It was meant to be something of a joke. But the words spoken by Indiana coach Mike Davis were certainly accurate.
When Davis called into the weekly Big Ten coaches teleconference, he heard that Ohio State's Velimir Radinovic had been named conference player of the week after lighting up the Hoosiers for a career-high 23 points.
"Seems like whoever we play, they're the Big Ten player of the week," Davis said.
Two years ago, Indiana was about to begin a postseason journey that would end with a Final Four appearance and a loss to Maryland in the national championship game. Davis was lauded by Indiana fans for keeping the program going without Bob Knight. And it seemed as if the Hoosiers would simply build on that weekend in Atlanta.
But as the Hoosiers enter Wednesday's game at Northwestern, Indiana is an extremely unusual position. Instead of playing for a seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Hoosiers are in need of a big run just to get into the Dance.
With three games to play in the regular season, Indiana is 12-12 overall and 6-7 in conference play. Eighth in the Big Ten standings, the Hoosiers will likely have to play a first-round game in the conference tournament for the second consecutive season. And most importantly, Indiana is on the verge of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985.
With an InsideRPI of 86 entering Wednesday, the Hoosiers -- who lost home games last week to conference bottom feeders Minnesota and Penn State -- might have to advance to the championship game of the Big Ten tournament to have a chance to get into the NCAA tournament. But even that's not a given. If Indiana really wants to advance, the Hoosiers probably need to win the tournament and the automatic bid that's up for grabs at Conseco Fieldhouse.
And if that happens, two of the main reasons will be the inability to defend inside and losses at Assembly Hall.
Even from the beginning of this season, interior defense and depth was a concern for the Hoosiers. After all, at 6-foot-2 A.J. Moye might be Division I's smallest power forward. When Sean Kline was lost for the season to a knee injury, it became a crisis. Davis is now left with foul prone starter George Leach and a pair of uber-foul prone and inexperienced reserves -- Pat Ewing and Mike Roberts.
In the first game after Kline's injury, Minnesota forward Kris Humphries set a school freshman record with 36 points. Then Radinoivic followed with his 23 points. Earlier this season, Penn State's Aaron Johnson scored 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and Paul Davis of Michigan State finished with 32 points.
But even with the deficiencies inside, the Hoosiers should have a better record. And they would if not for an extremely inexplicable ability to finish games -- especially home games.
Of Indiana's 13 conference games, the Hoosiers have been in 11 of them in the final minutes. But either the Hoosiers can't make a comeback, they can't hold the lead or they do just enough to hold on to win.
"We don't have the one guy to step up and say, 'We're not going to lose this way,'" Davis said. "We've been in every single conference game except the Wisconsin game and Purdue game on the road. We've been in position to win every game with the exception of two."
That was certainly the case in both of last week's losses. Against Minnesota, the Hoosiers led by seven points with three minutes to play and by six with less than a minute left. But a late Bracey Wright turnover, poor execution on offense and a stupid Leach foul all contributed to Minnesota winning its first road game of the season.
Against the Buckeyes, the game was tied with 20 seconds to play, but J.J. Sullinger drove to the basket with 16.7 seconds to play to give Ohio State the lead. Then Moye missed an open 3-pointer.
Simply put, the Hoosiers have not made an abundance of what would be considered smart plays in the final minutes of games.
"The worst that can happen against Minnesota is overtime and we take a quick shot and foul," Davis said. "The other night, Ohio State ... We couldn't have been in a better situation and we couldn't have gotten a better shot.
"I think it definitely has to be mental. For you not to be able to finish them off is all about someone stepping up and making plays."
This Indiana team -- unlike most teams in college basketball -- has problems playing at home. The Hoosiers look tentative at times at home, as if there's too much pressure.
"We've lost a total of six home games, including one to Temple and Missouri and the four home (Big Ten) games," Davis said. "They all have come down to plays at the wire and we haven't made any. There's no fear factor any more it seems to me."
The losses to the Gophers and the Buckeyes -- teams that are a combined 6-19 in league play -- extended IU's home losing streak to four games. For the season, the Hoosiers have lost six games at Assembly Hall.
Wright in particular has been a different player on the road than at home. Wright, the Big Ten's second leading scorer, is shooting 41.7 percent and averaging 19.7 points per game on the road. But after a 1-for-12 shooting performance against the Buckeyes, Wright is shooting only 29.9 percent and averaging 13.8 points per game at Assembly Hall.
