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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DENVERMarch 18, 2016Mark FewDomantas SabonisJosh PerkinsDenver, Colorado THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with the student-athletes from Gonzaga. We'll now open it up for questions for our student-athletes. Q. We talked to Jakob Poeltl about your matchup. He said in a friendly game over the summer. What do you remember about your two teams facing off? DOMANTAS SABONIS: Well, he's a very, very talented big man. He had a great game against us that summer. I know tomorrow night's going to be very tough. It's going to be tough to stop him. I'm going to have my team to help me out. I'm just really excited to play. Q. Josh, a lot of your teammates have been here before. It's your first time. You getting out on the court yesterday, getting the reception you did, how do you feel now? JOSH PERKINS: I think they made it easy for me. Hearing that applause, it felt good from the get-go, I had good vibes. I'm just glad we came out with the win yesterday. Q. Your dad came over and played in the States. How much did the experience he had make you want to come to college here? DOMANTAS SABONIS: Well, my dad didn't really had a big part in my decision. My parents really let me make my own decision on what made me happy. Yeah, basically I decided myself to come here. Q. What made you want to come here? DOMANTAS SABONIS: Just the environment, March Madness, the big arenas, the teammates. Basically the environment. I just love NCAA basketball. Q. A lot of Utah players expressed they felt like maybe they were playing themselves with some similarities personnel-wise. Do you feel the same way as you prepare? JOSH PERKINS: I'd have to agree. Good guards, great big men. They hit the pick'n roll. They play the pick'n roll well. Like you said, it's a similar team. It will be a fun matchup tomorrow night. DOMANTAS SABONIS: Yeah, overall, they're a very talented team. They got good guards. They find their big men in the post. Hit them in the pocket pass. It's going to be a fun match. It's going to be a really tough battle. Q. This matchup with Jakob, the front court matchup, what do you see out of Utah's front court all together? DOMANTAS SABONIS: They're very talented, very good group of guys. They're very physical. Go offense the rebound very well. They're really tough. It's going to be a tough battle for me, Wiltjer, and Ryan Edwards. Q. Josh, what is the biggest difference in Domantas from last year to this year? JOSH PERKINS: He has a much bigger role this year. He's our guy. We survive on him. He plays hard day in and day out. I'm happy to get a teammate like this. I'm looking forward to tomorrow night and this matchup. Q. Josh, you look at the NCAA tournament, I'm sure you guys watch, it seems like guards are usually the ones that control it. You're a little bit of the opposite. How is your role on a team where you know your best player is down low? JOSH PERKINS: I know who to get the ball to every time. I have the best front court in the country with Domas and Wiltjer. It's my job to get them the ball. They trust us as well. If they're not open, they'll kick it to us and we'll make the right decision for them. Like you say, you got to feed them. Two-headed monster, so why not feed it? Q. You have now won eight first-round games consecutively. Does that historical legacy of this program motivate you, weigh on you? DOMANTAS SABONIS: Well, I only found out about that yesterday after we won. So basically I don't know. We just come out together as a team and we just want to win. I don't know. We never really thought about that. JOSH PERKINS: Yeah, going back to what he said, I found out yesterday as well. It just says something on behalf of our coaching staff and the players they recruit. We buy in. They get people to buy in. It's a great program and I'm happy to be part of it. Q. What do you think is the biggest challenge Jakob presents for you? How much are you looking forward to facing that challenge? DOMANTAS SABONIS: Well, as I said, he's very talented. He drives the ball really well. It's going to be tough for me. I'm going to have to stay out of foul trouble. They're going to feed the ball to him on the block a lot. Got to try to keep it out of there to keep me out of foul trouble. I can't wait for tomorrow. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be an awesome opportunity to play against him. Q. Your coach has said you've done a better job of staying out of foul trouble this year. What helped you do that? DOMANTAS SABONIS: Just basically our team defense. It's been great. We've been in the gaps. It's just been a team effort. That puts me in less situations where I can get some easy fouls. Just like trying to keep the ball out of the post also. Q. You both talked about the similarities in playing Utah. Both of you had 20 turnovers yesterday. What is your message and how do you get more turnovers from them, but also limit the turnovers you have? JOSH PERKINS: I think a lot of our turnovers yesterday were on our own fault. We just got to work on it and control what we can control. Like you said, we're going to do what we can, stay in the gaps, create points on the turnovers. If we create turnovers, we're going to do a great job of getting back and limiting points off of turnovers. Vice versa, we're going to do the same thing for them. DOMANTAS SABONIS: As Josh said, a lot of the turnovers were our fault, some turnovers we usually don't make. That just depends on us. We have to play more tougher, more confident. On the other hand, on defense we just got to be nasty, be in the gaps, adjust it, make them make tough decisions. Q. Josh, did you see a difference in Domantas when your big guy went down? Did you notice a difference in the way he's attacked everything, gone about his business? JOSH PERKINS: Honestly, no. Domas comes to play every day, no matter who he's playing against or with. He's going to be the same guy. But with Shem going down, it created an opportunity for him, more playing time. He took advantage of it, to say the least. He's one of the best guys I ever played with. He makes it easy for me. I'm glad this duo is keep going. