2005 MWC Basketball Tournament Postgame Quotes

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March 10, 2005

An Interview With: COLORADO STATE RAMS

JIM MILLER: Joining us from Colorado State head coach Dale Layer, No. 42 Matt Williams, No. 54 Matt Nelson. If you want to open us with some opening comments and we'll open it up for questions from the student athletes.

COACH LAYER: Well, it was a hard fought game. I'm proud of my team for hanging in there through a lot of adversity this year. You know, they gave me everything they had every day, and I'm extremely, extremely proud. It's unfortunate we came up short. I thought we played really hard, but didn't make enough shots, and you've got to make -- you've got to play pretty close to perfect to beat a team the caliber of Utah who is well coached and as mature as they are.

Question: Matt Nelson in particular, you were missing a lot of the kind of shots you normally hit early in a game. Was there anything about what was going on and the way they were defending you or was it just an off day?

MATT NELSON: I guess it was just an off night. Some of them I was leaving more than others. The hooks and the little jumpers, they usually go in and today they didn't. It was unfortunate it happened today and not a couple of weeks ago, but that's the way it goes. You've just got to take it.

Question: This is for both of you. Are you guys, do you find this just to be an incredibly more bitter-than-anything moment or can you look back on your careers and feel happy about about what you've been through, just so much adversity and so many things that go against you guys? I'm wondering what's your feeling?

MATT WILLIAMS: It's a hard moment for the whole team. I think the biggest thing is we're going to miss the relationships looking back for the past four years, five for Rak and Nelly, just the relationships and the adversity. Adversity makes you grow tighter with the people you're around. That's the biggest thing you're going to miss.

MATT NELSON: We had that run a couple of years ago which we'll look back on and say we did that. Last year we beat the No. 1 seed, and unfortunately this year we went through a lot of stuff. We always go through it with guys leaving or guys getting hurt or sick or what have you. You've got to keep battling through, and unfortunately this year didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, but I wouldn't trade the guys I played with all year.

Question: Either one of the players, just was there a time when you felt like, okay, this game is turning our way and we can take them, and if so, at what point did that feeling kind of fade away?

MATT NELSON: I think going to halftime we were pretty confident with the lead and doing what we needed to do, getting stops and rebounds. The second half we came out slow and then we came back and tied it up and kind of felt like the ball was starting to roll our way, and then they went on another run, and then towards the end with about five minutes we went on the run and started to swing the momentum, and they hit a shot and another hit and it seemed like the same old story; just we couldn't get over that hump again. That's the way it ended up.

Question: You mentioned the hump. Just for either of you, what do you think it is about the second half this year that just seems like especially in the conference games you couldn't quite come out and maybe finish it or complete the victory if you had the lead?

MATT WILLIAMS: I don't think we figured out what it was. It's tough, a lot of times we'll play good first halves and it's hard to get over the hump in the second half. I thought we battled it off today, had a little falter there at the beginning and then made some big shots. I give them the credit for that.

Basketball is a game of runs. In the second half they went on their runs, and when there was seven minutes left we went on our own run and thought we had a chance to come back, but it was too little, too late.

JIM MILLER: We'll let you guys go. Questions directed to Coach Layer?

Question: Dale, 79 points and 51 rebounds in three games against you guys by Andrew. You have the best center in the league besides him, you have the biggest team in the league besides them. What does that say about just how good this guy is?

COACH LAYER: You've said it. You know, we've probably thrown four or five different looks at him in the three games. I think we rattled him twice in, what, 120 minutes? I'm not a very good mathematician, but he's mature beyond his years, he beats you in every which way.

I thought we did a better job tonight than we've done, but he's a guy that picks you apart with his passes. He's wise, he's an unbelievable rebounder because he rebounds outside of his area. Not many seven-footers ever probably rebound outside his area like he does. But yet he's -- he doesn't get in foul trouble. He only takes good shots. He's a terrific passer.

I mean, he's the best player who's ever played in this league. He's a man playing among boys. As good as Matt Nelson is, and Matt Nelson has had an unbelievable career, I can't say enough great things about the contributions of Matt Nelson and Matt Williams, but Andrew Bogut plays at a different level than anybody in our league and quite possibly 95 percent of the nation.

Question: Offensively were you happy with the shots they were presented or did you think the guys were being a little bit hasty? Obviously that was your take on execution, and were things going in the right direction?

