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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: PORTLANDMarch 20, 2015Larry KrystkowiakJordan LoveridgeBrandon TaylorDelon WrightPORTLAND, OREGON THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Utah student-athletes. At this time the floor is open for questions. Q. Yesterday there was a lot of turnovers in the game. What are you focusing on today to kind of push that down tomorrow? BRANDON TAYLOR: Taking care of the ball. Plain and simple. Just taking care of the ball and try to make the right plays. Q. Jordan, Georgetown obviously have really a different front court than Stephen F. Austin. Is it tough to kind of squeeze in some of that scouting with just the two days to go and kind of adjust to a really different look from that team? JORDAN LOVERIDGE: Not really just 'cause our coaches and everyone does a good job just looking at the personnel, finding, you know, games to find out their plays, just see what they do. They've done a good job all year regardless of the time limit we have. So they'll have us ready. Q. With Georgetown, there's some defensive challenges there. Kind of expound on that. DELON WRIGHT: Yeah, they're a good backcourt. I think we faced good guards like them all year long. It won't be too much of a difference. We just have to play with a mindset that we have to play good defense and hope that our bigs will help us. BRANDON TAYLOR: It just goes back to doing what we do best, just going out there and playing hard, just going out there and playing hard. Us being leaders out there on the court, we got to take care of the ball. We just got to be better for our team, so that's what we will be tomorrow. Q. Delon, there's a big game tomorrow with Arizona and Ohio State. Arizona has a tough assignment with D'Angelo. Your impressions of Arizona when you faced them this season, in specific Rondae. DELON WRIGHT: They do a good job of guarding the ball one-on-one. If you happen to get past the man that's guarding you, they do a good job of assisting off of Tarczewski. And Brandon Ashley also does a good job of helping. It's a tough all-around defense. Q. Delon, you were talking yesterday a little bit about the anxiety, jitters that come in that first NCAA tournament game. Do you feel like some of those are cast off, maybe you can play a little looser tomorrow night? DELON WRIGHT: I wouldn't say it was jitters. I would say more their defense. Trying to speed you up, make you play a game that you're not used to playing. Next game, Georgetown game, they'll pressure just as much, but we'll have to be better with the ball in our hands. Q. Jordan, this is the first time that Utah has ever played Georgetown. What does it mean to you guys to play a storied program like that coming in the second round of the NCAA tournament? JORDAN LOVERIDGE: It means a lot. That's why we want to be playing at this time of the year, is to play teams we don't really get to play. It will be a fun game, a good matchup. We'll be ready to play. Q. Brandon, what was the scout like last night? We heard you guys went to the hotel to watch the game. What was that like? BRANDON ASHLEY: You're talking about Georgetown? Q. Yes. BRANDON ASHLEY: Yeah, after the game we had dinner and we watched the game. We didn't do any film. If you consider that film, we just watched the game. This morning we got together after breakfast and watched some film. Q. Delon, how is your leg feeling back from the previous injury and then being banged up yesterday? DELON WRIGHT: It's been a little sore. Trying to ice it last night, ice it after practice. It won't be a big deal. It will be sore, but I'll be able to play. Q. On a lighter note, what do you make of your coach's superstition with the number seven, and do you have any superstitions of your own? JORDAN LOVERIDGE: I mean, everyone has their superstitions. It's worked for us, just trying to keep that in the back of our mind, the number seven. That's what he kind of works around when we're leaving places, when we're picking teams, just like whoever wants the ball in practice. You know to pick the number seven. If he says, Pick a number between one and ten or something like that. For me, I don't really have too many superstitions. Just try to go out and play hard. BRANDON ASHLEY: For me, I think it's unique. It's unique. Growing up, I think seven is a lucky number as well. Growing up, I've always believed seven being a form of completion. So I kind of grew up, and I can relate to him having seven being his lucky number and his superstitions. I have certain superstitions, but they're not really major or anything of that sort, yeah. DELON WRIGHT: Yeah, I think it's funny. He always try to add up things to make it to seven. As far as myself, I have a couple. Before games, listening to music and stuff like that. Nothing too major. BRANDON ASHLEY: I don't know if you guys seen during the game yesterday. Second media, it said 7:07. We turned around and laughed, thought it was pretty funny. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you. Good luck tomorrow. We're now joined by Utah head coach. Coach, an opening statement, then we'll open it up to questions. COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Yeah, just happy to be here. Fire away. Q. It's 3:31 right now. COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Perfect. It's tip-off. Let's tip it off. No, it's a perfect time. I'm a minute late. Q. How important is it to get more point production out of your backcourt against Georgetown? I realize the defense in the game the other night probably prohibited that a little bit. Is it really critical to get more points out of the backcourt this game? