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UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE


December 1, 2012


Nick Johnson

Kaleb Tarczewski


ARIZONA – 85
TEXAS TECH - 57


Q.  Kaleb, you guys asserted your size from the start.  How much was that inside game a big deal to you guys tonight?
KALEB TARCZEWSKI:  Coming into this game, we knew this team had a lot of offensive rebounds.  Loved to crash the glass from four spots.  So we knew we had to come out ready for that and really dominate from inside the offensive glass defensive glass, everything.  So that helped us get off to the quick start.

Q.  Nick, how much do you think that helped with them dominating inside the first half?  It seemed like the offense was just very fluid?
NICK JOHNSON:  Oh, yeah, definitely.  I've said it many times.  This is a whole other dimension to our game.  With them being so dominant down low, him, Brandon, Grant, Angelo, we get a lot of open shots on them.  So it definitely helped that.

Q.  Did you see that coming where you guys would open up the threes?
NICK JOHNSON:  Oh, yeah, definitely.  I've seen it during the summer in practice we'd get spot up shots.  I'd never played with somebody like the four that we have.  So it was nice.

Q.  How do you think the way you guys played down at 55‑42, and you guys put the hammer down?  What were your thoughts on that run after that?
NICK JOHNSON:  Yeah, we've got a lot of veteran players, Solomon, (Indiscernible), they kept us in it, kept us composed and everything.  And we knew they were going to make a run.  When you average 88 points like they do, they can score the ball in a hurry.  So just had to keep composed and make our run back.

Q.  Did you guys early on, was it difficult to be composed, did you find?  Was that part of the reason for the shooting?
NICK JOHNSON:  Yeah, a little bit.  They kind of have a chaos defense.  They get up.  They pressured the ball.  So I mean, it's a little difficult.  But once we settled in and we knew what they were going to do, it went from there.

Q.  Is your team still improving?  If it is, what did you see tonight?
NICK JOHNSON:  Oh, yeah, definitely.  I think we're nowhere near where we need to be.  We have our young guys.  It was our first‑‑ their first road game.  So I mean, just getting used to that, which we'll keep on continuing doing, and our defense at times looked pretty good other times we lacked a little bit.  Every part of our game we can get better in and we're just going to keep on practicing and get better at that so we can be the best we can be.

Q.  Kaleb, 13 rebounds, did you see that coming at all with what you were up against?
KALEB TARCZEWSKI:  Like I said in the beginning of the game, we knew we had to come out and crash the glass.  Make sure he didn't get any offensive rebounds.  That's really what they're really good at is scoring.
So just coming out and making sure that all four of our big men rebounded was really important.  That's what I tried to do.

Q.  Was it hard to keep that focus on rebounding at a time when you're not getting the ball much?
KALEB TARCZEWSKI:  I think you can see by how many points we scored tonight, the offense has been a problem for us.  We were getting open shots, great looks, our field goal percentage shows that.  So whether the ball goes into the post or not, as long as our offense is doing well, that's all that matters.  I'm going to contribute however I can, whether that is on the glass or whatever I can do to help.  So that is really where that stands.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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