HEAD COACH GREGG MARSHALL ON…
 
…Frankamp's progression affecting the lineup.
"He's the same guy, he's just playing much better. You go through that as a coach: sometimes guys get better, but sometimes they also get worse. Sometimes they regress a little bit. By and large, we've had a number of guys this particular season – and it makes sense, because we had so much youth and inexperience coming in – that have gotten markedly better from the time the season started to how they're playing now... That's because they work every single day, they develop their bodies (and) they develop their games. Whether it's a 45-minute workout like yesterday, or a two-hour workout like today, they come in and try to get better. I think that shows in their play, and as our season goes on, we usually get better.
 
This is probably the best three or four game stretch (Frankamp has) had with us… I think it takes different players different amounts of time; you never know how long it's going to take a guy to 'get it' and to finally feel comfortable and assured that we believe in him as a staff. We told him that for a long time. We wanted it to happen last year, but it's easy to see why you would defer to those other dudes (Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker) that are in the (National Basketball) Association. I think playing off the ball is better for him. Let Landry (Shamet) go north and south and look for him, as opposed to the other way around.
 
…Willis' recent struggles.
"Well I think it's a matter of other teams scouting him now…When he gets the ball now, (opponents) are sending a second defender. He's never dealt with that - other than our practices - and he hasn't handled it great. Once that double-team or sometimes triple-team comes, you've got to make the simple pass out of the post and not attempt to score. It's harder for him to guard smaller perimeter players, and there's a lot of those guys in our league. We think he can play the 'four' against a lot of teams, but certain teams he's strictly a 'five.' So know you're in a three-man rotation with Shaq (Morris) and Rauno (Nurger).
 
…The challenge of getting so many players meaningful minutes.
I can only play five. I know a lot of people would like to give minutes those people that aren't playing, but it's not charity. We like players to earn their minutes around here. Quite frankly, I can only play five. If I played six or seven, fans would get angry and think I can't count, and we'd get technical fouls. I'm going to stick to five, and I'm going to play the five that I think give us the best chance to win.
 
It's been an interesting year, but they give you 13 scholarships for a reason. My philosophy has been to always use them. I don't get to save the money if I don't use a scholarship…If we're given 13 scholarships, I plan on using them, and I want 13 guys that think they can be really good players and contributors. Competition is a wonderful motivator. We compete every day in practice. We compete for minutes during games. The beautiful thing is that these guys pull for each other…it's amazing how they do that. They're very selfless and it's conducive to having a deep team and a talented team. That way, things foul trouble and injuries aren't as impactful to us as they might be for other teams."
 
…How he manages the workload at this point in the season to keep players rested.
"The light days are very, very, non-taxing from a physical standpoint. They're more mental days: videotape, walkthroughs, might teach a new set play here and there, tweak some things, cover what the other team runs. You just have to not tax them physically so they're not straining their…bodies for six, seven days in a row. You can't do that if you want to play at peak efficiency, which we all do."
 
…What he thinks the team is excelling at right now.
"I loved the defense in the second half (at Loyola). It's always going to be defense for me. I love the fact that we're scoring 80 points a game. So many games this year, we've scored 80 points…I said early in the year that I liked how this team could score. We have many guys that can score the basketball. But now, our defense is really kicking in. When you hold Loyola – at home – to 25 percent shooting in the second half, you're doing something. Those guys are very skilled and talented, and they have a very good offense that they run with tremendous pace. They put shooters all over the court. Somehow, we held them to 25 percent. I think it had something to do with our defense."
 
…How he motivates them to play defense when the offense is being productive.
"I don't mind saying difficult things to my team. I tell them the truth. I try to tell them exactly the way I see it, and the way the staff sees it. In that particular game I think it was 40-36 at halftime. We'd been holding a lot of teams under 50 (for a game), and they had 36 at half. I went back and watched the videotape, and there wasn't a whole lot of terrible breakdowns on our part, it was just good players making shots for Loyola. But at the time – at halftime – I wasn't happy with the number, that's too many points to give up. I was much more pleased with our defense in the second half."
 
…The keys to tomorrow's opponent, Southern Illinois.
"We have to take care of the basketball. They like to turn you over. We turn people over, but they turn people over even better than us. They (get) offensive rebounds like crazy, so we've got to keep them off the glass…We assume they'll play some zone, and they've shown some triangle-and-two. Coach Barry Hinson coached a few years, he knows what he's doing. We'll have to go up there and try to outplay them.
 
…Landry Shamet's progress as he runs more point guard.
"He's doing great. He can play 'one,' 'two,' or 'three,' he's playing more 'one' now, even though he was playing the 'two' earlier in the year. He's got a great assist-to-turnover ratio for a young guard: three-to-one. He can shoot the ball, he's athletic. The first basket against Loyola, he made a nice cut to the middle, Shaq found him, and he finished it with a flush. He plays pretty good defense; he's getting better at that. He knows our system quite well. We're excited about what he's doing, and more excited about what he could eventually become."