I knew that the two previous times I drove, the help defender either blocked or altered my shot. I knew I had to get the shot up quick and high off the glass because they have some athletic big men. And that's exactly how it worked out.

I was kind of sold on the idea of being one of the building blocks to try and help get the program back to where it once was.

I guess we're going to have to do it the hard way and bring it in the conference tournament. That's really the only way we can take it out of the selection committee's hands. But I think if we get this win (today), they have to give us a good look based on what we've done this season, like beating LSU and Arizona. Hopefully it will be impressive enough.

We understand that we can't overlook anybody. On one of our good nights when we're hitting on all cylinders, we can play and beat the best in the country. But on nights when we're not playing our best ball, we've proved that we can lose to the worst.

Sam does that every day at practice. He has a great touch around the basket and he can step out and shoot it, which he showed tonight.

They wanted to help for [surgery costs] and anything that would help me, like glasses. It was so supportive and really nice. It's so nice to know that they cared that much and wanted me to get better.