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Utah 67, Pepperdine 60 - Postgame Quotes
12/7/2010 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Utah Head Coach Jim Boylen
"I really felt that we played really hard in that first half. We didn't get that much done on the offensive end but I thought we played hard. We had our highest assist total for the year at the half with eight but I thought we still missed a bunch of open shots. I thought we missed lay-ups, good looks, and just couldn't get the ball to go in and were down three at the half. I felt we had some breakdowns defensively and then you look at their percentage at the half and you think `Oh, hey we're hanging in there pretty good'."
"We hit a lot of our game-goals for this game. We wanted 40 points in transition and we got 47. We wanted to hold them to four three's or under and they made three. We got beat on the boards, that a big, physical team. I was very fearful of them rebounding the ball against us. They missed 40 shots and got 17 of them back. We've got to continue to work on that.
"I thought we responded at half time, I thought our energy the second half was great, and I thought our running game was awesome. We got some dunks, we got flying and running and I thought it changed the game."
"Chris Kupets gave us a lift. He had a rough first half, he was trying and played hard, but didn't get much done. I thought those two threes he made [in the second half] were huge, huge plays in that run in the second half to get us the lead and push ahead."
"We struggled with Pepperdine's physicality. We struggled with it last year and we struggled with it this year. It's a place we have to grow. We have to become more physical and rebound the ball better."
On the team's defense:
"It's coming, our defense is coming. Our three-point defense was awesome tonight. I thought we gave up some middle drives, but I thought we adjusted in the second half and they didn't get baseline as much or middle. [Keion] Bell is as hard a cover as we've had. He got 17 [points] and he averages 25.6, so I guess we did a pretty good job on him. I didn't think we could give up threes and we didn't, so I think that was maybe the difference in the game. We struggled sometimes keeping them in front of us, but our defense was good. Guys are taking pride in it and we have to keep moving forward."
On the play of Will Clyburn: "He's got a great feel for the game and he has a knack for finding the ball and scoring. I thought his energy tonight was awesome. I just thought he wanted to do it, he wanted to make sure we won and I thought he played really hard. I haven't seen him out of breath since I've been here and tonight I think he was out of breath two or three times he was playing so hard."
"I really think our guys played hard tonight. You'd like to play hard and play good but you'd rather play hard all the time and then hopefully you'll play good some of the time but I thought we really played hard, really played hard and he was one of them. He's a special player and he's a special kid and he's a coachable kid and he's a sponge for coaching, correction and when your heart is in the right lace good things happen to you."
Junior guard Will Clyburn
"It was a good night. I was just out there playing hard. My teammates were giving me the ball and we were playing hard on defense and there was good ball-pressure, so I was able to get in the passing lane and get steals."
Sophomore center Jason Washburn
"Well, we came in at half time and we knew we were playing hard, we knew all the shots were there, it was just a matter of finding them and making them."
"We've got guys that at any point in time can just step up and hit the big shot when we need them to and that's just what you saw again tonight. Will [Clyburn] did his thing again, the guy can't be stopped almost. I haven't seen anyone do it yet."
"I had a good night just because my teammates found me. We're an unselfish team and when we move the ball we're hard to guard."
Pepperdine Head Coach Tom Asbury
"I thought we played ok in the first half. I was disappointed we didn't play with a little bit more poise in the second half because we have an experienced team. They did a good job, their bigs played real well, I thought in the second half, and caused us some problems. They got some good runs and I just wasn't particularly pleased with our defense. They really turned up their defense in the second half, they did a good job."
On his hopes to improve the defense
"We are going to have to be a lot more consistent, a lot more solid. Just in general, do everything better than we did tonight. But give them credit, anytime that you get disappointed with your team, the other team practices too so give them credit, they did a nice job."
Players Mentioned
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