Dusty May press conference after win at Penn State

It changes a lot with the game plan. He's been very impressive on film with his ability to get anywhere he wants to on the floor. And then defensively, he's disruptive on the ball. He's disruptive off the ball running through passing lanes.

So, you know, obviously when any of us lose a guy that is a big part of what we do, it hurts. And I don't know what happened to him, but they're a different team with him out there. But credit the other guys. I thought they stepped up and played well.

Like I said, their bigs were extremely effective. Effective around the rim with their decision-making in the perimeter. And I thought they set great screens. They punished our drops with physical screens, and they were able to get downhill. So credit those guys.

I don't remember exactly what our message was at halftime other than the boards. We were getting destroyed on both glasses. I think we had 1 offensive rebound, they had 9. So that's pretty much what we focused our energy on at half.

The big lineup didn't get a lot of minutes together. Morez was in foul trouble, so we were kind of— we were working that. And then they start Fallon Morrow when we were in the front, and they got a couple stops by Fallon Morrow. So we actually were incredibly small late with that group, with Yaxel Lendeborg technically being the 5 and Roddy Gayle being the 4.

But we didn't have— that big lineup's been elite almost every minute all year on the defensive end. They haven't been elite on the offensive end all year. And I thought Penn State's zone got us out of rhythm. Usually it takes gave us 2 possessions, and with the passing ability and our size, we were able to play over the top of it.

But I thought for 3 or 4 possessions, they were able to knock us out of rhythm and take away what we were looking for. And therefore, we came out empty-handed. And then, so there were a number of things that changed the rhythm of the game. They controlled tempo.

I thought the tempo press, I thought the zone kept our guys off balance. And, you know, we need all of these learning lessons if we're going to continue to improve.

I thought we were putting much better pressure on the rim to build that lead. And then we came out and shot a couple quick, pretty contested threes, if my memory serves correct. And then they were able to get the momentum back. And, you know, because they were going to the glass.

And so when we were able to pitch it ahead I thought Nimari did a really nice job of driving some early pitch aheads and getting to the rim. And so we had enough— I think we had 3 or 4 of those in the second half where we were able to get a defensive rebound, advance it, and play off of their aggression on the offensive glass. And then I thought we started settling for tough threes in the same situation for whatever reason.

And, but I'm definitely not second-guessing our guys' decision-making. They're in the battle, they're playing. But from my perspective, we just, we stopped taking advantage of those broken floors and getting to the rim.