Coach Thompson comes to just about every game and those guys who played for him and Coach Baggot talk about how they used to just terrorize teams with their defense. Coach Hicks is here a lot and we talk a lot, and his teams obviously were great defensively. ... That tradition is an advantage we have.

He plays with so much more confidence. Last season he essentially was our fifth starter and was out there to defend, and every now and then he'd get out in a passing lane and make a steal and make a play. But this year, he's one of the major players on the floor. He's playing with great confidence at both ends.

What he does is really what maybe no one in our program does. He makes plays that you can't anticipate, that you can't coach for.

It was a little tough to talk to the guys I played with,

I have played a lot of times against Milan as a player and coach, so it's really just another game.

We came up here and our guys wanted to win this game so bad and we played so hard. We prepared so hard during the week, and it just hurts. It really does.