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: I mean, we've talked about that a little bit. I think if you want to do something special, and certainly an opportunity to go to a Sweet 16, you know, I put pressure on our backcourt. I have a pretty strong suspicion and Delon and Brandon will be more productive in the next go-round. Those guys have responded pretty well, even if they didn't play great. It was also the Lumberjacks' defense that kept you from being very efficient that way. We talked a little bit about scouting. I mean, those two had a tremendous tournament in Las Vegas. I know Stephen F. Austin spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to stop them. That's kind of the nature of it. I've always said to players, If you want to be an elite player, you have to bring it consistently because the scouting reports are going to get better and better. They did a nice job with Delon and Brandon. Thanks goodness we had, as per the definition of the team, enough other guys step up and make enough plays. I thought collectively anytime you can hold a team in an NCAA tournament to 50 points, I really don't care who it is, you're pretty inept if you can't win that game and score 51. So, I mean, it wasn't a thing of beauty, our offense. But there's no question, I've said all along that championships are built on defense. If I were guessing, I'd say 94% of our time from Sunday to tip-off was spent on, How are we going to stop this team? Our kids bought into it and played really hard. As it turned out, we didn't need to be great offensively. But moving forward, you'd like to think you're going to get more contributions and assume that the defense remains pretty consistent. Q. Yesterday you utilized most of your starting players in most of the game. Are we going to see a little bit more of the bench? What is the condition of Dallin Bachynski? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: He tweaked his ankle on Monday. Actually sprained it pretty good. I think Dallin would run through a brick wall for his team on one leg. He didn't practice on Monday or Tuesday. It wasn't the best matchup, I didn't think, Stephen F. Austin presented. We ended up playing small at the five spot. It was hard to guard them. We didn't need our big fives running around trying to chase three-point shooters at the five spot. I thought it was a little bit of a win-win and that we made sure that Dallin got completely healthy with another day of rest. Thank goodness we survived. Now this is a perfect matchup with him with a lot of size and strength I think that Georgetown presents. Kind of, again, what we've talked about with our team. Maybe a little bit of depth, a little versatility. We could play small, as we did Thursday. Then we're going to have to figure out a way to play big on Saturday. That's where he comes into play. I never really go into it. Foul trouble is always a concern. You never know how far you're going to go into the bench. But a lot of it has to do with who you're facing. I would anticipate we're going to have to put a little size out there. Really from our one to five to start with, we're in a different weight class than Georgetown all the way through. I think we have a size disadvantage and a weight disadvantage at each of those positions, and we're going to have to scrap a little bit and certainly call in a few more troops, I would guess, to have a chance. Q. Because Delon and Jakob have some unique qualities for their positions, does that take teams who haven't played you guys a little bit longer to get used to what they can do offensively? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, I think that's a part of the college experience, maybe unlike the NBA, where the book is pretty much out on everybody. You cross paths with them. That's the beauty of the NCAA tournament. You don't play teams you're very familiar with. There's obviously a lot of different styles. Within those styles come a lot of different players. You can watch a lot of different film. I was really impressed yesterday with Walkup and Parker, two guys I watched a lot of film on from Stephen F. Austin. You see the film and respect what it is they do. Then you see them in person. I think they're thinking the same thing. They hear a lot about Delon, Jacob. You witness it in person and you hope you got your best punch at that point and are playing your best basketball to present what your strengths really are. It makes it pretty fun. That's exciting to cross over into different leagues and different regions of the country. In Jakob's case, a different country. Not too many people are familiar with him outside of our conference, I don't believe. Q. Seems like the refs are letting you play a little more physical in this tournament. How important is that for Dallin Bachynski or Jakob Poeltl to be physical and stay in the game a little more? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, I don't know that the refs let it become any more physical. They're good refs. It's a good time of year. There's something to be said for guys that are advancing at this point. I know, you know, one way to probably make sure you don't advance as a referee and get to move on to the next level would be to blow your whistle a bunch of times, certainly if you're not correct in your call. I thought the game yesterday was perfectly whistled really. As long as it's consistent. That's the hard part, I think. If there's maybe one of the three officials that's seeing something a little bit different, if they're not on the same page. It's difficult. I do believe if there's a handful of rule changes that need to be made, since you asked a referee question, it might be the five fouls in college. This time of year, there's nothing worse. You hate to see a really good player get a couple quick fouls. There's not that many sporting events when you think of football, baseball, just about anything, you know, soccer it even takes quite a disaster to get your red card and be out of the game. In what other sport, if a kid might be on the wrong side of the play, do you bench him for that long? So I'd love to see six fouls. For the most part that's what March Madness is about, it's about the players. If you go out there and tell your guys you can be really physical, you're playing with fire. You have to be really wise in where you're going to be physical. This is that time of year, though, it's a men's game for sure. It's kind of a survival of the fittest. There's no place out there for timid. Q. We saw Stephen F. Austin gave you guys a lot of pressure. Do you anticipate the same type of strategy from Georgetown? