PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2022

Craig Smith

Marco Anthony

Branden Carlson

Utah Utes

Postgame Press Conference

Washington - 82, Utah - 70

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Utah.

CRAIG SMITH: Congratulations to University of Washington. I thought they played great. They played really well coming into this tournament. And the regular season we had a couple of really good games with them. But they got us tonight.

I thought we really competed hard the first half. And going down three at halftime, we felt good about where we were at. And they made some plays. They made some difficult plays on us. Finished some tough baskets.

I thought the stretch where it somewhat got away from us, we turned it over seven out of nine possessions. I don't know at what point or time, kind of midway through the second half there, just after the ten-minute mark, where we just had some casual offensive possessions.

And that's what they do. They're very athletic, one through five. They can mismatch you. They can play very big with Roberts at the 5 and go do some small-ball stuff with Matthews at the 5. And they cover ground quickly.

And so if we have a lazy pass or you're stopped with the ball or what have you, I mean, they jumped that thing quick and they're going to turn you over. You've got to avoid the catastrophic turnovers, the ones that lead to direct points.

When you look at the numbers, they got 21 points off of our turnovers. And when you lose by 12, that's, at the end of the day, the difference in the game.

I thought we did some really good things -- when we didn't turn it over, I thought we did some good things on the offensive end. We ended up shooting 48 percent from the field for the game.

But just at the end of the day, when you give up 1.32 points a possession, that's just too much, and it's hard to overcome.

So they're a good team. They pose some issues for a lot of different teams. I thought we handled their zone pretty well most of the night. But at the end of the day, it was the turnovers.

And we made -- Brown is a heck of a player. I've been doing this 26 years, and he's such a unique guy. He doesn't shoot many 3s, doesn't make many 3s. And for him to lead the Pac-12 in scoring, he just puts a lot of pressure on you. You've got to game plan for things he can do. I thought we did a good job. He gets 22 points, but it took 19 shot attempts to get that.

And obviously Marco is our primary defender on him, but it took the whole team. We told our guys we have to have five guys guarding him at all times.

Just had a few mental lapses where -- Bey had a great game I thought, but we close out to him almost short with a hand down, and he's going to make you pay when you do that.

You give them credit. They made some tough shots. They made some big plays in pivotal moments of the game, and that's what good teams do.

Hats off to them. And we wish them nothing but the best for the rest of the tournament.

Q. You talk about turnovers, and you talked about that earlier this week. How hard is it to go against a team like that that you know is going to do it? Do you think that kind of gets in your head a little bit, knowing that maybe you make those passes in a way knowing that they're prone to do that?

CRAIG SMITH: Not typically. I mean, I just think it's awareness, right? Every team you play has their strengths and their areas of concern, so to speak. And obviously that's what they do. Number one in the Pac-12 in creating turnovers and steals, and I think they're No. 27 in the country in steals.

We had our issue early in Pac-12 play where we turned it over. Then I thought we got really better with that, as you guys have seen. At their place, we had 13 turnovers at the end of regulation.

I don't think it's that. But I do think a lot of turnovers is concentration. And guys that can see the floor and have good vision. And then obviously meeting the ball and being in sync.

Tonight, I thought it was a little bit of everybody. I thought, you know, when Rollie went out that hurt us some definitely. Rollie has been our most steady guy at the point-guard position. And obviously something that he can't control.

But it takes a team that way. I'm not a big believer in this team gets in your head or those kinds of things when you have a good -- a team that's tough-minded and disciplined and those sorts of things.

Q. This is the third time you've played Washington this year. Are they any different now than when you played them earlier this year?

CRAIG SMITH: No doubt. Clearly, of the three times, they've gotten better every night, every game out, I would say. Clearly, they were at their -- I don't want to say worst, but they were much better the second time we played them and tonight.

And so the first time we played them we had 20 turnovers, which was too many. We really shredded their zone. We were up 14. We struggled against their man. It was an unbelievable basketball game at their place.

Both teams made play after play after play. But you could just see it. When you're going in the postseason, you want to have some momentum and a little mojo. It's not the begin all and end all, but their last four games were at home, and they won three of those four games, and I thought it gave them kind of a spark.

You can see they're all playing together. I think they have eight or nine seniors, maybe nine seniors, and even though they haven't played together a long time, all those guys know each other, all being from the Seattle area. But I feel like they've galvanized and they're playing very good basketball.

