courtesy of Jack Alden

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"It was a fun night for our players, because they were tired of playing against each other and tired of having me yell at 'em for a whole practice. I think that was the important thing, was getting out and playing in front of some people, getting somebody different to play against, and see how they reacted after we'd had 19 or 20 practices. So from that viewpoint, I was glad to do it. I don't think we played exceptionally well. I was disappointed with us on the defensive end of the floor, and we didn't create much tempo. They got too many things from us inside. But you look at the line, and they made 12 out of 23 on the three-point line. Defensively it wasn't as good a game as we need to have, to say the least, and we've got a long way to go there. We don't have any set plays in. You've heard me say before it was a glorified practice, and that's what it was. We had two little spurts. One in the first five or six minutes of the second half and another in the first half, and that was basically the difference in the score. "I don't know if people really understand how important (32- year-old Adonis Jordan, 9 pts for EAS) he was to us 15 long years ago. He stuck with us during times that were really tough around here. I've told Coach Mangino, during my first year here we lost eight straight games, and it was a very difficult time. We had two kids who had given us a commitment who changed their minds. After the probation came out, we had five different kids who cancelled their campus visits, so it was dark and gloomy around here. Adonis is the one kid who stuck with us, and he was rewarded very well for it. He started in two Final Fours and played in the national championship game, and was great for our program. "Wayne (Simien) has had a good pre-season. He's a strong youngster. Nick and Wayne probably played a little better than Kirk, but you look at Kirk's line, and he only shot it seven times and still has 20 points. That's pretty impressive, right there. Wayne, Nick, and Kirk I thought had good games. I thought Aaron struggled, particularly in the first half. There were three or four times we could have had layups, and he just missed the passes a little bit. I think he was a little excited. And Keith never really got into the flow on the offensive end of the floor, but a couple of times defensively really played well for us. "I think (the bench) was good. I don't think we were great, but again, it's good for them to play against somebody else as opposed to those five guys who are so much more experienced. Bryant has developed into a really good stand-still shooter, and he made both of them tonight. Defensively is where I want him to be able to help us, and not turn it over, and yet get to the offensive boards. He had zero offensive rebounds, and I've got to get him, with his jumping ability, he's got to get to the backboards for us. Jeff Hawkins did some nice things. Michael Lee probably didn't get as many things accomplished. Moulaye [moo-lye] (Niang) is very active, but he can play better than he played tonight. And I was glad for Jeff Graves to get a couple of minutes in there, as well."

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