We've proved that we're ready now. Whether we're ready to win Tuesday night on the road remains to be seen. Do I think we're good enough? Yes.

This team, at times, can be overwhelming to handle for certain teams. It can dominate through size. It can mismatch you in so many different ways. As long as the guy who makes us go (Marcus Williams) has good games, they we can play with anybody.

Facing Syracuse up here is obviously a task. They looked very good against Cincinnati. They wore Cincinnati down.

When you have a kid who's been with you for three years say that to you, whether it happens or not, at least for the moment you feel pretty pretty good. It's good to hear, even if he's lying to you.

We really caught them off guard. I can see it on the tape that they just didn't expect us to be as good as we were.

We're trying to give him a lot of reinforcement, tell him to take a couple of chances, make a few mistakes, because you can't make good plays unless you make a few mistakes. Craig becomes more important down the stretch.

We're trying to put pressure on Craig ? and I mean positive pressure ? and give him the reinforcement that he needs to take a few chances. You can't make good plays unless you make a few mistakes.

We'll talk about that. You've seen it. And there's a pretty good chance you won't see it again.

We did things necessary to stop our opponents at crucial times and win games. Defensive rebounds and taking good shots in the last four to five minutes.

We know they have a very good defensive team. We know they hung tough against Villanova. We're looking forward to going down there and not having a letdown. We have much bigger fish to fry.

We know they run. We know they have three or four good players. Within the next hour or so, I think I'll know them a lot better.

It feels good so many guys contributed. We, the coaching staff, to some degree, have become so reliant on Rudy and he didn't have a particularly good evening and that happens to great players and will continue to happen.

That allowed Lewis and Thomas to do what they wanted. We got beat good in the post.

Our defense was inconsistent. The defense got us going but that wasn't the key because we let up so many times. I think it was a good win but we didn't play as well as we're capable of.

Right now, that guy would be Denham (Brown). In the last two games, it's been Denham against very good defense.

Out of 63 kids who had a fourth degree felony, three were thrown out of school, so the percentages were all in his favor. And he was thrown out for a semester for basketball. With that said, I didn't think he had a good game. I do think that things bother him.

I think in his second year with us, Caron started to realize in January just how good he could be with a lot of pushing and prodding. Ben was the same way. I think Rudy (Gay) is starting to understand some of the great gifts that he has and he's starting to showcase them a lot more and just becoming a better player.

He's as good a passer as I've ever coached in 35 years. He's capable of 10-15 assists every night.

He doesn't have much street left in him; he is one of the nicest and most appreciative people. About the only place he has some of that street and swagger is in his game. And that is a good thing. He doesn't get rattled and relishes every challenge.

I give him some credit for coming in, passing the ball, not trying to score right way, rebounding. He was doing good things.

Magnificent is a good word. He put on one of the better performances I've seen in quite a while.

We?re going to have to develop into a good road team. Hopefully, this will be the first step in that direction.

We're going to have to develop into a good road team. Right now we aren't. We weren't at Marquette, at least.

We're going to have to evolve into a good road team. Right now we're not. We weren't at Marquette at least. (Tonight) will hopefully be the first step in that direction. And it is a highlight game.