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"I think their play made the momentum shift sides. Those last eight minutes of the first half, they were in control of it, but we were fortunate and still got some baskets and still had the lead. Then the start of the second half, they hit some big shots. Cory Bradford was 0-8 in the first half, then ends up 5-13 from the three-point line. One time we had Kenny in the middle of the floor on the fast break and we turn it over, and they go back and get three on the other end. Then we come back and get two free throws, miss those, and they go back and get three on the other end. "I think you've got to congratulate Illinois. I thought they were very difficult for us to guard. The guards broke us down with their penetration and then they pitched and made three-point shots. And another big point during the game was Griffin, about three or four possessions in a row they threw it in to him and he was able to beat our guys and score. We've gotta do a better job of fronting him and not let him get the ball, and the perimeter people have got to do a better job of helping down. "We've got to be able to play defense without holding and using our hands too much. We've talked about and worked on it and talked about it and worked on it, but we haven't gotten through to them yet. I was pleased with a couple of things, but for the most part it was a frustrating day, and you've got to congratulate Illinois. They controlled the game. "I told the kids there were three things. The first was we were not physically, mentally, emotionally ready to play. I had to spend the time before we went out at half trying to get them to be fired up, because we were dead. They can control that. The second thing is we need to do a better job of our execution of our offense and getting to the help spot on our defense, and we've got to do that if we want to play. And then the third thing that we don't have a heck of a lot of control over is that we had three or four flurries on the board and couldn't get it to go in. Kenny had two dead layups that he missed, Nick missed a dead layup, Luke gets the rebound twice in a row and turns around from four feet and misses... I yelled down to Lon (Kruger, UI coach) one time and asked him if he'd done something to that basket, because we couldn't it in. You can't control that, but you can control the other things. "Jeff was sensational. Some of those (late threes) were prayers, but he has great range. But two of the ones that he made at the end, it wasn't even supposed to be him that was getting the screens, and that's what I'm talking about. That's just poor execution, and poor execution usually means poor coaching. "This is a tough stretch in the schedule, but that's an excuse. You've got to be ready to play when the game is scheduled. We got here last night, the plane was a little late, but not anything we should worry about. We finished our meal before 10:00, and should have had plenty of time and been more ready to play than we were."