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PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2016

Las Vegas, Nevada

Utah - 82, California - 78

THE MODERATOR: Coach, some opening comments on tonight's game.

COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: What a day of basketball here at the MGM, really. First game overtime, our game overtime, all the top seeds winning games. It's March Madness at its finest, and I'm just extremely proud of our guys for not giving in.

There were a couple times the momentum, we kind of lost it, and really good basketball team. Cal's obviously a great basketball team. A lot of weapons offensively. One of the top defensive teams in our league, and it's kind of a Friday night heavyweight fight, knockdown, drag-out. And, again, I'm just really proud of our guys for making plays down the stretch, and these two guys on my left were pretty special tonight. So fun to be a part of.

Q. Lorenzo, can you talk about that last play, the coast to coast? You had one goal on your mind, I take it, the whole time, and that was to get to the basket as quick as possible?
LORENZO BONAM: Basically. I mean, he said go to the basket, so I just went to the basket basically.

COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: We talked about five seconds being a lot of time. You can go from end-to-end. I think he's about as quick a guy as you're going to find when he gets heading downhill, so big time. Obviously just in the nick of time, but it was a big-time play.

Q. Jakob, would you take it upon yourself to get more aggressive as the game went on?
JAKOB POELTL: To be honest, I just tried to stay aggressive throughout the whole game. Obviously you're going to go through some ups and downs throughout the game, but they were guarding me one-on-one today, so I just tried to take it at them and tried to finish around three, go to my moves and knock them down.

Q. Lorenzo, midway through that second half the team was really struggling offensively and you got really aggressive offensively and gave the team a lift. What was your mindset? What made you decide to get a little more aggressive there with the ball at that point in the game?
LORENZO BONAM: It was the second half. It's basically a new half, clean half. I had two fouls in the first half, so my mindset was just to be aggressive and attack when I could and get the ball up when I couldn't do anything.

Q. Coach, I just want to know what was going through your mind. Jabari Bird got that great offensive rebound, you got the putback, you guys didn't panic. The big fella was the Player of the Year this year, and he played like it tonight. But what was the mindset when it looked like the game was over?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit deflated, and then you assess the situation. Again, there's 4.-something seconds left, and, man, if you're watching college hoops today, the kid hit the 60-foot three-point shot, he certainly didn't think about giving up.

So it's been a little bit of our mantra all year that it's okay to lose, but we're going to go down swinging right till the tail end. We've worked on that play in practice, getting him going off that make, and it was perfect.

We've talked a lot about believing in ourselves, and it was a fortunate play. We missed some blockouts. I was really proud of our guys overall. That's a really good offensive rebounding team after you guard them, which is a big challenge with a lot of the talent that they have and a lot of times, especially Rabb, he's been on a tear offensive rebounding-wise, and to have a three-rebound advantage in the game I thought was big, but that one smarted. We went small to guard them and switched everything and probably paid the price on the end one. But anything can happen, man. It was fun.

Q. Coach, what about tomorrow's match-up?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Tomorrow's match-up? We have a game?

Q. First time for you.
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: It's actually today.

Q. What about that game in 18 hours?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: No, it's, you know -- it's been a goal of ours to try to play in that game. I think we've taken a step forward for our program, but Oregon, there is a reason they finished first. They have an awful lot of firepower. Those kids play hard, and it's going to be enjoyable to be a part of.

But I think both teams are probably running on fumes here a little bit, and I'm pretty pleased that we can represent our league in the final two.

Q. For both players, you've been playing a lot of minutes, working hard. You've got to be back here in about 17 hours to start warming up for the game. How do your bodies feel right now and are you guys up for this kind of challenge?
JAKOB POELTL: Well, we've got to be. Tomorrow it's the final. I think we're not going to be in trouble fitness-wise tomorrow because it's a championship game, the adrenaline is going to start kicking in. And, yeah, that's what we practice for all season long. There is nothing to save up for, and we've just got to be ready tomorrow.

