He leads us in scoring. He leads us in rebounding. Most amazing to me is that everyone is guarding him and for the year he's shooting 52 percent in the league. To me Merritt is amazing.

The game plan was to go stand on his feet, and he was wide open, so we went brain dead.

More than any other team in the league, they feel comfortable playing the way we play going deep into the clock. Sometimes you want a contrast in styles and you get an advantage. There is no advantage against Eastern Illinois.

I think that we were a step slow today on defense and Eastern Illinois was able to get some easy shots early on. That allowed them to build some confidence and then they started hitting some deep threes and turnaround jumpers. We did do a good job of getting some key stops there at the end.