Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Nevada [Exh] on October 17, 2025
![Nevada [Exh]](https://images.sidearmdev.com/crop?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.net%2Fsidearm.nextgen.sites%2Futahutes.com%2Fimages%2Flogos%2FNevadaAthletics_Navy.png&width=31&height=31&type=webp)
Men's Basketball
vs Nevada [Exh]
![Oregon [Exh]](https://images.sidearmdev.com/crop?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.net%2Fsidearm.nextgen.sites%2Futahutes.com%2Fimages%2Flogos%2Foregon.png&width=31&height=31&type=webp)
.png&width=31&height=31&type=webp)
.png&width=31&height=31&type=webp)
Utah vs. California Post Game Quotes
1/28/2016 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2016
Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
| Photo Gallery (Tom Smart, Utah Athletics)
UTAH vs. CALIFORNIA Post Game Quotes
Utah 73, California 64
Utah Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
On the difference between this game and the last match-up…
We had a lot of energy. I watched our first go around and still with three minutes to go we were only down by three at Cal. I think everybody remembers the fact that maybe they beat us by fifteen or something. It was a close basketball game and we just didn't make shots at the end of the game. At the perimeter, we struggled a little bit from three tonight, but Brandon hit some big ones. I thought we were able to limit them to one shot for the most part here and we didn't at their place. We out rebounded them here and we didn't at their place. There was great energy in the building, I thought. We didn't close out the first half very well, lost a little bit of momentum and took our first deficit to start the second half and then managed to recover a little bit and managed to make some plays. I thought Brandon was a big lift and of course Jakob. I thought we had nice production from our '4' men; Kuzma and Brekkott gave us a nice lift. It was really nice to see Brekkott make some shots. I thought the arena was great for a late night game and the energy in the arena was really cool and seeing the blackout was really cool. Fans really helped us I think and that's always the case when you are playing at home. I thought our guys really played off the crowd.
On Brandon and Kyle coming alive…
We needed somebody to. Kuzma didn't exactly have a great first half, Jordan first half and we needed another person or two to step up. Kyle has made a little bit of a habit of that, he is more of a second-half player. He maybe gets a little wired up to start games so it was a nice adjustment. I think he sits there and realizes he can come in there and make an impact. I thought he made some great moves and passes and was the recipient of some passes. I thought certainly that he and Brandon were the two catalysts that put energy back into the building when they made their run.
On the defense…
You're going to have some breakdowns. There is going to be some well-earned shots. Brown NBA player, Rabb NBA player, they have got the best three-pointer shooter in Matthews in our conference so there is a lot of fire power out there and it's not a matter of us shutting anybody down and playing a perfect game, it is about making things really hard for the opponent consistently and not give up easy opportunities. Those guys knew they were in for a game. We're really defending. If I'm not mistaken, we are leading the conference in a lot of defensive statistics and it's carrying us. I think since league play has started, Brandon and Jakob's protecting the rim and guys are buying into what we've got. I'm convinced we are going to find out in the Super Bowl with defense wins championships and wins games. Maybe our offense hasn't been there consistently and regularly enough over the course of the year, but maybe it doesn't have to be is you are committed to playing some defense. Getting stops and getting out and running in our building I think is important and making teams earn some things. Our guys like playing defense and we are taking a lot of pride in doing so right now.
On upcoming game with Stanford…
I think we understand that there has been a correlation since the Oregon game. Oregon State wasn't a great offensive game and we got stops. The game of basketball is very interesting and is so much different than football where you can send eleven guys out and they can strap on a chin strap and they take a lot of pride in stopping the other team and statistics play a big part. You have to have that same kind of pride in basketball. We talk about it a lot in that football sense, you don't have a lot of time, you don't run out there and punt it and return the kick, but when you shift gears, it is on the fly and I think that has been the biggest thing for us is guarding. That's what we are going to try to do. That's what we are going to bring to the table. We aren't going to necessarily talk about rematches and getting the taste out of our mouth, but it is just consistently stay in the course making teams take tough shots. That's where we were breaking down before was they were taking too many easy shots and some of our percentages were pretty clear that way. In this building when you get stops, you can see there is a fatigue factor playing at elevation. If we make teams really earn something and get stops, then I think that is an advantage and that really gets the arena energy and hopefully that can happen again Saturday.
