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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2006Ray GiacolettiBryant MarksonLuke NevilleDENVER, COLORADO THE MODERATOR: We'll begin with University of Utah. Joining us up here, head coach Ray Giacoletti, Bryant Markson, Luke Nevill and Johnnie Bryant. Coach, if you would begin with some opening remarks. COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: I'm just proud of our team. We stayed focused for a long period of time tonight to where things that we haven't done in the past, especially with close games. And even when BYU made their run, our guys, there was a different look in their eye. Just couldn't be more proud of watching a team grow up. It's growing up at the right time. You know, they did a great job of understanding that getting Luke touches, and he went and made the most of it. THE MODERATOR: Let's direct the next few minutes of questions to the student-athletes. Q. Nevill, you took over the game in the last two minutes. LUKE NEVILL: Yeah, I guess so. I mean, we just had a game plan of just throwing it inside, and over the guards and the forwards, everybody on the team basically just went by the game plan. We were just successful. Q. Luke, can you talk about what happened with you earlier today. A lot of people thought it would affect you mentally. LUKE NEVILL: I just through warm-ups, pregame shooting, I just had a few pains, you know, in my body. I just went and got them checked out at the doctor. You just have to play through stuff like that. You just have to be tough. Just rise above it. Q. Luke, when did you decide you were going to play? LUKE NEVILL: A few hours before the game. I was improving all day. It came to game time. I felt that I was good enough to, you know, play - maybe use the adrenaline to kind of bypass the pain a bit more. Probably about an hour before the game, I would say. Q. Bryant, can you talk about the different look in the eye? Why were you more resilient in this game than other ones? BRYANT MARKSON: I think we just pulled together tonight. We watched Gladiator before we came in here. A lot of people like that movie on the team (smiling). Just pulled together. Looked each other in the eyes. Coached talked about the seniors looking the young guys in the eyes, trying to get the job done. I think that had a lot to do with it. I was out there talking, I think, the most I ever talked all year. I wanted to get this win. When it's tournament time, you got to do what you got to do. I was willing to throw the ball to Luke. JB was willing to do the same thing. We got the win. Q. Can you talk about playing Wyoming? JOHNNIE BRYANT: We got to control Brandon Ewing. At home he scored a bunch in the last couple minutes. We got to take care of the ball, box out. I think we'll be ready mentally and physically to come in and play tomorrow. We'll see what happens tomorrow. LUKE NEVILL: I think we just have to limit the post touches, especially Williams. He's a great offensive rebounder. You just have to box him out. When he gets the ball, you just have to just try and stop him because he's going to be aggressive, you know, the whole game. Just to limit, you know, some of their key players. I mean, once we shut them down, I think the team will shut down. BRYANT MARKSON: I think we just need to stick to the game plan, whatever it may be tonight. The coaches do a good job. Wyoming is mostly blocking out. When you drive, get into a jump-start, throwing it out to the open man, I think we're going to capitalize on that hopefully tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, fellas. We'll let you go. Questions for coach. Q. Great night rebounding. A sign of how much your guys wanted it tonight? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: Yeah, we're so limited right now. We played four guards for a while. Doesn't matter the size of the man; it's just the size of the man's heart. Keep stepping back, boxing out. When Luke goes and gets 14, it kind of makes it one-on-one for him. We darn near had two people, Brian had nine. We had two guys going to go get 23 rebounds. If everybody else keeps their man away, it's one-on-one for those guys. Q. Can you talk about the rebounding edge, just the dominance you had inside. COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: Again, just trying to, one, get them to miss. And, two, each man be disciplined enough to step back and box. Last year we talked about, you know, our team was going to try to win the rebound award for Andrew, as an individual award, but if every other man stepped back and boxed, it's kind of the same thing tonight. If you get two guys to go get 23, if everybody takes care of their man, it's one-on-one for their people. It's a point of emphasis; win the war on the boards each and every night. Our turnovers, we're trying to get to 12. We're at 15. So we're headed in the right direction. Q. With Reichner, he was quiet for BYU. Was that a coincidence or game plan? Seeing the upset with Wyoming earlier, what does that do for kids to see that kind of game? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: Reichner has been, I think, has been the glue to BYU the whole season. I don't think anybody in the conference would have predicted the kind of year he had, what he meant to BYU's team. The guy is unbelievable, the improvement he made, and consistency each and every night. The improvement, I mean, from last year to this year. We just tried to make him put the ball on the floor. You can't take a step off him and let him rhythm into a three. In the post, you got to front him. Really those were the two things we talked about. Bryant was on him for a portion of the time. But just had to get up and crowd him and make him floor the ball. He had three or four, maybe four or five threes at our step. We were a half step off at his waist. He's too big. He's just licking his chops at that thing. We were just better at that. We were just focused on trying to do our deal. We'll get them some rest and get ready for Wyoming. We just played Wyoming last Saturday. It shouldn't be, you know, any crazy changes. Q. Did that spur the kids? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: I don't think so. I don't think so. BYU, I mean, Utah, I think that spurs them enough. Q. Did you have any idea Luke was going to have that good of a game or was that a surprise? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: To be honest with you, I mean, I thought he was having a heart attack this morning. He went down. He had shortness of breath. I just talked to someone on the phone about the Vanderbilt situation, where they had a kid go down last week. He was going through jump-up shooting, you could see he's trying to catch his breath. He kind of goes down to his knees. I thought he was having some kind of heart issue. They laid him down on the ground. For the 20 minutes we were down there, that's why we took him to the hospital, to try to rule out anything to do. They did all kinds of stuff, CAT scan, EKG, whatever it is, to rule out that. I'm not really sure. Doc popped something back into place, they thought maybe a rib in his back. Seriously, it wasn't until we came in the last time, you know, if he was going to be able to go or not. I mean, at the 10-minute mark. It's funny 'cause last year, if you remember, Andrew, we played a 9:00 game at BYU, and Andrew had his deal. If it wouldn't have been a 9:00 game, he would have never been ready. They were putting IVs in him 20 minutes before we played. If this would have been a 10:00 game, he would have never been ready. At pregame meal, he looked like a mummy walking around because he was so stiff. Our doctors and training staff, Trevor, Dr. Petron (ph) did an amazing job getting him ready today. Q. How did the players respond when that happened? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: I think it scared everybody. We had only 25 minutes on the main floor, then we had to go up to the practice floor. You could tell, there was the wind taken out of our sails. He had to deal with the cards dealt to you. We prayed to God it wasn't something with his heart. Didn't matter whether he played or not. We were fortunate enough it was not. Q. One of the most debated plays is do you foul the guy or do you let him go to the line? Was all that designed? COACH RAY GIACOLETTI: We had a good week about three or four weeks ago where we got fortunate, beat BYU, San Diego State. Then we had Colorado State and Air Force come to our place that week. We got beat on last-second threes both times. If we had to do it over again with Air Force, we would foul, because one through five can shoot threes. That was my fault. Tonight, with the time at under seven seconds, we were going to try to take two or three more seconds off the thing. I just -- we've been bit too many times. I was going to try something else. We've practiced situations for the last three weeks every day, two different situations. It was one of those gut feelings that I wasn't going to watch another three go in. If we could be efficient, we still had a timeout left. So if we got panicked after they hit a couple on press offense, we could take a time. I think it depends. If it's Air Force ever again, we're fouling them. If it's people that have a number of different people, one through four or five that can shoot the three, darn difficult, even if you're switching, to play defense so they don't get a clean look. We've been stung enough. It was our turn for one. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach.
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