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Utah vs. Oregon State Post Game Quotes
1/17/2016 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2016
Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
UTAH vs. OREGON STATE Post Game Quotes
Utah 59, Oregon State 53
Utah Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
On the game…
Well, it wasn't pretty, obviously. I am really proud of our guys effort to be able to battle and be able to stay in the game. Defensively, I thought we were really solid in the second half. There was correlation with us taking matters into our hands in the first half defensively, and even two times in the second half. We were doing things that weren't part of the game plan and wouldn't you know it, they hit five of their six three's when got a little excited and tried to double team. Two times we tried to double team, we had coverage messed up, dodged a few bullets that way. We managed to make enough plays. I was proud of Kuzma and Jakob in the second half. They did a nice job. They played a lot of minutes and controlled the glass. Jakob with his free throws was terrific. We just shot ourselves in the foot. The star of the second half we were making a run. Then we had three out of four possessions where we had numbers and went down and turned the ball over. We have to be a lot better. I just shared that with our team. In order to accomplish our goals, we have to be a lot tighter in our game plan, a lot tighter in taking care of the basketball; certainly their zone gave us some problems, although we made some adjustments at halftime and managed to get some better production against that zone.
On the trip of the referee …
I was still focused on the travel. I was trying to figure out how a guy dives on the floor and rolls around and doesn't get called for a travel. I kind of flashed back to our Stanford game when we just fell down and it was a travel. I wasn't looking for any kick. It obviously was a fortuitous steal for us and not a great break for them. It is unfortunate that was apart of the game. But I missed it completely.
On the bizarre season so far…
Well, it has been a tough five game stretch, there is no doubt. Some of that was the fact that we started with three on the road and lose the game as we did at Stanford. There is a lot of different directions to go from there and we teeter on a not a very good direction. It is persistence in this league. It is going to require some grit, passion and persistence; a couple of words in our program. We have to stay with it. I like to believe it won't get much harder than this what we have gone through. Hopefully, this is a little bit of a confidence boost for us to be able to close out a game. I am really excited for our fans coming out. We didn't give them a whole lot to cheer for. I thought it was neat when the momentum turned a couple times. They wanted to get behind us two times earlier in the game. We turned it over and sucked the air out of the building. At the end, we managed to make enough plays. It was real neat on a Sunday night to have as many folks turn out for us. That was a key ingredient to give us a little momentum.
On Brandon Taylor and Dakarai Tucker making three's at the end of the game…
I thought Jakob hit some big ones as well. I'll take 75% and that is kind of our goal to shoot 75%. That is exactly what it took tonight. We had a shoot around late afternoon and our team made 36 in a row and that was both ends going. It is not a though we don't put time in, we shoot a lot of them in practice. Guys are taking reps and we made enough of them. I would be fine if we were up in the 80, 85 range to give ourselves a little bit more of a cushion. We made them when we needed to. That is why they call them free. You have to take advantage. Thats what we talk about in the program. There aren't any little things. People might consider a free throw a little thing. As we've witnessed this year, it comes down to making the difference, specifically with as many close games as there are in our conference.
On shots in the first half versus the second half…
I thought we missed plenty of good shots in the first half. I think our defensive intensity picked up. One thing I shared with our team at half time was we can't base our energy to guard on whether or not our shots go in or not. It is a lot easier said than done because basketball is fun and you want to see the shots go in. A lot of the times when you start making shots, you can actually play a little harder defense. It has been such a grind even going back to the Oregon game, when we did earn a good shot, we didn't make them. That is problematic because when you have enough time getting a good one, then you finally get one and it doesn't go in. That is what we dealt with for about two thirds of the game tonight. We got some good ones, they didn't go in and it puts some pressure on you. Jordan hit a couple big ones, I thought, to get us going. We have to shooting the three better. We didn't shoot it well tonight but managed to make it enough.
Sophomore Forward Jakob Poeltl
On the win…
It was grind throughout the whole game. I felt like we didn't play with enough energy in the first half. We didn't get the stops that we needed. In the second half, we did a lot better job on defense. We got running and got them out of their zone. We executed better on offense. The shots finally went in for us a little bit more for us.
On free throws going in…
I feel like Stanford was a game where that doesn't happen to us. We are a great free throw shooting team. That was on slip up. We have proved in many, many game before that we can knock down those free throws. Same thing happened today, we just knocked them down.
On possibly going 1-4 in conference during halftime…
We as players, we got together, we need to focus on this game right now because it is a really huge turning point for us in the season. We just have to stop fooling around and play our best basketball. Get out there and grind, play with energy and hopefully get the win, thats what we did.
Senior Guard Dakarai Tucker
On the emotions during the game…
You get anxious. We came back and we keep pushing ourselves. You just get really roused up. We can't lose our composure like they did when they messed up with the refs. Then we knocked down our free throws.
On the key for the next game…
Just having the mindset of coming with intensity and energy. We cant disrespect the game. We have been coming out sluggish lately and that is something we need to fix. We just have to push it down their throats and not let up.
- - - -
Oregon State Head Coach Wayne Tinkle
On strength of Pac-12...
This league is very deep and very tough out on the road. You can either lose ground, or you can gain ground in one weekend. We have got to stay focused and make sure that we keep doing what we are supposed to be doing and never throw in the towel. A lot of things can change in a heartbeat.
On positive takeaways from the game…
We came out and executed our game plan out on the road for the first time and we really battled. Obviously, we gave into adversity in the second half. It is too bad, but it is something that we have to learn from.
On Utah's success shooting threes and getting to the foul line…
They took 21 threes and got to the free throw line 24 times. I've never seen an imbalance like that. So, obviously, we didn't do a very good job attacking, finishing and drawing contact.
On not getting to the free throw line…
Our vets need to step up. Some of our guys just didn't have very good games. Give them (Utah) credit. They came back. Larry did a great job getting those guys back in the game. I kept saying, now our veterans need finish for us. Unfortunately, they didn't.
On leaders in foul trouble…
If we can keep our betters players on the bench when they are in foul trouble and keep the lead. It is unfortunate that Malcolm lost a little bit of a rhythm. The same thing happened the other night against Oregon. I am just disappointed, very disappointed. It was a hell of a ball game and it is just a shame, a real shame.
On Jarmal Reid's technical foul…
He swore he didn't do anything. I was told by the officiating crew that he clearly tripped him intentionally. I don't know. I haven't seen it so I have no clue. I thought that because of the sweat on the floor, that the official tripped. Like I said, I didn't see it so I can't really comment on it.
Players Mentioned
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