December 13, 2002 Athletics
Story
Aggie Head Basketball
Coach Stew Morrill Speaks
Everything
from the BYU game to Utah State's rebounding and bench
 The
following are quotes from Utah State head basketball coach Stew
Morrill at his weekly press conference on Dec. 10, 2002.
About this week and having three in-state games in
a week...
"You would rather have them spread out a little bit, just
in terms of preparation. But, we're kind of at the mercy of
when games will fit into everyones' schedule. That's just kind
of how it fell this year. BYU during finals week is another
situation as well, but at least its on Saturday. We're trying
to get better as a basketball team this week, as well as tackle
the challenge of going down there with their 37-game winning
streak, and I think their best basketball team since I have
been at Utah State, I don't think there's much question about
that. Certainly that's a challenge, but a fun one. Those in-state
games have to be fun for the players, they should be. They're
always intense, always a lot of emotion, good crowds, kind of
what college basketball should be all about. We've got the problem
being good opponents and then also trying to get our team better
at the same time. It's certainly a challenge, but we're excited
about it. We've played pretty well down in Provo the last couple
of times, and actually it went right down to the wire. We sure
would like to find a way to put ourselves in that situation
again, at least have a chance going down the stretch like we
did the previous two times down there. But we're going have
to play awfully well to put ourselves in that position."
About BYU...
"Their guys our experienced, they've got an inside presence
which they've been lacking. The big kid (Rafael Araujo) gives
them a real inside presence at 6-11, 270, he's a big guy. He
was the number one JC (junior college) center recruit in the
country last year, that tells you something. Then you've got
(Travis) Hansen and (Mark) Bigelow, they just get better every
year. Hansen's a senior and a player of the year candidate in
that league. I think they're more physical then they've been
since we have been here too. You always expect physical play
from both BYU and certainly Utah. But, BYU is even more physical
than what we've seen. And whether or not we can match that will
be a big key to the game. And we're going have to do it night
after night for three straight in-state games. Physical play
is always a big part of those games."
Talk about BYU's new point guard in Kevin Woodberry...
"He's trying to find his way like a lot of our new guys.
He's a kid coming off a national championship team at Dixie
(JC). He's very athletic, he gives them an athletic presence
at the point. His stats are not where he wants them, or I'm
sure BYU wants them yet, but that's not unusual for a new player.
They don't have the steadiness of a (Matt) Montague at the point,
but they have a more athletic guy is what they got."
About playing time being up for grabs this week...
"Playing time should be all about performance, that's
something that should be the way it is, and that's only fair
to kids that aren't playing as much. One thing I will tell is,
Chad Evans will play this week. One thing, as I look at it,
here's a kid that started 17 games for us (last year), and he
hasn't even played in some of our games, and that kind of hit
me like a lighting bolt after the Jackson State game, that's
not fair to him. We're giving other guys opportunities, and
Chad deserves an opportunity. I'm not saying he is going to
start, but he will play. And I'm excited about that for Chad,
because he deserves that. You know what you're going to get
from Chad, he's going to go out there and he's going to board
the ball, without question, and rebounding is a concern right
now. He's not going to mess up on assignments, because he's
a very bright kid, as far as defensive assignments and what
he's trying to get done. He's not a prototypical three, he's
kind of stuck between a three and a four, but you know what
you're going to get when you play him."
Talk about Rafael Araujo's game...
"What I've seen so far, he's just so strong, he weighs
you down. With him and (Jared) Jensen, they have just two big,
strong posts. And then they come in with (John) Allen, and he's
more of a four-out guy, more of a (Mark) Hull type kid from
Santa Barbara, when they come in with Allen and move to Jensen
to five. But, with the two starters, Jensen and Araujo, they
are just strong, inside kids that give them a real low-post
game. They kind of play a high-low motion and really pound the
ball to those guys. They've got more weapons then they've had
in the past few years, but those two wings (Hansen and Bigelow),
your preparation obviously has to start there. Then you go to
their two inside kids and it really balances what they have
with those two wings. Hansen, I think, just gets better every
year. I think that kid's a potential pro, because he's big,
he can shoot it, he can drive it, he believes he can play. I
just really like his game."
Talk About Desmond Penigar...
"I don't think we can expect anybody to get 34 (like Desmond
Penigar did last year), he had a great game against them last
year. That's not my concern with Desmond right now, I mean I
would like him to have a nice offensive game, but we need him
to take good shots and then he has a better chance to have that
kind of game. When he takes good shots he's got a chance to
play that well offensively. We've just got to get more rebounding
out of him and his defense has got to get better, along with
a lot of other people. We're trying to find our way right now,
and along with trying to find our way, boom, here's BYU, in
comes Utah, whose got a little chip on their shoulder against
us right now, and then Weber State who's picked to win the Big
Sky. We're a team trying to find our way faced with tremendous
challenges, but that's what it is."
Your concerns with defense and rebounding...
"We are not showing the signs of being a good defensive
team yet, that we did in the past. I've said part of that is
certainly leadership, but we lost three seniors, one who was
a four-year starter and became a very smart, solid defender
in Tony Brown. Second, was our best defender, Brennan Ray, without
question our best defender. And the third, became a pretty physical
inside post presence as a defender in Jermey Vague. And we're
having a hard time getting those types of defense contributions
right now, and that is a concern. Rebounding wise we have some
limitations there too, but we just have to keep working at it,
its early in the year and we just have to keep getting better.
I've said with our real good teams that coachability, unselfishness,
and buying in defensively were the three keys to our good teams
the last few years, and those are the three things that have
to happen for this team to be as good as we would like to be.
And then there's the reality of it. The reality of it is you
might not be as good. Everybody just thinks that we're supposed
to be real good, well we might not be. We might have limitations
that we can't overcome, and there's how you go about .500. I
hope that's not the case, but it could sure happen."
How do you feel about the leadership of this team?
"It's got to get better. We relied so much on Brennan
and Tony last year, we've got to have some guys step up along
those lines, and they know it and they're trying, its not like
they 're not trying. I'm not meaning to pick on Desmond, Desmond
can't assume all of that, he can only do what he can do. He
has some limitations defensively, he's not going to be a Brennan
Ray defensively. We just need to get him to where the glaring
errors disappear and he's more solid. He's got to get to that
point, he's got to get back to rebounding the ball, he's got
to take good shots. He's probably feeling the pressure to elevate
his game, and in his mind sometimes that means offensively,
in my mind that means defensively and on the boards. I'm sure
he feels a little pressure with this team, to be as good as
he can be. We need Toraino (Johnson) to step up as a leader,
Mike Puzey has to play better, he's a senior, Ronnie (Ross)
was a no-show at Jackson State. Your seniors have got to step
up and its not just one, its all of them have to step up. And
Mark Brown, anytime you have a point guard, you expect him to
show some leadership. He played so well at Hawaii and then he
just got manhandled at Jackson State. They just kind of beat
him up and he didn't respond very well. And hopefully he will
learn from that, and I think he will, because he's pretty smart.
Leadership comes in a lot of different forms. It's easy to say
if we get good leadership we'll be a good basketball team, that's
not necessarily true. Sometimes bad basketball teams have pretty
good leadership. You always translate things, this means your
good, it doesn't always. You've got to have enough talent, you've
got to have enough discipline, you've got to have a lot of things
to be good. And whether or not we have all of those things,
we'll see, time will tell."
How do you feel about your bench?
"Still undecided. We thought some guys would play a little
better than they have, we'll see. I think it's too early to
say whether or not we have a good bench. We have potential to
have some depth, but it hasn't shown through for sure yet. Its
got a chance."
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