I feel a necessity to speak out. I want to be the type of athlete that Muhammad Ali was. Dealing straightforward with the issues of the day. There's just too much going on for me to be quiet.

I'm having fun out there getting more time. Coach has more confidence in me and it's fun. I'm going to keep banging and keep playing hard.

We had enough to eat, but on a schoolteacher's salary, we certainly didn't have all the luxuries. I learned that if you're going to make it, you have to have an education.

It's not as bad as it could've been.

It's hard to explain what we're going through right now. I'm always going to take a positive approach. Obviously, we're good enough to win some of these games but then on nights like [Thursday], we break down on some things and that leads to a loss. We have to learn from our mistakes and apply those lessons to the next game.

In a way I'm surprised by that, and in a way I'm not.