Utah Basketball Press Conference | 1.9.24

Utah Basketball Press Conference | 1.9.24

Not the results you wanted from this trip you knew was going to be a difficult trip historically it’s been a tough trip but what some of the positives you came you can say historically it’s been a bad trip uh you know it was a tough trip very difficult trip um obviously you know

Arizona top 10 team in the country is high as number one they have all the pieces and then Arizona state has added a couple pieces here um late I mean they’re undefeated the league right uh two a road sweep early and and able to sweep Us in Colorado and uh I thought

They played outstanding you know they had the late edition of Miller and uh and then their big kid is healthy again that changes them so um you know I thought we did some things very well specifically the Arizona game and then some things that were just glaringly bad

You know we were not good defensively quite frankly in any way shape or form all weekend uh I was just really really disappointed in how we guarded um consistently you know um both teams made threes Arizona State makes 12 threes I think they’re at the bottom of the league and three-point

Percentage and and Maids a game uh that has to be better uh our transition defense was not what it needs to be now both those teams are racehorse team I mean they can do it in a blink but we just I just didn’t think we communicated well enough I didn’t think our effort

Was good enough um and obviously our execution wasn’t where it needed to be too many turnovers against Arizona State the Arizona State game specifically we didn’t eliminate losing just too many self-inflicted uh errors and that’s hard to overcome on the road um and then I just thought against Arizona just um too

Many mistakes on the defensive end that against a team like that gets compounded I did think we did some really good things against Arizona on the offensive end um um unfortunately in the second half we just kind of stopped making threes right in the first half we didn’t

That’s why it was a three-point game so got to get back to the the fundamentals back to the basics so to speak I know it’s a good cliche uh but we have to tighten up some things specifically on the defensive end you said that still

Kind of a wait and see with K have you kind of gotten some updates with him yeah he’s gonna he’s gonna um um it’s gotten better every day which you would anticipate I think you made a big jump it sounds like um from Sunday to Monday and even another good jump from

Monday today uh he won’t do anything live today he’s going to test it out and see where he’s at with some non- cont stuff shooting you know some fundamental things kind of our normal protocol and procedure and then we’ll evaluate you know how that feels after practice today

If he can even finish practice um and then he’ll get in with Trevor again um tomorrow so uh I can’t say oh yeah he’s definitely going to play I can’t say he’s definitely not going to play we’re going to just find out a lot more as we go through practice today and tomorrow

And then last week you know you kind of left the will exact kind of thing up and what’s kind of yeah yeah so will thanks for asking that um so um will is actually going to have a procedure again this week um he met with the doctors and

And of course you know Trevor um last week and just at this point in the season even if he would get cleared right and now he’s going to go through the procedure so he’s gonna he’s going to red shirt this year and he’ll be out for the

Season Brandon Carlson I think it was a season low seven points against is that just kind of they focused on trying to take him out of the game and do you expect similar approaches froming team yeah I mean I think everybody game plans for him no matter who you play some are

Very effective some not as effective um you know we it’s twofold both those teams we played really get after you and he’s got to find his way into the post more often we don’t want to just be jump Shooters of course he’s a great shooter um but the beauty of his

Game is on the offensive end he can just do so many different things and we got to be able to utilize that um better um and we didn’t do a good enough job specifically the Arizona game uh getting him involved at the level now they’re also going to bring it like

They’re they’re going to game plan and I’m not sure there’s anything he hasn’t seen um you know we played a ton of minutes with cable going down and lson getting a couple fouls we really had to overextend him in that first half specifically I think he played 17 and a

Half minutes in the first half which is a lot um for a seven-footer so um but we got do a better job with him that’s another big area that we’re you know we just got to keep feeding them the ball in different areas and keep him involved

But he’s got to find his way to those spots too and he’s got to work at it and understand you know when you’re a Marked Man and you’re that guy um uh it’s going to be difficult no matter what so uh they did a good job taking some things

Away no question about it um I think it opened up some other guys um uh Ben Ben Carlson got a lot more shots because of it uh specifically um and so you know that’s a beauty of having a good team I think we have versatility I think we have depth

And so you know depending on how teams are guarding BC it opens up the game for a lot of other people as well and we got to be able to make them pay couple times in the last three games Lawson’s picked up two early fouls yeah

I mean how concerning is that for you hey we need you in there for yeah I thought laston played really well against Arizona that that um you know it’s hard when you get two quick I mean you got two in what the first three four minute then K plays

Three and a half minutes and then he has his you know gets injured so now you’re kind of in catch-up mode a little bit you’re trying to kind of hide Lawson for that first half obviously we came back with him but thought he was great he should have played more minutes for sure

