STEW MORRILL QUOTES 1-17-2012

The following are quotes from Utah State men’s basketball coach Stew Morrill prior to its non-conference road game at Seattle Thursday night. Opening Comments:”Last week seems like ancient history, we’re turning around and going on the road again tomorrow and that’s kind of hard to believe. This is not an ideal scheduling situation going back-to-back weeks on the road and a non-conference game stuck right where you don’t want it. I’ve never really liked playing non-conference games in the middle of conference, but Seattle is joining our league and we agreed to play them home-and-home, and of coarse they are trying to get some games in January and February and this is how it worked out. We’ve quickly turned our attention towards them and obviously Idaho.” “Last weekend was definitely an up and down situation where we really struggled against New Mexico State, just the last 14 minutes, we were right in the game until that point and then felt like we just didn’t compete. Then we go to Louisiana Tech and get down right away but battle and fight and claw and find a way to get a win. That was a satisfying win. It’s really all relative when you look at our teams through the years and this team. The years we were going 14-2 and 15-1 in league you’re fighting to win every game and now we are fighting to win any game. Instead of fighting to win every game we are fighting to win any game. It’s the same but it is different, everything is relative to what kind of season you’ve got going and we just keep trying to find a way to get a little better and see if we can win the game in front of us and that’s where we’re at right now.” “Seattle is coming off a really good performance last night versus Eastern Washington. They scored a bunch of points and had a couple of guys go off. They’re playing quite a bit different than when we saw them last time. They’re pressing a lot more, they’ve changed their offense, it will be a similar situation press wise as to what we saw at Louisiana Tech, lots of presses on every opportunity they get. Then we go play Idaho who will have had all week, just one game. They already know us pretty well and now with a whole week to prepare they might know what we’re going to do before we know what we’re going to do. Going in there certainly is always a challenge, going to Moscow. They’re solid, you watch them play and they’re just really solid. They play good offense, they run good stuff, they’re solid defensively and they’ve got quite a few good pieces for their system. Coach Verlin is doing a good job with them. You know, we’ve won two road games, we doubled our total, so that’s the good news. We would sure like to find a way to keep getting some wins on the road. We’ve got another opportunity this week so we will see how we do.” On Playing Seattle For A Second Time And If Knowing Their Personnel Will Help:”You know, basketball is so weird because you see through the years where someone might win by 20 at home and lose by 20 on the road to the same team. The home and road factor is always such a big thing, I think. They had a really poor shooting night in Logan and we needed a win at the time, and played really hard and got a W. Their talent level is high and people might say, well their records not real great so how do you say that? I have watched them on film, they have transfers from Pac-12 schools that areathletic and rebound the heck out of it. If they get it cooking on you it is tough. That game was a while ago and it will take a little bit to remind our guys, but we can at least watch ourselves play against them and see what we did and didn’t do and that should be somewhat helpful.” On Morgan Grim’s Health:”Don’t know. The good thing is that it is not a fracture. We did not practice yesterday because we desperately needed a day off, so I will know more but he will obviously do whatever he can. I will know more after we practice today. Like I said, the good news is that it is not a fracture but there is obviously something going on in there. Some kind of floating deal that has caused him problems and whatever, they are not quitesure what is causing it to swell up and all that stuff. He was actually walking to the scores table to check in when it happened, so that’s pretty odd.” Is The Team Starting To Understand What It Takes To Win On The Road:”I think it was really positive that on a Saturday night road game, it is always tough and it will be even tougher when you have gone two weeks in a row this Saturday, but I think it is always a positive when you respond. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to play great the next weekend or anything like that. That would have been a really tough one to lose because we had fought all the way back and actually went up by double digits and put ourselves in a pretty good position and we had to hang on through some crazy stuff at the end. We should know by now that we have limitations and we have to scratch and claw to be in any game. We’re 10-8, we’re not 4-16 or something, I think we cab garner so good feelings in at least finding a way to make some progress and get back to .500 in league and be above .500 overall. Obviously we would like to be better than that but I think they’re learning how hard we’ve got to play to be in the game. That is what I think happened last weekend. You have to be really close to the floor when you match up against New Mexico State and Nevada and Hawaii to just see the physicality and size of those teams and us scrambling around trying to get some rebounds is a challenge. That’s where having Brady Jardine would have been such a huge thing from the rebounding stand point, we are minus five in boards in league and somethingtells me that he would have at least got five a game. That is something that we are trying to make up for every game, not having a dominant type rebounder.” On Your Level Of Patience With This Team:”It’s just a different kind of deal, the best way I can say it is the past few years we have been trying to win every game. When you go 30-4 and still there is lots of criticism, that tells you that people sometimes expect you to win every basketball game. We’re not in that situation, we’re trying to win single games and just put together some wins as best we can. It’s a different kind of thing, I think my patients is more relative toward my age and the years that I have been in this business than last season versus this season. I have to work on my patients and sometimes I don’t work on it very well and other I do pretty good. I was the mellow one on the bench the other night. I had a couple of wild men on each side of me the other night and I thought that was great. I loved it. They were instructed to be as they were and I thought that it was awesome. Coach (Chris) Jones and Coach (Tim) Duryea were in rare form and I had asked them that day to be extremely vocal and they responded and did a great job. I have good assistance and that helps my patients, to have quality assistance and I have had that for a long time. That is why a number of them are head coaches.” On Utah State’s Bench:”Well, we played all 11 guys at Louisiana Tech and some of that was not planned, it was just be necessity. I mean when a guy like Igor (Premasunac) gets no game prep and is forced into action, that’s tough. He did fine, he hit a pick and pop jumper. I think Ben Clifford did well, he ended up starting the second half and his stats were positive. We had pretty good production coming off the bench. E.J. (Farris) came in and did a pretty solid job. Mitch (Bruneel) has been really steady off the bench, we have a lot of new guys and a lot of young guys getting time off the bench and they should get better as the year goes along. There is an old say, the best thing about a freshman is when they become a sophomore and that is definitely true. But, later in their freshman year they should be more productive and that is what we are looking for.” On Brockeith Pane’s Play In WAC Games:”You look at Brockeith’s stats in his four league games as compared to his overall stats and they are like night and day. He has got his mojo back a little bit or whatever you want to call it, he has got his confidence and he his making some things happen out there. That has been huge for us, that has kept us in games and has helped us win games. He is playing like an all-league guard, and that’s what he is, so that’s nice to see.”

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