"After the third possession the other night, I said, 'Bracey, don't be afraid to shoot the basketball.' You could see he was hesitant on a couple of shots," Davis said. "On the road he's aggressive. He was 1-12 on Saturday and I can guarantee of the 11 shots he missed, 10 were wide-open shots, it wasn't like they were contested shots. I just think he feels it. Any time your best player on your team is feeling that way at home, you're going to have problems winning at home.
"I feel really bad for Bracey right now. He shouldn't have to experience that, he just needs some love."
Even with the recent struggles and the reality of both Indiana's record and RPI, Wright is confident that the Hoosiers are going to be OK.
"There's no doubt in my mind that I think we're going to make the NCAA tournament," Wright told The Indianapolis Star after the loss to the Buckeyes.
"I wouldn't even want to play in the NIT. If it came down to it, and they invited us, I wouldn't want to play. I only want to play in the NCAA Tournament ... And when they have the selection show, I believe in my mind and in my heart that they're going to call our name out."
If that's going to happen, the Hoosiers better go on a run.
A crazy trip
Forgive Iowa State coach Wayne Morgan if he never wants to leave Hilton Coliseum again. And this has little to do with the Cyclones' now 24-game losing streak in Big 12 road games.
Because when it comes to bad trips, Iowa State's trip to Kansas last weekend has to rank pretty high for two reasons. First were some, shall we say, interesting calls in the game that prompted Iowa State officials to ask the Big 12 to review officials calls. Second was a security breach at the Lawrence, Kan., airport that led to a bus ride back to Iowa.
The play that has left the most people scratching their heads was a free throw sequence that led to a Kansas 3-pointer. Fouled while shooting, Iowa State's Jared Homan was supposed to shoot two free throws in the first half. When Homan missed the first free throw, Kansas grabbed the rebound, played on and J.R. Giddens made a 3-pointer.
When the officiating crew of Tom O'Neill, Danny Hooker and Paul Janssen realized a mistake had been made, Homan was allowed to shoot another free throw. However, they said the 3-pointer would stand.
This isn't the first time that O'Neill has been involved in a game where the botched handling of a free throw situation led to a coach grumbling about officiating. In 1999, O'Neill was part of a crew when Cincinnati played at Charlotte. In that game a 49ers player missed the front end of a one-and-one with 17.3 seconds to play. Cincinnati grabbed the rebound and made what they thought was a potential game-winning 3-pointer. However an inadvertent whistle was blown, the basket was waved off and the Bearcats were given the ball out of bounds. On the second attempt, Cincinnati failed to score and Charlotte won the game.
This time, the importance of letting that Kansas shot stand wasn't known, but it proved key in a game that went to overtime.
Iowa State also claims that Keith Langford's foot was on the arc's line when he made a three-pointer to force overtime.
"Obviously, the result of the game is not going to change," Morgan said. "Hopefully, we can hope something like that doesn't happen in the future."
The problems, however, didn't end when Iowa State left Allen Field house. When the Cyclones arrived at the Lawrence Municipal Airport, they found out that a man had entered their charter aircraft. Police were then called to remove the man.
Because of the security breach, the charter company would not fly until the plane had been searched. But rather than wait for the plane to be searched , the Cyclones stayed on the bus and drove the four hours back to campus.
Good thing Iowa State wasn't playing at, say, Texas A&M. It's a 14-hour drive from College Station to Ames.
Around the Midwest
Can anyone figure out this Texas Tech team? Early in Big 12 play, Bob Knight's team defeated Oklahoma State by 21 points and rolled Oklahoma by 20 points. Even though both of those games were in Lubbock, they were still impressive victories. And while Tech's schedule has been somewhat road heavy of late, the recent results away from the United Spirit Arena have been staggering.
With Tuesday's 72-44 loss at Nebraska, Texas Tech has now lost five consecutive road gams. And most of them haven't even been close. Four of the five have been by double digits and the average margin of defeat has been a staggering 15.2 points per game.
"Nebraska just beat us from beginning to end tonight," Knight told reporters after the loss to the Cornhuskers. "There was a little period where we made a run, but other than that they beat us good. We were thoroughly beaten. That's a simple explanation for the game. There weren't any phases during the game where we weren't beaten."
