Cats are well-rested

Mick Cronin took advantage of the week between games by giving his players a break this week. They came in at 6 a.m. on Sunday to watch the loss to Marquette - OK, 6 a.m. on Sunday isn't much of a break - then did some shooting on Monday and took off Tuesday before returning to a full-scale practice on Wednesday to begin preparations for Saturday's game at Rutgers.

"We needed time off," Cronin said. "We needed to get away from each other a little bit. Anybody watching the Marquette game could see a team that was stale. It was very evident in many ways from watching the film and our practice that we needed that break, mentally more than anything. We’ve just got to make sure the time off doesn’t hurt us, that we don’t lose some of our edge and some of our sharpness. We need to make sure we get that game energy back and try to jump on Rutgers early."