(Editor's note:  Illini veteran Marcus Domask appears on the IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular, a weekly, two-hour syndicated radio show airing on more than 20 stations and heard in six states throughout the Midwest and reaching a wider audience through its podcast.  Domask's appearances on the show are courtesy HX Home Solutions.  Get $1,000 off your next project by mentioning "IlliniGuys" when you call! https://www.hxhome.solutions/ )

Larry Smith: Marcus, you've had a moment now to digest the Marquette game and now get ready for Valparaiso.  What were your thoughts coming out of this game? On how the team performed and what you could do better?

Marcus Domask:  Marquette's good. I mean, that's a good basketball team. They got really good point guard, really good scoring on the wing, really good big man. Like, they just got all the pieces, you know, and I felt like we really battled with them the whole game. And you know, we didn't execute great at the end.  I think that's a game that we can win.  So I think you kind of take that game and we learn from it. You know, we know some stuff that we have to change kind of adjustments offensively what we need to be better at. But uh, it's a good game for us early in the season. You know, obviously you want to get the win (that) would have been huge for us. But a game that I think is really going to help us.

Brad Sturdy:  Marcus, you got fouled on that drive late in the game? Tell me I'm wrong. I mean, I thought you got hammered. Am I right?

MD:  I mean, yeah, I would have liked to get that call. (laughs)

BS:  There was a whole lot of hammering going on. I actually liked a little more physical, if you don't call it on one or the other.

Mike Cagley:  You guys have a few freshmen who get some minutes. What can you do to help those guys build their confidence so that when they're in, maybe they feel like they're in a place to contribute?

MD:  I think just reminding them who they are, you know, I think it's easy to kind of get down on yourself, if you forget, like, why you're here. You know, obviously, there's two tremendous players, three counting Nico, that have, you know, done a lot to get here.  So just kind of keeping the confidence up. You know, it's easy to lack confidence when you're not playing a lot. And just understanding the situation mean, like Marquette played one freshman for a couple minutes. Like it was a grown man's game. That was physical, like it's a hard game for freshmen to go in and excel.  (Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn)  had some good looks that just didn't go and, you know, (Amani Hansberry) really offensively I thought he really helped us, you know, he sealed off his guy a couple of times and let Terrence (Shannon) get a dunk, let me get followed up the room. They did good things and I think that they're going to keep getting better and we'll just keep trying to integrate them in our system.

(Listen to the entire interview on this week's IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular)