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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MENS' MEDIA DAYOctober 23, 2014Larry KrystkowiakDelon WrightLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Introducing Utah Coach Krystkowiak and student‑athlete Delon Wright. Coach, opening remarks. COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, it's always good to be here. Year four for me. This day is always pretty symbolic of our season, rocking and rolling. We've had a couple really positive weeks of practice. I truly believe we've got one of the best groups off the court that you could assemble. We have great character on our team and our coaching staff, group of assistants that are top‑notch. We've become pretty efficient I think as a group and ready to take care of business and try to improve upon somewhat of a steady climb here within the PAC‑12. Happy to be here and ready for questions. Q. Coach, Justin (indiscernible) in SanFrancisco, he can't stop raving about Delon and his growth. What did he tell you would make Delon such a good fit for this team? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: I think first and foremost in talking to Justin, it's kind of what you see now with Delon in his description, that maybe he doesn't do any one thing great, but he's really solid all around. I said before Delon played a game that I think he's a classic definition of a stat sheet stuffer, where he steals, blocks shots, assists, obviously the ability to score. He always talked about Delon's ability to finish out some games for him, putting him in a position to win games. Those are basketball related things. I think as we move forward, some of the growth that Delon is showing has been the most important. He's on the fast track to graduate. People talked about needing to be stronger. He's gotten stronger and put on weight. Shooting ability, I have no question in my mind that he's going to be consistent from the perimeter. Finally, the most important thing, is his ability to now be a leader. I think maybe in his first year out of junior college, sat back a little bit and let it come to him. As we all know, the typical junior college player, it takes maybe till Christmas before you know they're even on the roster. He's been ahead of the curve. One of the most important things, too, is his older brother is playing in the NBA. He's played in open gyms, a lot of competition against those guys. Maybe that helped him adjust to the PAC‑12. I feel real uncomfortable when he's sitting right here (laughter). Q. Coach talked about you being more consistent on the perimeter. How have you worked on the perimeter game this summer? DELON WRIGHT: I would just say trying to put up more jumpers in the summer. I shot a lot in the summer in Utah, back at home. Just having more confidence in my shot. I just didn't have a lot of confidence when I was taking my shots. I think that's pretty much the biggest thing I'm working on. Q. Delon, Jordan Loveridge made a switch to the perimeter. What have you seen from him? DELON WRIGHT: He's been adjusting to try to move to the perimeter. During our scrimmage, he got a lot of points.  He looked real good playing on the perimeter, knocking down shots, getting to the rim, just making plays. Q. Coach, could you talk about the non‑conference schedule. A lot stronger last year. That was one thing that kept you out of the NCAA. Talk about that process. COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: It is a process. Oftentimes a schedule is done maybe a year or two in advance. We were probably ahead of the curve last year. It ends up being maybe the reason we weren't considered a little bit more in those Selection Committees. This year we felt like with a large number of guys coming back from our roster, we had a number of opportunities, ESPN opportunities, that were presented. Typically if you're playing home and homes with people, those are worked on a long time out. But we have an opportunity to be part of a kickoff for ESPN and play at SanDiego State, which is a top 20 team. We'll be at Kansas on a Saturday afternoon in prime time. Those two environments obviously very hard to win. We're at home against Wichita State. We have a big game at UNLV and at BYU. On paper I don't know how intelligent I am to bite off some of that. I just felt like our team was ready for it. At the end of the day I think it's becoming pretty clear to coaches around the country that if you want to be considered, you have to go up against those types of teams. I'm hoping maybe some of that pre‑season is going to be a benefit for us when we hit league play, maybe not be such a shock as it was a year ago. Q. How do you feel about being picked to finish second in the year? DELON WRIGHT: Just shows how much we've come along the past couple years. I think we just have to go out and live up to that. We're not buying too much into it. We're about going out there and trying to get some of those wins. Q. Larry, how do you feel about being picked second? Do you feel as last year went on teams were taking you more seriously? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, two things. The first thing that comes to mind when I see us picked second is that I'm hoping that you guys are right with the votes. It's an indication that we're moving in the right direction. But we also have to stay pretty true to the answer, I think I was asked the same question the first couple years, about how I felt being picked 12th. We've never put a lot of credence into the polls. I respect your job, that we have to vote, we have to start somewhere, give a little buzz to the basketball season starting up. At the end of the day it's nothing more than a pre‑season poll. I respect the fact where we are. You hit it right on the head: we won't be sneaking up on anybody as we move forward. We're going to have to be ready. The fact that we've got a lot of guys back, a lot of production back, is no sure thing that all of a sudden we're going to be winning those number of games again. We still have to bring it. I have every reason to believe with our team right now that there's no sense of accomplishment or we're patting ourselves on the back, we've arrived. We truly have a good group. A lot of what's going to be determined lies in their work ethic, our practice, what we're doing in practices, being ready to play some of these teams. Q. Delon, coach talked about you becoming a leader this season. You spoke when you got to Utah Jarred DuBois was somebody that affected you. Isaiah Wright is a young player. Have you taken him under your wing? DELON WRIGHT: Yeah, I've been trying to help him a little bit when he makes a couple mistakes. He's been playing real good so far in practice. He's been shooting it really well. One of our best shooters so far in practice. We're going to need him to come in and make some shots, play some good defense. Q. Larry, got any good Wayne Tinkle stories? How glad are you that he's finally in the PAC‑12? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, Wayne and I go back quite a ways. I was a junior, I believe, when he was a freshman at Montana. We've been through an awful lot as players. That's one thing you never take away whenever you're teammates with somebody, that's kind of a special bond, brother type of bond. We've gone through that. I can't say I was probably his favorite guy as a freshman. I think there's certain things when you arrive at college you should probably have to pay your dues for. I never made it easy on Wayne. But I think it's just awesome to see guys having success. We coached together at Montana. Now he's in the league. Wayne is a great guy, great coach. But I think some of the credit really needs to go back, I was thinking about it last night, when you start thinking about the Jud Heathcotes that got it all started at Montana, Jim Brandenburg, Coach Montgomery who we played for at Montana. It's as much of a statement about those guys. I think the University of Montana was a special place for basketball coaches and teaching the game. I think Wayne and I are both the beneficiaries and have been a part of that lineage. Q. What is your sense on where the conference stacks up nationally? How important are some of those non‑conference games you mentioned for the conference as a whole? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Yeah, I mean, the league is loaded. There's plenty of players. I think you look at last year. We did a little survey when the NBA draft was over. 60 guys are drafted, and no conference in America had more players drafted than the PAC‑12. I think there were nine. Removing nine guys from our league means there's some pretty talented guys gone. But you take a look around at the signing classes, the players coming in, I think maybe a few years back we maybe had a little downtime. I see the league being quite strong overall. It's great to be a part of. It's a challenge for a coach. Players want to be in it, part of this league. It's fun to play at this level. So we're excited about the challenge. But there's really no easy nights when you get rolling in our conference play. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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