Jan. 25, 2002
Quotes from head coach Steve Fisher
Opening Statement
"It was a bone crushing loss to Wyoming but that is a fact of life and it happened. Now we have to make up for that on our next road swing and not let it reoccur on Saturday against a better UNLV team than I thought. UNLV is better than I think most people think. They are good. They are a lot like us in that when there offense is clicking they play better."
"We are excited about Saturday. The ticket people say we are going to have a big crowd and that should be helpful to all of us. We need to just bow our back and go to work."
"I like the progress we have made but I don't always like some of the things we are doing and hopefully we will do them better."
Q: What attributes to defensive breakdowns?
"I do think fatigue is a factor. Sometimes it is mental fatigue as well as physical fatigue. Right now we are a better offensive team than a defensive team. Right now we don't have a mindset that we are going win a game by stopping you. It is almost a mindset that we are good offensively and we know we can score. We have to flip that a little bit."
"I said not too long ago that one of the things we had improved most on was our defense. Whether that was fools gold from me, I'm not sure. But we did not find a way to make consecutive stops to win that last game. We have to get better defensively if we want to beat the upper-echelon teams."
Q: Did you have to help pickup the attitude of the team during practice?
"Yesterday we were pretty good. I think at times you have to vary how you do things, yesterday we did more coaching on the fly than we have in a while."
"That was a must-win game for us and what we did was we dug ourselves a nice hole and jumped in. UNLV is not going to reach in a helping hand and pull us out. We are going to have to pull ourselves out. I think we are capable of doing that."
"I'm glad we have another home game. The home games put stress on you because if you want to compete in this league you need to win at home. On the road, no matter who they play, it will be doublely difficult."
Q: Describe what you like about Delron Johnson?
"I like his talent. He is long. He is quick off his feet. He is a good passer. He can score inside and out and that, in my way of thinking, is as hard to guard as you are going to find. I started watching tape and he is good. He is a very good player. When we start talking about what we need to do to win this game, it will start with him."
Q: Does losing to Wyoming make preparing for UNLV more difficult?
"When you lose anytime, anywhere it is stressful and it hurts and it needs to be that way for a while. Then you need to move on. If we expect to compete in the upper level of this league, you have to win a game like that and we didn't. It puts us between a rock and hard place and now we have to pry ourselves out."
"We will be prepared to play. We will be ready to play. I think our mindset, attitude, disposition and preparation won't be effected by the result of that game."
Q: Has Randy Holcomb improved his chances of playing at the next level?
"Sometimes the last impression is the lasting impression. If he quit after the Duke game I would have said that he improved himself significantly. If we go on and win that will help him more than anything, in my opinion. Winning has a lot to do with that."
"We had a boat load of scouts here on Monday and I think Randy is on the board. I think a lot will depend on how the rest of the season unfolds and to be quite candid, how he does in individual workouts with various teams."
Q: Do you feel like Deandre Moore has played better of late?
"I have great confidence in him. I want him to play better, but I have great confidence in Deandre. He has, in the last couple of weeks, shown flashes of him at his best in practice. We have not seen enough of that in games. Deandre has been in quite a bit and he has been in at crunch time. He has made some really big plays for us. We need Deandre if we want to be good."
Quotes from sophomore forward Aerick Sanders
Q: What is the mindset of this team?
"We still think we are one of the best teams in the conference although our record does not prove that right now. Our challenge is to finish out with a strong effort and get our team back on track."
Q: How do you beat UNLV?
"Defense, defense, defense. We are a proven team that can score. The good teams we have defeated we have done so with defense and it helped our offense even more."
Quotes from sophomore forward Chris Walton
Q: What is the mindset of this team?
"I don't think anyone's confidence has been shattered. A lot of people look at our record and say we are 1-3 and we are the Aztecs of old. At the same time our three losses have been to Wyoming, BYU and Utah. Everyone knows the Utah road swing is a tough one to win on and the Wyoming game could have gone either way. We just have to come back and win as many games in the conference as we can."