COACH LAYER: Well, I thought we got some good looks. We didn't get enough good looks, but we got some good looks. We didn't make enough shots. Again, you can't beat a terrific basketball team and not make shots. You know, we went inside and got some looks. I thought there were several times, you could pick it apart and say, yeah, we had four or five looks that we rushed, but just because we're talking that way makes you understand that we have to play pretty close to perfect to beat them, and we didn't do that. Did we play hard enough? We did. Did we have a pretty good game plan? I think so. But it's a special basketball team.

Can they be beaten? Yeah, I think so, but somebody has to play an exceptional basketball game to beat them in our league.

Question: You can kind of see the defense adjustments that Utah made at halftime. What adjustments did you make?

COACH LAYER: Well, when you hold -- they shot 38 percent the second half. They shot 50 in the first half. I think whatever adjustments we made were pretty good. I'll take holding them to 38 percent any day at half.

We tried to continue what we were doing. If you've got a one-point lead at halftime defensively, I think you're pretty good against Utah. The problem we have is offensively. We couldn't make enough shots. I thought our defense got them back on their heels and kept them a little bit off balance, but, you know, you've got to put the ball in the hole.

Our defense all year, we were holding people to about 40 percent. It's top 25, 30 in the country. We'll live with that any day. I think there would be 29 that would trade with us. We're okay with that.

We just couldn't put the ball in the hole enough. That was our problem all year. Sometimes turnovers hurt us. It didn't tonight, but we've got to click on a lot of cylinders and we didn't click on enough of them tonight against a team like Utah. I'll take any of them tonight, I'll take the defensive effort. I just wished we could have knocked down a couple shots.

Question: Dale, this is the I think eighth game against a conference opponent this year that you guys have had a lead at halftime and not been able to finish the deal. Is there any one thing you can put your finger on that's made that happen on a consistent basis or not?

COACH LAYER: Oh, I don't know that there's one thing ever. You know, we've had to try to trick people a lot this year. We've had down numbers, we're playing three freshmen, I guess three freshmen that have played more minutes than any other freshmen in the league. I haven't researched that, but we've tried to play games with smoke and mirrors and not necessarily the way I like to play, but it's hard to play the kind of defense we're playing for 40 minutes and go toe-to-toe with people.

I think people kind of get a little bit of a rhythm the second half, and we're not quite as deep or as experienced or as athletic as we thought we would be before the season began. You can't change up as much as I would like. So I think second halves normally they get in a little bit better flow offensively, and I think we've certainly been inconsistent with shooting the ball all year, and I think that probably factors into it, as well.

Question: With Nelson gone, with your three seniors gone, and again, you're returning some people. As you start to look ahead to next year, what do you feel you can maybe take out of this season? What do you change headed into next year? Have you started to think ahead toward that yet?

COACH LAYER: We're going to get a few more team doctors and have them at every practice. You know, again, we've got three freshmen who have played. I think all three exceeded our expectations. I think you could make a case if Jason Smith were not in a league, Sean Morris would have been freshman of the year. He was the second leading scorer among freshmen. If those two weren't in the league Stuart Creason might have been Freshman of the Year because he was the third leading scorer and second leading rebounder.

So just the minutes that those three guys got, I think you've got to be encouraged by that. I don't think anybody envisioned any of the three playing the kind of roles they did, but that's good stuff and I'm proud of them. I'm proud of what they've accomplished. You know, you've got to have a full complement of players, and we did not have a full complement from August on, and to be able to play different ways, change tempos, change styles, make adjustments, you've got to have 13 good players, and we never had that from day one, and we ended the year with -- there were times when we had eight or nine scholarship guys, three of them freshmen. That's a little difficult.

I think we've got a really good recruiting class. Michael Harrison was the District Player of the Year, Northeastern Junior College Region 9. He was also the tournament MVP, and he will be on one of the all-American lists, 6'10" kid from Denver who's a terrific athlete, and all of the signees, three or four of them probably had better years than we thought.

So we gained some experience, we've got some good guys coming in.

Question: Did you derive -- do you feel any significant advantage of this game being played in Denver?

COACH LAYER: That's a great question. It's one I'm not prepared to answer. Let me just think about it for a sec.

Philosophically I think this is a great venue. It's a world-class arena. It's a city that is capable of supporting basketball. It's drivable for more fans than probably any other neutral site. Being a neutral site, I think every coach would prefer having that.

I don't know if that answers your question or not, but this is where it ought to be, and I don't know of another coach who would disagree with that, but at some point it's got to resonate with more people, and hopefully we'll see the crowds build the next couple of days because this is good basketball. Andrew Bogut is projected to be in the top two picks in the country. Danny Granger is projected to be a first round pick. Odartey Blankson has a good chance of getting drafted, Matt Nelson has a decent chance of getting drafted.

