Bruce Weber

This is how you win road games. You win them with heart.

I told them after today's game, we're making progress. Now, put it all together on the road against a good team. If you're going to compete and get a high (NCAA tournament) seed, you have to win some road games.

We still have a long stretch and a lot of tough games coming up. The season can go a lot of ways. I hope the kids realize that. I hope Dee and James do a great job making sure we're prepared for every game.

We're not great and I've never said we are. But if we play hard and our seniors are great leaders, we can be pretty good. We've won 21 games. It still comes down to the Penn State game. If we win that game, we're (a half-game out of) first place in the Big Ten.

They've teased me. They've teased the fans. There are games where we look like we're making progress. Then a game later, we get guys with goose eggs and get nothing from the bench.

We have the capability of beating anybody, but we have some games where we're not clicking.

I just hope we can get to 33. The Salukis keep winning so we have to keep on their tails. It's great for the program. James (Augustine) and Dee (Brown) have lost one home game. One of their goals is to stay undefeated at home.

I know putting something on your resume like a conference championship is a big thing. Ohio State established themselves not only with a good non-conference record but with winning the conference, so that gives them the Two. Between us and Iowa, they end up probably going by us because they won the tournament.

Instead of having their heads up and feeling good, they start bickering in the tunnel. So I think that was key.

We started so good. Then you think we're going to kill them, so we shoot some quick shots. It's about your mental approach to the game.

He knows he has to break a bad habit.

The players will tell you my head is too big.

It goes down in history. Not only in Illinois history -- NCAA history. I mean, if you're not happy with this, I feel sorry for you, because life ain't getting better.

We ran some plays, and we shouldn't have to run plays. I told them, 'You should be embarrassed. You should just be able to push it or run motion.' If we're running plays to survive at home, they should be disappointed, not me.

I'd rather be up 35-0 to be honest. But, they've competed with everybody (in the conference), so it wasn't something new.

Now you hope for Northwestern to beat Ohio State, and that last game mean something.

He was a late recruit. His dad is an Indiana guy. Matt had a room in the house that was all red with Hoosier stuff. His hope was to go to Indiana. He told us about the room later. We didn't get to see that.

I hope it keeps up.

The one good thing is we've played Georgetown, so we did play this and have some understanding of it. We got a taste of it. I hope that helps us. At least the older guys have a good feel for what we need to do.

We'll have to see how it plays out. You'll also end up with a (NCAA tournament) seeding dilemma. You hope you'll all get into the NCAA tournament.

I attacked it right after the game. I hope I said the right things.

I hope they can continue. They're going to be successful in life because of who they are.

I want them back because it's good publicity, but also to be around our other guys. I know Luther will keep coming back I hope Deron will come back and then Dee and James down the road.

They spread you out and isolate you. Now that they have a great inside threat, he keeps you very accountable. And they share the ball very well. They move the ball to the open man and take horse shots. They have good, solid shooters and they shoot good shots.

I'm happy. You expect your guys to improve, keep getting better. We work hard on fundamentals, we work hard on the shooting, conditioning, weights, and now we're starting to see that with some of the other players.