Feb. 14, 2002
Quotes from San Diego State assistant head basketball coach Brian Dutcher
Opening Statement
"We are getting ready for our next big road trip. Obviously, these are places in our three seasons that we have not won yet and actually we have taken some pretty vicious hammerings at Colorado State and Wyoming."
"Colorado State is going to be very dangerous. They are not the same team we played earlier. When we played them earlier this season they had three starters out that they have back now. The seven-footer (Matt) Nelson will give us some problems. (Ronnie) Clark is back. (Joe) Macklin is back. Even though it is a different location it is also a different team. They are coming off a great win over Michigan so they have momentum. They are a team that has played well all year but has not been rewarded with victories."
Q: What is the dichotomy of trying to get a team to play together like they did the other night?
"I think the key is that we are a team, even though we have a lot of veterans, that has not played together for two or three seasons. Tony (Bland) is new to the mix. Brandon (Smith) is new to the mix. We have juniors and seniors but not juniors and seniors that have played together for two or three years. It has taken us some time to get into a comfort level with each other and playing in a manor where we think we can be successful."
"I think we are moving the ball better. We did that for a number of games although it did not show against Utah. Against Utah we had three assists and for BYU we had 20 assists. Maybe we are finding a better comfort level as a team and offensively. The key is for us to continue to play at a level we are at offensively and be aggressive like we were against BYU defensively."
Q: Do you feel like players try to take things into their own hands?
"We have three of the top four scorers in the conference so they all feel like they can score at any moment in an offensive possession. The key for us is to work the defense a little harder and get a little higher percentage shot. We are shooting well enough but sometimes you need to extend the offensive possession just to fatigue the other team a little bit. Nobody wants to defend for 35 seconds and sometimes it is better to score later in the possession and wear the other team down a little bit."
Q: Can you ride the emotion of Saturday's victory into future games?
"I think you can ride anything. Sometimes when you start downward it's tough to pull out of that. I think if you are able to play upon positives you can ride emotion the other direction. Maybe this is a case where we can ride our emotional performance into a winning streak. The unfortunate thing is that three of the games are on the road. It is always harder on the road but that doesn't mean it is an impossible task. We have played pretty well on the road this year. I think the kids are confident enough to go on the road and play well and hopefully the emotional high from BYU will translate in to wins on the road"
Q: Why has San Diego State had difficulty winning at Colorado State?
"I think the elevation has something to do with it. We have the numbers now to go on the road. They say we have the best starting five in the conference. I think the reason the rest of the team doesn't get credit is because they aren't doing at the offensive end. We are not getting points off the bench but that does not mean we are not getting production off the bench. I think Myron (Epps), in particular, has come on the last couple of games and done a great job for us defensively. Brandon (Smith), Aerick (Sanders) and Chris (Walton) have played well on defense as well. Even though we are not getting the offensive production off the bench, I think we are getting great defensive production."
Q: What was the importance of Sunday's difficult practice?
"I think it was the exact practice we needed. At this point in the season you don't need a lot of x and o to improve this play or that play. We just needed to put a greater effort on what we were doing. We needed to challenge them effortwise to step their game up. This was not a talk we had after Utah. This is a talk we had before Utah. About improving our play 10 percent as far as execution, defensive effort. That was the talk before Utah but it did not translate on to the floor. Sometimes the message is there but a wake-up call is needed and maybe Utah served as that wake-up call."
"I think in that Sunday practice you would say that we got another 20 percent out of them. We asked for 10 (percent) and got 20 (percent). That coupled with Coach Fisher coming back and we saw that 20 percent on the floor Monday. The key is that you cannot be emotional every single game. The light bulb has to go on and say this is the way we need to play. We don't have to be emotional to give that extra 20 percent. That has to be something that is there everyday. It has to be there in practice. It can't just be there on the game floor Saturday at Colorado State. That has to be something we get every day the last three weeks of the season. There are only so many pep talks you can give. You can't give a pep talk every time you play and try to inspire them to play that way. They have to bring that kind of effort to practice and if they do that they will bring it to the games."
Quotes from San Diego State senior forward Randy Holcomb
Q: What did you think about Sunday's practice?
"I loved the practice we had but I hated the fact that it took the combination of losses for us to have a practice like that. Those are the type of practices that we, as players, should want to have."
Q: Can you carry the momentum of Monday's win over to other games?
"We are in a situation where we still have to win games. The BYU game didn't get us into any tournament and didn't promise us any postseason play. We are in a position now where we have to win."
Q: Did this team come together for the BYU game?
"The Utah loss was very unifying. As a team, we spent a lot of time together after that loss in particular trying to figure out where we went wrong. I think it took all of those things to catapult us into a win. Not to mention, Coach (Fisher's) emotion over the loss of his mother and Coach Tomey's emotion in practice, all of those things equated into us winning the game."