	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

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

March 21, 2019

Columbus, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Utah State student-athletes Neemias Queta, Sam Merrill, Abel Porter and Quinn Taylor. Questions?

Q. Quinn, I counted six different states and three different countries on your roster. Everybody always talks about the locker room and how important that is. Can you guys kind of -- how did you bring that all together and is it still a work in progress or who is in charge of the music and what have you?
QUINN TAYLOR: The cool thing about -- just playing basketball brings people together that you'd never meet kind of outside of basketball. And we're fortunate enough to have people from all over the U.S. and all over the world. And I think just our love for the game has really brought us together.

And I think generally we just rotate through who has the music in the locker room. But it's just a brotherhood and people that I'll consider brothers for the rest of my life.

ABEL PORTER: As far as that goes, I think it's been pretty natural. Sometimes you can feel a team forcing being friends, but I feel like this year it's been really big that we establish a culture, kind of reestablish the culture of family and togetherness at Utah State. And I feel like we've done that really well. I feel like it's natural as we come together.

SAM MERRILL: I think it's been incredibly helpful as far as developing the chemistry. I think because we all come from so many different backgrounds, it keeps us away from developing any type of clique or anything like that. When we're hanging around it's everybody together not groups of three or groups of four.

And fortunately we have multiple of our American-born players are bilingual. That's helped. I assume it's helped with our Portuguese players and it's been a fun experience getting to know each other.

NEEMIAS QUETA: We're a group of guys that love to play basketball, and the love is the same. We all love to play basketball and we all love to play with each other. And I think we're just a group of guys that just -- we're not worried about anything. We just love playing with each other and that helps a lot. We don't have much egos. We just love each other and we love playing basketball. That's it. It's simple.

Q. Neemi, growing up in Portugal, did you follow the NCAA Tournament? And if so, now that you're here, is this a dream of yours? What's it like for you to be here?
NEEMIAS QUETA: I've never followed it growing up. But last year, when I was being recruited, I heard of it. And I saw it was pretty nice. It's really nice being here and being a part of it. So I can't wait for it, and I hope we will have a good game and get a win.

Q. Sam, this group really -- you guys haven't been to the tournament. So this is new for everybody. But at the same time is that kind of helpful because you guys don't have to -- I don't know, maybe the pressure is not there. And what's the feeling of the team now that you've been here, being picked to finish ninth? We've talked about that a lot but maybe the expectations were that you weren't going to be here?
SAM MERRILL: Like we've talked about before, expectations preseason from those around us weren't very high. But as a team we felt that we could really do some damage. And we've always grown and grown throughout the season, but this is obviously, hopefully, not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some of us, but it's something that you have to enjoy.

I think our coaching staff and us as a team have done a good job this week of not trying to worry about the outside stuff as far as the media and all the excitement around it, but trying to focus on Washington and our game coming up and our scouting reports and prep. And practices have been the same that they've been all year.

As far as mentally, I don't assume -- I don't anticipate that we'll come out really nervous or jittery. Fortunately we got to play in our championship game on Saturday in the Mountain West Tournament, and that felt like it was a big game, too. So we did a pretty good job there. So hopefully we'll do a good job tomorrow as well.

Q. Matisse Thybulle might be one of the best defensive players you've seen all year -- blocked shots, steals, averaging three and a half steals a game. Sam, what do you see from him when you look at him defensively? And how do you try to get around a player that has that kind of a skill set?
SAM MERRILL: He's a great athlete. And I mean the report says that he's about 6'4", 6'5", but his arms, you can tell, watching film you can see how long and how athletic. He does a great job anticipating passing lanes and blocking shots from behind.

So they have a lot of good athletes and guys with length in their zone. So we're just going to have to play the way that we've played all year, and we do that by sharing the ball, by moving the ball, by trying to be smart, high IQ basketball players.

And he's going to make some plays. That's what this tournament is about. And the best players make plays. But hopefully we can minimize what he does by moving the ball and by not letting the ball stick and by doing things the way we've done things all year.

Q. This is a good introduction to the rest of the nation for your school. Can you describe a little bit about your school and what brought you there?
QUINN TAYLOR: For me personally, coming to Utah State, Utah State had a rich tradition in basketball. And something that each -- I feel like each one of us, when we got recruited they showed us videos of the Spectrum, where we play our home games, and it's just a crazy atmosphere. And it's something that you want to play at a school like that where you have the community behind you.

And then also, for me, being that I was going to go on a mission for my church and Utah State deals with that. So just going into that situation with the coaching staff that understood that, that I was going to go for two years and come back also helped me choose to attend Utah State. And I definitely made the right choice, and I've loved it ever since.

ABEL PORTER: Utah State, we're in Logan, Utah. And it's an awesome school if you ever look up pictures. It's a really beautiful just environment to live in up against the mountains. But besides that it's a really great academic school. And, like he said, really good at basketball.

