We didn't have an answer at all, I mean we come out and it was a point at the half or so, and all of a sudden it was 11 or 12, 57-45. Its disappointing.

It just seemed like we couldn't do anything offensively. We had 2 guys, it was like a two man team, Vedran in the first half and we got limited shots in that half and Jitim in the second half.

The game was also different in that normally NU has a very balanced attack. Today two over 20, until the end only 3 points from the rest of the starters and nobody else above 10.

We just weren't getting anything out of the center position at all. Davor ... played decently in the Bowling Green game but it hasn't carried over in the last game.

Both he and Mohamed actually, both of them, we're not getting any offense so you have to run too many things toward Vedran and Jitim and its not -- you can't win games in the long run doing that.

It was close at the half, but Shon Morris asked the coach if he was worried about the pace of the game in that it was too fast for NU's style of play.

It was too much for us.

I thought we'd be able to score on them, watching the tapes, I thought you could run your stuff and get pretty good looks, but we were just unable -- you could see it from the outset what they were just trying to do -- just force it inside on Davor and Vedran and they were successful.

We never stopped them, really, the whole night., maybe more than -- I don't know if we got them more than 2 or 3 times in a row where they didn't score.

It doesn't seem that Davor Duvancic gets going after he picks up his 2nd foul.

I don't know what to say about that. What you're saying is true, its obvious, its right there, I don't know if we have an answer.

We tried to give Ivan [Tolic] a little time in there but he can't run really, and the Kid [Vince Scott] is just not ready yet. He got about 10 minutes there and if Davor's not going to score, we might as well get Vince in there -- he's a little taller and maybe pick up a loose ball and he was on the rim a few times for tips, they didn't go down, but there might be a little more activity there.

Defensively, NU has been a pretty good club, but UIC put up 47 points in the 2nd half, shooting 68%. Was that because things were not going well at either end?

They were just in a comfort zone. We didn't do anything to make them feel like this was going to be a hard shot, right down to the end when Armond Williams was just looking at Vince and had a 14 footer there and gaged him, gaged him and stuck it -- everyone felt too relaxed out there.

What limits Ivan Tolic's role?

Its not just his conditioning.

Its still sore, he still has this tendinitis in his knee so he can give us a few minutes. He's certainly a bigger target so you can run your offense a little better and he defends. He's a big body down there but he moves pretty well and he knows how to play people on the low post and that's going to be very important for us.

He's more of a true center where Davor is more of a forward playing center.

So its out to El Paso after Christmas for the Sun Classic where the Cats get to face a pretty good Rutgers team Saturday night.

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[Bill Carmody's Post Game comments are taken from the WGN Post Game Show with Dave Eanet and Shon Morris, and may have been edited for clarity]

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