You know, if you stack that up with the teams who came in the regional last year, those eight, I don't know that there are four better players in the NCAA regional in those eight than there were in our league. We've got players, we've got rivalries, we've got regional loyalties. I just hope it catches fire.

Question: With the adversity, the injuries and players leaving, was there ever a game until the very end here that you felt like this was the team and this is what Colorado State basketball was supposed to be at all this season?

COACH LAYER: Oh, I think we hit a stretch, San Diego State, UNLV, Wyoming at home, where we were closer to that. But never was I saying, wow, this is the way we wanted it to be and planned it to be.

We had a lot of adversity and a lot of injuries and never were able to do that. We played a lot slower this year than was my preference, but when your best players are seven-footers and not exactly up-tempo guys, you've got to make adjustments. You know, we tried to -- I don't know of one game that our team quit, and if you look across the country, if you follow basketball like I do and like a lot of people do, you see teams quit all over the country.

I don't know of another team who faced the adversity we have. You look at Michigan, faced a lot of adversity, not as much as us. Texas, faced a lot of adversity, not as much as the Rams. You know, you look at Kansas losing their best player. You know, we lost four out of six, they lost one guy.

There's a lot of teams out there, not that those teams quit by any stretch, but there are teams out there who cashed in a long, long time ago that faced less adversity, and I know what this team is about and what they did every day in practice. I know what kind of energy commitment they gave me. I'll live with that every day. They're winners in my book, and I'll fight with them every time I can possibly get a chance to.

JIM MILLER: Thanks, Coach.

An Interview With: UTAH RUNNIN' UTES

COACH GIACOLETTI: I take my hat off to Colorado State. They gave a great effort today. Our staff thought all along that the last three weeks was the first time they have been healthy this entire year. They played their best basketball down the stretch here.

This is a very good basketball team. When you get from a tournament setting, I mean, it is every team is back to 0?0 and you have to prove yourself again. They gave a great effort. You know, you kind of got back on our heels again. You know, we did a couple of things the second half that the players made adjustments with. Whereas we had one turnover the second half, we had eight the first half. They had two offensive rebounds the second half. Those are the things that help this team be successful. The other point in looking at the statistics is we out?rebound somebody again right at our numbers, at 13. We were at 12 or 13 for most of the year. If we can hit on those numbers when this team has been successful.

Question: Andrew, I understand you were not feeling so well yesterday. Were you feeling okay today? If not, how were you feeling poorly and what happened?

Andrew Bogut: I'm fine. I had a migraine yesterday. I had to leave practice a bit early. Got to bed pretty quickly, wasn't too much of a big deal. Coach helped me through it. Woke up in the morning, was feeling better. A bit of a headache now.

Question: You look like you might have been a little drained out there.

Andrew Bogut: Just a little. I missed dinner yesterday. Didn't eat. I am going on one omelette for like 24 hours so my body is sort of feeling it. I'm trying to get out of here, get some food.

Question: Andrew, beginning of the game, you pretty much took over. I think you have the first 11 or 13 points for your team. What was that like and then what did they do to keep you from being able to continue doing that in the first half?

Andrew Bogut: I don't usually get them early in the game. But this year I got them early and we were doing the same thing we do in every game. I was so much more open and then they made some adjustments. It was hard to get the ball in the first half, but we came back at the end of the second half and we made some threes and just opened things up again for the second half. I just got to pick my spots in every game.

Question: Andrew or Marc, could you point to a turning point in the second half? You know you have had some games like that, been close in the first half?

Marc Jackson: Second half was big for us. We made a couple of points going back inside, going into Andrew. I mean statistically our turnovers and rebounds. I think Coach was saying on the way down that we had one the second half. The first half we had one. Our goal is six. So, that always helps out. Defensively, we always rely on the second half, which we shouldn't have. We do because, I mean, it is the end of the game. We are not saving anything. Our defensive pride steps up. Our second half is better than our first.

Question: Did you feel like you had to step up more, be more aggressive in the second half?

Marc Jackson: Kind of match?ups ended up on me in the second half, I got their tall three?guy on me. And it gave me the opportunity to go to the hole. That opened things up with my passes to Andrew and also with the couple of lay?ups. I don't know if I was looking more, just things came to me.

Question: For Bryant or Marc, why has this turned into such a pattern? For the last month seems like you have close games at halftime then you take control in the second half. How come?

