Jan. 10, 2002
Head Coach Steve Fisher
General remarks:
"We are now begining phase two, as everybody likes to call it, and that's the conference season. I told our team that we were starting our conference play at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Playing a team like that is like playing the seventh- or eighth-place team on the road in your conference. It's a team that you are supposed to beat and people are going to say what happened if you don't, but we know it's going to be a hard game and it was. We knew that going in. I felt good about coming away with a victory and even though it was only by three points it was well earned and hard fought and now things get harder from here. We travel to BYU who has a 28-game win streak. If we revoted today BYU would be picked number one in conference. So this is not a sixth-place team, this is a team that for 13 games is probably playing better than anyone in the Mountain West Conference. It will be a difficult game. But a game that if we go in and execute and play well we can win. At the same time, it will take a very good game on our part to win. That's life on the road in any league."
On the program's road woes in recent seasons:
"The nice thing about year three compared to year two is that I don't have to talk about road woes. In year two all I heard was you lost 28 in-a-row, you lost 32 in-a-row, you lost 40 in-a-row on the road. It's hard for anybody to win on the road. Winning on the road is difficult. If you want to do it consistently you've got to have talent and a good mindset. I think we've got both now. This will be unlike last year, I promise you. The results may not be, but at halftime you're not going to be saying how bad do you think they're going to get beat. I think we are going to be in both of these games and if we play well we can win both games. We are going to be a competitive team and we're going to be a winning team and we are optimistic that it can and will start Saturday in Provo."
On playing Utah and BYU back-to-back:
"As a rule these are two of the best teams always talentwise. As far as traveling and getting to places maybe Laramie, Wyoming and Fort Collins (Colo.) could be a tougher trip to make. Right now Wyoming is playing comparable with anyone in the league and Colorado State's not all that bad either. This will be a very difficult trip and yet we are going to have several of them in our league. It comes with the territory and you just have to deal with it."
Junior Guard Tony Bland
On Randy Holcomb:
"Even though Brandon (Smith) and I didn't play last year, Randy and I built a special bond and we talked about us being able to play together and Al (Faux) being that much better and that it would help Randy. It would help him get easier shots and the other teams would not be able to double or triple team him. We knew he would be successful this year."
On the strength of the Mountain West Conference:
"Coming from the Big East I thought the Mountain West wouldn't be that much of a challenge for me. I had a chance to watch last year and coming up on conference this year I have a lot of respect for the conference and its players. It's going to be a tough job. I'm not guaranteeing any victories but at the same time we are confident that we will come away for this road trip with a couple of wins. We have prepared ourselves well enough to have confidence going into this trip."
On playing Mountain West Conference teams on the road:
"That's the biggest thing that surprised me about this conference. In the Big East on any given night any team can win. In this coference, every team does a really good job of defending their home court. The thing we have to do is go and steal a couple on the road."
Senior Forward Randy Holcomb
On his play this season:
"I didn't think that I would be playing this well at this point in the season. Hopefully, I can keep it going when we get into league, that's the most important part of our year. We've got to keep getting better and I've got to keep getting better. Hopefully we can keep it going as a team."
On teams pressuring him defensively:
"I hope teams do double team me because I'm willing to pass the ball, more willing than I was last year. Tony (Bland) and Al (Faux) both make shots. Mike (Mackell) can swarm around the bucket. Chris (Walton) is playing well. Aerick Sanders is playing well. We have guys on the team that can make plays. If teams double me up I'll pass and make plays, if they don't I'll just do what I've been doing all year."
On opening conference play at Utah and BYU:
"You don't know what it's like until you go up there and play. It's a tough environment to play in. Both teams are very smart, hardnosed teams. People thought BYU was going to be down this year, but they are almost as good as they were last year. But we are a lot better than we were last year.
On leading in the scoring and rebounding categories:
"I never thought I'd be playing this well. I think my stats are up because I let the game come to me more. Also teams can't key on me as much as they did last year because we have other players that can really play. Tony (Bland) is one of the best two guards in the whole country and Al (Faux) is by far the best walkon in the country. "
On the Texas A&M Corpus Christi game:
"The Corpus Christi game was a good gauge for us. To win a road game before we went into league gave us confidence that we can win on the road. Last year we played a ton of home games and it was hard to play on the road when we were losing. We've had some good experiences on the road this year. We are ready for this trip."