And guess what's next on the schedule? A Saturday game at league co-leader Texas. The Longhorns are the only Big 12 team this season to have won in Lubbock.
Maybe Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany called up the Fab Five for fashion advice. No not the Chris Webber and Jalen Rose-led Michigan teams of the '90s, we're talking the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy Fab Five. During last week's Wisconsin at Illinois game, the Badgers wore their standard red road uniforms. The Illini, however, opted to wear orange rather than their standard white. The uniform change was superstition-based as Illinois has been undefeated of late while wearing orange.
The look allegedly looked fine in person, it didn't work on TV. It looked like a deer hunters' convention or a pickup game between shirts and shirts rather than a real college basketball game.
But after receiving complaints from fans, the Big Ten is making the Illini ditch the orange for Wednesday's game at Iowa. Because the Hawkeyes often wear yellow at home, the Illini have been ordered to wear their blue uniforms.
To say that Western Michigan hasn't exactly been a basketball power of late might be an understatement, but maybe that's beginning to change. With Saturday's Bracket Buster victory over College of Charleston, the Broncos have now reached the 20-victory mark for the second consecutive season. It's the first time Western Michigan has won 20 games in back-to-back seasons since 1922-23.
The Mid-American Conference had a pretty good day in last Saturday's Bracket Buster event, especially considering Kent State and Western Michigan won two of the higher profile games of the event. But the league, which went 7-5 overall, was close to having a great day. Of the five teams that lost, Ohio and Akron both lost in overtime and Toledo was beaten on a last-second tip-in.
So who really is the nation's best freshman? That's a difficult question to answer considering the numbers that Minnesota's Kris Humphries has put up and the role that Wake Forest's Chris Paul has played on a winning team. But if there was an award for best mid-major freshman, there would be little question. Oral Roberts guard Ken Tutt would be an easy winner.
Averaging 20.8 points per game, Tutt is the nation's second-leading freshman scorer (trailing only Humphries). Of late, however, Tutt has been pouring in points. Tutt has scored 25 or more points in each of the past seven games, the longest 25-plus scoring streak this season. Tutt, who hasn't scored fewer than 25 points in more than a month, is averaging 27.1 points per game during the recent streak.
We're going to go out on a limb and suggest this event is a bit overdue. Twenty-five years after leading Indiana State to an undefeated regular season and an appearance in the NCAA title game, Larry Bird will finally have his No. 33 retired by the Sycamores at halftime of Saturday's game against Northern Iowa.
The No. 33 has, however, been pseudo-retired as it hasn't been worn in 25 years. Making it official, however, is a good move. The school will also retire the No. 54 or Duane Klueh, the Helms Foundation player of the year in 1948.
While Wisconsin-Milwaukee made winning the Horizon League title look pretty simple, the conference tournament might be a bit more interesting. Not only have the Panthers stumbled down the stretch, losing three in a row, but Illinois-Chicago has played better.
The Flames, the preseason pick to win the Horizon, have won eight in a row and 11 of 13. Included in that run was an 86-82 victory over Milwaukee.
So you think the life of an assistant basketball coach is glamorous? Well, then listen close. Last Thursday morning, this reporter ran into Wisconsin assistant coach Rob Jeter at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Jeter had just rented a portable DVD player and for good reason.
On Wednesday night, Jeter flew with the Badgers on their charter flight from Champaign, Ill., to Madison. On Thursday morning, he got up and flew from Madison to Minneapolis and then boarded a flight to Anchorage, Alaska. After watching a prospect play -- the Badgers are reportedly recruiting Mario Chalmers, a junior guard at Anchorage Butler -- he hopped on the redeye flight back to Minneapolis and then on to Madison.
If that wasn't enough travel, he was with the Badgers when they flew to Michigan on Saturday for Sunday's eventual loss to the Wolverines. All told, Jeter flew more than 6,200 miles between Wednesday night and Sunday night.
No word, however, on how many DVDs he watched.
Quote to Note
"Once I hit a couple of shots, the rim looks big to me. My shot is all confidence. Once I hit a few, there's no more passing."
