We told our guys early on that we're going to play or we ain't going to play. You can't let things like that distract you.

Everything was fine until he showed up. He's good, and they're all good. They're a hard team to play, but we really need to play them well.

The main thing I told the players was we wanted to play good basketball, and we did. Then they threw the wild card at us.

I realize Big East teams will be bigger at the guard position, but you can play those two at the same time because Muhammad is like a 2-guard anyway. If you have him and Downey in there, it takes some pressure off Downey. That's not a bad option off the bench - it certainly destroyed us.

If you're going to play bad, play bad down in South Carolina, or in one of those tournaments in Puerto Rico or something. For a lot of people, especially those watching on TV, this might be the one time they see us play.

I would have liked to play Tuesday night; it won't be an excuse. When you're playing well, you want to play more and practice less.