whom his coach says practices every day like he's trying to make the team, became the Blue Devils' physical and emotional glue."
Barry Jacobs on Wojo's effort in the 1996-97 season

"We're capable of being fresh for 40 minutes and keep a level of passion against anybody. We're not trying to convince anyone of anything. We're just an unselfish basketball team which genuinely cares about each other. We want to play better every time we play."
Steve Wojciechowski

"Steve Wojciechowski sets a tone on the floor with his pit-bull combativeness."
A.J. Carr, sports writer for The News & Observer

"We can get a lot better. The thing we need to keep doing is playing at the same level of intensity, the same level of passion. Some of it's experience, but we can do better offensively and defensively."
Wojo on the team after the UVa game

"He's always a pest, and I say that in a positive way."
Virginia coach Jeff Jones on Wojo

"I can't wait for conference play to start. ACC basketball is the greatest. Right now we're getting used to playing with each other. It's just a process of getting better and better."
Steve Wojciechowski

"We don't want to put an emphasis on [No. 1 ]. Our goal is to be there at the end. We should play the same way every game, attack every game, develop that mind-set. We've still got a lot of improving to do."
Steve Wojciechowski on the AP ranking of #1 for the week of December 1st, 1997

"Steve Wojciechowski has always played with great effort."
An understatement by Eddy Landreth, sports writer for Journal Now Sports

"Wojo does a great job frustrating players."
Trajan Langdon on Wojo's performance against Mike Bibby of Arizona and then Roderick Blakney of SC State

"Wojciechowski, if he could hit a free throw would have done all right. He did all right in other ways. He blamed the misses on exhaustion, but Polish people don't miss free throws, so there must be some other nationality in his blood."
Mike Krzyzewski on Wojo's performance in the Arizona game. For the record, Wojo's mother is Irish-American.

"I might have caught Mike (Bibby) on an off night tonight."
Wojo's humility is evident after winning the MVP of the Maui Invitational for his all-around play and his stellar defense of Arizona point guard Mike Bibby

"Wojo took Mike out of his game and Mike is a really good player."
Lute Olson on Wojo's excellent defense against Mike Bibby in the Maui Invitaional Finals

"So, he's on the cover of Sports Illustrated? Well, he must be pretty good then."
Mike Bibby on hearing that Wojo would be on the cover of SI

"Wojciechowski averaged 6.9 [points] and 5.3 assists as a junior, numbers that hardly justified the All-ACC numbers he was accorded. He does however dive on the floor a lot."
Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News on Wojo's selection to second team All-ACC

"The Wooden Award named him one of the top 50 players in the nation, which ought to cause the king of coaches to take his name off the trophy."
The Sporting News on Wojo

"He hustles, he grimaces, he shakes his fist, he dives on the floor and he is a media darling, but Duke's Wojciechowski shouldn't be considered one of the best players in college hoops."
The Sporting News on Wojo

"That's blasphemy. That is just ridiculous."
Shane Battier on the above comments by The Sporting News

"To be perfectly honest, I never had a guy I played with or a coach I played for criticize the way I play, ever. Those are the only people who matter to me."
Wojo, on how he feels about the amount of criticism he receives

"A magazine can't determine whether you play hard or not. And I've tried to play as hard as I can for three years."
Steve Wojciechowski on the SI cover jinx. Sports Illustrated happened to pick Duke #1 in the preseason of the 1991-92 season.

"It has not been the same [in recent years] as the teams where we had so much stability from the mid-'80s to '94, with older guys teaching the younger guys. We have that now in Wojo especially and Trajan."
Coach Mike Krzyzewski on this year's leadership

"I think I can learn a lot from [Wojciechowski] because he has been in the program for four years...He's going to be a big part of my success at duke."
William Avery

"He's a class kid. When you talk point guard, not a points guard, but point guard, my first pick would be Wojciechowski. He's got good guys around him and there's nothing flashy about him. He plays real hard and he plays really smart."
Babe Kwasniak, point guard for Army

"[Wojciechowski] is one of the best."
Babe Kwasniak, point guard for Army

"If I had Brand's arms, I could pick something off the floor without bending over."
Steve Wojciechowski on fellow teammate and preseason ACC rookie of the year Elton Brand

"I like getting on people's nerves. Some guys can really shoot it. Some guys are tremendous athletes. I'm a pest. You have to play to your strength."
Steve Wojciechowski on why he plays the way he does