Q. You guys, the other night, were kind of struggling to describe what this season was like. Now, kind of in retrospect, do you feel it's a microcosm of the season that you had, just the decent start was right there and then the lapse midway through the second half and that kind of was your undoing?

MARCO ANTHONY: I guess you could say that. We've had those stretches of games where we get the lead, and then there's always at some point where it could come down to the catastrophic turnovers or just the mental lapses and stuff like that.

Like so I guess you could say that kind of defined our season. But you could look at it as a lesson or you could look at it as a failure. And I believe that we learned a lot this year.

BRANDEN CARLSON: I'm proud of our team and of our players. Coach was talking to us in the locker room and said we came ready -- we were ready to go. And I felt we came ready to go each practice. Coming in, handling things professionally. I think that's how a lot of guys did it.

I'm proud of our team. It just didn't go the way we wanted to in the end. But I think we can still hold our heads high on this season.

CRAIG SMITH: I'm really proud of these two guys, as well as our whole team, but you look at the game these guys had. I thought they really, really anchored us and were rocks for us, which you expect for your upperclassmen, especially at this time of year.

And then what B.C. and Marco both said, when your wins and losses aren't where you want them to be, and the drought that we went through, specifically in January, I've been -- when you do this for 26 years, you're on a lot of different kinds of teams.

As an assistant I've been on some of these teams, and I've seen what can happen in terms of chemistry, finger pointing, and our guys didn't do that.

And it was very rare for us to have a poor practice. Very rare. It was very rare for us not to come out and compete and work as hard as we can.

Now, Marco touched on it, we have to get better as a program with some mental things, concentration and not have those lapses. Because that's what great teams do. They have the ability to be really good physically and mentally.

That's what great teams do. That's what great players do. And we would have stretches where we did it really well, but unfortunately we'd have some lapses.

But I am proud of our guys. It's a great group to be around. They brought energy on a daily basis. And it was an enjoyable group to be around and one I'm very proud of in terms of how they handled things and the way that they approached things, and that was as a pro.

Q. With the finality of the season, and it's still kind of really new on you guys, what do you feel like you can take away from maybe the season, from this game, maybe heading into next year, or just leading into help for next year?

BRANDEN CARLSON: I don't think there's necessarily a specific thing that I'm taking away or I think our team is. I just think there's a lot of things that we know we have to improve on.

I think we have a long offseason now to work on that and continue to build our team to strengthen it, to build each other up to work on our games individually as well.

Q. 44-all, if I recall correctly, then they put a 19-4 run on you guys. Felt like they were locked in on defense, and that may have proven to be the difference. Do you see it to be the same way?

CRAIG SMITH: Yeah, we had those turnovers. And I'm guessing that was that stretch, right? And that -- like, when you turn it over seven out of nine, that's a rough stretch. You're just not getting shots at the rim. And we shoot 48 percent for the game. But it's a compound effect.

Not only are we not scoring or getting shots -- I mean we got, what, 13 offensive rebounds again, I believe -- and so you're not only getting shots, but you're eliminating those opportunities if you miss to get an offensive rebound. And then it's compounded when they're catastrophic.

And I don't know what the exact numbers were in terms of how they scored directly off of. But they are long, quick-twitch. They've got a couple of Jalen Ramseys out there where they read the quarterback's eyes and they can go make a play on the ball. And they keep you off balance.

Obviously they're well known for their zone. Like I said, I thought we handled their zone very well in the first two games in the regular season and tonight as well.

But they do a good job of mixing it up -- zone, man; zone, man; zone to man. And so that can get you a little bit off balance and a little bit tentative at times with what you're doing.

So we made a few youthful mistakes out there with some guys -- when you get seven out of nine possessions -- it's one thing when you have seven, but seven out of nine, it has a compound effect very, very quickly because they make you pay when you make those mistakes.

Q. Marco, can we read anything into the fact that you chose not to do the Senior Night activity?

MARCO ANTHONY: Yeah, I don't know. I just decided that just with the option being out there that I could return next year, and me not being in a spot where I know completely what I'm going to do, I just thought it would be best to just not celebrate it on that day.

Thank you to the fans. They were great. Great crowd here and all season in the Huntsman.