courtesy of Jack Alden

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"I didn't want to be in (the KU locker room at halftime, KU 33- 25) either, but it's something I had to do. I probably should be careful about what I say, but that was pretty ugly. We just didn't have the attention, we weren't focused on what we were supposed to do. We had a timeout called one time, called a set play, and go out and don't even execute right out of a timeout. We make three defensive errors in a row. A guy gets the ball at the top of the key and drives all the way to the basket and lays it up against us, and nobody comes in to help, nobody tries to take a charge. It was like nobody was out there. So I took those guys out and put in five new ones, and they really played well defensively, they just couldn't make enough baskets at the other end of the court. Luke had two good ones that he missed, Nick Collison had a good one that he missed. But those guys did a good job. They held (Illinois State) to a free throw, I think, for about a four- minute stretch there. Early in the second half we got the ball inside to Drew and Eric, and Kirk's passing helped us. But I think you'd have to say that Illinois State outhustled us and played a lot better than we did in the first half. That's the first time we've even been close to being outrebounded, and they outrebounded us 26-21 in the first half. "Not only did Drew get fired up emotionally when he made some baskets in the second half, he played better at the defensive end, as well. It's a little frustrating right now, but we had five games in a row here that we knew we were better than the other team, and I guess it's human nature that it's hard to maintain focus like the coaching staff would want them to. We definitely didn't do it tonight, to say the least. We've got practice tomorrow, and I said something at halftime about it could be a track practice, and it still could be, I guess. "We did play better in the second half. One time Eric blocked a shot and it falls to their guy and he lays it up and we foul him. Another time we really played well defensively. Eric went up to block a shot and really bothered it. I think he hit the ball, but it went in, and they called a foul on him. So we did some things a lot better in the second half. "We had some big guys I thought we working hard to get the basketball inside. We've got to do a better job of getting it in there than we did tonight. But if you just talk about the negatives in our play, you don't congratulate Illinois State and talk about the things that they did well, because they did some things that really hurt us. "We needed (Luke Axtell to get a career high in rebounds). But Luke hit a couple of big threes for us in the first half. I don't know if he even attempted a shot in the second half. Twenty minutes is about all I wanted to try to get out of him right now. We're still trying to get him back from that ankle. If we can get another week without him tweaking it again, I think we'll be in good shape. "We're banged up. Kenny Gregory's foot was really bothering him. I wasn't even sure if we'd start him until after pre-game warmups. The doctor is looking at it right now. Mario's leg, Luke's ankle... We've got some aches and pains. But somehow, some way, we've got to get healthy and get rolling, because now we're hitting an important part of our schedule, and a very difficult part."

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