Feb. 3, 2005
-
General Comments:
"It is good to be home especially after the road trip we just came from. With all my heart, I thought we would play well enough and with two minutes to go, we would have a chance to win. But with two minutes to go, half the building was vacated to beat the traffic out. It was two tough places to play. Twenty-three straight home wins for Air Force and New Mexico is 14-1 this year at home. Not many people have gone into those places and won. And yet, I thought we would have a chance. We have to do a better job of making plays when they present themselves. We shot 1-for-8 from the free-throw line in the first half at Air Force and played well enough to have a 10 point lead but only led by one. At New Mexico, we trailed at the half by nine, but played well enough to be tied. So you have to be able to have a framework of knowing what you want to do and then you have to make plays. To the credit of the two teams we played, they made some tough three-point shots. To the discredit of our defense, we gave them both of the teams too many layups. If we want to win, we have to do a better job of how we guard. We are having a team, in Utah, that is the best in our league and they are the hardest team to guard because of Andrew Bogut and Marc Jackson. The things we have had difficulty with, Utah has been able to exploit others on. So we have to see if we can learn from the previous games. I know they have beat people up on the glass. We have to able to rebound and guard and the scoring takes care of itself. But we are excited to be home, we have three in a row at home, and five of our next seven at home. We need to find ways to be successful in the friendly confines of Cox Arena."
On Andrew Bogut:
"When you look at tapes from other people, he has had field days of late in our league. I think he had 16 of the first 17 points against New Mexico. He is a hard guard. We, probably more than anyone, have worked on post doubles. Everyone tries to double him, but he is such a good passer inside that he finds the open man, if you don't double fairly quickly and aggressively. He is hard guy to deal with. That is a big reason why they are 18-3. They are a good team. If you only had him to contend with we would be okay. Marc Jackson, I thought two years ago, was the best and most important player on their team, now he is back as a fifth-year senior and playing with some spunk, savvy and confidence that makes all of them better."
On Utah being considered the best team in the six years of the Mountain West Conference:
"For me, I have to watch them up close and personal from the bench, I would hesitate to comment on that. I have heard that on television and I know Bogut is getting tremendous publicity from different people on television about being the number one pick in the NBA Draft, about how he should be a prime candidate for player of the year. We have not had a guy of that caliber that people have said that he is going to be a lottery pick in this league. I want to withhold judgment until we see them. They have beat up people in our league pretty good. They have not had a close game yet. The last five minutes they have had double-digit leads against everybody they have played in our league. That makes them a step better than all of us right now. And yet, when I watched them play Weber State, with 7:20 left in the first half, the score was 9-9 and neither team held the ball. So they have stretches where they are not great and yet they have had long stretches where they have been sensational especially since conference has started."
On bouncing back from two losses:
"This business that we are in has no time for self-pity. There is no time to tell yourself how good you are. You need to live in the moment and prepare yourself and sometimes its easier said than done because winning begets winning. If you lose several in a row and start feeling sorry for yourself, that leads to the next game. That is the challenge for us, to come back and bow our back and compete extremely hard, but also compete with a measure of confidence that says, `If we play and play within the framework of what we are trying to do, we have got them at home, we can play with them and beat them.' That's the attitude we have got to have. You can't try too hard, but you have to make sure you're competing hard."
On Utah:
"Everybody knows that if they go two trips down the court and Bogut doesn't touch the ball, their coach is going to be demanding that he touches it three times the next possession and then the next ten possessions before someone shoots it. It all starts with how you want to defend Bogut. We have to make sure we do a good job of defending him and do it not at the expense of where you don't have an eye on Marc Jackson. Bryant Markson has played super for them as of late. We'll try a few things that we have not done a lot of this year, but for the most part, we have to be sound with our own play, try to box some bodies, limit them to one shot, make it hard for them to get great shots and don't let them get 10 layups. One thing they have done, probably because of Bogut, if you look at the disparity of free throws attempted and made, they have a huge difference. It's mind-boggling how many free throws they have taken and made than anyone else in our conference. The difference is very significant. I don't think they foul because they know they have Bogut back that as an eraser to block, intimidate and keep people from getting to the rim. That gives a team a huge advantage when you have a guy like him back there."
On Monday's game versus BYU:
"BYU is playing a little different offensively. They are running some different things offensively and I have only watched BYU because they played Utah. I thought I heard someone say that despite the fact that BYU is 1-5 in conference play, that every conference game they play, they have held a second half lead. That means that they have done everything except seal the deal and hang on and win games. When you struggle a little bit, you ask what can you do differently to help our team and I noticed that they were running some different things than what we prepared for when we played them."
Chris Walton
On Utah:
"They're good. Andrew Bogut is having a great year. He's obviously the centerpiece of their team and their offense and defense. But he's got good players around him too and obviously they're a good team, they have won 13 or 14 straight. We're looking forward to the challenge."
"For us, we have to have a good idea of what we are going to do with our defense going into the game. We have to have a game plan and execute that game plan. For us, we are lucky to have a guy like Mohamed (Camara) at center who can body up with Bogut on Saturday. The coaches are in the office everyday looking at film and coming up with ways to stop him and it will come down to us executing the game plan on Saturday.
"It's a big game for us. We have five of our next eight games at home and we won two on the road, in the first six games of conference play, which right up there with the best as far as road victories. It's important for us to hold home court. We gave one away against Wyoming at home and our plan is to try and win every remaining home game. That's the mindset we have to have."
On the next two home games:
"Holding home court is the only way to finish in the top half of this conference. The fact that we still are tied for third with Wyoming and New Mexico, we have a great chance. But if we want to keep this going and capitalize on those two road victories we had early on, we have to hold home court. This weekend is a huge one for this team and this program."
On playing at home:
"I wouldn't say that we have had trouble at home. We played really well against Colorado State on Big Monday, the Wyoming game went into overtime and could have gone either way, they just made plays down the stretch. I am completely confident in this team and how well we are going to play at home and I know the crowd will get behind us and it is up to us to take care of business."