Q: What happened to Jamelle Cornley?
A: Jamelle had a hip-pointer and was really pretty sore, so we'll see what that leads to at the end of the week.

Q: Ben Luber's condition.
A: We've got Ben's hand in a cast now, so he's casted up. There's a tendon sprain. He fell right on it during the Ohio State game. We thought it might be a hair-line fracture but that turned out to be false. So, he's got a bad, bad sprain in his tendons and its really swollen and he can't really move it. They felt he would have a better opportunity to recover faster if it was in a cast, so we put it in a cast after the game.

Q: Did the Ohio State, Wisconsin stretch sort of wear your guys down?
A: Well, yeah, I'm not going to sit her and say we're fresh. I think we're frustrated. We're worn down. I was very proud of our effort after the Ohio State game and I told the guys it didn't seem like we had any bounce to our step (today) and I don't understand that. We basically had Thursday off and practiced pretty well yesterday, which was positive, and I was excited about having a good practice yesterday. We had good energy this morning in shoot around. Then we come out today, I just felt like we didn't have any energy or zip whatsoever.

Q: What do you hope the seniors will take from this season?
A: Our seniors have been great ambassadors for our program. They've been great kids - no problems - and that's very, very positive. We want to look at wins and losses; I know that's very, very important in how we're judged, but also they're both going to graduate and they will both be successful in whatever they decide they want to do. I just want them to know they're always part of our family - our basketball family - they'll always be part of our program and I want them to enjoy some success when we turn this thing around and have some success. I want all of our players to be part of that.

#4 Mike Walker, Junior Guard

Q: Comment on Penn State's defense today...
A: I think it was a little bit of energy and also them hitting shots in the first half. Some of their "bigs" stepped out in the second half and hit some shots, and I think that took the wind out of us a little bit. We definitely didn't have as much energy as we did against Ohio State. I don't think there are any excuses for it. That has been kind of a theme for us throughout the season: not showing up with energy. We haven't had the answer for it.

#5 Geary Claxton, Junior Forward

Q: Is the losing taking its toll right now?
A: Yeah, we have lost 13 in a row, so of course it is taking its toll. We have just got to keep playing every game and just learn from this.

Q: What was your impression of Illinois?
A: They were real focused and they communicated a lot. They had a lot of intensity. They looked like a well put together team. I really didn't see any of the off-the-court stuff today. They were just into basketball.

Q: What challenges did their big men present to you guys?
A: They were athletic. They have Randle and Carter. They were like 6-8 or 6-9. So it was kind of hard to match up against that offensively because they would come from the weakside and block shots. They were just tough defensively.

Q: What were you guys not doing on defense today to slow Illinois down?
A: We weren't rotating quick enough and getting back on defense. That is pretty much it.

Opening Statement...
We just talked about carrying over the momentum we had against Michigan on Wednesday today and we said it wasn't going to be easy. I thought our kids did a great job of going at them right away. We executed our zone offense pretty well, got it inside and got some put-backs. The defense has really carried us all year. We've been pretty solid in holding teams under 50. Shaun [Pruitt] did a great job on [Jamelle] Cornley and Brian [Randle] fought [Geary] Claxton. You limit those two guys and they will struggle to score.

Q: Is this how you envisioned your team playing early in the season?
A: You got more people back. Now you know your roles. With everybody back and in practice, everyone knows where his spot is. Maybe that's helped them mentally. Chester [Frazier] with his quickness in pressuring the ball, Brian Randle is a defensive stopper and I think Rich [McBride] has been the biggest surprise defensively. Warren [Carter] has back-to-back good games. Shaun [Pruitt] is doing a much better job defensively. That's where he's made the biggest strides. We have several guys that will fight you on the post and I think we did a great job of that today.

Q: Is this team developing a thick skin from everything that has happened?
A: We've been through a lot, shown a lot of courage. The first year we went through a lot of adversity and it brought us together as a team We helped each other and began depending on and trusting each other. I think that's happened a little bit and I don't want to go through that again to bring a team together, but maybe the silver lining is that this has helped everybody become more focused. Also, you are only as good as your seniors and Rich had a great line at halftime. He had five assists and no turnovers but also no baskets. He was guarding [Danny] Morrisey and [Mooch] Jackson and not letting them shoot, so I told him not to worry about it. If Michigan State wins tonight, we are in third place, so we've made big strides from the start.

Q: What's the difference you saw between the Penn State team you saw today and the team that beat you in Illinois last season?
A: They seem to have good pieces, but obviously there's something missing. You got two pretty good players in Cornley and Claxton, Morrisey can shoot the ball, and losing Luber kills them now. Last year, Walker made big shots against us. The one guy that really killed us last year who isn't here now is Travis Parker. He really played good basketball, especially in the stretch run. They don't have that athletic sort of player, Claxton sort of brings it, but when you have Claxton, Cornley and Parker, that's three really tough match-ups. I think that might be a little bit of the difference. They went through some injuries and lost some games early and lost some confidence. It can tailspin really fast and it's tough to keep your kids heads above water. I really feel for Ed. He's a good guy and a good coach.