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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2006Tim DrisdomRay GiacolettiBryant MarksonLuke NevilleDENVER, COLORADO THE MODERATOR: Joined now by Utah. Head coach Ray Giacoletti, Luke Nevill, Bryant Markson, and Tim Drisdom. Coach, if you want to just open with some general remarks on the game. COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: You know, I just kind of right off the top, Wyoming was the aggressor tonight with their triple penetration offensively, really kind of put us back on our heels. The other piece of the puzzle, as I look at the stat sheet, I can't remember a center going out and getting a triple double, 12 blocks and how much of an impact he had. The guy scores 10 points but goes and gets 15 rebounds and 12 blocks. You don't see that very much. You don't see an athletic guy like that that's able to block shots and stay out of foul trouble like he was. To me, he changed the game tonight. But I'm proud of our effort. Just had a stretch there right at the end of that second half where we kind of got it back and was not able to -- I think we -- I don't know if we got it to four or five, but to Wyoming's credit, they did a great job of defending, guarding, putting us on our heels defensively. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Tim, Bryant or Luke. Q. Luke, you just saw Justin Williams last week. Did he do anything different tonight? How did he upset you inside so much? LUKE NEVILL: He did a tremendous effort of just, you know, coming over to help any penetration basically. All our guards and forwards, just penetrating, even me, you just changed. Everybody shot. Even if he didn't block it, we had to shoot it a bit higher, shoot it a bit quicker. He just upset us offensively. Q. Luke, did it matter that he played off you for a little bit tonight? Did he bother you more as a help guy or when he was straight up on you? LUKE NEVILL: It's hard to tell. I mean, whenever I went to take a shot, he just seemed like he was around me no matter where, if he was playing on me or if he was playing on someone else. He would just always come over to help. So, I mean, I prefer to play on him basically because, you know, I could use my body a bit more. But, you know, it didn't really matter in the outcome. Q. Bryant, can you address that, too, what Williams did your shots on the inside? BRYANT MARKSON: It just felt like when I was going up, he was always there. One time I thought I had an open layup, he just came and blocked it. He was just aggressive tonight, just being well-alert, shows why he's a good defensive player. I think he adjusted a lot of people's shots down there tonight. We just thought about it every time we drove, and that had a big impact on the game. Q. Can the seniors reflect back on the time you've had at Utah, the highs and the lows. TIM DRISDOM: This has obviously been the most challenging year in our career. You know, like I tell a lot of other people, for me personally, I mean, did I have the senior year I could have had? Probably not. But I think what I'll take from this is, we have a lot of young guys, and a lot of guys with potential. I was able to help them along the way. This was a tough season. It's tough for them to experience this in their first year. I think for me, my role this year was just to try to help those guys along, try to tell them everything I know, you know, everything I've experienced. And I think that I've been a part of, with Bryant and also Chris, starting something new, starting a new tradition with the Utah program. You know, I think there are better years to come. Like I said, I mean, we've had great times, you know, being in the Sweet-16, the whole nine. This was just a year that I think the young guys needed us more, needed me more for sure, just as a vocal leader and as a teacher, as a guy with the experience, as a guy who's their peer, who they feel like they can trust. I'm real proud of the career I've had. I'm real proud of B's career. He's had a tough two years. You know, these last two years, he's been our guy, especially this year. Red, the same way. He's kind of been the second guy, but always a vocal leader. So, like I said, I think the team has a lot of potential and I think we're going to be just fine in the future. BRYANT MARKSON: Four years here have been great for me. The first two have been tough. I had a tough coach and I learned a lot from that situation. When Coach Giac came, he told me he believed in me, and Rich got hurt, and I made the most of my opportunity. Ever since then, I've just been working on my game hard. Coach has just been talking to me and instilling to play defense and rebound. Most people say my senior year was kind of inconsistent. But to me it really wasn't. I mean, it depends on what the game plan is. I don't care about going out to score every night or doing anything like that. As long as I'm playing defense and getting everybody else better, it's fine. It's been good. I mean, this year has been a tough one. But you learn a lot from it. The young guys learned a lot from us. They're going to rebuild. Q. Bryant, you went through the whole season having periodic scoring droughts. How do you explain those? BRYANT MARKSON: I don't know. I think it's just from -- we get good shots. Sometimes our shots don't go down. We get open looks sometimes. They just don't fall down. Scoring drought happens. Every team goes through it. THE MODERATOR: Nice job, fellas. You three can go. Questions for coach. Q. With the emotional win last night, do you feel like your players maybe had some tired legs tonight? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: Wyoming went through the same thing, so it's even. I do think that Wyoming was a little bit more energized than we were. We talked about it all day today, about trying to have that gladiator mentality. It was more mental than physical. But I'll take my hat off to Wyoming and the job they did and Steve. I mean, he got those kids to play their butts off two nights in a row. I know he's been under a lot of criticism this year. I think he's done an amazing job. People have no idea what it is to try to rally a team in March, for those kids to have gone through tough times, still believe in him and in that program in that situation. You know, somebody needs to stand up and recognize that. Q. You had a season that was pretty unusual. How do you look at the season as a whole? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: I mean, we started three freshmen and a sophomore for a lot of it. I mean, you're going to go through some growing pains. We're missing a couple classes. It's not excuses. I think we got a pretty good center. If there's a better freshman center on the West Coast, I'd like to see him. I think we're going to be fine. We had our ups and downs, which I think you go through with young guys. You know, I'm more of just dealing with black and white. When we have tough times, I address them and try to get through them the best we can, not make excuses. This non-conference part of our season, we didn't, I thought, give maximum effort. I would call it like I see it. But I think this team has grown up a lot. I think we had a real fine line to really where we could have finished strong. We had the BYU win, then at San Diego State, came back home and got beat on last-second threes with Colorado State and with Air Force, which I think really knocked us back down. We're very fragile mentally. I think it probably comes with young guys. I think if we get through that week, but that's the way sports are. If it could have, would have, should have. If you could have got through that week, you think you could really have gained some momentum. We didn't. But they continued to fight. It's kind of where we're at. Help's on the way. Big Serb will get a year back and have two years left. Our recruiting class is already done with signing five kids early. I couldn't be more excited there. I sleep good at night knowing the future. I think I'm realistic with things. If it wasn't, I'd be a little bit nervous right now. But I think we're where we were expected to be. I would have hoped we could have won a few more games this year. Q. You were pretty animated the last few minutes, moving guards in and out of the game. What were you looking for from those guys? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: We were going to try to press of made free-throws or made field goals and call timeout. We were just trying to, with the substitution in a free-throw situation, they'll stop for the sub so we could get lined up in our pressure. We were going to try to face guard guys and see if we could create a turnover. Q. What was going on with Lawrence and Luke at the end? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: They kind of had some words. I've probably brought that along because I've said all along that we need to hold each other accountable. Emotions run high. Those are two good kids. I actually don't have a problem with that. We don't need to do it out on the floor. We've been pushing hard to try to get some more emotion and holding each other accountable for things. I think no big deal. Q. A moment ago you said something about Steve's coaching this year, that somebody ought to say something about it. Could you elaborate? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: Yeah. I have a tough time when people kick a guy when he's down. I have a real tough time with that. That's the way it's become in society today. Shoot, it's easy to kick a guy when he's down. Who's going to have some backbone to back him when it's gotten a little tough? He's done a hell of a job up there. It's okay today. I mean, you turn on any radio show, you turn on any TV show, and it's okay, especially with sports. It's enough. I mean, it's a human being with a family. Treat him that way. I think he's a pretty good guy. I think he's treated people in a pretty good fashion. But our society today, you turn the TV on every day and you've got, you know, Jim Boeheim, who has won a national championship, who snaps. But he's been pushed so far that, yeah, you're going to get a reaction. I just think this thing's gotten way out of whack. It's acceptable to write or say or do whatever you want. Who is going to be tough enough to stand up and back the guy? I'm sure there's going to be a lot of bandwagon jumpers now. I've been doing this 21 years. This is my ninth as a head coach. It ain't easy. Everybody's got the answer. People that stick together with things and fight through things, are going to be successful. In our business right now, you turn the TV on every day, it's easy just to talk bad about somebody or try to fire somebody. I think we as coaches need to band together and help each other out. I think you're seeing a little bit more of that. Olden days, I say "olden," but when I was in high school, our coaches would go out for pizza and beer afterwards. Today you wouldn't be seen with somebody because you're trying to one-up somebody else or cut somebody else's throat with recruiting. Gosh. Enough. I got a little band of best friends, four or five in this business, the only people I trust. We all need to help each other out through this. Yeah, it's competitive, but I think it's just gone too far. THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
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