Sophomore Forward Jakob Poeltl
On four straight wins…
Obviously we still have things to work on but it feels great to come out and win a couple games in a row especially, like you said, after that rough start. I'm glad we are in this position right now but we have to keep going. This is a very tight league right now and if you want to win it you have to keep winning games and especially home games.
On the game…
Cal really does a nice job of guarding me in the post so I try to find different ways to score. I don't think I scored a lot today out of the post. It was more off like pick and roll, I tried to move away from the ball and tried to get open for my teammates and maybe score without going to a post move. I just try to go to a different part of my game and try to maybe exploit my quickness.
On his 20-point performances…
I feel like if the defense gives me the opportunity to get 20 points, I am going to get 20 points. If they want to double-team me and be super aggressive and send everyone on me, I am going to pass the ball. I said it before, I am going to try and do whatever the defense gives me or us as a team. I feel like we are a very balanced team and if I feel that I need to try to take over the game I am going to try to do that and call for the ball. Do a couple post moves and try to score.
- - - -
California Head Coach Cuonzo Martin
On Utah's defense and Cal's lack of a post presence…
What I think that they were doing was after our fourth pass, they would go from a zone to a man. I told the guys to treat it like a man-to-man defense and execute what we were trying to do. Even in the first half, we recognized something. Not just what we did a poor job of really establishing a post presence. Early in the game, we didn't do a good job getting the ball inside to make plays.
On Cal's offensive struggles…
I think that a lot of our breakdowns had to do with of our ball screen defense and then you come down on offense you have to flow and make shots, make plays. I felt that we really weren't establishing the post, especially in the second half. We felt like they were playing us one on one in the post. They would double Ivan, but when they doubled our shooters needed to be ready to shoot. We needed Kameron (Rooks) to post up some, Jaylen (Brown) to post up some, force those guys to make plays because I really felt like they were trying to take away everything from Jabari (Bird) and Jordan (Mathews) on the perimeter. We needed to make plays off the ball screens and attack downhill, but we just didn't do a very good job tonight.
On Cal's fouls…
More than anything, I don't think that it was coming from behind fouls. I think it was more of us doing a poor job moving our and being sound defensively. We were getting fouls early. We've got to do a better job of moving our feet and being solid defensively. In this case, playing from behind, we didn't do a lot of fouling. We have to do a better job of not giving up and one plays, big plays, and moving your feet, keeping guys in front of you. In this case, I think our fours in our rotation on that weak side didn't do a good job of that.
On Jaylen Brown's play…
I thought he did a good job of really being aggressive and trying to attack. When he is at the three and point guard position, that means that there are two big guys on the floor for us. He did a good job of taking some pull ups and making some shots. When he was at the four, now we have better spacing. We didn't feel like it was an advantage for us to have Ivan (Rabb) at the five with (Jakob) Poeltl, because Ivan got into foul trouble. It was just one of those deals with other guys not making enough shots, but I still think it had more to do with us on the defensive side of the ball.
On Utah attacking the basket…
They made a couple of plays. I think it had more to do with our breakdown. I thought they did a really good job of attacking, especially at the baseline, trying to make plays, and forcing them to make decisions. I don't think that we did a very good job of getting through ball screens with our weak side defense. It wasn't as much their big guy getting us to guard the ball. It was our weak side help not dropping and rotating over.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's BasketballMeet the Runnin’ Utes Staff: Erick Schork
Thursday, August 28
Utah Basketball | Team Together - Episode 2
Thursday, August 21
Fan Fest 2025 Coaches and Players Interviews: Men's Basketball
Sunday, August 17
Meet the Runnin’ Utes Staff: Victoria Sun
Wednesday, July 23