Scott Skiles Minutes Quotations

We need to play 40-plus minutes of really good basketball. The last couple games, we've got 30-plus, but that's not good enough at this level to win the game.

Mike will get another chance now. He just needs to play better; the minutes he's got he hasn't taken advantage of. It would be nice for him -- and it would be nice for us -- if he could perform at a high level.

When the time came to make plays, they made a flurry. That coupled with some very poor decisions that we made (and) in a matter of minutes the game was gone.

Malik has had some good minutes lately. He's shooting 49 percent. He doesn't have a lot of attempts, but he's been able to knock down the perimeter shot, hold his position and he's had some good minutes.

I would never commit ahead of time that he wasn't going to play. I would hate to tell somebody they're not going to play or their minutes would be limited, then all of a sudden 6 minutes into the game put him out there. That wouldn't be fair. I think it's better that he stayed ready, but unfortunately he didn't get in.

We have made it a point of emphasis all year. Our guys have to use better judgment about when to shoot (the ball) and when to drive and draw contact. There were some games when we were in the penalty (situation) for four or five minutes and still had not shot a free throw.

The opportunities we had to see him play big minutes -- when Brad Miller went down, he was forced into the starting lineup with Sacramento -- he played well in that role. He knows and we know that's not a role he's necessarily comfortable in. But he's shown the ability to shoot the ball well. We weren't really sure what kind of a defender he was going to be. We've been pleasantly surprised with the way he's come in and picked up our concepts and things we're trying to execute.

We did a lot of good things tonight with the exception of four or five minutes with our defense breaking down. Other than that we had 40 plus minutes of pretty solid defense. We moved the ball well. We got a lot of open looks.

If Luke gets to play, Luke's a good passer and he can make his hook shot. He knows how to play and he knows what we're doing. In limited minutes he's gotten, he hasn't hurt us or himself.

He plays 20 minutes a game and consistently blocks shots all over the place. He's a great defender and still changes ends very well. He's an intimidating-type player. To have a backup center like him is a luxury.