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Utah 82, New Mexico 72 - Postgame Quotes
1/19/2011 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Utah Head Coach Jim Boylen
"I've been saying all season that I think we are getting better. I thought tonight we played better basketball. I thought we shared it, I thought we moved it, I thought we guarded it. We have a lot of respect for New Mexico. We have had great games with them and it's a good rivalry."
"We are thankful for the win. This team has worked hard, and I think they are improving. We have two games now, where I think from the outside you can see the improvement. I am thankful for that and I am thankful for these guys to have some success. I am really thankful to be the coach here and to be with this group of guys, I really like this group."
"Anytime we can get 13 rebounds and 11 points from our center position, I think we are playing good basketball. That is a big key for us. Our last two games we have had double-doubles (combined) from the center position. On a night when Will (Clyburn) got in foul trouble and (New Mexico was) very conscious of him, I thought other guys picked it up. We found our third scorer in Shawn Glover and he also had three assists. He is a young developing guy who's improving. I've been preaching all year that I thought J.J O'Brien could be special and I tried to be humble about it, but I think he is going to be a really special player and I am thanking God he is healthy."
On the play of Josh Watkins:
"(Josh Watkins) is a bulldog. He has a great feel, when he gets an angle on a guy, or gets a shoulder on a guy, he can keep him there with his strength and his toughness. He is a fearless guy and we are thankful for him. We need him in this program, he is what we needed and I thought tonight he was terrific."
On the play of J.J O'Brien
His versatility in that big of a body, his ability to handle the ball and his ball skills make him special. But his greatest attribute I think is his a physical presence for an 18 year-old freshman and his high basketball I.Q. That is where he is really special. He was a point guard in high school, and in the summer he played point guard. He has great feet and his feet are healthy, which is good for us. I think he is a special, versatile kind of guy. I think you can see what we are trying to build with these versatile, long guys, like Glover, Clyburn, and J.J. Guys with length that are multi-skilled, multi-position guys, it makes us hard to guard. It is starting to come, not there yet, but it is starting to come."
Junior guard Josh Watkins
"We are really excited. This was a big win for us. It showed us how as a team we can come through collectively at the end and we can close out a game. We have to learn how to work with the lead better. We still have a lot of stuff to work on. I feel we are breaking through and we are coming out tougher. We still have a lot of things to work on, but we are improving on a lot of things that hurt us in our seven games losing streak and we are playing as a team more."
New Mexico Head Coach Steve Alford
"I'm disappointed that this was a bad game. We played well against San Diego State and Colorado State, but we did not play well tonight. I'm not sure why."
"I don't want to say anything before I watch tape to figure out what message we have to send. Obviously, there has to be some effort because we didn't play well tonight."
"We were trying to get AJ going as he's been a part of two championship teams before, in order to see if we could get him some confidence but it didn't work." "I can't speak for Utah, but they played well tonight. They played hard, made a lot of plays, and made a lot of threes. You have to give them credit for what they did. In this league you have to win home games. They did what they needed to do to get the home win."
"We were not shooting the ball well and we were not making shots. It would help if we made shots and that affected our defense so we didn't guard very well."
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