March 24, 2008

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HEAD COACH Brian Gregory

"We have one of the premier players in the country in Brian Roberts, and Chris knew all he had to do he did back before the injury - give us great energy and play as hard as hard as he can. The best stat on his line was 10, as in 10 minutes. Ten minutes of Chris gave us a chance to keep our guys fresher. That was key in the second half."

"We talked when Chris got hurt that we wanted to be a better basketball team when he got back. And I think we accomplished that."

"It was great to give Chris ten minutes. Now we've got to make sure he's feeling okay tomorrow."

"In the first half, they took advantage of our aggressiveness on their ball screens, but what hurt us was that our guards were not aggressive enough in pressuring the ball. We showed our guys what we needed to do at halftime, and they did a great job of executing it. Every shot they took in the second half was a tough, contested shot."

"This was a tough environment. Illinois State had a great year in a tough conference, and they earned their 16-1 record at home. But our guys dug down like they have all season. This has been a great year for that. I think that has what has made this year so special. We've established the identity of what we what our program to be."