He he had a great Vibe going and a good feel a great mindset um going but you’re right it’s um we’ve had a few games now C’s picked up some quick fouls Arizona State you got two quick ones in his first run right Lawson the other night

Gets two quick ones uh right out of the out of the gate and of course there’s a lot of things you got to look at how are you getting foul I’ve clipped all of his foul their files out and how we’re getting them right and sometimes you’re a little overzealous with things

Sometimes you’re getting them because you’re out of position sometimes just you lose discipline right um so we got to look at those things and you know and then we as coaches got to look at it are we not calling enough files in practice because we play a live in practice like

Are we missing that you know and we just got out of a staff meeting and so it was a few minutes late getting here and that’s one of the things we talked about we we we still got to play physical and aggressive like we do but we got to be

Able to call you know the things that we’re because usually if you do it in the game you’re probably doing it in practice so uh it’s got to be a coaching emphasis as well but that hurts us puts you gets you a little bit on the defensive instead of playing Super

Aggressive is Davon playing as much as you expect him to or is he still kind of working you know that’s that’s a great question that’s he’s played six games um you know uh yeah that stuff I think is just going to work itself out however after this

Weekend I think we got to talk more because we’re still redefining our team now anytime you start throwing one or two new guys into the lineup sometimes it’s seamless but more so there’s a natural kind of roll Def and sometimes roll change a little bit and whether

It’s Davon or or somebody else right and there can be a trickle down effect and um um you know I think we got to redefine some things with Devon along with some other guys uh I believe he let her team in shot attempts um when you

Combine the two games uh I like some of the things he’s doing he’s got to tighten some things up he made a lot more there was some more mistakes that he made he watched a lot of film yesterday with our coaches which was good um so he’s still figuring out out

Things in our system and our style and when when to be assertive when to kind of pull it back you know and finding that kind of Middle Ground um but I thought he made a lot a lot of winning plays against Washington State in Washington and not quite as many you

Know this past weekend but there’s a process that goes through this thing and for him it’s still so early you know he’s six games in and really in a lot of ways it’s like being five games in because that first game I almost in some ways don’t even

Um so um there’s a growing curve that goes along with this so this a big week for him as well as our team of course what was what was um one of your more positive takeaways from this road trip or is it kind of one of those like

Onward we’ll move on from yeah I don’t I mean and I’m not saying this just because we lost I mean certainly there were some positives out of Arizona I didn’t take a lot of positives from Arizona State uh I just thought we I just thought we were really mindless in

A lot of things that we were doing um that we did some really good things against Arizona but I don’t I don’t know I we just got to we got to learn from this stuff we all got to be able to look in the mirror you know

Um uh I I I saw a quote the other day and I I’m not sure this equates but it’s like if you’re an Archer and I I when I was 22 in at Mayville State I sh I taught an archery class if you can believe that yeah exactly so don’t do

Like me guy whatever you do uh I forget that little thing you put on your arm but like when you when you’re an Archer and you shoot at a Target like and if you miss it like the target isn’t moving right it’s on you right and sometimes

It’s easy to point and and our our team has been United like so there’s nothing but I think we all my point is we all got to be able to look in the mirror and say and take accountability to be better starting with me to our coaching staff and then

Of course course our players and there was just too much slippage last week I just saw too much slippage um mainly on the defensive end but but some things on the offensive end as well where we just I feel like too sticky you know we’ve been a team that was getting um right

Around 20 assists or more a game and certainly we didn’t have close to that this weekend it just felt like we’ve been sticky with the ball so we all got to take a step back you know basketball is a humbling game Sports is humbling life is humbling and you got to be able

To take a back step back and that perspective and look yourself in the mirror and and have some accountability to what’s going on and and make yourself better which obviously makes your team better you’ve obviously experienced this that you state in other schools where you go on winning streaks and you have

Success how do how do you kind of keep guys in check is do you feel like maybe the eight game win streak kind of let uh maybe misperceived Notions of themselves going into this league how do you yeah it’s hard to say that that it’s a great question because you think about that

All the time time as a coach you know I’ve said this many times to you guys our job you know part of my job is to be paranoid without being over the top of that you’re always trying to keep your guys on edge and you’re always trying to keep your guys

Sharp um not a big lecturer or give the sermon kind of thing I’m not into that treat these guys like men and try to be real in everything that we do uh I don’t try to make teams to be out like their next you know like every game is a Super

Bowl but winning on the road is hard winning is really really hard and we had a great stretch there right late November December winning eight in a row and um sometimes you know sometimes they’re become some slippage uh um and and certainly we have to tighten some things up here um

Specifically like I said specifically on the defensive end and it’s not just one thing I mean I talked about transition defense that was not good against Arizona State or Arizona and quite frankly against Washington in the first half was not good um but it’s not just

