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The University of Utah Athletics
Utah vs. BYU Post-Game Quotes
3/10/2006 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 9, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
Utah
Coach Ray Giacoletti: I'm just proud of our team. We stayed focused for a long period of time tonight to where things that we haven't done in the past, especially with close games. And even when BYU made their run, our guys, there was a different look in their eye. Just couldn't be more proud of watching a team grow up. It's growing up at the right time. You know, they did a great job of understanding that getting Luke touches, and he went and made the most of it.
Question: Nevill, you took over the game in the last two minutes.
Luke Nevill: Yeah, I guess so. I mean, we just had a game plan of just throwing it inside, and over the guards and the forwards, everybody on the team basically just went by the game plan. We were just successful.
Question: Luke, can you talk about what happened with you earlier today. A lot of people thought it would affect you mentally.
Luke Nevill: I just through warm ups, pregame shooting, I just had a few pains, you know, in my body. I just went and got them checked out at the doctor. You just have to play through stuff like that. You just have to be tough. Just rise above it.
Question: Luke, when did you decide you were going to play?
Luke Nevill: A few hours before the game. I was improving all day. It came to game time. I felt that I was good enough to, you know, play maybe use the adrenaline to kind of bypass the pain a bit more. Probably about an hour before the game, I would say.
Question: Bryant, can you talk about the different look in the eye? Why were you more resilient in this game than other ones?
Bryant Markson: I think we just pulled together tonight. We watched Gladiator before we came in here. A lot of people like that movie on the team (smiling). Just pulled together. Looked each other in the eyes. Coached talked about the seniors looking the young guys in the eyes, trying to get the job done. I think that had a lot to do with it. I was out there talking, I think, the most I ever talked all year. I wanted to get this win. When it's tournament time, you got to do what you got to do. I was willing to throw the ball to Luke. JB was willing to do the same thing. We got the win.
Question: Can you talk about playing Wyoming?
Johnnie Bryant: We got to control Brandon Ewing. At home he scored a bunch in the last couple minutes. We got to take care of the ball, box out. I think we'll be ready mentally and physically to come in and play tomorrow. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Luke Nevill: I think we just have to limit the post touches, especially Williams. He's a great offensive rebounder. You just have to box him out. When he gets the ball, you just have to just try and stop him because he's going to be aggressive, you know, the whole game. Just to limit, you know, some of their key players. I mean, once we shut them down, I think the team will shut down.
Bryant Markson: I think we just need to stick to the game plan, whatever it may be tonight. The coaches do a good job. Wyoming is mostly blocking out. When you drive, get into a jump start, throwing it out to the open man, I think we're going to capitalize on that hopefully tomorrow.
Question: Great night rebounding. A sign of how much your guys wanted it tonight?
Coach Ray Giacoletti: Yeah, we're so limited right now. We played four guards for a while. Doesn't matter the size of the man; it's just the size of the man's heart. Keep stepping back, boxing out. When Luke goes and gets 14, it kind of makes it one on one for him. We darn near had two people, Brian had nine. We had two guys going to go get 23 rebounds. If everybody else keeps their man away, it's one on one for those guys.
Question: Can you talk about the rebounding edge, just the dominance you had inside.
Coach Ray Giacoletti: Again, just trying to, one, get them to miss. And, two, each man be disciplined enough to step back and box. Last year we talked about, you know, our team was going to try to win the rebound award for Andrew, as an individual award, but if every other man stepped back and boxed, it's kind of the same thing tonight. If you get two guys to go get 23, if everybody takes care of their man, it's one on one for their people. It's a point of emphasis; win the war on the boards each and every night. Our turnovers, we're trying to get to 12. We're at 15. So we're headed in the right direction.
Question: With Reichner, he was quiet for BYU. Was that a coincidence or game plan? Seeing the upset with Wyoming earlier, what does that do for kids to see that kind of game?
