Related pages Game summary Box score Season stats Possession analysis advertisement [an error occurred while processing this directive]

"Once again we made so many unforced errors. We had nine turnovers in the first half, and probably seven of them were off of out-of-bounds plays and lack of execution. Just not very good at all. But we did play well late; really well. Hawk and Russell keyed that probably more than anybody. Mario gave us offense early, and then those guys really got after them and did a fabulous job and got a lot of steals. Then in the second half we were pretty good from start to finish. "I thought Mario played well. He started, and it may have helped Jeff, because Jeff came off the bench and gave us energy and offense off the bench. Jeff’s had a bad back and Mario’s been playing a lot better, so we’ll probably stick with this and see if this will continue to work. Tonight it was pretty good. "Hawk played well. The best thing about Hawk was he had four assists and no turnovers. And we moved Russell to the ball, and I thought we got the ball up the floor better. He didn’t take shots, but this may be the most fun Russell’s had. Eight assists and five steals. We’re not going to get steals against guys who are jet quick like Rondo (UK point guard). Tonight we could gamble and miss and sometimes recover. Against guys like Rondo you can’t do that. We still didn’t make our free throws, and I don’t know why we didn’t do that, because we’ve been shooting them pretty good in practice. But all in all a pretty good win. "(Sasha) didn’t like sitting over there so much, and I thought in the first half he was not very good. He only played about five minutes. But in the second half I thought he was great. That’s the best Sasha’s played to his size probably since the Pepperdine game when he had about 19 points and ten rebounds, something like that (actually 18 and 12). So I was pleased with him. C.J. was better, even though we’re still not getting enough low post scoring from him. "Jeremy didn’t play much the first half. Then when he went in, that team he was part of went on a five- or 6-0 run and took the lead. He made a defensive mistake and cost us three points. And that’s what I told the guys after the game. You’ve got to focus in on defense when you get in. He’s done a lot better, and right now he’s on a roll. He’s made nine of his last 12 threes, I believe, so he needs to be in there. He just needs to be a little bit sounder on defense, but he can do that. "(Kentucky< game Saturday) will be not the most artistic game. If it’s anything like last year’s game, it will be a battle. Loose balls, 50/50 balls, collisions, two teams really getting after it, two programs with a ton of pride. I’m sure they respect Kansas, and we have the utmost respect for them. It’s a great series for our fans, and I hope they’ll be as ready as the players will be."