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2005 MWC Basketball Tournament Postgame Quotes
Men's Semifinal #1 - #1 Utah def. #4 UNLV, 73-67.
March 11, 2005 An Interview With: UNLV RUNNIN' REBELS JIM MILLER: Now joined by UNLV head coach Lon Kruger; No. 0, Odartey Blankson; and No. 1, Romel Beck. Coach, begin with some opening remarks. COACH KRUGER: Got beat by a very good basketball team. Obviously against a team ?? the caliber of Utah. You can't afford to dig the hole that we did. The second half we got down a little bit more. Then just a terrific effort to get back and give ourselves a chance at the end. Again it gives a club like Utah ?? you can't afford to dig yourself that big of a hole. Congratulations Utah, and I hope they play for a long time. JIM MILLER: Questions directed to the student athletes? Question: For both players, could you explain what all of a sudden got this team going four minutes in the second half after 24 minutes of struggling play? ODARTEY BLANKSON: I would say it was less specific. It was mainly defense. We tried to change it up a little bit. We threw some traps at them, tried to get them off balance. We were able to get a couple of steals, get some momentum going our way. ROMEL BECK: Like Odartey said, we got a couple of shots. Started hitting some shots. We started looking at that time on the scoreboard. Next thing you know, we're back in the game. It changed the whole game; it was just too late. JIM MILLER: Other questions for the student athletes? Question: Romel, you have had a couple tough days of late, especially after BYU. Can you explain why you were able to get going tonight, why all of a sudden you kind of got it back going again? ROMEL BECK: Utah gave me some right open looks. My teammates did a good job at giving me the ball. I started getting in a rhythm. And from there on, I just started firing it up. I started going in. Question: Could you sense that they were getting a little frustrated as you guys started making this comeback and they started losing their composure a little bit? And did it remind you guys a little of the San Diego State game there? ODARTEY BLANKSON: We weren't going to quit. Like I said, we put them in a few different defenses, we kind of got them off balance a little bit. They panicked a little bit. Utah is a great team. We lost to the better team tonight. Question: Odartey, as a program you guys got some success in getting to the championship game. Is it an odd feeling to not be there and how disappointing is that for you guys? ODARTEY BLANKSON: It is an odd feeling any time you lose. We try to take it one game at a time to get to the championship game. Like I said, Utah is a great team. They played 40 minutes of good basketball. We played about 12 minutes of good basketball. They came out with the win. JIM MILLER: Anything else Question: For both players, do both of you still want to keep playing next week if you were invited to play in the NIT? ODARTEY BLANKSON: Yes, I love to play basketball. Anytime I have an opportunity to put on my gym shoes and play, I play. ROMEL BECK: I feel the same way. Any chance to play with the group of guys in the locker room and Odartey, let's play some games.
Question: Do you think the rest of your teammates feel the same way as you do right now? ODARTEY BLANKSON: Everybody wants to play. The season came to a end short, but you know if we get invited to the NIT, we will be happy to accept it. We will play as hard as we can.
Question: Do you think you guys have done enough? Do you think you're in the NIT right now? ODARTEY BLANKSON: I am not sure. There are a lot of good teams across the country that won't get in the tournament. I think we have done enough, but maybe not. JIM MILLER: Anything else for the student athletes? We'll let you go. At this point, questions directed to Coach.
Question: Lon, it is probably too simple to say. When they went zone on those three possessions, you missed the three shots. You were hurting them bad off the dribble. Can it come down to that? COACH KRUGER: Yes. When you're making a run, any time the team that is trying to guard a lead can widen it back out and it kind of curbs momentum a little bit and switches it back. That is always good for the team. That regains momentum. Certainly that had an effect. JIM MILLER: Other questions?
Question: Lon, did you get the sense that these guys were ready to turn it around or were you hoping they would find a way to turn it around? Did you see something that led you do believe ?? COACH KRUGER: When you are down that far, you need a play or two. It is easy to sit in a huddle and say we want to come back. Everyone will say that. I think the key was a couple of guys made a couple of great plays. As he said, they knocked down a couple of shots. You start feeling better about yourself and energy returns and everything picks up a bit.
