Aggie Head Basketball Coach Stew Morrill Speaks

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."