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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DENVER

March 17, 2016

Denver, Colorado

Utah - 80, Fresno State - 69

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Utah.

Coach, just give some thoughts on tonight's game.

COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, I think in overview, turnover-wise was an Achilles' heel for us. We realized that Fresno State had done a heck of a job. Part of the reason they had a nine-game winning streak, their last five games they scored 102 points off of the opponent's turnovers. The problem is we can't simulate the hands, stripping, style of defense they played.

We actually got a chuckle out of the fact that teams had given up 25 and 27 points off of turnovers. Then I looked down at the stat sheet, and we gave up 28 points off the turnovers. So that was the problem for us.

Other than that, really proud of the guys. I mean, we shot a high percentage. Out-rebounded a team. I mean, we had as many offensive rebounds as the other team had rebounds. That doesn't happen very often.

I thought we got a lot of contributions from guys overall and were pretty good defensively.

Tale of two halfs, 22 points in the first half, 47 in the second half. Not pleased about the second-half defense. But certainly in the first half, I thought we came out and we were ready to play and pretty dialed in.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Jakob, coach was talking about the rebounding. You out-rebounded the whole team yourself. Was that something that you felt like you could really take advantage of with a smaller team?
JAKOB POELTL: It wasn't especially because we played against a smaller team. I just tried to go in the game and be aggressive.

I missed a couple of easy shots and got my own rebound back. I think that is one of the reasons why it came out as 18 rebounds.

I just really try to be aggressive, go for every board, yeah.

Q. Coach, Fresno State makes the run to take the lead. Instead of calling a timeout, you let them play. Was there any confidence factor in your team to let them go? I believe they answered with a 19-2 run.
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, I've got a lot of trust in our basketball team. That run, a lot of that was self-inflicted, a combination of some turnovers. We took a couple of 'me' shots instead of 'we' shots. Couldn't defend them in transition.

I've never been a big fan. They had the lead for 33 seconds of the game. I don't like to call a timeout and let them have a lead for two and a half more minutes during the timeout. I was real curious how we were going to respond. Obviously a timeout would be used if we couldn't stop the bleeding.

But it has been a little bit of a consistent trait of our team to bounce back. We've had a number of games where we've lost our edge a little bit. The gap closes, lose the lead, our guys have been pretty resilience and bounce back. I certainly like to let them try to sort that out on their own and see if that's going to happen.

I just don't like calling timeouts after a team takes the first lead because then I think they get to enjoy some of the momentum in their huddle, the timeout, fans. Plus we don't need to think about it.

It wasn't like we needed to make a lot of adjustments. We just needed to stop throwing the ball away and play like a team. We were able to capture that.

Q. Lorenzo, what keyed that 19-2 run?
LORENZO BONAM: I think our defense, us pushing the ball, like, getting stops. Our 2-3 was like real aggressive. We was jumping out the passes, not letting them do what they wanted to do.

I think our defense really triggered it.

Q. The start of the second half, was there a different energy? Seemed maybe lower energy.
JAKOB POELTL: I don't think there was a different energy. Maybe we didn't come out as dialed in as we were in the first half. Like we said before, we turned the ball over a little bit too much.

But we got back together. We regrouped and answered the run with a run of our own, so...

Q. Is this a good situation for you, that the team won, but you have still plenty of stuff which you can talk to them about?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Yeah, no, it's been a common thread sometimes. You can learn some lessons and still manage to win a game.

I mean, the game's never going to be perfect. You got a lot of momentum shifts, ups and downs. It's important to deal with some of those ebb and flow of a game.

That's the course of the season. We've had games where we've turned the ball over, didn't rebound the ball well, didn't necessarily execute well defensively. We've had lapses. What you try to do after you get through 30-some games of a season, you manage to learn enough of those lessons, you regroup, and you put those behind you.

The turnover thing, I give a lot of credit to Fresno State. It's not a typical stay-in-front-of-you kind of defense. They're scrambling. They posed a different look to Jakob in the post when he was catching it. Guys were striping a lot of our ball handlers. Again, we can't simulate that and work on it short of firming up with the ball, being stronger with it, and being a little stronger mentally.

I would think if that poses a problem for us in a future game, we'd be able to learn from it. That's what the season is all about. You take these learning experiences. You certainly don't want to have to start your summer right now. We did dodge a bullet. We've got to get better.

That's what I like about our guys. I think they're mature enough to know those are the first things we addressed in the locker room. Between it wasn't a big celebration. It was if we're going to do any more damage in this tournament, we need to shore up a few of these areas.

Q. With the turnovers, obviously that's not the great aspect of the game. How encouraging is it to you or how much do you focus on how efficient your team was offensively scoring 80 points?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Free throws, that's one thing. 19-22 from the free-throw line. We've been talking about shooting the free throw well all season. That was the difference in the game basically. So we did a nice job of getting there, making 'em.

