My hats off to Coach Tarver and the Howard coaching staff. They have done a great job. We had some breaks go our way. I am happy for our kids, they have worked hard and it paid off for them.

But I think that's the most important job on the coaching staff.

It's my job as head coach to find the best person who fits in the coaching staff. I was hopeful it would work (with Bates) but it's not there. It's not a negative - it's two people being mature about the situation.

We're going to turn it around. We spoke in detail with the coach and coaching staff and we know what we have to do. We have to get everybody back and energized and back in the winning ways. We're 0-2, but it's a long season ahead of us. Our main goal right now is still to win our division, and I think we can get back in our winning ways.

My hats off to our sports medicine staff. They've done a great job of getting them back together and the doctors that we're working with have been great. We held them out an extra week, and that's a good thing, because we need them to be ready.

Their coaching staff and our staff communicate with each other. I have spoken with coach (Keith) Coleman, and he told me that their setup is similar to ours but that they are a year behind us.