I thought oh, not again. I remember my first year here was a similar situation.

It's one of those deals where, if you lose one, you don't know if you'll be able to make it to the tournament or not.

I knew that [the other starters] were going to start making shots, so I just tried to keep the game close. In the second half, they all stepped up.

That was the big shot of the game.

I think that if we don't go play pretty much a perfect game, it's going to be difficult for us to go out there and win that basketball game.

We were right there. What it came down to was a couple of loose balls here and a couple of rebounds there that would have pushed us over the ledge.

That's why they're top Division-I athletes. They get the fastest, quickest, tallest players.

I absolutely enjoyed playing for him. He demands perfection, as all good coaches do.