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PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

October 11, 2018

Larry Krystkowiak

San Francisco, California

Q. Off-season treating you all right? Talk about the newcomers. I'd like to hear about the newcomers. Who has separated in the off-season?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: I'll tell you, we've got a really solid freshman class. We've got basically one in every position, 1 through 5. Junior College Player of the Year in Charles Jones, combo guard, and then a really solid grad transfer from Idaho State. Those seven guys probably in the fray of some playing time.

I've been really impressed with Timmy Allen out of Phoenix. And unlike maybe a lot of freshmen, I think, from a coaching perspective, most times kids aren't ready to play because they don't get the demands on the defensive end, and Timmy's light years ahead of that. So I could see him being in the mix for sure. Riley Battin out of California, power forward, is making nice progress. And then Both Gach from Minnesota. I think we're going to see a lot of these new faces playing. The freshmen are capable to play. We're excited about it. A lot of teaching.

Q. You guys are always underrated, undervalued. You talk about it every single time that we're here. This year is probably because you have so many newcomers. But why do you think we always undervalue these?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: Where did you vote us? Where did you think we'd finish?

Q. Right in the middle. That's a copout maybe, but right in the middle.
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: I don't know. I think this league's got a lot of great teams when you start going down the list and a lot of great coaches. The preseason polls have always been something that are interesting. I believe we finished -- the two years when we first started, we were picked 12th both years, and I think we probably set an all-time record for a distant 12th. As 12th as 12th can be, and we managed to finish 10th one of those years and 11th.

I don't mind. I'm comfortable kind of being the arrow rather than the target. A couple of years we were picked second, that was kind of new territory for us. So it's that time of year where the media, whoever the parties that be need to come up with their list to give somebody to talk about, something to talk about, and we lost a lot. We lost four seniors that played a lot and accomplished a lot. So from a roster point of view, I'd say we're somewhere in the middle. Eighth is not in the bottom four, so we're somewhere in the middle.

Past results are no indication of future performance. So we don't pay too much attention about it. I think our guys are inspired. We're going to stay humble and hungry and look forward to getting it started.

Q. There was testimony in the federal investigation about an associate of Kyle Kuzma being paid by a financial adviser. What have you been able to learn about that about what may have happened, and what's the school doing to investigate?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: I'm not going to talk at all about Kyle Kuzma. That's a silly question. I wish I could help you, but today's not the day to talk about that. I can't comment much on anything I don't know, and I'm 100 percent clueless about anything that's going on and leave it at that.

Q. All due respect, I don't think it's a silly question. Half of the schools in the league have been implicated.
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: With all due respect, you don't think it's a silly question?

Q. No.
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: Okay.

Q. Half the schools in the league have been implicated in one form or fashion in this investigation. Is there a problem in the league or any concern about the league from a compliance standpoint?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: I'm not going to comment. You kind of know where I stand. We're focused on our team. We're not a part of any federal investigation, and I haven't been informed of it. I think there's different investigations and people in different positions. This is not -- I don't believe Kyle Kuzma's is in the same category as some of those in the federal investigation, so we'll leave it at that.

Q. Coach, do you keep an eye on what's going on in New York at all out of curiosity?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: I'm sorry. In New York?

Q. Keep an eye on the trial that's going on and the allegations that have come out?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: Sure, I'm curious about what's happening, like everybody else. We're right in the thick of trying to get our team better, and my focus all the time is focusing on what it is we can control. And when you do get some free time at the end of the day, it's worth taking a peek at, but beyond that, I'm not really following it.

Q. Does it surprise you? You were talking a year ago that sometimes stuff comes up or people will indicate maybe they're looking for something extra. Is this kind of consistent, what's coming out of the trial, with maybe what you've heard or seen over the years in recruiting or whatever?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: Yeah. I don't think it's any big secret. It's not blowing anybody away. It's public for the first time. I think there's a lot of understanding of things that have been happening for a long time.

Q. You have an improved schedule this year, much tougher than other years. Tell me why you did that, first of all, and is that going to be an issue maybe early on with such a young team, that it might be kind of a tough road?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: Yeah, I think schedule-wise, each year as a coach you try to predict where you are, what your team's ready for, and I feel like our program's established at this point. Maybe young, but established and ready for it. I've said it before, this is kind of what we all signed up for. When I sit back and reflect on -- this is year eight, our players want to play elite competition. I think fans want to watch elite competition. It's always a fine line.

The same thing that will make you laugh will make you cry if you don't win some of those games, but I know you can't get marquee wins if you don't play them. We do have a very difficult schedule for the next, not just this year, but upcoming years, and kind of made the plan to bump it up. I think that's -- when you're watching, that's what it's all about right now. The RPI's out the window, and you need some quality wins. So we're going to do what we can to try to Garner some of those wins.

Q. Partly for NCAA purposes?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: There's a few years when you don't schedule very hard that I didn't think we were an NCAA team. So I'm not scheduling seven years ago, eight years ago to make the NCAA. I'm scheduling to try to survive, and that's kind of been the process for us is the initial years it's survival and then it's about competition and then it's about winning.

So your mindset as a coach when you're doing your schedule, I think, changes accordingly, but that's the goal is to make the NCAA Tournament. And I think with the schedule we have this year and any upcoming year, if we're in a discussion on Selection Sunday with the committee, the one thing I think is safe to say is that they're never going to say they didn't play a hard enough schedule. We can eliminate that when we get back to things we can control. Hopefully, we'll be in those discussions, and if we don't make it, it's not going to be because we sure didn't go down swinging.

Q. Justin was so huge for you guys last year. Can you kind of detail where the point guard position stands going into the season for you guys?
LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: Point guard position, I think, is a situation for Sedrick, Sedrick Barefield. I like some of our young players. I think Both is doing a nice job in the backcourt. Parker Van Dyke is a guy that not many people have talked about in our conference. He's a senior, and he's had a great off-season and doing a nice job taking care of the ball. So we haven't always had -- Justin, obviously, was a point guard because he was 5'6" or whatever he was, but we've never really had an offense where you need one person specifically to get you into everything that you need to run. It's been more of a combo situation.

Even when we had Delon, Delon Wright, it was Brandon and Delon. So more of a combination backcourt, and we'll continue to do that.

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