|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2016Larry KrystkowiakBrandon TaylorJakob PoeltlLas Vegas, Nevada Oregon - 88, Utah - 57 COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: No opening statement. Q. Can you just talk about what happened, what the difference was? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, the difference, in my opinion, 38 points at halftime that they had, and 30 of them were -- 19 of them were off of our turnovers and 11 of them were on the offensive glass. So 30 of their 38, and we've always talked about it. We've talked about it the entire season, you can't give any team easy baskets, and the easy ones come in the form of turnovers that you can't defend and offensive rebounds around the glass. And we just got pummelled on the glass, and for whatever reason we threw a lot of ill-advised passes. We weren't engaged. And credit goes to Oregon. They were the better team. They deserve the win, and we weren't able to recover from not being ready out of the gate. Q. How did fatigue maybe from last night play a factor? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, fatigue should be the same factor for them. Neither one of our teams have gone really deep with our benches, but we were tired. It's no excuse because they were just as tired. I mentioned that I thought it's probably going to be about the 12th round of a heavyweight fight when the game started and it's going to be who could finish it off. Actually, to begin the game, looking back on it now, it was close. We had the little run. Oregon made a nice habit of finishing first halves really strong. They got Arizona, they got us, and put our guard down and the run before halftime was tough. Q. Brandon, can you still talk about how proud you are of the way you played in this tournament and the momentum that you gained from the SC and Cal games that you might be able to carry over into the tournament? BRANDON TAYLOR: Well, as a team I think we just made some noise. To get into the championship is something that this program's never done and something I've never been a part of. So it's things like that that you can't forget. It's a bittersweet ending, but we got to the championship. We played some very tough teams, and we got past some very good opponents like USC and Cal. So I'm proud of our guys for getting to the championship. Q. Brandon, the turnovers, what would you attribute those to? BRANDON TAYLOR: Careless mistakes. Just careless mistakes and not taking care of the ball. Me, myself, I have to be way better especially in a game of that magnitude, playing a team like Oregon. You've got to take care of the ball if you want to be a part of something that's elite, and we didn't show an elite performance tonight. Q. Jakob, how stunning is this result? We knew Oregon is a good club but you're No. 12 in the country, so I don't think anybody would have expected this kind of an outcome. JAKOB POELTL: I think it's kind of what Coach said earlier, we lost this game basically in the first half or at the end of the first half. Just we didn't have the energy or the focus to come back from those easy baskets that we gave them from those mistakes that we made in the first half. Then they had so much confidence and they didn't miss much anymore in the second half. So that's why the game kind of got out of hand. COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: I think a lot of those numbers go out the window. I mean, No. 12 ranking, playing a No. 8 team, you know, self-inflicted gunshot wounds when you make it hard. They're a good basketball team, and shocking to you guys, it's not the result we wanted obviously, but you've got to be better. This time of year we've got to be far better. So in regard to how we played with 20 turnovers and getting pummelled on the glass, it's not shocking. It's kind of you get your medicine. I'm excited to see what tomorrow holds. Personally I've always been a big fan or a big believer that everything happens for a reason, and I like being humbled before the biggest phase of the season starts. Everything up until this point I would trade. I know these guys would trade for some success starting Thursday or Friday, whenever that might be, and if it means getting our butts waxed in the championship game, then we'll take our medicine and hopefully be focused for some practice on Monday. Q. That was my next question. How much time will you spend reviewing this game and how quickly will you move on to what you have in front of you with the NCAA Tournament? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, we've tried to watch film. Obviously, like in this tournament we haven't been able to look at the USC game. Coaches watched it, and we gave our guys the CliffNotes because you got very short turnaround before the Cal game. Very short turnaround before this game. So as coaches we've used it. I think it's important that our players see. We've won a number of games in a row. We've learned a few lessons, but we've got the W, and I don't know how bad some of those mistakes have hurt. Tonight it would be good, probably tomorrow or Monday for us to take a peak. Let's just look at the turnovers and look at getting pummelled on the glass. Sometimes the visual, the film, doesn't lie, and I think we're all kind of curious about it. Again, it's humbling and I think it's part of the process. We'll have time because we won't play until Thursday. Sometimes you have to be careful with some of that film because you've got an opponent two days later and you don't really want to keep it alive. But I think this is a situation that we need to learn from it and probably see it. Q. As it was a tied game halfway through the first half and then you had eight turnovers in a six-minute stretch there. COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: There you go. Q. As far as was it more just careless, getting rattled or was it their defense? What do you think it was? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: I can't say it wasn't their defense. The fact that they were out in passing lanes. I will say that about half of those eight were, whether we're throwing it up in the crowd or throwing it, I don't think Dana would want to take credit for some of those turnovers because there were some silly ones. But at the same time, they're out pressuring in passing lanes and we've got to back-cut and not deliver. It's kind of fundamental basketball. If somebody's in the passing lane, it's probably not a good idea to pass it. Those are the ones, again, when they're coming at it like freight trains, they're hard enough to defend as it is. So when you get that started, that was the fuel. That was the first thing on the board. These guys will attest to it. We've got to take high-quality shots, and we can't turn the ball over in a live ball situation because it fuels their transition. That's why they've been so good. They get out in those lanes. I'd prefer to think most of it was on us. Q. Brandon, how hard was it to put the ball inside to Jakob tonight? It looked like you really struggled to even find a passing lane? BRANDON TAYLOR: I think they were just aggressive. They were just aggressive. If we were going to throw the ball in the post, it was open for a split second. If we held the ball too long, they covered them and got back in front of them. They did a good job on them. But on some of the plays I can remember that we probably took too long to get the ball in. I was probably trying to make a safe pass, but once he's open, you've got to get him the ball. Q. Larry, you've seen Oregon now three times. Without making you parse resumes or anything, do they look like a No. 1 seed to you potentially? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: I'm not going to get into any of that. That's not part of my job description for seeding teams. I wouldn't want to play them. I know that. Obviously we've got -- I haven't seen 99, 95% of the other teams live. Haven't been involved with that. I think they're a great team. Whether they fall into a 1 or 2, or whatever the case might be, I don't think Dana needs any support as far as talking to the committee, but I do think it's important in the state of our league right now when we finished our preseason games our conference was ranked second in the country. To hear the Colorados and the USC and the Oregon State may not get into the tournament would be a shame, in my opinion. In what's happened in this conference, I think a lot of teams have beaten up on each other and you kind of lose maybe some of the important wins that we all garnered in the preseason. So I'm not here to get up on the stand and say Oregon needs to be a No. 1, but it would be a dang shame if we didn't get some of those teams in the NCAA Tournament, because they're definitely among the top 68 teams. Q. Last year you came down and lost in a heartbreaker to Oregon. You got your team prepared and went on to have a nice run in the NCAAs. This year you had what happened tonight. What tactics will you use this coming week to get your team ready? Will it be different from what you used last year? COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, that's something I have to think about a little bit. I have to sleep on what took place tonight. I have to see who it is we're playing. I think it's nothing you predetermine. Again, I'm a believer that everything happens for a reason. I know this group of guys, as far as playing goes, they haven't gotten carried away with any kind of winning streak. But I do think some corrections in life are good. So we'll have their full attention on Monday morning. I like that fact. We kind of get back to a little more grit and put an end to winning streaks and those types of things. We'll be ready. We'll be ready to go and get all the video and come up with a game plan probably by the end of tomorrow night. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|