They had some really good years in the past where the fan base was really behind it, selling out almost every single game. And I think we all saw that and kind of wanted to be a part of bringing it back. And I think that's what brought a lot of us to Utah State.

SAM MERRILL: I grew up a Utah State fan. Both of my parents graduated from Utah State. So for me it was an easy choice to go play at Utah State. I felt like it was the best fit both academically, basketball-wise, of course, and just being close to family.

But for those that have been following college basketball for a long time, Utah State used to be a regular in this tournament. And like Abel said, it's been a few years, but we're excited to be back and we're excited to represent our school and our university. And hopefully we represent them well starting tomorrow.

NEEMIAS QUETA: Utah State is a school that would be perfect for me because they have passionate fans, good conditions, a good coaching staff and everybody at the school cares about you. And I really wanted to go there.

And having players like this working for me and helping me out, it's really nice and having a good growth throughout the year with them is really nice. And the fact that we made it here, it's really nice, too.

Q. Quinn, you get a new coach your senior year. That can be challenging or difficult. What's allowed this team to kind of have that seamless transition to a new staff and have this kind of success?
QUINN TAYLOR: Coach Smith in general, going into a coaching change, there's always the unknowns. But just Coach Smith was the perfect hire. And our first meeting with him, he comes in and I think it's six in the morning or something; he just wanted to meet us real quick. And he's coming in, bouncing off the walls. His energy, it's just something that's contagious.

I think that's something he's passed down from that first meeting on to now. And just the energy and culture that he's brought and just the way he coaches and instills confidence in each one of us and the other coaching staff lets you play basketball, I mean, how you're supposed to play. We've all been playing since we were little.

And he makes it so that we're playing the game and not thinking. And basketball becomes a lot easier when you're out of your own head and you know your coach believes you and you know your teammates believe in you. And it's been a great year. The whole coaching staff has that mentality, but it starts with Coach Smith.

Q. Abel, could you tell us a little bit about how far you've come? You're a walk-on, weren't playing very much and you've become a starter, started pretty much the last half of the season.
ABEL PORTER: It's been an interesting journey. I had spotty minutes in the start of the season. And it's kind of been like that. This is my third year at Utah State. It's kind of been that roller coaster, not really knowing what to expect.

But Coach Smith did a great job of meeting with me knowing -- telling me that he has confidence in me and what he expected of me. And so I kind of just stuck with it, just the same as I always have.

And I'd like to say that a lot changed but really I think I just took advantage of the opportunities that were given to me. I prepared the same way for every single game, prepared the same way in practice, and luckily I got a couple of opportunities that kind of paved the way for me to start and for me to kind of get solid playing time.

And so it's been great. But I have to give credit to Coach Smith for just believing in me and giving me this opportunity.

Q. Neemi, could you talk a little bit about your basketball -- how you got interested in the game and if you had followed an NBA team, if any of them were a particular hero to you? Can you talk about your basketball heritage, how much you may have followed the NBA, whether you were interested in a particular player?
NEEMIAS QUETA: I grew up -- I never actually -- I grew playing basketball since then. I've always watched the NBA since I was, like, 14. And since then I watched it every year, every week, almost every day. I like a lot of players, especially big men that can do a lot of things.

I try to model my game like Anthony Davis, players like that. And it's hard, but I'm working on it.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Coach Craig Smith from Utah State.

Q. I asked the players, and I'll ask you, you've got a locker room with players from six different states and three different countries. So how much of that is choice, how much of that is chance? You're the coach, obviously first year. Some of it I'm sure you inherited. But just talk about that a little bit. Everybody talks about locker room culture and how important that is. So, have at it. Let us know what you've got.
COACH SMITH: Well, that's a great question. And it's something you think a decent amount about. But obviously it's my first year. I've been here for just short of a year now.

So at the end of the day, it doesn't matter where you're from, who you are; it matters what you're about and what kind of character you have and how are you going to represent. Recruiting is the lifeline of your program. And so you better recruit people first. So whether that's a young man from Utah or Oklahoma or Portugal -- we've got the Portuguese connection. We've got two of the three players in Division I basketball, we calm them the Wonder Twins, like the old "Wonder Twin powers, activate."

But at the end of the day you've got to be able to identify young men that can flourish in, for our case, in Cache Valley, in Logan, Utah, and that can flourish in your style of play. So our style of play is different than Program X. And so a guy like -- there's going to be guys that are going to be really set up for success in our program that might struggle in a different program.

That being said, there might be guys that flourish in a different program that might struggle in our program. And so as a coach you've got to really identify the types of players that are going to do well. It's easy to go spot a guy that can run fast, jump high, but that doesn't mean he's going to be a player for you.

