More from Howland conference call

On Malcolm Lee:
“Started practice yesterday and tweaked his sprained ankle that he sprained before. Went to contest a shot, came down on someone’s foot. He hardly practiced yesterday. Really hasnt had practice since when we played. He has patella tendonitis – jumper’s knee – but he said he felt fine.”

On Lee’s status:
“He’s seemingly OK. He’s actually in a final right now, and he saw a trainer and both said he should be able to practice.”

On other injury issues:
“Guys have had winter colds that went around. That was part of the issue in Kansas and Montana. ”

On playing Cal Poly:
“I’m really worried about winning this game tomorrow. It’s all based on what he can do. After the terrible loss we suffered last Sunday, we had to give them two days off for finals. We came back and I thought we had a good practice on Wednesday, and a pretty good practice (Thursday). We’ve lost four games in a row. We’re just trying to get back on our winning way here.”

On jetlag:
“We were on the road nine of previous 12 days, going across the country twice. Coming back, I thought our practice Saturday before the game was just OK at best. Some of the guys were into finals stuff and screwed up that way. You could just tell we were worn down a little bit.”

On the Montana loss:
“We’re a very, very young team. Montana is good. They definitely have a great shot of coming out of their league as a NCAA tournament team. All the things were set up for a potential pitfall.”

On the team’s reaction to Montana loss:
“Kids are much more resilient than adults. I thought the guys were, especially at yesterday’s practice, pretty upbeat. We had a long practice (Thursday), 2:30 hours.”

On Reeves Nelson’s recent struggles:
“Even though he didn’t score or rebound great against Kansas, I thought it was maybe the best defensive effort of his career. He missed one rotation that was a significant one. He really worked hard to follow the game plan. Last game, he really played poorly. So much of his stuff is mental. He get down, he gets negative, down on himself, he drops his head. It’s only a self-defeating thing when he starts to do that.”