-- Illinois guard Dee Brown to the Chicago Sun-Times after scoring a season-high 24 points in a difficult victory at Penn State.
http://sports.espn.go.com
When Davis called into the weekly Big Ten coaches teleconference, he heard that Ohio State's Velimir Radinovic had been named conference player of the week after lighting up the Hoosiers for a career-high 23 points.
"Seems like whoever we play, they're the Big Ten player of the week," Davis said.
Two years ago, Indiana was about to begin a postseason journey that would end with a Final Four appearance and a loss to Maryland in the national championship game. Davis was lauded by Indiana fans for keeping the program going without Bob Knight. And it seemed as if the Hoosiers would simply build on that weekend in Atlanta.
But as the Hoosiers enter Wednesday's game at Northwestern, Indiana is an extremely unusual position. Instead of playing for a seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Hoosiers are in need of a big run just to get into the Dance.
With three games to play in the regular season, Indiana is 12-12 overall and 6-7 in conference play. Eighth in the Big Ten standings, the Hoosiers will likely have to play a first-round game in the conference tournament for the second consecutive season. And most importantly, Indiana is on the verge of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985.
With an InsideRPI of 86 entering Wednesday, the Hoosiers -- who lost home games last week to conference bottom feeders Minnesota and Penn State -- might have to advance to the championship game of the Big Ten tournament to have a chance to get into the NCAA tournament. But even that's not a given. If Indiana really wants to advance, the Hoosiers probably need to win the tournament and the automatic bid that's up for grabs at Conseco Fieldhouse.
And if that happens, two of the main reasons will be the inability to defend inside and losses at Assembly Hall.
Even from the beginning of this season, interior defense and depth was a concern for the Hoosiers. After all, at 6-foot-2 A.J. Moye might be Division I's smallest power forward. When Sean Kline was lost for the season to a knee injury, it became a crisis. Davis is now left with foul prone starter George Leach and a pair of uber-foul prone and inexperienced reserves -- Pat Ewing and Mike Roberts.
In the first game after Kline's injury, Minnesota forward Kris Humphries set a school freshman record with 36 points. Then Radinoivic followed with his 23 points. Earlier this season, Penn State's Aaron Johnson scored 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and Paul Davis of Michigan State finished with 32 points.
But even with the deficiencies inside, the Hoosiers should have a better record. And they would if not for an extremely inexplicable ability to finish games -- especially home games.
Of Indiana's 13 conference games, the Hoosiers have been in 11 of them in the final minutes. But either the Hoosiers can't make a comeback, they can't hold the lead or they do just enough to hold on to win.
"We don't have the one guy to step up and say, 'We're not going to lose this way,'" Davis said. "We've been in every single conference game except the Wisconsin game and Purdue game on the road. We've been in position to win every game with the exception of two."
That was certainly the case in both of last week's losses. Against Minnesota, the Hoosiers led by seven points with three minutes to play and by six with less than a minute left. But a late Bracey Wright turnover, poor execution on offense and a stupid Leach foul all contributed to Minnesota winning its first road game of the season.
Against the Buckeyes, the game was tied with 20 seconds to play, but J.J. Sullinger drove to the basket with 16.7 seconds to play to give Ohio State the lead. Then Moye missed an open 3-pointer.
Simply put, the Hoosiers have not made an abundance of what would be considered smart plays in the final minutes of games.
"The worst that can happen against Minnesota is overtime and we take a quick shot and foul," Davis said. "The other night, Ohio State ... We couldn't have been in a better situation and we couldn't have gotten a better shot.
"I think it definitely has to be mental. For you not to be able to finish them off is all about someone stepping up and making plays."
This Indiana team -- unlike most teams in college basketball -- has problems playing at home. The Hoosiers look tentative at times at home, as if there's too much pressure.
"We've lost a total of six home games, including one to Temple and Missouri and the four home (Big Ten) games," Davis said. "They all have come down to plays at the wire and we haven't made any. There's no fear factor any more it seems to me."
The losses to the Gophers and the Buckeyes -- teams that are a combined 6-19 in league play -- extended IU's home losing streak to four games. For the season, the Hoosiers have lost six games at Assembly Hall.
Wright in particular has been a different player on the road than at home. Wright, the Big Ten's second leading scorer, is shooting 41.7 percent and averaging 19.7 points per game on the road. But after a 1-for-12 shooting performance against the Buckeyes, Wright is shooting only 29.9 percent and averaging 13.8 points per game at Assembly Hall.
