Head coach Larry Krystkowiak
On Delon Wright:
He has had some moments where he took over. The Kansas game was one where he realized not many other guys wanted to be a part of that and he kind of put us on his shoulders in the second half and brought us back. He is fantastic. He's a team guy. I actually told him late in the timeout, with about 12 minutes left in the game, because he was deferring to people and passing it around, I said 'You go make a play. This is fine, you can be selfish here for a few minutes and go make some things happen.' Which he did and found some guys for some open looks. He's a lot like the rest of the guys on our team, pretty selfless when it comes to wanting to put the numbers up for themselves. He brings a lot to the table and did before he even played a game for the Utes. Everybody at the Pac-12 Media Day didn't know much about our team. I talked about this guy Delon who was kind of a stat-sheet stuffer. He is doing some pretty great things now, but he didn't have a chink in his armor and had a solid all around game. That's what he has done now for going on two years.'
On Jakob's game:
It has been a little bit rough. Between the ankle injury and some games where he got into foul trouble, our guys did a nice job of finding him some pick and rolls. We ran a few inside plays for him and Cal got into some foul troubles so we went at him. He was really solid. Got some confidence back and lead us in scoring I believe. He managed to stay on the floor without getting into foul trouble and I think that's the key. I think he is close to 100% healthy. I think some of the conditioning has been an issue because he hadn't played between the injury and never really getting those extended spurts where you're playing more than four minutes, because he would always get a couple quick fouls. I think conditioning has been an issue for him and tonight was good. We kept him on the floor and kind of blew it out. You could seem him gasping. He may need to get in a little bit of better condition and I think that's happening. That might be one of the reasons he was able to get after it a little bit.
On Cal getting a lead:
We weren't doing a very good job guarding them. I thought we talked a lot about defense and this was the first time in a long time that they were scoring early on with their offense. Then when they missed some shots and we got out and hustled, we call it a scramble situation. Its not perfect because there isn't a guy out in front of you. We weren't finishing any of those plays and they were playing a heck of a lot harder than we were offensively than we were defensively. That's what we talked about at half time. We just needed to play harder and I thought that made a difference. We came out in the second half and got out and ran and scored some baskets.
On Chris Reyes:
I thought it was big. We talked to our bigs and it was one of the points I put on the board. We are 11th in the Pac-12 in offensive rebounding. I understand when we are also the most efficient offensive team, there is maybe not that many misses to go get. So there is some numbers there that we don't have to go get as many offensive rebounds. We needed to improve that. We talked a lot about it yesterday and today. I think the guys were a little bit embarrassed and they took it personally. We did a nice job on the offensive glass, we gave ourselves multiple opportunities and just had an honest effort to go rebound. That is going to be a point for us moving forward. Rebounding is a big key to being successful in whatever it is, conference or post season. The games get physical and we need to buy into that a little bit."
Jakob Poeltl
On what was different about his offensive approach:
I just tried to be aggressive and every shot felt like it might go in. I didn't do anything different. I just tried to play like I have been.
On if his ankle has healed:
My ankle hasn't bothered me too much the last few games. Conference play is much different. It has been a little harder than non-conference. I'm just trying to get used to things.
On his tenacity around the basket:
Everyone's been telling me to dunk it. Not just my coaches but also my teammates (Delon interjects "DUNK!") always tell me to dunk more.
Delon Wright
On Cal's approach to guarding him:
I felt like they was giving me the jumper and I was not being aggressive enough. I know the easy points for me come at the free-throw line so I tried to get there by driving. That opened things up.
On changing the momentum with steals:
Overall, when guys get steals and easy layups, it makes us better. The same is true when we get blocks. Those types of plays really bring the energy up.
On Cal leading and having it close at halftime:
We aren't going to be able to blow everyone out. They're a good team with real good guards. We buckled down and started to defend. I thought we locked their players down more effectively in the second half.
On what's changed from last season:
Last year we were losing leads and now, we are able to not only maintain leads but also extend them and get wins.
Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin
Overall thoughts:
I just think they got to the free-throw line and were able to make some plays and get to the rim. I thought we got a little stagnant instead of staying aggressive. They made plays. They played with more aggression.
They turned up the pressure, tried to make us turn it over. I thought we got stagnant as opposed to getting it across half court and getting it to the rim. We allowed them to get their defense set.
When the defense is extended the way that they did, you have to make plays. We teach our guys to attack the rim and be aggressive. That's when you make plays. We just came up short making plays in the second half.
On what he told his team at the half:
Stay aggressive. Stay aggressive and get stops. We did it in different ways. We got to the free throw line. We got fouled. We made a three-point shot. But, to just stay aggressive and play the way we play. Settle down, relax and execute offense. I thought we had some good looks around the rim, especially the first half. The second half, David Kravish's shots just didn't go in. That's part of it.
Take-a-ways from the game:
We lost the ball game. They're a good team. Box out, take care of the basketball, settle down, run the offense.