Coach Ray Giacoletti: Reichner has been, I think, has been the glue to BYU the whole season. I don't think anybody in the conference would have predicted the kind of year he had, what he meant to BYU's team. The guy is unbelievable, the improvement he made, and consistency each and every night. The improvement, I mean, from last year to this year. We just tried to make him put the ball on the floor. You can't take a step off him and let him rhythm into a three. In the post, you got to front him. Really those were the two things we talked about. Bryant was on him for a portion of the time. But just had to get up and crowd him and make him floor the ball. He had three or four, maybe four or five threes at our step. We were a half step off at his waist. He's too big. He's just licking his chops at that thing. We were just better at that. We were just focused on trying to do our deal. We'll get them some rest and get ready for Wyoming. We just played Wyoming last Saturday. It shouldn't be, you know, any crazy changes.
Question: Did that spur the kids?
Coach Ray Giacoletti: I don't think so. I don't think so. BYU, I mean, Utah, I think that spurs them enough.
Question: Did you have any idea Luke was going to have that good of a game or was that a surprise?
Coach Ray Giacoletti: To be honest with you, I mean, I thought he was having a heart attack this morning. He went down. He had shortness of breath. I just talked to someone on the phone about the Vanderbilt situation, where they had a kid go down last week. He was going through jump up shooting, you could see he's trying to catch his breath. He kind of goes down to his knees. I thought he was having some kind of heart issue. They laid him down on the ground. For the 20 minutes we were down there, that's why we took him to the hospital, to try to rule out anything to do. They did all kinds of stuff, CAT scan, EKG, whatever it is, to rule out that. I'm not really sure. Doc popped something back into place, they thought maybe a rib in his back. Seriously, it wasn't until we came in the last time, you know, if he was going to be able to go or not. I mean, at the 10 minute mark. It's funny 'cause last year, if you remember, Andrew, we played a 9:00 game at BYU, and Andrew had his deal. If it wouldn't have been a 9:00 game, he would have never been ready. They were putting IVs in him 20 minutes before we played. If this would have been a 10:00 game, he would have never been ready. At pregame meal, he looked like a mummy walking around because he was so stiff. Our doctors and training staff, Trevor, Dr. Petron (ph) did an amazing job getting him ready today.
Question: How did the players respond when that happened?
Coach Ray Giacoletti: I think it scared everybody. We had only 25 minutes on the main floor, then we had to go up to the practice floor. You could tell, there was the wind taken out of our sails. He had to deal with the cards dealt to you. We prayed to God it wasn't something with his heart. Didn't matter whether he played or not. We were fortunate enough it was not.
Question: One of the most debated plays is do you foul the guy or do you let him go to the line? Was all that designed?
Coach Ray Giacoletti: We had a good week about three or four weeks ago where we got fortunate, beat BYU, San Diego State. Then we had Colorado State and Air Force come to our place that week. We got beat on last second threes both times. If we had to do it over again with Air Force, we would foul, because one through five can shoot threes. That was my fault. Tonight, with the time at under seven seconds, we were going to try to take two or three more seconds off the thing. I just we've been bit too many times. I was going to try something else. We've practiced situations for the last three weeks every day, two different situations. It was one of those gut feelings that I wasn't going to watch another three go in. If we could be efficient, we still had a timeout left. So if we got panicked after they hit a couple on press offense, we could take a time. I think it depends. If it's Air Force ever again, we're fouling them. If it's people that have a number of different people, one through four or five that can shoot the three, darn difficult, even if you're switching, to play defense so they don't get a clean look. We've been stung enough. It was our turn for one.
BYU
Coach Dave Rose: Well, I thought it was a really hard fought battle between two good teams. Both teams had a lot of chances. It came down to the wire. They made some big plays, won the game. Proud of my players. I think the guys played really hard. We fought pretty hard. We just came up a couple points short.
Question: Trent, can you talk about your battle with Luke and what, if anything, was said at halftime. You certainly caught on fire in the second half.
