Jan. 3, 2013
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
QUOTING COACH SENDEK
"Welcome to conference basketball. I thought it was just a very hard fought college basketball game. Both teams really made it difficult for the other to score - although neither team forced many turnovers. I was very pleased with the fact that we only had eight but we only forced ten. Your heart goes out to whomever was going to lose this game because when young men play with that much heart there really are no losers. Obviously, that game could have gone either way but I'm really proud of the way our guys fought and battled on a night when offensively we struggled. We don't win the game without Ruslan (Pateev)'s performance. I don't know if I've ever been as proud of a player as I am of him because he's all in no matter what. He's the consummate teammate and it's not easy to not play and then be put in those kinds of situations and play well; which he has done over the course of the last week or so. He's teaching us all a great lesson, all meaning all of the players and coaches, how important it is just to be a great person. So I'm really proud of him. Obviously, Jahii (Carson) makes two huge baskets down the stretch; the big three, the kiss off the glass on the drive. Carrick (Felix) once again continues his outstanding senior year with a double-double again, 17 and 13. A good opening win for us."
ON JAHII MAKING CLUTCH SHOTS
"He just has a great capacity, as do most great players, of staying in the present. He believes in himself and I think he knows we believe in him. He has a great capacity to let whatever happened just go and make the next play which is a real gift. It's a talent in himself. Not only did he make the two big field goals we talked about but he was perfect from the foul line and as much as he had the ball in his hands tonight he had one turnover.
ON JORDAN'S INJURY
"I think he just had a cramp. John (trainer) told me here coming down the hall way that he's doing fine. I stand to be corrected, but I think he has a cramp above one of his knees."
ON THIS BEING A CHARACTER-BUILDING WIN
"We just talked about staying tough and how sometimes there is nothing wrong with winning ugly. Just tried to focus our guys on that kind of thing coming down the home stretch. I just though our guys really battled and they did all the way through to those last couple in bounds plays. "
QUOTING RUSLAN
ON THE LAST FOUR SECONDS
"I told myself you have to play hard and do your best and help the team. I just looked around to see where the ball was and just moved because the ball is the most important thing."
QUOTING JAHII ON WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF REGULATION
"They went from a man to a matchup zone. The play was initially for me to go off the screen and roll but as they clasped the wings into like the elbows it was kind of tough for us to get the play that we needed so we called timeout. That's tough with two seconds left on the clock but it was a great strategy by their coach to let them know to switch within under five seconds. We kind of got confused both with what we did and how to execute."
ON THE TEAM NOT GETTING INTO A FLOW
"In conference, teams try to throw you off. I'm pretty sure they watched film. They know that we are a pick-and-roll screen team. It's kind of hard to capitalize on the jump shots when he's not letting you get in to the paint. That definitely through us off a little bit."
QUOTING UTAH COACH LARRY KRYSTOWIAK
"Well I was really pleased with our guys. We got stops when we needed to. You look at the stat line all the way across the board, statistically the only thing that we - we had plenty of missed open shots. Twenty for fifty-eight, but we lose a one-point game. We outrebound them and take care of the basketball, you know we get to the free-throw line more. I thought (Jason) Washburn was tremendous going down the stretch. That's what you try to do on the road; you put yourself in a position to win. Obviously we got that lead late and then there was that three by (Jahii) Carson late to tie it up before it went to overtime. I mean that's what you want him doing and I'm somewhat speechless, what can you say?"
ON THE SUN DEVILS ABILITY TO GET KEY OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS
"They're an offensive rebounding team. They obviously missed almost the same amount of shots we did so when you have that many misses you know you are going to give up some. I thought for the most part we were pretty locked in and limited them to one shot. There was a little stretch at the beginning of the second half where they got three of four consecutive ones and we had to put that fire out because that kind of reduces some energy for them. I thought our guys recaptured their composure and we were able to limit them. But you know he's (Jordan) a big guy, 7' 2" with long arms and missed shots - that's what he does. We were switching a lot with our pick and rolls so our small guy was down low and tried to block him out. I thought overall the game plan was pretty good and you know you're going to give a few of those up.