"After the third possession the other night, I said, 'Bracey, don't be afraid to shoot the basketball.' You could see he was hesitant on a couple of shots," Davis said. "On the road he's aggressive. He was 1-12 on Saturday and I can guarantee of the 11 shots he missed, 10 were wide-open shots, it wasn't like they were contested shots. I just think he feels it. Any time your best player on your team is feeling that way at home, you're going to have problems winning at home.
"I feel really bad for Bracey right now. He shouldn't have to experience that, he just needs some love."
Even with the recent struggles and the reality of both Indiana's record and RPI, Wright is confident that the Hoosiers are going to be OK.
"There's no doubt in my mind that I think we're going to make the NCAA tournament," Wright told The Indianapolis Star after the loss to the Buckeyes.
"I wouldn't even want to play in the NIT. If it came down to it, and they invited us, I wouldn't want to play. I only want to play in the NCAA Tournament ... And when they have the selection show, I believe in my mind and in my heart that they're going to call our name out."
If that's going to happen, the Hoosiers better go on a run.
A crazy trip
Forgive Iowa State coach Wayne Morgan if he never wants to leave Hilton Coliseum again. And this has little to do with the Cyclones' now 24-game losing streak in Big 12 road games.
Because when it comes to bad trips, Iowa State's trip to Kansas last weekend has to rank pretty high for two reasons. First were some, shall we say, interesting calls in the game that prompted Iowa State officials to ask the Big 12 to review officials calls. Second was a security breach at the Lawrence, Kan., airport that led to a bus ride back to Iowa.
The play that has left the most people scratching their heads was a free throw sequence that led to a Kansas 3-pointer. Fouled while shooting, Iowa State's Jared Homan was supposed to shoot two free throws in the first half. When Homan missed the first free throw, Kansas grabbed the rebound, played on and J.R. Giddens made a 3-pointer.
When the officiating crew of Tom O'Neill, Danny Hooker and Paul Janssen realized a mistake had been made, Homan was allowed to shoot another free throw. However, they said the 3-pointer would stand.
This isn't the first time that O'Neill has been involved in a game where the botched handling of a free throw situation led to a coach grumbling about officiating. In 1999, O'Neill was part of a crew when Cincinnati played at Charlotte. In that game a 49ers player missed the front end of a one-and-one with 17.3 seconds to play. Cincinnati grabbed the rebound and made what they thought was a potential game-winning 3-pointer. However an inadvertent whistle was blown, the basket was waved off and the Bearcats were given the ball out of bounds. On the second attempt, Cincinnati failed to score and Charlotte won the game.
This time, the importance of letting that Kansas shot stand wasn't known, but it proved key in a game that went to overtime.
Iowa State also claims that Keith Langford's foot was on the arc's line when he made a three-pointer to force overtime.
"Obviously, the result of the game is not going to change," Morgan said. "Hopefully, we can hope something like that doesn't happen in the future."
The problems, however, didn't end when Iowa State left Allen Field house. When the Cyclones arrived at the Lawrence Municipal Airport, they found out that a man had entered their charter aircraft. Police were then called to remove the man.
Because of the security breach, the charter company would not fly until the plane had been searched. But rather than wait for the plane to be searched , the Cyclones stayed on the bus and drove the four hours back to campus.
Good thing Iowa State wasn't playing at, say, Texas A&M. It's a 14-hour drive from College Station to Ames.
Around the Midwest
Can anyone figure out this Texas Tech team? Early in Big 12 play, Bob Knight's team defeated Oklahoma State by 21 points and rolled Oklahoma by 20 points. Even though both of those games were in Lubbock, they were still impressive victories. And while Tech's schedule has been somewhat road heavy of late, the recent results away from the United Spirit Arena have been staggering.
With Tuesday's 72-44 loss at Nebraska, Texas Tech has now lost five consecutive road gams. And most of them haven't even been close. Four of the five have been by double digits and the average margin of defeat has been a staggering 15.2 points per game.
"Nebraska just beat us from beginning to end tonight," Knight told reporters after the loss to the Cornhuskers. "There was a little period where we made a run, but other than that they beat us good. We were thoroughly beaten. That's a simple explanation for the game. There weren't any phases during the game where we weren't beaten."
