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Utah vs. Stanford Post Game Quotes
1/30/2016 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2016
Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
UTAH vs. STANFORD Post Game Quotes
Utah 96, Stanford 74
Utah Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
On the outside shots in the first half and the inside shots in the second …
Well, I think a lot of guys were making contributions. Dakarai shot the ball well. I've always thought we would get things started with Jakob. That has been our identity this whole year. They did a nice job guarding him. He took what they gave him and the rest of our guys, basically because of our guys, got out. In the first half, it wasn't that good. Darn near 50% from the field. It was kind of a shootout. I kept telling our guys if we can get some stops and commit to playing some defense, we can blow the roof off the building. Then in the second half, we held them to 30%. I thought that was the key. We have always talked about training in elevation. 10 of the other teams in the Pac-12 come from basically sea level. When you get on some of these longer trips, if we defend like we did in the second half, we can be pretty good. Then a lot of the points take care of themselves.
On first half shooting…
We were 70%. It has been a while since have put up those kind of numbers. I thought we shared the ball and we didn't take any bad shots. Our guys made extra passes. We hit a couple big possessions at the end of a shot clock. Maybe ten or twelve passes in a possession. When you hit that three with a second left on that clock, it is pretty neat stuff. We had a nice lift out of Kuzma. I think we have talked about it, we have some weapons offensively. There is a period of the season, maybe the first third of the season, where we didn't shoot the ball very well. It is not as though those guys can't shoot. We've always known that there is some good shooters. The Brandon's, the Dakarai's, the Jordan's. Our fore men are shooting the ball, Kuz and Brekkott. If we continue to guard, it is a pretty high powered group offensively.
On foul trouble…
We ended up with five guys with three fouls fairly early in the second half. Stanford presents a lot of problems. They had a small lineup out there. They are eighth in the country in percentage of points that are scored at the free throw line. You have to guard the Marcus Allen, the Roscoe Allen, a lot of guys are putting their heads down. It's not an easy team to ref. Consequently, we fouled them more than we should have. They spread the floor out. At the same time, we maybe took advantage of them on the inside a little bit with our size. It balanced itself. It wasn't any surprise that we were going to have to play without fouling. That was one of the concepts on the board that we talked about moving our feet and eventually some of those are going to catch up to you.
On putting away free throws…
It was tremendous to be 75% roughly, 32-42. We shoot a lot of them. I don't know if there are many teams in the country who shoot more free throws than us. The other night against Cal, Jakob was 7-14, he bounced back stronger than ever tonight. I think our guys found a rhythm with the exception of Brekkott. He struggled with a missed three. It is up between the years for most guys. But for the most part, it was important. There is a reason they call them free. We have to cash in on more of them than we do.
On Jakob Poeltl and Kyle Kuzma moving the ball…
I think Kyle Kuzma may be our best passer, overall. It is hard to have the data for the exact number on that. I think he makes Jakob better. Certainly, Jakob makes Kuzma better. We talk a lot about big, big passing. A lot of times when there is double-team on Jakob comes from the four man which puts Kuzma in a place where he can make some plays. It is a concept that they are good for each other. It has to be apart of our plan based on what we are seeing defensively from a lot of teams.
Sophomore Forward Kyle Kuzma
On playing with Jakob…
I think we have good chemistry. We always look at each other throughout the game. Today it kind of showed that I thought. He had a nice little lob pass to me up top. We just have good chemistry.
On the start of the game knowing he could put away shots and rebounds…
I just try to crash the boards every time. It helped today. I got a couple tip backs and offensive rebounds for second shots.
On where the chemistry comes from with Jakob…
This summer time, I feel. We practice every day and we are always on the same team in practice. We get a lot of reps together. I think you can see it. We are cool teammates. We always hang out on the weekends. We are a real tight knit team.
On inside shooting and outside shooting between the halves…
It was a tale of two halves defensively. I don't think it was inside outside. We hit a couple threes in the second half. We really buckled down defensively and made some stops. We opened the game up. We won by 22 or something. We just have to respect the game and good things will come.
Senior Guard Brandon Taylor
On the first half shots…
We came out hot because this our home gym. This is our floor. We have been putting up a lot of shots in practice and it felt good to see some shots go in the first half, even the second half. It feels good to see some shots go in at home.
On Jakob being guarded so well in the first half…
I just took what they gave me. I wasn't really focused on trying to force anything. It was really just taking what they gave me and going out and making plays as much as we could. When the ball was inside, there was a point where there were three guys on Jakob. I told him that. I think he was really composed and held himself together. We ended up knocking down some shots.
On having five straight wins …
We still have a long way to go. We won five games in a row. It is a good feeling. But we know we still have a lot to improve. We don't want to settle on this little five game streak. We want to continue on with post season play and so on.
On Dakarai's play…
Dakarai is one of those guys who works so hard. He works so hard in the gym, he's always putting up shots, always watching film. It is good to see him come together. For this, it is going to be continuous for him and the rest of us. It is going to be a continuous process for us I believe.
- - - -
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
On his locker room message…
We have to be better. On the defensive end that's not our style of play. Two teams scoring 90 points, that's wrong. We have to focus and be determined.
On team's effort today…
I thought both games were very physical and I think it took a little bit of toll on us. We had some foul trouble but also just put us in some tough positions. I'll have too see the film more to see where some of the breakdowns were. In both cases, both teams shot well from the three-point line.
On Jakob Poeltl's play…
He's easily one of the best centers in the country of course. So he demands a lot of attention when the ball gets thrown inside that you have to kind of collapse and then he'll thrown it out to guys who were knocking down shots. The previous game versus the two teams we played, they didn't make those shots. Tonight and a few nights ago they made those shots. That has made all the difference on the road and how those teams performed.
On shot selection and shooting performance…
I didn't think all our shots were bad but I thought we rushed a few and got behind. I talked to our guys about being poised and you get down ten, twelve, and I want to help us get back and I often times think you want to do what helps us to get back and I think the best approach is to put those together. So we took some bad shots but understand those guys mean well but it puts us in a deeper hole. So I explained that to the guys but we also just missed. Dorian had some good looks in this game and Rosco and I don't think we shot as well as we have seen.
On 19-23 from the charity stripe…
That just shows what type of a shooting team we are. If you are shooting it that well from the line that means these guys are shooters so that's not an issue. It is just a matter of getting good looks and just being confident and knocking them down.
Players Mentioned
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