courtesy of Jack Alden

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"I didn’t think we came out focused, and I didn’t think we came out ready to play. They started in a zone, and we were content just to shoot it up from the outside. We didn’t get the basketball inside at all. Jeff Graves got an offensive rebound, I think is the only time we got the ball inside in the first four minutes. And we weren’t doing a good enough job defensively, because (Nebraska)’s getting everything inside. It’s 10-9, or whatever the score was at that point. I’ve always said, give me five guys with Kansas uniforms on, and they’ll play their butts off. They may not be talented enough, and they may not be big enough. And I thought when those five (subs) did get in there, they did play their tails off. And when I put the starters back in, it still wasn’t pretty or anything. But then about the last eight or nine minutes of the first half, from that point on we played very, very well on the defensive end of the floor. Didn’t shoot it particularly well, but on the defensive end of the floor I thought we were good. "(Keith Langford) has to keep (the mask to protect his broken nose) on every day in practice, the entire practice, and maybe that will help him get used to it. Nick Bradford, Adonis Jordan, I’ve had guys who have tried those things during a game before, and it just doesn’t feel comfortable. Luckily, we got past it today, but after Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, hopefully he’ll be able to wear it. He has to wear it. He gets no choice then, because the doctors think he’s better off keeping it on. "(Kirk Hinrich’s) first shot ­ he got a good screen from Jeff Graves ­ was the only good shot we had in the first five minutes of the game. Nick Collison, who is 11-15 the other night, shooting almost 60%, his first five shots were outside shots, too. One of them was from about three (feet), but the others were 12, 14, 15 feet, and that’s doing what they want us to do, and I don’t want to do what the other team wants us to do. I want to do what I want to do. If a coach says we took what they gave us, I don’t want to take what somebody gives us. They’re giving you that because they think it helps them. But Kirk made that three, and another one from the corner, and Kirk was big for us in that stretch when our defense got better. "I didn’t think we had missed many (free throws), but I didn’t think we had made all of them (20-20) at that point. Nick missed the first of a two-shot foul and Jeff Graves missed two. But 22-25, I’d take that every time. During the break period we shoot a lot. We shoot a lot of free throws. We have a list, the Magnificent Seven, of the top seven free throw shooters in practice every day, and they’re taking a lot of pride in that. And I like the fact that we’re getting fouled. Early in the game, we weren’t even getting to the free throw line because we were taking such bad shots."

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