Question: Lon, can you just tell me about the challenges Andrew Bogut presents defensively? COACH KRUGER: He is a terrific player. As I said many times, in addition to being highly skilled, highly motivated, I think what is most impressive is he focuses and plays every possession. He just wants to win. If he can get his, he will. It seems if you take that away, he is intent to make plays for his teammates. I think that is the ultimate compliment for a great, great player. He does what he can to make players around him better. I think Andrew and Coach Giacoletti have done a great job in blending that together.
Question: You had Jerel together on the floor trying to get this thing all the way back. What made you believe that was the best line?up at the time? Ricky has been playing well. You have had ?? COACH KRUGER: That is the way it has been for the last couple of ball games. Tonight those guys had it going pretty good during that stretch in the second half anyway. Couldn't find good combination in the first half. I thought that group did a good job.
Question: Anything that Jerel did in particular that you were happy with? COACH KRUGER: Jerel was able to get in the point, create a couple of opportunities there, especially late. He got a couple of layups down and set the press. And he did a good job of getting inside their defense. JIM MILLER: Any other questions?
Question: How happy were you to hear your players say they want to keep playing next week? Do you believe you have done enough to be playing next week? COACH KRUGER: Can't imagine any players not wanting to play. They have worked hard. And they have hung in there together when, you know, a couple three weeks ago things didn't look good. They bounced back and did a good job. So, whether or not we will get a bid, obviously we have no control of that at this point. We put together a good run, we'll find out Sunday evening.
Question: What is your gut feeling? COACH KRUGER: NIT is, you know, they like teams that draw. They like teams that are attractive match?ups. Hopefully they will consider Vegas to be one of those. JIM MILLER: Thanks, Coach.
An Interview With: UTAH RUNNIN' UTES JIM MILLER: Let's start with Coach Giacoletti. COACH GIACOLETTI: Got off to a good start. We lost our composure a little bit. Vegas, to their credit, hit some shots in transition that got them back in momentum and feeling comfortable. We had a tough time trying to guard them off the bounce, went zone for three possessions. Was fortunate to get them to miss some shots and get them to rebound out of the zone. It will never be easy. So we played well in stretches. Again, we had nine turnovers ?? 11 turnovers in the first half. If we take better care of the basketball and be stronger with it, I think it is one area that we can clean up after the last two games. This time of year it don't matter how pretty it is, just so you have one more point on the scoreboard than the other team does. Question: For any of the players, I wonder what it was about UNLV that you felt like brought them back into the game? Any particular turning point that got them ?? PLAYER three: They started hitting some tough shots. Beck lit a couple of threes there in a row that helped them out. They kind of crept back in; they didn't get fifteen points in a row. We weren't getting the shots that we needed. We weren't getting the looks that we wanted to get. I say pretty much just Beck got pretty much on fire. JIM MILLER: Other questions for the student athletes? Question: Can you guys talk a little bit about facing that pressure full court, and if you felt like you were bounced around and fouled a little bit, and if they were consistent with the calls? MARC JACKSON: I mean, that full court press, you know it did a little bit, kind of hurried us up in some situations. We actually converted for layups sometimes. We took care of it; we were stronger with the ball. That is what a full court pressure does to you try to speed you up. We made some mistakes, but for the most part, I thought we did good with it. Question: Bryant, can you talk about attacking them off the dribble ? You guys were trying to feed the post for a big stretch at the first half, then it looked like you and Hawkins decided to go to the hoop. BRYANT MARKSON: We got in foul trouble a bit early in the second half. Me and Hawkins seen some good openings and tried to take them. And it worked to our advantage. We got a whole bunch of ones in and got the win. Question: Andrew, can you talk about how you felt tonight and also what you think went wrong in the second half when they caught up to you almost? ANDREW BOGUT: I am fine, 100 percent. We got off to a good start in the first half. The media got on us about our first halves. We did it for you. In our second half, I think we relaxed and they came back and hit some tough shots. We got under ten all of a sudden. They were on a run. Beck was feeling it and needed more threes. We just had to scramble for that win at the end. JIM MILLER: Anything else for our athletes? We'll let you guys go. And now questions directed to Coach Giacoletti. Question: Could you talk a little bit about going zone late in the game and forcing those three misses? It seemed to swing the game back to you guys. COACH GIACOLETTI: We had to do something. We were swinging one through five. I mean, they are very athletic and very dangerous off the dribble and like shooting. We got to do something here to make them hit a jump shot instead of taking it off the bounce. They've done that like five straight times. The last time they went five out it was impossible to get matched up. We said we have got to go back to man. They spotted five guys along the perimeter in a two?three zone. We can't get matched up to all five. We were lucky they missed some shots. There is a guy back in Salt Lake who has been all over me about playing more zones. Maybe he is happy tonight. It is a joke. Question: Ray, when you had all the starters, or at least four of them in the stretch, were you intending to give guys a little bit more rest? COACH GIACOLETTI: I was going to try to.
