A deep mouth cut prevents the words from rolling off his tongue, but there's no mistaking the confidence in Wollongong enforcer Dave Gruber's voice.
Nursing 11 stitches - five outside and six inside in his lip - after taking a stray elbow from team-mate Tywain McKee at training, Gruber believes there is little chance of Wollongong playing as badly for the rest of the season as they did in last week's heavy home loss to Adelaide.
Asked if he thought the Hawks might carry psychological scars into Thursday's road clash with the New Zealand Breakers, the tough-as-nails forward didn't hesitate with his reply.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks "Not at all. We're all feeling very positive and upbeat," Gruber said.
"There's still a lot of work to do and we're continuing to identify certain areas we need to improve, but this is a marathon, not a sprint. We've put last week's game behind us and moved on.
"We look at the big picture and where we're going as a group, and we like where we're heading. We like our system, we like our personnel and there's a lot of belief in what we're trying to achieve together. Everyone on this team stays positive and sticks together."
Another round of upsets has left the NBL ladder staggeringly congested.
A remarkable six of the league's eight teams have seven wins, while seventh-placed Cairns are on six wins and early title favourites Melbourne are last with three wins to their name.
Townsville downed Adelaide on Friday night and Perth joined Wollongong and the 36ers in a three-way tie for top spot after slipping to 7-5 for the season with the Wildcat's surprise loss on Saturday night to Gold Coast.
The Breakers welcomed back leading scorer Kirk Penney last week from a long lay-off with a back injury and last season's NBL MVP signalled his return with an outstanding display off the bench, pouring in 22 points in 21 minutes.
The Hawks made just 28 per cent of their shot attempts against the Sixers and will be in for a long night if they reproduce similar form against the Breakers.
"We took a lot of quick shots and that's not really our game, but we also let Adelaide shoot over 50 per cent, so it really has to start on the defensive end for us against New Zealand," Gruber said.
"They've got a lot of experience and some great players and they were tipped to be (title) favourites, but we're excited about the challenge and we're ready to regroup and put in a much better performance than we did against Adelaide.
"It's about moving forward and we know it's not going to take one or two guys. For our team to be successful, we need that collective group effort of everybody coming together and making contributions.
"Besides the Adelaide game, we've been in every game we've played, whether it's been at home or on the road, so we should take some confidence from that going into Thursday's game."
The Hawks have nine days off after Thursday's match before hosting Perth on December 12.
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