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss our student-athletes at this time. Thank you, gentlemen. We have Gonzaga head Coach Mark Few. Talk a little bit about your matchup with Utah. COACH FEW: Well, I've been able to see Utah a lot over the last couple years. It's borne out of a tremendous amount of respect for Larry, just kind of how he does things. So I try to watch one of their games. They've been very impressive this year. It's interesting. I think the teams are eerily similar. We love to run a lot of different sets and actions to get our bigs the ball, where they can be successful. But then also the other players are very capable of making plays, very critical to each of our team's success. We like to mix it up on defense and change our coverages. They're a difficult one-day prep, that's for sure. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. What has Domas meant to you guys, especially with your big guy going out so early? COACH FEW: He's meant absolutely everything. Just everything to us, from his numbers he's delivering, just how good he's been, how incredibly efficient, how consistent he's been. But also just probably, more important than all that, the fight that he brings. He's as tough a guy as I've ever coached. The other thing that's been really, really critical for us, I mean, we had a lot of turnover with all those seniors leaving, then with Przemek going down, to have a guy that is that good and that tough and that gifted, just really, really wants to be coached, likes being coached, kind of craves it, soaks it all up, seeks it out, I think that sends a really strong message to younger, inexperienced players that are kind of watching that. Especially as they see just how much he's improved over the course of not only two years, but, gosh, just in the last three or four months. Q. I think you might have said with Sabonis, keeping him out of foul trouble was maybe the key thing. What was the key to working on that? COACH FEW: I mean, obviously it's a huge key for us. It's no secret. Our depth is at an all-time low. It's critical that we have him out there on the floor as much as possible. But that being said, we survived foul trouble last night. We had some guys, Kyle Dranginis came in and played some valuable minutes for us at the four. Ryan Edwards is back moving around. He gave us some minutes in both halves. But playing with intelligence, understanding when you can assert yourself, there's occasionally some times when you need to probably back off. I'm big with Domas of really being preventive, keeping the ball out of there as much as possible so it keeps himself out of foul trouble. And then luck. I mean, luck and refs. Hopefully get really smart officials that understand how good he is, how fundamental he is. Q. You talked a little bit about seeing Utah in the past few years. What have you seen from their front court? COACH FEW: Again, just a great job from the staff to the players, of an understanding of getting the ball to the right places, to the right people at the right time, and everybody understanding that, and on the same page. Terrific development of players, especially those big kids while they're in the program. Then just a variety of coverages and different things that they can do defensively to, A, take advantage of their size, but also, B, to protect them. They double, switch up their doubles, do different things with the zone that they run and things like that that I think protects Poeltl also. Q. You've talked about the similarities in these two teams. Yesterday both teams had 20 turnovers. COACH FEW: I don't think any of that sits good with either of us. I can't speak for Larry, but it doesn't with me. Q. Larry talked about trying to go back to the fundamentals, trying to replicate that in practice. What is your approach in practice with this one-day prep, trying to simulate that game environment? COACH FEW: Again, our depth, there are a million things that I'd like to do in some of these practices. Gosh, when you try to take the assistants' point of view, there's 10 million things that everybody wants to work on. With me, I've really had to take a step back with that, with our lack of bodies that we have, how important rest is, just getting these guys fresh for these games. You know, we just got to kind of work on their minds and hope that we take better care of the ball. I do think both of us play different type of teams that we're more high risk defensively. There was reward of getting pretty easy shots if you just could kind of get through that first wave. I don't know Fresno's percentages, but Seton Hall has a tendency to turn guys over, gamble, take chances. I think ourselves and Utah are a little bit more conservative. Q. These two programs have been very good for a number of years in the same region of the country, yet you haven't played that much. Has there been any opportunity for you to play, get a contract or anything like that? COACH FEW: Everybody always kind of asks that. Arizona has been great. We've had home and home situation with them. We had a home and home with Arizona and UCLA. At least with our schedule, I don't think you can just load up. We need to play a national schedule, so we can't have just our home and homes. They're limited because our conference went to 18 games. We got to be careful with just playing the same teams from the same area or region. I think we've talked in the past. I'm sure we'll talk more in the future if opportunities arise. Certainly I got tons and tons and tons of respect for them. They have done it right. They got a three seed, so it doesn't look like they needed to schedule us this year. Q. You've had coaches that you have coached against that have played Utah. Would you call them? COACH FEW: Everybody does that. Everybody in this whole industry, especially when you've been doing it for a long time. We all have really great networks that you lean on at this time, your assistants lean on. Absolutely. I got some great friends in that league. Be crazy not to at least get their input. Q. What's the matchup going to be like between the two big guys? COACH FEW: Well, I mean, I think there's going to be both teams bringing help in a lot of different ways, be my guess. So it will be more about, you know, the other people that are coming and where they're coming from and how they're coming, how each of these guys react to that. I would guess it's going to be rare to see both of them one-on-one against each other for long stretches of time. Be fine by me. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you for your time. COACH FEW: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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