Coach Slessinger's Quotes Following Saturday's 77-68 Loss At Tulsa

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Overall thoughts on the game
"They had two good runs. On the back end of the first half, the last 10 they got on a good run when we went dry offensively, couldn't get to the free throw line and didn't get the stops we needed. In the second half, second-chance points killed us. They had 11 second-chance points where we forced misses and didn't get the rebound. That was really the game."
 
On the improvements his team made today
"We did a lot of things better offensively. We moved the ball a good bit better. We cut our turnovers down dramatically. We executed at a much better rate. We had some foul trouble which caused some weird lineups and here was an injury to Cameron [Reed], which changed our rotations, but they kept finding ways to make it work."
 
On the performance of Christavious Gill and Erik Thomas
"They were both really solid. We're pleased with where they both were. Christavious had been in a funk in those first two games but he was the least of my worries. He was going to come back. He's a fighter. He's got ultimate confidence. He's not a guy who will have multiple bad games in a row. Erik has been good for us all year. We got good minutes from Thibodeaux. Offensively, he did some really good things. We also had a good floor game from Broyles again with him being able to run the team against changing defenses. We did some good stuff there."
 
On New Orleans' next opponent, the Southern California Trojans
"They had a good win over Texas A&M yesterday. We know they're very, very long. They're big and very athletic. They're playing at a good rate right now. They got some guys back that had been out in the preseason, so they're going to be a talented group. We're going to go out and figure out a way go at them. We're going to attack it, get out there and try and shake the tree."