Jim Brownlee Quotations

The win against Iowa was great for the team and the confidence they picked up could really benefit our play over the weekend. Momentum and confidence will prove to be key ingredients for this team's success and some wins this weekend could certainly help in both categories.

We still have a good shot at getting into the conference tournament and that's the most important thing.

Our pitching has been solid the past two weekends against Central Michigan and Northern Iowa and a strong outing from Luke would really keep the ball rolling. It seems that some of our early season problems we had on the mound, both with our starters and in the bullpen, have been corrected and our staff is very different from when Iowa saw us last.

Ian pitched his heart out tonight and really deserved for something good to come out of this start. Unfortunately, our bullpen could not shut Evansville down and we lost another game late due to a big inning.

I don't have the answer. You need to ask the players why they're playing like they are. Illinois was ready to go and we weren't.

Other than the win at Southern Mississippi, I think this is the best that we have played all year. We got some timely hits and managed to get on base, either with good at bats or getting hit by pitches. Then we ran the bases well and produced with runners in scoring positions.

Because my son, Ryan, is on the staff at Iowa, there's always some bragging rights involved in the series each year. It would be nice for us to win the series and have those bragging rights, but it will be more important that we play well, so we can head out Thursday on a high note to face Creighton for a tough weekend Valley road series.

It's important for us to get a win and stay even in the conference.

This is a game that we as a team always look forward to. Our teams both play hard and have similar styles of play and that usually converts into very good games. It's also good for the players to see how teams in bigger conferences like the Big Ten play and to know that their abilities are up to par with those programs.

I did not have a good feeling coming into today because of the way they've been swinging the bats. Luke has really struggled, but he got his confidence going early and he gave us a big lift.