Dec. 20, 2000
"They certainly made a lot of shots tonight. But, we knew coming in that they could shoot the ball. They are a lot more efficient of a team right now than we are. Plus, they shot the ball better. We've been through a period of 10 games where we have fought through some adversity and we haven't responded maybe as well as we had hoped we would. I think the team believes we can grow. We have a chance to make some major improvements during the course of the year. Hopefully, they won't get too down on themselves right now and will bounce back. As coaches we certainly have confidence in our players.
"Yesterday's practice was actually a pretty good one. We haven't yet been able to convert practice to games. We've practiced reasonably well. It will be nice to play at home for a while. We believe you have a better chance at home usually than you do on the road. The road hasn't been the reason for the losses, I don't think. Some of the teams we have played have been pretty good. I think the reason we haven't had as much success as we'd have liked at this point is the fact that we are not at the stage where we need to be with this team. We are trying to play some new people along with some old people and the mix hasn't quite gotten organized yet.
"We actually executed our offense better tonight than we did (at Purdue). It was sporadic tonight and we have to get a little more consistent. Offensively we have to do a little better job. Defensively we have struggled a little more on this trip than we would have liked."