Nov. 17, 2000
Santa Clara Coach Dick Davey
"I feel a little better about our team than I did before we played this game. But, the reality of the whole basketball situation is that when you have reasonable talent and if you are tough-minded enough you are going to have a great chance to be successful. We have reasonable talent but we aren't tough-minded enough yet. I think that is improving. Our guys had a chance to play a tough-minded team tonight and maybe that will help promote that concept to them.
"I don't want to make him lose track of how hard he is going to have to work, but I thought Kyle Bailey played pretty darn decent tonight defensively. That is a credit to Kyle's tough-minded nature and is also a credit to the way he was coached in high school. He didn't maybe shoot the ball as well and he didn't get as good of looks as he is going to get down the road when he figures out things. But, he is going to be a good player if he continues to work the way he is right now.
"I don't think most freshmen realize what it takes to be successful when they start out. They are their team's best player in high school. Now, they every guy on their team and every guy they play against is their team's best player in high school. Kyle has been nervous a little bit about coming up here to play. I think he'll begin to relax now and offensively things will begin to get better for him. He played 26 minutes tonight. In your first college game, that's a lot of minutes."
Utah State Coach Stew Morrill
"Tonight's game was probably good for both teams. We feel fortunate to win and I thought our experience showed a little down the stretch when we had to make plays we made them. When we had to make free throws, we made them. It wasn't maybe the prettiest game in the world, but that is how both teams play. We pride ourselves in guarding them a bit and I know they do too. It was a slugfest.
"It was kind of interersting for us defensively. We couldn't guard them in man to begin with. We went to our zone and they struggled a little bit against it. In the second half our zone wasn't near as effective and we went to our man. So, I thought the combination of the two defenses, at times, helped us."