Marc Jackson: I mean, like I was saying, first half, I mean, we have the second half to rely on. I don't think that is good that we have been doing that. But that is one area that we need to focus on. We come out with high energy. We come out at second half, that is a big opportunity to wear the opponents down. I think we are one of the best in?shape teams, and that is where it helps us in the second half also is our conditioning. And with a big guy like Andrew, we can pass it in. We do our motion around him. He steps up big second halves. What can we say when he puts up the numbers he puts.

Question: Bryant, outside of Andrew and Marc, the rest of the team shot less than 25 percent. Any concern about that or do you look at the next game?

Bryant Markson: I think we get ready for the next game. We shoot enough to know that we are comfortable shooting. We're going to come out and shoot some more.

Question: Andrew, as you're starting this tournament, a lot of NBA scouts are here. How do you handle all this talk about will he come out, will he be the No. 1 pick, and all that? How do you separate that?

Andrew Bogut: I can't control that. When I am on the court, I won't be thinking about NBA guys. Been happening all year. Do what I do best. Playing for 11 years now. Keep doing that. I get asked that all the time. I get more media attention. Scouts are something I didn't control. If they come or they don't, I will put the ball in the hole. That is how it is.

Question: For any of the players, just want to ask, is there any point in this game where you felt like it was getting way from you a little bit? Or did you feel like you were comfortable the whole time?

Bryant Markson: We felt pretty comfortable. We have been in these positions before. We got a group of guys we know we can pull together anytime to make a run. We were pretty comfortable.

JIM MILLER: You guys can be excused. Now we'll open it up to questions directed to Coach.

Question: Congratulations, Ray.

COACH GIACOLETTI: Thanks.

Question: 79 points and 51 rebounds for Bogut against CSU. This is probably the biggest team you face and probably the best center in the league after him is Nelson. What does that say about him that he can do that against a team like that?

COACH GIACOLETTI: Even when you think you have seen the ceiling for Andrew, he is able to do something else that helps us out. The last month of the year we have been really working him shooting basketballs from the perimeter. It is not our first option, but at the end of the shot clock certainly something not as predictable. Consistently roll in the basketball. We can pick and pop with him. You know, it's he is a guy that is constantly working at the limit. He works out in the weight room shooting basketball from the perimeter. He watches what he eats. Constantly trying to make himself better. I don't know if there is a whole lot of guys like that.

Question: Did you see something defensively that was key in the second half?

COACH GIACOLETTI: Marty Wilson made a great call. We were trying to double from the man that was closest to the help side, which means it could be any one of four guys in that position. We changed at halftime. We were going to double big to big. That is when we've had most success this year, when we have doubled. We worked on the other way the entire week because we were going to try to switch ball screens one through four. If we were going to double big to big there was a chance that the other big could be anywhere on the floor. I am probably doing a bad job in explaining it. We went back to going big to big. We just said forget it where he is at. Try to rotate, cover things up. Marty made a great call. I wasn't thrilled with it. But that was the key. You know, coaches get way too much credit when we win; way too much of the blame when we lose. Marty made a great call and the kids executed it.

Question: Can you address Andrew, were you worried about him last night when he got ill? Today, to look at him, he seemed drained.

COACH GIACOLETTI: I am always worried about Andrew. It is something that ?? I don't know. He gets these every now and then where he gets dizzy; he needs darkness. But, we have medicine for it. Went and got the medicine, put him to bed. Get eight hours, ten hours of darkness and sleep, he is okay after that. I am concerned very much about him.

Question: Ray, I will ask you the same question that was asked some of the players. Are you concerned with the performance in the first half? It seems like every game you were tight in the first half. You haven't played particularly well?

COACH GIACOLETTI: I am concerned, but you know it was college basketball and it's competitive. We're trying to find ways. For instance, I don't mind ?? we talked to the team after the game after we're done with the film for the night. I think the team needs to meet on their own. Because I haven't got the point across well enough that we need to get across to better starts. Maybe the kids can do that. It is a point of emphasis. I am going to deal with reality and instead of, you know, try something to lighten the mood or other things, to try to help us get off to ?? we switched the line?up a little bit today to try to get going quickly. But also sometimes people have such big expectations that it is a lot of pressure to be put on a team or an individual. When in reality the team shows courage to be able to fight back and get the job done at the end. Am I concerned? Yeah. We will figure a way to get off to a better start.

Question: Looked like you opened up the substitution pattern a lot. Is that trying to make it through three games in three days?

COACH GIACOLETTI: That, and I think trying to find people to play with energy at the defensive end of the floor. Again, that is something that will get us off to a better start and a better first half. I don't have all the answers, just searching to try to find way to get better.

JIM MILLER: Thanks, Coach.

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