courtesy of Jack Alden

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"We've shot over 50% in every game so far, but we didn't shoot the ball very well tonight. We missed some shots that we'd normally make; missed some inside shots. But you have to credit their defense. I think sometimes we were looking at the guy coming at us or looking at the guy inside. But you look down there, Kenny 5-11, Eric 5-10, Kirk 2-6, Jeff 7- 16. Those are not good percentages, and not the kind of percentages we normally like to have. Drew Gooden 5-7, Nick Collison 6-8, Luke 4-7. You like that part. Rebounding was 49-27, and that was huge in the game. And then the fact that we did, at times, have a couple of little runs that were big for us. "One of the things we talked about was executing whatever we called, offensively and defensively. We have a set play called, and Eric broke it off and mae a pass that I didn't think was what he should have done. It does irritate me, because that's what we talk about and what we practice. A perfect example is the first play of the second half. We ran a set play, got Drew inside four feet from the basket. That's what we were supposed to run earlier, and didn't get it done. You're gonna have mistakes happen in a game, but when we start getting into some of the games we're going to be playing down the line, we've got to be disciplined enough to do what we're supposed to do. If we do that, we've got a better chance of being successful, because all of our plays are designed to put our guys in good position, and then to use their abilities. We're stupid if we don't try to put people in good positions, and the coaching staff isn't stupid, I can tell you that. "The two things I was pleased with, I was pleased with our free throw shooting. We were 14-20, and I think we missed our last three of those, so we were 14-17 up to that point. And then the other thing is that in the second half we did do a better job of taking care of the basketball, and at times really moved the ball really nice. But I liked Randy's club. I think they did some things that bothered us. They seemed to get every loose ball. they seemed to get every ball that bounced around off the boards, and we've got to make sure we get our share of those. "We ask our big guys to handle the basketball, so they're gonna have some turnovers. But if they just make intelligent plays and the easy play, that will cut down on their turnovers. We went high-low two or three times that were good for us."

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