Rice has as good an offensive player as their is in the league. They start with him and that's important. Transition defense will be very important. They are a very good transition team. And defensively, they are doing a lot of different things.

The thing about Isaiah is that he's not only a good offensive player, but he can really be a great defensive player at times too and really helps us out with rebounding. When he does all that he's one of the best players around.

It's no bigger than Saturday's game (a win at Tulsa) was. But these are two teams who have played well and who have got a chance to keep themselves one game out of first place. But whether we are playing UAB or East Carolina, it is a big game.

The winner of that game is definitely in the (NCAA) Tournament. (For) the loser, Sunday's going to be a long day.

I think everybody was disappointed Friday. I don't ever want this program to be satisfied playing in the NIT. That is not our goal. But the NIT is a great tournament, the longest running tournament in college basketball. We're excited to be playing in it. There is always a positive in everything and the positive in this is that we get to play at home again.

You get it to 44-all, I think we got a little too excited. You're not going to score in transition against Syracuse at their place. I thought we forced the issue. Even when we got it down there, we took some bad shots.