Opening statement:

"We're hard to predict right now from half-to-half and game-to-game. We're just trying to figure out a lot of things and get better as we go. I was actually writing some things down to speak to our boosters here in a minute, and I was talking about how our bench needs to be more productive, and then I went, `freshman, freshman, freshman' off the bench. We have three freshmen and one senior coming off the bench, our only senior. We just have, as everybody who follows us knows, we have a whole new cast of players, and a lot of guys trying to figure things out. We've had some good moments, and we've had some ugly moments. We have to be more consistent if we're going to play with BYU tomorrow night. They're like they always are. I've played them for a long, long time, and they're always scary. They're always really talented offensively, and there's a lot of high-profile recruits on their roster. They're always very well-coached. They make you try and prepare a lot of different things with their system. It all starts with number one: can you get back on defense against them? They fly up-and-down the court, and it's hard to simulate because it's not the way that we play, and it's hard to simulate in your preparation how fast they're going to run the ball at us. If they're just getting layups, then obviously you're in for a long night. The biggest way they get layups is turnover transition. If you look at their steals, they have double the steals we have. They just kind of take your ball. They're very good at it defensively, just stripping the ball, getting turnovers and turnovers for touchdowns, turnovers for layups, and it's not a good thing. Trying to guard them starts with (Tyler) Haws, but it doesn't end there. They have lots of really good players, lots of experienced players and lots of confident players. I have great respect for them and how they play. At the same time, we don't have guys that have played in this game. It should be a fun experience for us. If we look at it as anything else but that, I mean obviously you want to win, I'm not saying that, but if you look at it and get yourself all stressed out, that's not how you should approach the game. Great crowd, great in-state rivalry. The rivalry's been around forever. Go enjoy yourself and play hard. Do everything you can to try to get a `W.' That environment will be new to a lot of our guys."

On Tyler Haws' offensive game this year expanding to be able to shoot threes:

"It appears that way. They shoot a lot of threes. He's a great mid-range player, and he's a good three-point shooter now; he's shooting a very good percentage, like their entire team is. The (Chase) Fischer kid, a transfer, I think, from Wake Forest, is scary. He made ten threes in a game. They have the ability to get shots off. They run good stuff for him to get shots. (Kyle) Collinsworth is such a great passer. He's playing the point at 6'6". (Anson) Winder comes in and plays multiple positions for them, he also plays the point. They have very good schemes to get both Haws and Fischer shots. Their bigs are big and very good rebounders and capable scorers at the block. But their system is all about flying up-and-down the court and trying to get quick shots, good shots as fast as you can."

On the status of his team, health-wise:

"We're better. We've just had a strange schedule. I've apologized to our guys a couple times for the schedule. I don't remember in my time at Utah State doing this to a team, and certainly not to a new team. We're going to play five of our first eight on the road, and I don't think any other Mountain West team would come close to doing that. That's just an unusual situation. It caught up with us a little bit at Davis. Not to take anything away from Davis, but we had some guys that were not quite full strength. We went from clear across the country a couple times, from Mississippi State to California in two back-to-back games. David (Collette) was not at anywhere close to even half-strength, and some other guys had a little bit of a flu. It's all part of a season. You deal with injuries, you deal with sickness, and you have to just keep plugging. Whatever schedule you have, you have to play the games and see how you do. The main focus for us is to try and get our basketball team better. It's not really surprising, some of the things we went through, we just have to let those things help us grow and get better. As long as we keep our effort and our attitude good, we'll get better. If we lose our effort or our attitude, then you stagnate. So far, they've been great along those lines, and I expect them to continue to be good."

On the rebounding performance against UC Davis:

"Well, they're not like Mississippi State. Mississippi State has some huge, athletic guys. I don't know if we're getting better or not, to be honest with you. We're sure emphasizing it. We're sure working on it. We don't have a lot of natural rebounders. We don't have a lot of size. We're short in height, we're short bulk, so that's going to be a concern probably all year long is how we can rebound the ball."

On any pleasant surprises so far this season:

"I think the way we've stayed in games is and we've been pretty solid defensively. It slipped a little at Davis, but we're trying real hard on the defensive end. I think we expected Jalen (Moore) to, even though he's only a sophomore, even though he doesn't have any starting experience, we expected him to step-up and play well, and he's our leading scorer and rebounder. David (Collette) is an older freshman, but still a freshman. He started off awfully strong being the Mountain West Player of the Week, and then he's leveled out a little bit, and I think a little bit because of his illness. We have a lot of new guys just trying to figure things out. JoJo (McGlaston)'s making plays for us. He has to guard the other team's best perimeter player almost every game, and he likes that challenge, but that can wear on you every game if you're guarding the other team's best perimeter player. He'll be looking at that situation again. Darius Perkins is trying to learn the point guard. He's more of a two-guard in terms of his normal habits, but he's trying to learn the point guard position. Chris Smith has been a little bit inconsistent, but he's starting to settle in, and Chris brings a lot to the table. He can rebound the ball. He's a bigger, stronger guard, a good shooter. We're having to play him at two positions, which can cause a little bit of confusion. The guys off the bench are just learning on the fly. As I mentioned earlier, they're a bunch of freshmen coming off the bench. I think Henry Bolton has earned more time by how he's practiced and how he played in the Davis game. He's doing a good job and gives us a guy who can really accelerate on the break and those kinds of things. Expect to see Henry out there some."