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Utah vs. Washington Post Game Quotes
2/11/2016 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 11, 2016
UTAH vs. WASHINGTON Post Game Quotes
Utah 90, Washington 82
Utah Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
On getting the win…
It has been a pretty intense couple of days. It's never fun carrying a few losses in and we knew Washington 's really good. They've got the second best road record in the Pac-12 and they have been really competitive against a lot of teams. We made a number of mistakes in the first half with our turnovers. We weren't dealing with their pressure very well and had twelve turnovers that led to 19 points. That was certainly the first half story and then in the second half we got out-rebounded by about 10, so we had kind of a tale of two halves. 26 assists on our 35 baskets I thought were huge and I thought we did a nice job of sharing the basketball. I thought Brandon and Jordan did a nice job from three. Kyle Kuzma seven assists, Chris Reyes gave us a big boost with 10 points with Jakob's foul trouble, so I thought it was a nice overall effort. We had that nice little spurt there, couple of those turnovers again, but still 5 turnovers in the second half was key and made enough plays going down the stretch.
On Lorenzo Bonam…
I think Lorenzo's a guy, no secret for him or for anybody in our program, Phil Cullen said we need to get that flip switched after the game because you can see when those bursts come. He is really hard to defend and that gives us a great weapon. I thought that was where some of the momentum came from was when he made some of those plays and had a couple dunks. When we know that is in there, I would certainly like to see that more. He has some physical skills, talent, that not anybody on our team has and we have to get him caught up in terms of some effort and focus. I really think that he and a lot of our guys are beat up. We have a really sick team right now. A bunch of colds and flus and sore throats. It hasn't been an easy road for us and you can tell in practice. When you are trying to practice and it's not that guys don't want to go hard there just isn't a lot left in the tank. I don't think we were impressive to start the game tonight. We had a number of guys who looked like we were playing at altitude that we weren't used to. Actually we probably weren't used to it because we have been on the road so long, but really I think in Lorenzo's case it is getting down to playing harder. We write in on our board, it's in the practice facility, "Play hard, play smart, play together", and we have got some guys that play really hard but not intelligently at times and we have some guys that are smart but don't play hard enough. We are asking guys to take a look at what they've got going on and make sure they start doing it.
On Brandon Taylor…
I talked [earlier on the radio pregame show] about that and there's no secret that Lorenzo and Brandon didn't play well in Oregon and Oregon State. We had Kyle Kuzma, Jakob, and Jordan, and a nice boost from Dakarai on the trip, but you can't win too many games without your back-court getting dialed in. I am pretty familiar with Brandon's character and I was almost certain he was going to bounce back. It's college sports, you have some young kids, and these aren't pros that are always able to bounce back or be consistent. I've seen Brandon, and maybe it is like college football, you go on the road and don't play well in a college football game, it is the same thing you come back home and I thought both those guys gave us a huge lift. The consistency I think is the key and hopefully we can get them rested up. Zo is pretty beat up and Brandon plays the most minutes on the team and I have made it mandatory that no one steps foot in the gym tomorrow. They are going to take care of themselves and focus on some academics and hopefully get rested up for Washington State.
On Jakob's improvement from last season…
A little bit stronger certainly. We looked at every one of his fouls over the summer and once in the fall and I would say maybe one-third of them were just being a little bit weaker and behind. He would be off-balance, try to come over from behind, and trying to make up the play and those were fouls. I think there's a percentage of those fouls that were lack of knowing who he was. A lot of times with freshman that's what happens. This year I think he is doing a great job of penetration and staying away from them just making them take tough shots over them. He is just smarter. He really wanted to learn and figure out where his fouls were. I think having one year under his belt now and knowing some referees and even the style of play. It is completely different from the style he played in Austria.
Sophomore Forward Jakob Poeltl
On shooting 11-12 from the field…
I had a lot of easy shots. We would move the ball well and I would get dump offs. I think all of my shots or most of my shots were either layups or dunks so I expect myself to make those.
On staying out of foul trouble…
I think I am just playing smarter this year than I was last year. I think I know when I need to risk a foul or basically just let them score because I was late in rotations just so I don't get my third or fourth foul in the second half.
On going against shot blockers…
I just try to keep a balance of going quick before they get to me, finishing strong so I can maybe get through them, or do a shot fake and dump it off to a teammate. You just have to play smart against them.
On Pac-12 tournament approaching…
We all know the season is coming to an end. For some of us, for seniors, it is going to be their last season so we want to play for them and finish the season off strong especially like how we played in Oregon.
Junior Guard Lorenzo Bonam
On his bounce back…
I just wanted to basically come back strong and with a different mindset. I think I had a different mindset from the last two games. I don't like losing. I basically just wanted to drive it to the basket every time.
On motivation this game…
I had a talk with one of our coaches. I watched some film with him and called some people. They were telling me how I played. They would act like I wasn't there and that made me change my mindset.
On turnovers…
I don't think any coach wanted to see as many turnovers as we had in the first half so we just had to change our mindset and be poised and stay calm.
- - - -
Washington Head Coach Lorenzo Romar
On Utah's three-point shooting…
Utah has four guys that can flat out shoot the ball. We talked to our team about that. (Jordan) Loveridge, Dakari Tucker, Brandon Taylor, those guys can really, really shoot the basketball. We knew that. There are certain guys you want to make drivers, and there are others you want to make shooters. We talked to our team about (Lorenzo) Bonam being a great driver, but yet we crowded him the way we supposed to crowd Loveridge and the other guys. Once again, I credit Utah. They put us in positions where they exposed us.
On giving Utah credit…
I've got to give Utah credit. They sliced us up. They put us in positions where we had to make decisions defensively, and we didn't make very good ones. You can play some other teams and they don't put you in those positions, but Utah did the entire time.
On Washington's defensive struggles…
I can't comment as much as I would like because I haven't seen the film. I know what I think I saw, a very poor, I won't say defensive effort, but very negligent on the defensive end. Very negligent.
On being surprised about defensive struggles this late in season…
Very much so. I felt like we had come a ways defensively and I thought we were making better decisions that way. This one here is not what I expected at all.
On differences from last meeting with Utah…
I thought we had shored up some of the things we didn't do well defensively the last time. The reason it catches you is because when you go over them, you think we are doing a good job and we should be okay, but then we come out and it is like we didn't practice.
Players Mentioned
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