When Mariek hit a three point shot recently, I said that might be the thing that gave him the confidence to step it up a notch, and he definitely did that yesterday. Sadly he did miss both free throws that could have iced the game, and was guarding the man who hit the winning shot, but I think the more he's in that position, the better he will get.
It's hard doing something that you haven't done before in a pressure situation. He proved to me he's going to be a solid player for us. And hopefully he'll get the chance to win a game for us this year and he'll come through. I'm confident that he'll win a lot more games for us than he will lose. And let me clarify. He didn't lose the game. There were forty minutes where we could have put them away but didn't. Others missed shots. His just came at a time when everything was focused on him. Hopefully he'll keep his head up and keep improving.