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Utah vs. Southern Utah Postgame Quotes
11/14/2015 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 14, 2015
Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
UTAH QUOTES
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
Opening Statement…
"That was a little eye opener for us, I thought, trying to keep up with a really well coached team, a smaller team, a bunch of shooters. They exposed us with a lot of dribble drives. We were confused in the first half, certainly playing hard without playing smart. We were allowing back cuts, getting beat off the dribble and did some things that were out of character. Thank goodness for the "big-three", at least for tonight. 73 out of our 83 points came from three guys. We missed a lot of three [pointers] obviously and some other guys didn't have a great shooting night. But that is the essence of the team. I reminded our guys that we got to with this schedule - five games in nine nights - that we are going to need everybody at different times. It was a great night for, I thought, Jordan, Kyle and big Jakob."
On defensive struggles in the game…
"We are getting beat off the dribble. We are trying to guard people too close. We were opening driving lanes in the first half, we were up on the side of people for whatever reason. Division one players are going to put their heads down and drive to the rim. We didn't do a very good job. When you have shooters around the court, you don't get great help. This game is the old cliché if there is ever a classic example of the Thunderbirds needing some credit for what they did. We are going to fix the things we didn't do well. But this wasn't like we came out and laid an egg. This was a team that took advantage of an opportunity to come in here and they played extremely hard. They hit some big shots. The only thing they didn't have was size. That was our advantage to get the ball into the post. We rebounded about half of our misses. We took advantage of that area but that is a good team. They are going to do real well in the Big-Sky conference."
Sophomore Jakob Poeltl
On scoring a career-high 26 points…
"Me personally, I was trying to be aggressive. I think we had a size advantage. It worked out really well. The guards did a good job feeding the posts. We played good together. We had easy baskets. It wasn't like a super special game, we did the small things right. We played aggressive and that's what happened."
On if the guard play put pressure on the team…
"I wouldn't say it put more pressure on us. Obviously the two of us [with Kyle Kuzma] had a really good game and we were trying to force the ball inside. We didn't really make our three's today, which can happen. You aren't going to have a good shooting day every day. We just tried to force the ball inside and it worked out."
Sophomore Kyle Kuzma
On his career night…
"I mean I guess you could say that, because I was 9-for-10. I was just trying to play with energy and focus on finishing at the rim. I have got to do better at free throws, I was 2-for-5 or something, something terrible. I wasn't focused [there]."
On his ability to get to the rim tonight…
"I feel like for this team I really need to rebound. I need to help him [Jakob] out. He is a low down there, getting rebounds, but it takes some pressure off of him. That is what I am going to do."
On his transformation from last season to this season…
"Just go back to summertime. I put a lot of work in. I was happy how we ended our season last year, but I wanted more from myself. I really dialed in getting my body right and getting in the gym. I am just trying to be better."
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SOUTHERN UTAH QUOTES
Head coach Nick Robinson
On what he saw out of his guys…
"We did a nice job of playing at our tempo. Utah is a great basketball team and extremely well coached. We came out with a game plan, they adjusted extremely well, but I was definitely pleased with our overall effort and execution for the 40 minutes of the ball game."
On the team's effort and answers to Utah's scoring runs…
"I really like our toughness at this stage of the season and we still have a long way to go. We have areas we need to improve on at both ends of the floor, but for us on opening night to contain the excitement of opening night versus a top-25 team and play at the pace we did and execute what we have been working on the past few days definitely plays with our effort."
On the conversations on the sideline and the atmosphere being competitive with Utah…
"For us, we kind of focused on positive communication for quite some time. We have been focused on consistent effort and tonight the guys came in and they exemplified both of those areas in a big way. In addition, we competed every possession and it was nice to see that."
On the defense holding both Utah's starting guards to zero points…
"I don't think that had anything to do with our defensive effort. You know they have had an amazing group of perimeter players, but they took advantage of what they were given and that was in the post rebounding. They had an advantage there and I think they scored 45 points in the paint and once they were able to do that they took advantage of some of our rotations and they were able to knock down some open threes. So I don't think that had anything to do with our defense."
On Juwan Major's dunk and taunting…
"I was pleased with his aggressive execution on that particular play. We try to keep our emotions under control, but once again we will take aggressive execution."
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