And guess what's next on the schedule? A Saturday game at league co-leader Texas. The Longhorns are the only Big 12 team this season to have won in Lubbock.
Maybe Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany called up the Fab Five for fashion advice. No not the Chris Webber and Jalen Rose-led Michigan teams of the '90s, we're talking the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy Fab Five. During last week's Wisconsin at Illinois game, the Badgers wore their standard red road uniforms. The Illini, however, opted to wear orange rather than their standard white. The uniform change was superstition-based as Illinois has been undefeated of late while wearing orange.
The look allegedly looked fine in person, it didn't work on TV. It looked like a deer hunters' convention or a pickup game between shirts and shirts rather than a real college basketball game.
But after receiving complaints from fans, the Big Ten is making the Illini ditch the orange for Wednesday's game at Iowa. Because the Hawkeyes often wear yellow at home, the Illini have been ordered to wear their blue uniforms.
To say that Western Michigan hasn't exactly been a basketball power of late might be an understatement, but maybe that's beginning to change. With Saturday's Bracket Buster victory over College of Charleston, the Broncos have now reached the 20-victory mark for the second consecutive season. It's the first time Western Michigan has won 20 games in back-to-back seasons since 1922-23.
The Mid-American Conference had a pretty good day in last Saturday's Bracket Buster event, especially considering Kent State and Western Michigan won two of the higher profile games of the event. But the league, which went 7-5 overall, was close to having a great day. Of the five teams that lost, Ohio and Akron both lost in overtime and Toledo was beaten on a last-second tip-in.
So who really is the nation's best freshman? That's a difficult question to answer considering the numbers that Minnesota's Kris Humphries has put up and the role that Wake Forest's Chris Paul has played on a winning team. But if there was an award for best mid-major freshman, there would be little question. Oral Roberts guard Ken Tutt would be an easy winner.
Averaging 20.8 points per game, Tutt is the nation's second-leading freshman scorer (trailing only Humphries). Of late, however, Tutt has been pouring in points. Tutt has scored 25 or more points in each of the past seven games, the longest 25-plus scoring streak this season. Tutt, who hasn't scored fewer than 25 points in more than a month, is averaging 27.1 points per game during the recent streak.
We're going to go out on a limb and suggest this event is a bit overdue. Twenty-five years after leading Indiana State to an undefeated regular season and an appearance in the NCAA title game, Larry Bird will finally have his No. 33 retired by the Sycamores at halftime of Saturday's game against Northern Iowa.
The No. 33 has, however, been pseudo-retired as it hasn't been worn in 25 years. Making it official, however, is a good move. The school will also retire the No. 54 or Duane Klueh, the Helms Foundation player of the year in 1948.
While Wisconsin-Milwaukee made winning the Horizon League title look pretty simple, the conference tournament might be a bit more interesting. Not only have the Panthers stumbled down the stretch, losing three in a row, but Illinois-Chicago has played better.
The Flames, the preseason pick to win the Horizon, have won eight in a row and 11 of 13. Included in that run was an 86-82 victory over Milwaukee.
So you think the life of an assistant basketball coach is glamorous? Well, then listen close. Last Thursday morning, this reporter ran into Wisconsin assistant coach Rob Jeter at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Jeter had just rented a portable DVD player and for good reason.
On Wednesday night, Jeter flew with the Badgers on their charter flight from Champaign, Ill., to Madison. On Thursday morning, he got up and flew from Madison to Minneapolis and then boarded a flight to Anchorage, Alaska. After watching a prospect play -- the Badgers are reportedly recruiting Mario Chalmers, a junior guard at Anchorage Butler -- he hopped on the redeye flight back to Minneapolis and then on to Madison.
If that wasn't enough travel, he was with the Badgers when they flew to Michigan on Saturday for Sunday's eventual loss to the Wolverines. All told, Jeter flew more than 6,200 miles between Wednesday night and Sunday night.
No word, however, on how many DVDs he watched.
Quote to Note
"Once I hit a couple of shots, the rim looks big to me. My shot is all confidence. Once I hit a few, there's no more passing."
-- Illinois guard Dee Brown to the Chicago Sun-Times after scoring a season-high 24 points in a difficult victory at Penn State.
http://sports.espn.go.com