Question: Coach, I want to ask you, earlier in the game you were bringing Andrew at the free throw line as supposed to yesterday when he was posting down low more. What was your reasoning for that? COACH GIACOLETTI: When we have got a lead, we try to spread the floor a little bit and try to gain from the block to the high post, either on a ball screen or zipper shot. When the ball goes through him, he tries to basket cut someone, and they come up and screen for him. Sometimes people route him off the block so far, we try to get him to the block from the high post through ball screens and through the zipper cut. The other things it does, it takes 30 seconds off the clock. We give him a rest and blow up there. He is like a traffic cop. He watches the clock. He does an unbelievable job at it. We actually got a good basket cut. Those are the kinds of things, especially with the lead, it is something that really helped us this year.
Question: Ray, when we talked yesterday you were telling me that you were concerned with the fact that there were so many different ways to hurt you. Ultimately seemed like you chose to focus on Blankson. If that is accurate, if you did, do you feel you were successful in slowing him down enough? COACH GIACOLETTI: You have got to get a feel which guy is going to go off. I mean, obviously it was Beck in the second half and we didn't do a good job in getting matched up with him. When he gets it going, he is as good a shooter as there is in the league. We were going to switch one through four and try to do a good job containing penetration. At the end we were switching one through five to try to get them to shoot a jump shot instead of penetrating. Then we fouled the one 3?point shooter, which you shoot yourself in the foot when you do something like that. We were going to get a foul for which guy it was that was going to have the hot hand. Any three or four or five guys can get it going on that team and be very dangerous.
Question: Can you talk about how important it was to have Justin Hawkins being active and getting to the hoop? COACH GIACOLETTI: Justin did a much better job getting to a jump shot. We were just jumping off two feet. I told them to get themselves up in the air, try to reward yourself by going to the free throw line. I think the other key tonight that came in was that we needed someone to come in and give Anderson looks. We needed somebody to be able to knock down a three. Jonas did. I think that changed the first half.
Question: You touched on this a bit. Talk about the composure of your team. You hit a lot of free throws. You seemed to have composure after blowing the big lead. COACH GIACOLETTI: We haven't had ?? sounds crazy but we haven't had to be in that situation a whole heck of a lot. In Vegas we were. I can't remember; it may have been early up in Alaska of a third game where it was tight like that, it was clock management. We had to do a good job in taking care of the basketball. It was a position we haven't been in very often. I would say we were grading it a C. We need to be able to catch a face and be strong with it. You can throw over that pressure but they can get up under you. They do a great job of doubling you. We were able to find a way to get it done and put the ball in the hands of guys that can knock free throws down.
Question: Coach, on that note, would you rather kind of learn some of these lessons in a game like this, especially with what you have coming up tomorrow and the next few weeks? COACH GIACOLETTI: Yes, it is really hard to simulate those type of things in a practice setting. We try to have a situation after each practice, something different. Unless you are going through it with that type of pressure you need to experience it, I think, first. Hopefully it will help us down the road. JIM MILLER: Anything else for coach? Thanks.
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