The past two days, George (coach George Karl ) has been stressing that if the playoffs were today, this is who we'd play. We wanted to make a statement right away and tell them this is what they'll see if they play us.

George, for the last two days, was stressing the fact that, if the playoffs started tomorrow, (Memphis) would be the team we'd be playing against. I think we wanted to make a statement that if we play y'all in the playoffs, this is what y'all are going to see.

We had a great preseason. The guys responded with what coach (George Karl) wanted early on in pace of the game, togetherness and defensive intensity. We've improved in those areas with a couple of setbacks, but we've improved each game.

They're trying to bring the whole team. I wouldn't be surprised if they bring (former Cincinnati coach Bob) Huggins up here.

It's definitely been a challenging first 10 days under coach Karl, ... He's really tough on me, and I like that because I know it's going to make me better and make me cut down some of my bad decisions on the court and make me that much smarter of a player.

All Coach Karl does is talk about UNC, ... And I can't say nothing about it.