courtesy of Jack Alden

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"It’s impossible to try to figure it out, much less explain it. I thought the first half we were sensational. We have a chance to go up 20. It’s one of the few times I looked at the clock in the first half. We’ve got a chance to go up 20, and miss a lay- up, then miss a one-and-one. Then we played just so dumb at the end of the half. It wasn’t Jeff Hawkins’ fault by any means, but to make a foul 75 feet from the basket when the last thing the coach says when we leave the huddle, ‘We don’t want to foul.’ To go in and do that, then turn around in the second half and Keith dribbled it out of bounds; just lost it. Aaron drove the baseline and lost it. We missed three straight shots from the outside. One big thing is we shoot 65% in the first half and 29% in the second half. I have no explanation for that, whatsoever. I think we took the quick shot in the second half, regardless of where it was. Whereas, in the first half we passed that up and got the shot that we wanted. The second half, we didn’t. We missed all those shots, and they made some big shots. We’re in a little foul trouble, and go to zone for three straight possessions because we have three guys with three fouls, trying to buy a little time there. They make three straight threes against our zone, and twice just because we don’t cover the guy we’re supposed to cover. I have no idea. "You have to congratulate Arizona. They’re a fantastic team. I knew coming in we’d have to play really well, and I expected us to play really well, but we didn’t play really well. I think Keith only missed two shots in the first half, and I think he only made two in the second half. But nobody else was doing anything. Kirk was really struggling with his shot. Nick and Jeff were passing the ball very well and getting it inside early in the game. (Arizona) didn’t change their defense very much from our perspective, but they played it a heck of a lot better. And again, we started settling for the quicker outside shot. I have no way of explaining it, and the only thing I can tell you is we will look at the tape at practice tomorrow and see if we can get better. "“It was just a total breakdown. It’s hard to say, but the second half had to be the worst nightmare, and at the same time it had to be the worst coaching job I’ve ever done in my entire life. "You gotta make plays. You can’t go to the free throw line and stand up there and go 4-12 from the foul line. Eight for 24 from the three-point line. You gotta shoot the ball in the hole. You gotta be tough enough to shoot the sucker in, or don’t shoot it. We’ll find out if we’re as tough as I think we are. If we’re competitive enough, we’ll play again on Monday night. If we’re not, we’ll go belly up and may not win another one.”

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