Recap| Box Score

Nov. 24, 1999

"During the first half, we were all out of sync. I don't know if it's the first time in Madison Square Garden for our guys or what. We did not do what we have to do to be a good team this year. In other words, ever year it changes. We lost four guys like Kentucky did. Three guys are playing in the NBA. We're younger and we don't have the experience. We're a different team. We have to depend on what we do well. We really have to stick close to what we do well. And in the second half we ran good offense. We just battened the defense down. We packed the defense in a little more. We were able to hold Kentucky to where we could get back into the game. When you do that, you have a chance, but you just have a chance because of how you played the first half. You get down 16 to a good team, and it takes a lot out of you to come back. When we did get back, we turned the ball over a couple of time and we didn't get the win. We feel with our team this year that if we have to go through this tonight to prove how tough we have to play for 40 minutes, then it's worth the loss. I probably hate to lose as much as anybody, but, if that's what it takes, okay, fine, now we'll go from here."

"We did run better offense in the second half. I also think we set our defense earlier in the half court situation. I think those two things helped us get back. We didn't give Kentucky transition opportunities that they had scored a lot on during the first half. We took them away in the second half. But you don't want to get down 16 points to a good team. You just don't want to do that.

"We had a jump-shot, I think it was 52-all, go in and out. That would have put us into the lead. You never know hat it does to our psyche or Kentucky's psyche. Does that put more pressure on Kentucky where it becomes even tougher to shoot the ball? Do we relax a little because we have to get back and make some shots? I would have like to see us have the lead and then see what happens. I'll take my chances with a lead there."