I think the defense is playing hard. But still, our margin for error is not that great. There are still defensive breakdowns. In the second half, we don't guard a couple of screens, leave a guy and he hits a 3 at a critical time.
I think he is playing with as much purpose and conviction as any guy I've had in their senior year. There's been guys that have been more talented, but I don't know if I've had anybody as determined to try to play as well as he's been.
I think Gardner has made the biggest freshman to senior year improvement of any guy we've had. I think he deserves a lot of credit.
This certainly falls into the category of games where we really gutted it out. We made way more plays than they did and it would have been a real shame if we had another guy foul out and lost.
It was a tough make, but it was clearly after the horn went off. We did get it up there pretty quickly. I think by the guy running up on him, it didn't allow him to turn and square as soon as he would've liked to.