“Those of you that have been here before, nights like this, have heard me talk about a glorified practice and it’s good for our guys to face somebody new. It’s good for us to see somebody that plays differently than we play, except for Coach Miller does believe in the same things that I do, so I think it was good for our team. I don’t think anybody was pleased with the start we got. We fumbled the first two times, our two starting guards got the ball and both fumbled it and it ends up going in the other direction.
“Right before the half, we put in three or four of the freshmen. I guess it was four of the freshmen and Reggie, and they gave us a great lift. And then early in the second half, the starters were back in and they were so much better, defensively. They had one field goal in the first four or five minutes, that was basically the basketball game.
“I was disappointed with our intensity level, on both ends of the court. We talked about really pushing the ball hard and running hard and I didn’t think we did that. We had two pitch a heads for layups and then Reggie got a steal and layup and that was the only three baskets we got out of our break the entire first half. We’ve got to get more than that. But they did a nice job of getting back and trying to stop the break and Coach Miller does a nice job in trying to get his guys to do what he wants them to. But those young guys throughout before the half and then P.J. shooting the ball in from three, those kind of things, needless to say helped, but I did like our defense much better in the second half.”
On P.J. Hairston:
“The first seven times I ever saw him play, he took a charge in every game. He’s better defensively than people give him credit for. He’s a better passer. Still needs to do a better job in putting the ball on the floor, but I thought he did some good things.”
On Leslie McDonald’s injury:
“We’ve said that when Leslie got hurt, some of the other guys would have to step up P.J. can really shoot the ball, Reggie can shoot the ball. For one thing, those guys are doing a nicer job on the defensive end of the board. But we miss having Leslie; there is no question about that.”