The remainder of that tape was word games.

We're behind the 8-ball here. We need to win games. It's going to be our season, the month of January, all those games at home. Any win right now is a big win.

Now that everybody has some games under their belts, they know what's expected of them. We execute and make hustle plays. We're trying to get our confidence up now that we're heading for the playoffs.

It's hard for me to say how we played. In close games, I worry more about coaching than the players. Alexander Central played hard, harder than us at times, but I'm proud of how we executed down the stretch.

Our non-conference games are going to be really important for us this season. Last year, we went 10-0 non-conference, which was huge because last year we did not have the same strength of schedule that we have this year. Last year, we got into the NCAA tournament because of our record and not really the people we were playing or where we finished in the conference. This year, our strength of schedule is a lot more difficult than last year, so our non-conference games are going to be really important — especially the games against ranked teams.

All the games now are important. It's us just coming together as a team, fighting a little bit harder, turning up the concentration a little bit more. It's getting close to that time.