"He's got that spirit, the willingness to step in and take the charge. He's just the kind of leader, a very emotional kid on the floor, that Duke is going to need as it goes to war in what is probably the toughest conference going this year, the ACC."
Alexander Wolff from Sports Illustrated on Wojo

"I think it's going to be Trajan and my job as leaders to always reinforce what the ultimate goal is. The ultimate goals are team goals. We need everyone to come every day and put it on the line. We're not going to accept anything less. If there are one or two individuals on the team that can't accept that, they won't be a part of it. This is my last year and I want to make it the best."
Steve Wojciechowski on the 1997-98 season

"There's not a bigger fan of William Avery than myself. He's going to be huge for this team. I'm not going to play against a better defender all year."
Steve Wojciechowski

"He comes at you full force. He's relentless, always trying to strip you of the basketball. You can't relax for a second when he's guarding you."
Trajan Langdon on fellow co-captain Steve Wojciechowski

"We eat kielbasa, but it's not like we subscribe to the Polish Channel or something."
Steve Wojciechowski, on his heratige

"Wojo himself is worth the price of admission."
Joel Chaney, of The Sporting Green

"He's a workaholic. If we're not playing, he's in there on the Stairmaster or in the weight room."
Former teammate Carmen Wallace on Wojo

"You're happy just to get the ball up the court against him."
Trajan Langdon on playing against Steve Wojciechowski

"When I woke up this morning, I realized something was wrong. Then I tried to go eat breakfast. That didn't really work."
Steve Wojciechowski on how he was feeling the morning of the FSU game. Wojo threw up just before gametime and went on to play 33 minutes, dish out 7 assists, score 10 points, garner 2 steals, all without a turnover

"When people say he can't do something, he'll just try harder."
Wojo's mother

"One or two open shots, not taking more than three or four shots, hitting some free throws at the end of the game, having between eight or nine assists, three or four steals, and throw in a couple of rebounds, too. And then every loose ball."
Steve Wojciechowski describing his "perfect game"

"Winning breeds confidence."
Wojo, as quoted by N&O Staff Writer Steve Politi

"I definitely try to get guys thinking about me, where I am, and what's this Polish kid going to do to me next. If I can get a guard thinking about me instead of thinking about what he can do to help his team win, that makes the game a lot easier."
Steve Wojciechowski

"He is showing why so many teams wanted him out of high school, and why so many critics were just wrong."
Boswell & Julio, of the Duke Basketball Report, on Wojo after his career-defining game against Vanderbilt

"Wojciechowski had a great basketball game. When you win a game like this, you hate to single out one guy, but in this case I think it's deserved. He put amazing pressure on the ball. He made huge, gutsy plays throughout the first half. There are a lot of cliches about putting your heart on the floor and you can use them all and all of a sudden they equal Wojo tonight. He was terrific."
Mike Krzyzewski in his comments after the Vanderbilt game

"I do whatever I can do. I'll take it any way it comes to me -- make the guy lose balance, make the guy dribble off his leg, or maybe if the big guy puts it down, attack him in different ways."
Steve Wojciechowski after his performance against Vanderbilt

"I feel like I always put it on the line every time I step onto the court. You get older, you learn. I think a lot of people put so much emphasis on freshmen these days, they don't give you a chance to grow up. I'm just starting to learn my role and feel comfortable in it. I just want to help the team to win."
Wojo, after the Vanderbilt game

"I wanted to jump in the air and call time for a second so I wouldn't get my turnover. Obviously I'm not going to stay in the air very long. I figured that out when I was younger."
Wojo on not wanting his first turnover of the season against Vanderbilt

"I think in order for us to be a really good team, we need to be fighters, we need to be blue collar players."
Steve Wojciechowski

"If you play as hard as Wojo, you'll be pretty good."
Coach Mike Krzyzewski on the standards of team effort

"Thank God for Wojo."
Teammate Chris Carrawell

"He gives you his all, no matter what it is."
Ricky Price

"This team needs two or three guys to step forward and say, `whatever lineup we have, the two or three of us are in all of them.' Somebody has to step forward and not because Coach K said it but because he has earned it. When that guy steps forward nobody will argue whether he deserves to be there or not. That means they have earned the respect of their teammates. They have earned the right to be there."
Coach K, before the 1996-97 season, during which Trajan and Wojo started all 33 games