That there there’s just more to it that we really really have to tighten up in a lot of that I think we’ll start with communication this team isn’t always the most vocal team our big guys communicate well which is Big Brandon’s a good communicator Lawson’s a good communicator cba’s a good communicator

But our guards are very very quiet as a whole and that has to get better we have a lot of Veteran guys but they’re very very quiet and that can be one of the hardest things to teach and coach uh out of guys espe it sounds weird it’s almost

Easier for young guys to coach out of because they’re young when you’re older you have a lot of years that you’ve can have bad habits for them and it can be harder to get that out of them because they’ve had it for five years where younger guys are like just let’s let’s

Go you know kind of right like what else can I do and they’re just slobbering at the mouth right uh ready to compete and so um so we have to though and we’re going to do some things that um quite frankly I haven’t had to do much over

The years but we’re going to we’re going to be doing them uh today in practice and until we get it figured out your thoughts on UCLA obviously not the team they’ve had the last couple of years um they have a familiar face stov yeah um

What do you see from them early on they just they have a lot of new new pieces yeah so they are they’re very very young uh so mck Cronin do an unbelievable job obviously his track record rever Ben speaks for itself and of course his time

Last year at UCLA and honestly last year of Bona and Clark don’t get hurt I mean they might win it all I mean they were they were really really good um but this year they’re young they’re very very young and have inexperience um they’re I think they’re an excellent defensive team Bona is

Unbelievable I mean that guy he he he’s unbelievable that what he can do on both ends of the floor but he can just he’s just a complete Game Changer defensively I mean I’ve been doing this a long time and I don’t ever recall seeing a guy with his size his length and his

Strength that can move like he does and it just allows them to have Elite Rim protection they can defense screener roll any which way and they do um whether they’re sitting in a drop whether they can switch one through five whether they’re going to trap the ball

Uh but his ability to make up ground uh when guys are going to The Rim he is flying in there whether he blocks it or not you feel that guy you you know you got one eye on the rim and you got the other eye where where’s number three at

Right um and then they have some young guys that are um just haven’t had a ton of playing experience but you can see them getting better um um so I expect them to be obviously really ready to go super hungry to compete and what’s one thing they’re always going to have a

Great competitive Spirit about them and and so we obviously got to worry about them and what we do we haven’t had much success against uh UCLA but we got to get better like our team has to get better uh we got exposed with some things this weekend and and we got to

Get them corrected in a hurry is there I mean this isn’t a a common thing you usually get the two row two homes type stuff is it is it a different challenge to have a home and then away so quickly or does that matter it’s been a very

Different start to League Play you know you come back from Christmas and you play the two games and it was a Friday Sunday right so then you’re off on Monday and you have a it seems like a super quick turnaround for a Thursday Saturday so you practice Tuesday now

You’re of course on Wednesday but you’re hitting the road on Wednesday so then you come back and now it kind of feels like another whole different week because it’s like you play Thursday and then you don’t play again till Sunday but then you’re on the road and then you

Have another quick turnaround the following week it’s been a very different start from my experience in the Pack 12 but that’s reality uh you just adapt and adjust and you know um I like this format quite frankly where you play one at home you’re on the road come

Back and and then of course you’re going back to the old you know Pack 12 staple of two home two Road road but um you know almost every BC almost every Power five Mark Harland doesn’t like when I say BCS uh he’s like I love when you say

That so old school uh and he means that jokingly but seriously I think at the same time uh but the power five uh Power five Yeah well yeah so I got to correct myself once I finally figured it out but um uh uh most power five conferences

That is how they do it right you have one home game one road game and vice versa and then at some point you have two two in a row on the road and two in a row at home and then it just kind of flips but uh I don’t like Sunday games

That that just is what it is um you know we we put our request in for that um with the league and sometimes it’s just you know TV D dictates that uh I think we have four Sunday games this year maybe something like that obviously we

Had the one with Washington so um um but I think it in a way it’s easier to adjust to and and um gives you a little more time to Game Plan for that second opponent and obviously they get more time to prepare for you is it more just

Because the Sunday GIC just because it ruins kind of the flow of the week or um no I just don’t like I just like Saturday first of all Saturday I think it helps attendance across the whether we’re at home or away uh doesn’t matter I just think you get way more people in

Attendance on Saturdays um uh and I just think that’s the fact right the reality of it um um I won’t get into my My Philosophy on conference scheduling because I guess it’s the last year in the league anyway but it’ll all change next year but

Utah Basketball Head Coach Craig Smith as the Runnin’ Utes return home from Arizona and prepare to take on UCLA this week at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. Come watch the Utes play! https://utahtickets.com/basketball/

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