I've noticed that every time we shoot the ball well, everyone plays well. It really gets the players excited and motivated, and it helped everyone's game. It helped us play harder and helped us get a lot of turnovers.

The main thing is, nobody is losing. They're not making any mistakes down the stretch. If any were to lose and we stayed on a positive course, that may change.

We were trying to stop the guard penetration and not let them cause problems with the dribble. We also emphasized rebounding, getting on the boards.

We almost had Fort Valley, but couldn't come up with a date. Henderson State wanted us to be in a tournament but we had a tournament here at the same time. We talked with Delta State but they don't want to play in January and February, and we have enough region games in November and December without going into Mississippi.

I'm not much for screaming or yelling. Sometimes I use humor, sometimes I get real blunt. I'm probably not the easiest person to play for.

It's nice to get national recognition and for the panel of voters to consider us a Top 20- level team. But ultimately, we're not real concerned with national rankings but putting ourselves in the region tournament.