I feel pretty good going up there Wednesday. If we can play as good of defense as we have been and if we can start hitting the ball, we can win this game Wednesday.

Our defense definitely did not play as well as we had been playing in the first half. But having another guy back there made it a lot easier, and we were able to shut them down and limit their scoring opportunities.

We do work very hard on defense and knew we had to make some adjustments to play this team differently than we did the first time. We gave them too much of an inside presence over at our place.

Illinois and Michigan State are both going to play pretty good defense. They're playing a little better than we are defensively right now, and I guarantee you both teams are going to run.

We're starting to come together and play better. Our defense has been pretty good all season. We just have to continue to hit the ball.

That was a tremendous stop. When we play defense, we can be pretty good and we did an outstanding job in the last 30 seconds. There are going to be some nights when it's going to come own to that one shot, and that's why we play defense and take pride in it.