When we don't, 16 assists. But 20 turnovers, that cuts into your efficiency. We've been one of the top teams in our conference in assist-to-turnover ratio. That's not because we're great at not turning it over, it's because we're a high assist team. We've been one of the top teams in field-goal percentage.

Without being Captain Obvious here, if you don't turn it over, you become a heck of a lot more efficient. So I think we've known that all along. We managed to be efficient enough collectively. If we could just cut those turnovers down to a workable number, we wouldn't have a close game.

That saved us right now. We'll have to quit turning it over.

Q. Lorenzo, what is your biggest focus as a guard into tomorrow as well as Saturday?
LORENZO BONAM: My focus will be, like, being more aggressive with the ball, like coach said, firming up with the ball, triple threat, face the rim, not turn the ball over basically.

Q. Jakob, I was wondering, matched up a lot with Edo on Fresno State. Was there something he was doing defensively that maybe gave you some trouble at all?
JAKOB POELTL: Well, it was mainly their team defense, just with their scramble defense. It was tough for me to figure out where they were coming from, when they were double-teaming, if they were double-teaming.

I turned the ball over a little bit too much in the first half.

Him, especially, he's very athletic. I think towards the end of the game he blocked one of my hook shots. I really wasn't expecting that. So his athleticism gave me a little bit of trouble. But overall it was probably more their team defense.

COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Got some smart guys up here. They're giving good answers.

Q. Lorenzo, you've had, in three of your last four games, double-digit points. Is something clicking offensively for you during tournament play?
LORENZO BONAM: This is the first game, so, I mean, I really wouldn't know.

But just with my mindset, me wanting to attack, if somebody get in my way, dump the ball off, and if not, score the ball.

I think aggressiveness and just being on target and on point basically just helps that out.

Q. Jakob, were there some adjustments that you made in the second half? The offensive rebounding picked up after Fresno State seemed to really try to clamp down on you in the first.
JAKOB POELTL: Me personally?

Q. Yes.
JAKOB POELTL: Not really, to be honest. Maybe the first half was a little bit of a wake-up call for me because they were being very aggressive. I knew it was coming. But like coach said before, we couldn't really simulate it in practice. So it's a different experience when it's actually happening in the game.

So in the second half I was probably a little bit more prepared for that and tried to make plays off their scramble defense, like try to find open guys. If it was time for me to be aggressive, I tried to be aggressive. That's how those offensive boards happened, came up place.

Q. It seemed like Brandon and Jordan really played a big role in that rally to end the game. Did you see anything shift for them after Fresno State went ahead?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: I did. Those are guys that have been -- we've talked about it a little bit in this NCAA tournament. You never want to put a feather in your cap because you have some veterans. I don't think having veterans and some experience leads to success necessarily. But I did see something click in those guys.

I know Brandon wasn't happy. Brandon played a negative role in their run with some turnovers and some forced action. But, man, you know, when we lost the lead, I really saw a renewed focus from both of those guys.

Jordan hit a big shot. Brandon made some great plays. Brandon was the only guy on the court that had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio at 6-2. Everybody else was floundering a little bit. That's where that senior leadership comes in.

Those guys have been playing, you know, a long time. They've been playing a lot of minutes since they were freshmen. Obviously not in this stage necessarily, but they've logged a lot of minutes. I don't think they wanted it to end the way it was starting to lean.

I really thought that they changed their focus and made some huge plays, helped us get out of that hole.

Q. Do you think Jordan was opportunistic offensively tonight?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: I thought we moved the ball well. When we didn't turn it over, when we moved it via the pass. You know, Jordan is always opportunistic. He's not going to pass up many shots. Hit a big one for us, hit a big three. Had some guys that stepped up and made plays.

I don't think that's ever going to change with Jordan. If he's left open...

I want him shooting it. He's been one of our steadying influences from the three-point line. The thing I was most impressed about was they drove him off the line a couple of times, and he made two great passes to Jakob. Maybe two months ago, I don't know if that was going to happen.

But he managed to know that they ran him off the line, he took one dribble, hit Jakob, Jakob scored. That's the stuff opportunistic-wise I want him to be able to move on to.

Q. How much do you think last year's experience led into it?
COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Yeah, again, you know, I think that's what life's all about. That's what a season's all about. You take experiences. We don't talk about it a lot. We don't talk about it at all.

But I don't know how you don't think about it and have that in part of your DNA that you like this experience. Again, we've got a mature group. I don't have to over-coach this group. When things aren't going well, it's usually pretty defined. It's not like we've got a bunch of guys that can't play and you're trying to use smoke and mirrors to make things happen. We've got a fundamental group.

If they stay fundamental and do the things we talk about, we can have a special season. When we start to break away from that...

For me to scream and holler and light them up, sometimes it just takes a subtle reminder. Sometimes that senior leadership comes through at that point. We can maintain a poised look and a vibe rather than getting turned upside down.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, coach.

COACH KRYSTKOWIAK: Thanks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297

NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DENVER

March 17, 2016

Larry Krystkowiak

Lorenzo Bonam

Jakob Poeltl