Head Coach Barclay Radebaugh talks about his team's 85-67 loss to Southern Illinois on Tuesday evening.

Coach Radebaugh

General thoughts on the game…

"That's a tough one. For some positives, I look to the first 12 minutes of the second half. I thought we were as good as we've been. We were plus 15, and I think we proved that we could play with the Southern Illinois of the world. For whatever reason we struggled tremendously in the first half to put together consecutive stops, consecutive offensive series. We're going to have to go back and look at why. We'll have to look at the personnel we're starting and see why we got off to such a rough start. But I thought in the second half, to cut it to 13 points and then for Sheldon to have that wide open three in the corner to cut it to ten - that was a positive. This early in the season we need to dwell on the positives and encourage our team to do a great job for 40 minutes."

On having just six turnovers ….

"The issue is not turnovers anymore. Now that we've gone to a smaller lineup the issue is defensive. That's two consecutive games that we've allowed teams to shoot either in the high 50s or 60 percent, and that's just not acceptable. To hold them to 47 percent in the second half is more what we need to do, and even lower than that. But for our team to hold them to 47 percent in the second half is more our style and where we need to be defensively. I just simply don't think we were ready to play. I'm not looking for excuses, I'm looking to be ready to play. I'm looking for this team to perform at a higher level than what we performed at tonight."

On where he wants their game to be at…

"It depends on how we are defensively and the pace that we play. Teams that play in the 50s walk the ball up the court and I don't think we can be successful walking the ball up the court. I think the makeup of our team is that we're very long, very athletic and can really run. I think we need to run the ball up the court. You saw that in the second half- we got two over the tops to Kenny; we got pitch ahead layups. We played like we're capable of playing. That's going to create more possessions.:

Junior Forward Kelvin Martin

Overall thoughts on the loss …

"It was disappointing. We could have played better. Deep inside we know that we can compete with anybody in the country. We did some things wrong and we weren't mentally and physically ready for the game. We've just got to get better."

On Southern Illinois much-talked about defense…

"They were good. At the same time, we know we've got some great players. We've just got to be more poised and stronger with the ball. Just attack and be patient."

On having just six team turnovers…

"In the past few games we've had more turnovers than so it's a good sign that we only had six turnovers. It's one thing we can say we've improved on. But there are plenty of other things we need to get accomplished to be a team."

On CSU's defensive effort …

"The last couple of games teams have been shooting well against us. We just need to dig down deep and have that mentality that we're not going to let them score on us. "

On the remaining games in the Chicago Invitational Challenge…

"It would mean a lot for us to get some wins. It would get us started going into conference play and the other games ahead of us. It's something that we need. After losing two straight it would be good to get a win.