On Delon Wright:
He has had some moments where he took over. The Kansas game was one where he realized not many other guys wanted to be a part of that and he kind of put us on his shoulders in the second half and brought us back. He is fantastic. He's a team guy. I actually told him late in the timeout, with about 12 minutes left in the game, because he was deferring to people and passing it around, I said 'You go make a play. This is fine, you can be selfish here for a few minutes and go make some things happen.' Which he did and found some guys for some open looks. He's a lot like the rest of the guys on our team, pretty selfless when it comes to wanting to put the numbers up for themselves. He brings a lot to the table and did before he even played a game for the Utes. Everybody at the Pac-12 Media Day didn't know much about our team. I talked about this guy Delon who was kind of a stat-sheet stuffer. He is doing some pretty great things now, but he didn't have a chink in his armor and had a solid all around game. That's what he has done now for going on two years.'
On Jakob's game:
It has been a little bit rough. Between the ankle injury and some games where he got into foul trouble, our guys did a nice job of finding him some pick and rolls. We ran a few inside plays for him and Cal got into some foul troubles so we went at him. He was really solid. Got some confidence back and lead us in scoring I believe. He managed to stay on the floor without getting into foul trouble and I think that's the key. I think he is close to 100% healthy. I think some of the conditioning has been an issue because he hadn't played between the injury and never really getting those extended spurts where you're playing more than four minutes, because he would always get a couple quick fouls. I think conditioning has been an issue for him and tonight was good. We kept him on the floor and kind of blew it out. You could seem him gasping. He may need to get in a little bit of better condition and I think that's happening. That might be one of the reasons he was able to get after it a little bit.
On Cal getting a lead:
We weren't doing a very good job guarding them. I thought we talked a lot about defense and this was the first time in a long time that they were scoring early on with their offense. Then when they missed some shots and we got out and hustled, we call it a scramble situation. Its not perfect because there isn't a guy out in front of you. We weren't finishing any of those plays and they were playing a heck of a lot harder than we were offensively than we were defensively. That's what we talked about at half time. We just needed to play harder and I thought that made a difference. We came out in the second half and got out and ran and scored some baskets.
On Chris Reyes:
I thought it was big. We talked to our bigs and it was one of the points I put on the board. We are 11th in the Pac-12 in offensive rebounding. I understand when we are also the most efficient offensive team, there is maybe not that many misses to go get. So there is some numbers there that we don't have to go get as many offensive rebounds. We needed to improve that. We talked a lot about it yesterday and today. I think the guys were a little bit embarrassed and they took it personally. We did a nice job on the offensive glass, we gave ourselves multiple opportunities and just had an honest effort to go rebound. That is going to be a point for us moving forward. Rebounding is a big key to being successful in whatever it is, conference or post season. The games get physical and we need to buy into that a little bit."
Jakob Poeltl
On what was different about his offensive approach:
I just tried to be aggressive and every shot felt like it might go in. I didn't do anything different. I just tried to play like I have been.
On if his ankle has healed:
My ankle hasn't bothered me too much the last few games. Conference play is much different. It has been a little harder than non-conference. I'm just trying to get used to things.
On his tenacity around the basket:
Everyone's been telling me to dunk it. Not just my coaches but also my teammates (Delon interjects "DUNK!") always tell me to dunk more.
Delon Wright
On Cal's approach to guarding him:
I felt like they was giving me the jumper and I was not being aggressive enough. I know the easy points for me come at the free-throw line so I tried to get there by driving. That opened things up.
On changing the momentum with steals:
Overall, when guys get steals and easy layups, it makes us better. The same is true when we get blocks. Those types of plays really bring the energy up.
On Cal leading and having it close at halftime:
We aren't going to be able to blow everyone out. They're a good team with real good guards. We buckled down and started to defend. I thought we locked their players down more effectively in the second half.
On what's changed from last season:
Last year we were losing leads and now, we are able to not only maintain leads but also extend them and get wins.
Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin
Overall thoughts:
I just think they got to the free-throw line and were able to make some plays and get to the rim. I thought we got a little stagnant instead of staying aggressive. They made plays. They played with more aggression.
They turned up the pressure, tried to make us turn it over. I thought we got stagnant as opposed to getting it across half court and getting it to the rim. We allowed them to get their defense set.
When the defense is extended the way that they did, you have to make plays. We teach our guys to attack the rim and be aggressive. That's when you make plays. We just came up short making plays in the second half.
On what he told his team at the half:
Stay aggressive. Stay aggressive and get stops. We did it in different ways. We got to the free throw line. We got fouled. We made a three-point shot. But, to just stay aggressive and play the way we play. Settle down, relax and execute offense. I thought we had some good looks around the rim, especially the first half. The second half, David Kravish's shots just didn't go in. That's part of it.
Take-a-ways from the game:
We lost the ball game. They're a good team. Box out, take care of the basketball, settle down, run the offense.