LORENZO BONAM: I don't think it's going to be an issue for us. We're going to go back to the hotel, rehab, get some sleep, wake up tomorrow and get after it again.

Q. Larry, I think you said last time when you were in Eugene regarding Dillon Brooks you would have to go back to the drawing board to figure out a better way to defend him. Are you hoping the third time is the charm for your players tomorrow?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, obviously he's absolutely killed us both games. They've got a lot of great players. I think that's what makes them so dangerous is the versatility and the fire power on their roster 1 through 5. We had somewhat of a decent game plan in Eugene, but we had no answer for Dillon Brooks.

So I think we're wise enough to know that there's a number of guys that we have to guard there, but it's a very well-respected team. Those kids play really hard. I was watching the first half in the hotel before we came over, and that first half up until maybe the last four minutes was about as good of basketball as you're going to see in terms of guys fighting and scratching and clawing.

So we've got a lot of respect. We are going to have to figure out somebody that can guard him, much like Wallace tonight. We didn't really have an answer for him either. So take the defensive challenge.

Q. Obviously starting out a little bit rough shooting tonight. What did you sense they were trying to do defensively on you, and how did you kind of end up countering that and finishing some of those late baskets?
JAKOB POELTL: Pretty much what they did in the first two games too, they guarded me one-on-one. They tried to take away my left shoulder, tried to force me to take some left-handed hooks. But what I did, I just kept believing in myself. I knew I could make those shots. I missed a couple of tough ones and, like I said, I just kept going at them and trying to finish. Yeah, it worked out towards the end.

COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: I think one of the things in speaking to Jakob is a lot of minutes, threw him the ball, still shot a decent percentage from the field. Maybe you think he got off to a rough start or it was a little disappointing, but he's damn near leading the country in field goal percentage.

So I think most people would take 10 for 18. But the thing as I look at the stat sheet that was huge was the 9 for 12 from the free-throw line. Going, and unlike a year ago where he was a sub-bar free-throw shooter, that's been another area that he's addressed, and you can add up, talk about no little things in the game, but we needed every one of those points to get to overtime. Really pleased as a team as well for us to shoot 25 for 31 from the free-throw line. Everyone maybe overlooks that, but without it, we certainly don't have the win.

Q. Lorenzo, have you had a buzzer-beater like that before? When was the last time?
LORENZO BONAM: Oh, when we played Colorado.

Q. Oh, yeah.
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: You don't have the date exactly in your mind?

LORENZO BONAM: No.

Q. That was two seconds left, wasn't it?
LORENZO BONAM: Yeah, I mean...

COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Don't make me come out there (laughing).

Q. Coach, you guys shot 61% last night. Tonight you were in the 30s for most of the game. Was it more their defense?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, California, I don't know if you follow it, but they lead our conference in defensive field goal percentage, and there is nothing easy against them. That's why they're one of the top teams in our league. They not only have a lot of great offensive weapons, but they're committed to guarding and extremely physical game.

I think we're first and second in the conference in defensive field goal percentage, so both our teams, it's probably going to be a little bit ugly as far as scoring points. We're not surprised at all that we weren't getting great looks, because that's what they hang their hat on.

Q. Any of you guys able to watch some of the Arizona-Oregon game and any takeaways from what Oregon was able to do tonight?
JAKOB POELTL: I saw a couple of minutes of the game. I really tried to focus on our game, though, and we're going to go through the scout tomorrow in shootaround and that's when we're going to focus on Oregon.

Q. What did you learn from your first two meetings with Oregon that can help you guys finally get over the hump and beat this team?
JAKOB POELTL: First of all, we're going to figure out a way how to guard them. We've got to figure out a way to guard their penetrations. We let them get to our basket way too easy in both of those games, especially Dillon Brooks. And offensively, I want to say they -- they play kind of a weird zone-type defense. They try to front a lot. I've just got to try and be aggressive, call for the ball and then finish with an aggressive move against their shot blockers in the zone.

COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: We've got a great game plan but we can't tell you about it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297

PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2016

Lorenzo Bonam

Larry Krystkowiak

Jakob Poeltl