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: There's certainly some length and pressure that Georgetown presents. Stephen F. Austin was a different animal. It's a deal where it's a complete denial. Everybody that doesn't have the ball, then the guy that has the ball is up in your face. Delon touched on it last night, it almost engages in some one-on-one. You're not going to run a bunch of your stuff. I think Georgetown is still extremely athletic and pressuring. I don't know there's anybody in this tournament that I'm familiar with that would even come close to Stephen F. Austin. It was one of the highest teams in the country, one of the top teams in the country. The shortest possession time for the other team. It was one of the highest teams in the country for turning the team over, 25% of their possessions, which was top four or something. So a little bit unique that way. There's not going to be any easy entries. We shouldn't think now all of a sudden we get to do our thing. It's probably a different form of pressure, a lot of size and physicality. It's maybe a different definition, a different kind of pressure. Q. When you watch Georgetown on tape, did Trawick stand out to you as a guy for his intensity, his demeanor? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Sure, there's no doubt. I mean, he's a motor guy, physical, plays really, really hard. I heard through the media that John Thompson now is talking about how maybe he's the only person on the team back in the day that could have played for his dad. I think that speaks volumes. It's a little different creature in the way he approaches the game. He's going to be a handful. He and some other guys. But he is one of the players that stood out that can change some games with the physical nature of his play. Q. Can you talk about the challenge of preparing for Georgetown and the Princeton offense in such a quick turnaround? You had a bit of time to prepare for Stephen F. Austin and all they do. COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, I think, you know, there's no doubt that you put most of your eggs in the first game's basket. But we've had our staff working pretty hard, whether it was Eastern Washington or Georgetown. So it's not like, Okay, Thursday when the game's over, let's figure out what the heck it is they do. So, you know, we've got a nice little plan in place. Still you're not going to get many reps within our practice today or tomorrow to go through it. I think there's a little benefit from the players that have been around before, because Craig Robinson ran a similar offense at Oregon State. It was something that is not a complete out-of-body experience for a lot of our guys. We have to get the freshmen acclimated to it. There were some similarities with Stephen F. Austin, some of the spacing and different principles they used. Although they're different offenses, it's not completely at opposite ends of the spectrum. It's tough. There's no doubt. It's difficult to be able to prepare for a team like that in a short period of time. Our guys absorbed an awful lot here in an hour and a half on the court. I said last night on national TV after the game that I think your ability to prepare, whether that's your coaching staff, and I'll put our assistant coaches up against anybody on the planet in terms of coming up with the plan. We visited last night. We visited this morning. We're in the bus. We're at practice. I feel about as good. I can't do that myself. It takes a bunch of guys. So our coaching staff does a nice job. We get the cliff notes broken down pretty well, then it's about communicating that to our players. To be honest with you, I was pretty blown away with what we came away with a couple film sessions and a practice. We still got to go out and do our thing, but there's not that much confusion. I think a lot of the credit goes to, number one, our staff, the coaches that do the work, then the players' ability to trust us that we're putting them into a position to succeed and buy into the plan. Defensively we've been really good all year. Whether that carries over to this environment, I don't know. But we usually have a pretty darn good plan and try to figure out a way to make it difficult for the other team. Q. This is the first time Utah has played Georgetown ever. What does it mean to you to be able to play a program that seems to always get into the NCAA tournament? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, a tidbit that I wasn't aware of. It's that time of year where you don't get a chance to play, you know, certain teams. It's an opportunity. Certainly not going to schedule certain teams like that. It's rare in the pre-season. The only way you do cross paths is this time of year. I've got a lot of respect going all the way back to a buddy of mine that I played against and really appreciated was Patrick Ewing. From the guys he played with, the time we played against each other, the way those guys play, I think it stayed pretty consistent from back in the days that Pat was there all the way through now. Obviously the gene pool with the dad and son coaching, the philosophies are really similar. I've got a lot of respect for their program. I think Georgetown's one of those names, when you throw it out there, that's synonymous with basketball. It's not anything you think about with many other sports. If you said, Name 10 basketball schools to just an average fan, I wouldn't be surprised if Georgetown was one of the teams that they threw out. It's a heck of an opportunity, but at the same time a heck of a challenge. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: What time is it? We got one more minute (smiling). C'mon. Yes! Q. Coach, there was some controversy with the Eastern Washington coach predicting a win. They didn't win. Do you talk to your players at all about not going too far, saying something that is going to end up on a bulletin board? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, no disrespect to Eastern Washington's coach, but I think certain things are just common sense, you know, and you got to have a little level -- I don't know what context it was in. I heard something similar. But it's hard enough without, you know, motivating anybody else. The prediction side of things is the last place I want to go. I've always felt like the underdog, regardless of who it is we're playing. I think our kids get that picture pretty quick, too, that you got to come out scrapping and clawing, not expecting anything. So that's kind of where I stand on that one. THE MODERATOR: It's now 3:47. COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Perfect (smiling). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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