So you've got to dig deeper. It's like Nick Saban said, you've got to peel the onion back seven layers. You go to the high school, you've got to ask the administrative assistant, what do you know about this kid? You've got to go ask the custodian, what do you know about this kid? Go ask the history teacher, what do you know about this guy? And pretty soon things start lining up.

And my first day on the job at Utah State, got hired on a Sunday. On Monday I met with the academic people. I met with the compliance people. I met with strength and conditioning coach. I met with our athletic trainer. And you can go right on down the line. Tell me about our team. Tell me about our program. Tell me about this individual, this guy, this guy. And you do that and pretty soon things start checking out.

And day two, and part of day one, met with each individual student-athlete. Tell me about the program. Tell me about academics. Tell me about strength and conditioning. So you do your homework.

And we've been so fortunate. I've been coaching -- I was just telling this young man to my right about I've been coaching for 23 years. And I've been very, very fortunate to be on very, very good teams. Coached a team that played in the national championship game. Been on teams that have struggled. Been on a couple of NCAA Tournament teams.

And I feel like the luckiest man on earth to be able to coach this team because going into the year we were one of the 50 youngest teams in the country. We dressed 12 guys and six of them are freshmen, including the one when we had the open walk-on tryouts, and he's one of the freshmen.

So to be able to have this group come together and do what we've done, it's been beyond magical to say the least. We were ranked number nine in the preseason polls and we're a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It's pretty incredible.

Q. When you took this job, what type of player did you think Sam was? You've probably talked about it before, but for those who haven't seen him on a national stage like this, why has he been so successful in your system?
COACH SMITH: First of all, Sam is a young man of incredible character. And he's like the all-American type of kid. The country's going to see one of the best players in the country play tomorrow. Certainly getting ready -- when I was contacted about possibly applying for the job, obviously I was doing my research. And certainly Sam was a guy that really stood out.

Sam was the one guy in our program that had some accolades coming into the season. He was the third-team all-conference player last year. And certainly watching the video -- even though our style of play is totally different than the style of play last year, you could see, like, this kid, he's got great feel for the game. He understands the game. Incredibly unselfish.

And the common theme that everybody had said about Sam Merrill is all Sam cares about is winning. Doesn't care if he's an all-league player or how many shots he gets a night. Our first practice this summer, I said, Sam, if we're going to get to where we need to go, winning the Mountain West, we need you to be much more vocal.

The rest of the year -- literally the rest of the year -- he's the most vocal. He's so cerebral, so intelligent, we're very detailed with scouting reports. Sam knows not only what the guy he's guarding is going to do; he can do what the 5 man and the 4 man is going to do. He's yelling it out. He'll be guarding this guy and yelling back at Neemi, "Neemi, watch the duck in." Whatever it might be.

You get into the season -- it's just so obviously, early on in the year, because of our youth -- and we really struggled with the ball early, not because we had bad shooters. I think it was -- like a guy like Brock Miller is a freshman, so the speed of the game is going super fast for him. And once Christmas past he got in a groove where he started playing like a sophomore. The game slowed down.

And Sam would come up to me -- because he had to carry so much of the load -- he'd say, Coach, I think we need to run this to get Brock going, or we need to do this to get Diogo going. Or maybe a few more post touches for Neemi or whatever it might be.

He's so unselfish. And at the end of the day you think back to a game like New Mexico, where we controlled at New Mexico. We started off the league 1-2. We had won two in a row. So we were 3-2 in league play, and on the road to New Mexico. They come roaring back. That's one of the toughest places in the country to play.

We were down one and we hold it for a last shot. We were either going to win it or lose it. And we run a play for Sam and basically gets tripled team. And one guy drops off and he gets double teamed. And a lot of times the best scorer, no matter what, is just going to fire that shot up. And he makes the right play, the right read and delivers it over his shoulder to Abel Porter, who he had been playing with since fifth grade. And Abel makes a game-winning 3 with like .7 seconds to go.

And he's done that continually all year. Guys love playing with him. We're No. 9 in the country in assists on the year. 62 percent of our baskets are assisted, which is an incredibly high number. And it all starts when you have a guy like that that's so unselfish.

When your best player is your hardest worker, everybody falls in line. And I could talk another ten minutes on Sam if you want. But that about sums it up.

Q. I think I read where you guys, your roster has six or seven returned LDS, returned from LDS missions. How much is that in terms of maturity and the ability to trust that these guys know what they're doing?
COACH SMITH: Certainly it's been fantastic because all those guys are just incredible people, first and foremost. You know, obviously generally speaking, they're a couple years older. There's certainly a sense of maturity. Communication skills are tremendous.

But like anything, we have training table on campus. And so you get done with practice. Guys -- sometimes they don't want to go to training table. They want to go home and eat with their wife if they're -- there are guys that are married. So it's always different.

