courtesy of Jack Alden

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The second half we were sensational. I think we had two or three silly possessions out there and did some crazy things. Other than that, you know me, I try to have us play the perfect game every night, but in the second half we were really good. We did a good job on the defensive end. We did a good job of sharing the ball on the offensive end; had a great assist-to-error ratio. Got up into their shooters a little bit more from the three- point line. Yet saying all that, I'd like to save about 25 of those (points) that we had in the second half, because I know we're gonna need 'em when we go over to their place. "(Drew Gooden) was really something. I told him after the game, if he could wipe out about two or three possessions, it was really an unbelievable night for him. He was active defensively. A couple of turnovers in the first half, but I don't think he had any in the second half. One time he wanted to pull up and shoot a three, but he saw Keith in the corner and saw me standing on the sideline, so he passed it to Keith and Keith drove and got a two-shot foul. He turned around to me and said he really wanted to shoot that three. But 26 points and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes, that's a pretty good night. "Nick did a solid job defensively for us all night. Guarding Arthur Johnson isn't easy, and he did a good job on Arthur. But he also was able to help us on all those drives that came along the baseline. He stepped up and hit that jump shot from the line that we work on every day. He was much, much better in the second half. "(Kirk Hinrich; 8-11 FG, 4-5 3pt) got off to a bad start this year shooting the basketball and was sensational in every other aspect of the game. I said I thought before the end of the season that he would start shooting the ball well, and he has. He was sensational out there tonight, too. Kareem Rush is almost impossible to guard, but Kirk did a great job on him. He's our best defender. "Aaron gets a little tired. We've talked to him a great deal. He's a freshman, he's not getting enough rest and not eating properly, and he gets tired too quickly. We've got to work on that the second half of the season. But he did a good job of penetrating the ball to the basket. Did a really good job defensively in the second half. Didn't get close enough to Gilbert in the first half, and a couple of times he did and Clarence made a couple of big-time shots. "The students started Saturday a week ago. We played Oklahoma here. I came to work on Sunday, and the students were already camping out at that time. Somebody told me that before they opened the doors tonight they had a total of 113 student groups out there. I brought more doughnuts this morning than any game I've had to this year, and I'd like to bring even more on Saturday (vs Colorado)."

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