Trent Plaisted: Luke Nevill is a good player. He had a career night tonight. He's a nice guy. I mean, there's not much to say about our battle. I mean, we're two players. We're playing as hard as we could. At halftime, I mean, things were said that needed to be said. I needed to come out and play harder. That was apparent. That's what I was informed of. That's maybe a credit to me playing a little bit better in the second half.
Question: Jimmy, Trent went on his run, then you went on a seven point spurt. Did you feel like when you got your run later in the game, that's what you would need and probably be enough to carry you the rest of the way?
Jimmy Balderson: Well, I thought we made a good run in the second half. I thought you know, we were up. We just let it slip away there in the end. You know, the breaks didn't go our way. It hurts, losing this game. You know, we played hard. They played hard. They just got the bounces at the end of the game.
Question: The rebounding margin was 37 to 21. Can you talk about why that happened, Trent?
Trent Plaisted: They did a good job of really attacking the offensive boards. We maybe didn't do such a great job of blocking them out and getting rebounds. I don't know how to answer. I mean, rebounding is we just didn't get the job done tonight. Me, myself in particular, I needed to rebound the ball better.
Question: Jimmy, could you explain their extended defense and their transition defense. In the first half they did a good job of that, maybe what you did to change and adjust to that.
Jimmy Balderson: We've had trouble all year when teams pressure us. Until we learn, you know, to be strong, attack the basket more. In the first half, I thought we were tentative. We weren't attacking the basket. We were letting their pressure get to us. We weren't playing our game. They were playing they were controlling the tempo. We can't afford to get down like that in the first half. But, you know, they did a good job pressuring. We just needed to be tough the whole game and attack the basket the whole game.
Question: Coming into this tournament, there was a lot of talk that you were on a roll and maybe could play your way into NCAA at large consideration. What are you going to be like this weekend? Do you think that's a possibility?
Jimmy Balderson: I don't know. We'll see what happens. It's not in our hands. It would have been nice to get this win, be able to keep playing more basketball. We'll see whatever happens. Wherever they put us, they put us. We'll just keep looking forward to playing the next game.
Question: Trent?
Trent Plaisted: I agree with Jimmy. We had no control over anything now. I mean, all we got to do is just wait it out. Whatever happens is whatever they tell us where we're going to go, that's where we'll go.
Question: Coach, this is the first time your team has lost a real close game. Did you see this coming in any way? How did they react afterwards? What did you say to them?
Coach Dave Rose: It's a real disappointed group. They fought and battled. It was exactly like the last eight or nine games we've played. I think that if you want to look at one thing, what was the key, what happened, what didn't happen, the fact that they had 16 offensive rebounds and got second chances a lot of times, especially late in the game. When we got the lead, there was a couple times we got a stop, then we couldn't get the rebound, they got second chances. I think that was probably the determining factor.
Question: Were you surprised about how Utah came out at the end of that game and was fouling? Is there anything you could have done to counter that at all?
Coach Dave Rose: Hey, we got exactly what we could out of that. We got a miss. We got the ball scrabbled. If we could have just secured it, picked it up and scored, we would have got the thing in overtime. There's three or four different strategies you can use at the end of the game. They did a good job when they got the lead of choosing the strategy to foul. But our guys battled. We battled right to the end.
Question: Brock didn't get a shot till about five minutes left in the game. Can you talk about what Utah did? Do you feel like Brock was a focal point for their defense there?
Coach Dave Rose: I think they did a good job on Brock. He's actually been sick the last couple days. Didn't practice one day, and practiced just a little bit yesterday. That's probably a factor.
Question: Can you talk about what you think your NCAA possibilities are at this point.
Coach Dave Rose: I'm not really educated on that. We just feel bad that we're not playing anymore. I think the more you win, the better chance you have. In this situation, we don't get to play tomorrow. We'll just wait and see.
Players Mentioned
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