But it's been, I could go right down the line. Quinn Taylor, he's one of our two seniors. We always say he's like -- remember the old commercial, EF Hutton? When EF Hutton talks, people listen. That's Quinn Taylor. We call him the godfather or grandfather, either one suffices.

But his leadership skills have been impeccable. I know he was just up here earlier with Neemias Queta. So, Quinn, I don't know how many minutes he played last year, right around 20 a game. It's hard to keep him off the floor. He's so good that way.

But what he's done certainly for our team, because he's a guy that every single guy in our program has utmost respect for, no matter who you are, where you come from. And then he's just been like such a big brother to Neemias, just teaching him the in ands outs of the game, the ins and outs of the league and it's been incredible that way. Certainly it's nice to have.

Q. You mentioned you guys were picked to finish ninth in your league. What was your first impression, summer workouts when you got a glimpse of your team? What do you think your expectations were?
COACH SMITH: From the get-go the goal was to get to the NCAA Tournament and win when we get there. We wanted to get to the top of the -- Mountain West Conference champions. We have a plethora of young men from Utah. A guy like Sam, Brock, Abel Porter, grew up in the state of Utah where their dream was to play basketball at Utah State.

So inherently you have a ton of pride. Those guys grew up -- Sam talked about, after we won the conference tournament championship, about being at the game in 2011 when they cut down the nets. And he remembers it vividly. And so you have -- I remember that Monday when I met with all these people, I met with Sam's parents that night. And we were talking about the glory days.

And so it's always impossible until you make it possible. And there's a quote I remember: It's a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but their best, you very often get it. So we had high expectations from day one. And we talked about -- our guys started -- I suck with technology. Although I'm good with Twitter -- or like Bill Belichick said, Snapface and Instachat. I say that to the team all the time.

But our guys started their own -- I don't think I've ever shared this before, but our guys started their own, what do you call it, group text. That's what you call it? So I just figured how to do a group text. I knew how to do it; I didn't know how to name it. I did it with our staff in January. They're, like, wow, Coach, staff. That's great.

But on the top of it -- I think Sam started it -- and on the top, the name of the group text, is that what you say, the name of it, the title, was Mountain West champs. And so our guys, it was a very emotional win. We beat Boise State in overtime. We were fighting a lot of sickness that night. That was our fourth to last regular season game. Beat San Diego State at home.

Then everybody was talking about Nevada the next game, but we had to beat San Diego obviously to make that Nevada game mean something. Beat them, first time in Mountain West Conference history that we had been a part of that, we had beaten them.

Obviously beat Nevada. First time we beat a ranked opponent since 2007. Now everyone's talking about the hangover game. Are you going to have enough gas in the tank. All that stuff, because we had a quick turnaround at Colorado State. And Sam said something in the group text: Now it's here; let's give everything we've got and stay locked in, so we can get what we said from day one, in our group text, Mountain West Champ. So that was a pretty neat thing that way.

So our expectations, I've always believed as a person, as a coach, as a father, in anything you do in life, why would you ever put limitations on yourself? Like why would you ever limit yourself as a person in anything you're doing? Why would you ever put limits on yourself in your program?

And so our guys' buy-in from day one, I think what's helped us in a weird way -- we are one of the 50 youngest teams in the country -- our local guys have heard this over and over and over again, but we only had four guys in this program that ever played or averaged more than seven minutes a game. And so in some ways it hurts you because you lack some experience.

But I think in some ways it's helped us because we just have this youthful exuberance that we're going to conquer the world and nobody's going to tell us any different. And so just the chemistry we've had, the camaraderie, and the common goal has been incredible and that goes to these young men that were up here and obviously all the other guys in our program.

Q. Matisse Thybulle is one of the best defenders in the country and really unique in what he does. What are your impressions of him now that you've been looking at Washington?
COACH SMITH: I've had to take a lot of Advil over the last four days because he's a headache. I can't remember -- I think I heard this on a telecast -- but we use a ton of football and boxing analogies in everything we do. And he's almost like Deion Sanders in football. When Deion Sanders played, it was like he eliminated whatever side of the field. He's so instinctive, so quick twitch, so long, and his hands are just so fast, right?

And for a guy to average playing zone over three steals a game with two blocked shots a game is incredible. And he does it while staying disciplined. He's not just running all over the place gambling and out of position. So he dominates the game in such a different way that I'm not sure I've ever seen it from that respect.

So you gotta always account for where he's at. Their team forces 17.5 turnovers a game in the Pac-12. That's hard to do. And they're doing it mainly just in the half court. So he's certainly a monster part of it. But their whole team, Newell is player of the year for them. Dickerson was a first-team All-League kid last year in the Pac-12. And David Crisp has had a phenomenal season, senior year. I actually did a home visit with him and his parents when I was an assistant at Nebraska. His mom can really cook. It was incredible food. It was like wow.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297