courtesy of Jack Alden

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"We got some things started, I think, in the right direction Wednesday night down in Tulsa with being a little more patient and getting better shots. I think in the first half we continued that tonight, and we were active defensively. I think the first half was the first game this year that I really heard the talking on the defensive end of the floor. They shot a low percentage, we got them to turn it over, and I was very pleased. The second half there still were some real good things. I got a little upset there at one point because, I don’t care who the dickens is in the game, you’re supposed to play, and I jumped Jeff and Moulaye a little bit because there’s gonna be sometimes when Nick or Wayne is going to be in foul trouble, and they’ve got to be able to play. I looked down, and we had 13 turnovers, and Jeff and Moulaye have five of them. So that was the purpose of that timeout. Then Jeff goes to the free throw line the next time and makes both free throws. Those kind of things we’ve got to see from those guys. And I told them, Michael Lee, the last four games, has just done some things to be positive for us in the game that hasn’t hurt us, and that’s why his playing time has increased. “They shot 38 threes, so their offense is not going to go inside very much against us. I look at their field goal percentage of 33 percent for the game, and then we forced 23 turnovers, and if you do that, I think it’s really important on the offensive end for us to get the ball inside with Nick and Wayne. It would be sort of silly if we didn’t get it in there. And Keith is going to get the ball to the rim. But I was pleased with a lot of things about tonight’s game. We’re more gifted than they are, we should win the game, but let’s go out and try to make sure we finish, that we make ourselves better today. “I was really happy to see Kirk’s shot come back in full form. I would have liked for him to get to the free throw line more, so he’d feel better about what he’s doing there. And I think it was good for Keith to go to the free throw line and make all three of his, too. But we are more gifted. They’re the kind of team that’s going to get better and better as the season goes along and as they get used to their own teammates. “Thirteen assists and zero turnovers (Aaron Miles). One of the threes that he shot ­ he was oh for two from three ­ and one of them just looked like it was going right down the middle of it, but it didn’t go in. He made some good decisions. As I’ve said, the two things we’re trying to do is make sure we get shots and stop turning the basketball over. We did a good job of that, and Aaron did the best. “In the game, at the end, you’ve got to fight the emotion of trying to get a shot up. Everybody who comes in at the end wants to get on the scoreboard. But I go back again, Michael Lee doesn’t do things that hurt us, and that right now is very important. If he can continue that, he’s gonna keep playing more. “We gave the guys tomorrow off, and we told them they’d better study a heck of a lot (for finals) because we’re going shopping for Salvation Army families tomorrow. Other than that, there’s no practice or physical activity. Then Monday we’ll have a good practice. Tuesday and Wednesday we’ll give ‘em off. I’ll go recruiting. Then we need to have a big-time practice Thursday and Friday for UCLA. They hammered us pretty good last year, and I haven’t forgotten. We’ve got to continue every day to make sure our team gets better. But it is a tough week with finals, and hopefully they’ve done enough work that they don’t have to cram and stay up all night.”

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