Stew Morrill quotes 12-20-2010

The following are quotes from Utah State men’s basketball coach Stew Morrill prior to the Idaho State game.General Thoughts:”It was kind of nice having a week of practice and one game and now we have one day of practice and three games, so it is a little bit flipped around on us which is kind of the way the season is.” Thoughts on Idaho State:”Watching Idaho State versus Creighton, I feel like definitely they have some quality personnel. Their record is deceiving because they’ve played so many road games, so many guarantee games. They’ve got some size, they’ve got some athleticism and it’s real important that we understand that they’re a very capable team and much better than their record indicates. That’s what I’m going to make sure and try and get across to my team today. When you go to Colorado, to Arizona, to Iowa, to Creighton. Those are obviously tough places to get wins. They are undefeated at home which indicates that they are plenty capable.” What do hope to carry over from the second half of the Utah Valley game?”What you are searching for is consistency. After most games we do what we call the goods and bads. We show them the good things we did in the game and the things we need to get better at. What you are trying to do is have more goods than bads, and cut down on the bads list. That is a chance you have to improve as a team. We are trying to get more consistent on the offensive end. Our defense and rebounding has been a solid area for us. We need to grasp on to those and keep making sure that area of the game is solid.” On playing three consecutive games:”When you get to the conference tournament, and that is what we have told our guys, you are playing consecutive nights. What we have always told our players is it tests you physically, it tests you on preparation on a 24-hour turn-around, and it tests you mentally whether you can be tough enough to play back-to-back-to-back, in this case. If you get in the conference tournament where you conference tournament has always been a three-night event, the format has changed a bit but it is the same idea, you are going to have to play on consecutive nights. That is what we think has been the value of this tournament, to get home games which are really hard to come by in college basketball, really hard to come by.” More on Idaho State:”In their starting line-up they have had in the last few games, he (Broderick Gilchrest) starts at the point. He will go away from the ball when (Kenny) McGowen comes in. Gilcrest is really impressive. Last year he was a new player and a junior college kid who was not as aggressive as their veteran kids. This year he is really aggressive, he shoots it well from three, he is so quick and gets the ball up the court and makes things happen. He drives by you with his quickness. Sometimes they isolate him on the wing. Their second leading scorer (Deividas Busma) is a handful because he is seven feet tall and shooting 57 percent, and has good touch around the basket. Then they come at you with a variety of other guys with strengths in terms of shooting or driving or whatever.” “They do play quite a few guys. In fact, it keeps you hopping as far as match ups. For example, (Mike Lacey) is about a 6’5″ player that can play the three, can play the four. He is really athletic and a very good rebounder. We have got to keep him off the boards. Their size is kind of amazing, they have a couple seven footers on the bench, a 6’9″ guy that comes in, so they definitely have some size to go with their athletic ability.” On playing more guys:”It just depends on the game and how the game is going. There are some games where we will play four posts and some we will play five, it depends on foul trouble and stuff like that. Last game we just played two point guards, and there have been occasions where I have played four guys at that spot. It just depends on how the game is going. We are not afraid to play more guys. If guys are playing well and the rotations make sense then sometimes we are shorter bench-wise.”

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