It had to be pure and dust-free -- it pours like water at times in the piece -- and we brought it in over the last year, 56 bags a week, special-ordered through local hardware stores. It fills the stage!

So many cultures have been forced to turn away from their pasts. We even fly flags of forgotten kingdoms. We even have mermaids who change into colonial whites.

They woke up, and everything in the house, from the beds down, was destroyed. There was no electricity. No water.

He's been our rebounding leader and a presence inside all year. In the first half, we had to sit him with foul trouble. And then he got poked in the eye in the second half and spent a little more time on the bench. Because of this we really didn't have an inside presence, especially in the second half. That is when the game began to slip away.

Playing in the conference we have, hopefully that's improved us. There shouldn't be anybody that intimidates us.

If we could have gone without a halftime and right to the second half, we may have had a different start. When halftime was over, we came out flat.