Utah State head coach Craig Smith addressed the media in preparation for the game against Northern Iowa on Wednesday, Nov. 28. The complete transcript of the press conference can be found below.
 
On Northern Iowa:
"They are very well coached and have a great tradition. It is a winning program. To beat Northern Iowa, you have to beat them. You have to eliminate losing. They are a little bit different than they've been in the past. They are still anchored by their defense. They are holding teams to 40 percent from the field. That's been their staple for a long time. They are integrating some guys, starting with AJ Green, who is their leading scorer as a true freshman. He was just listed as one of the top freshmen in the country, and certainly one of the top 10 freshmen at the mid-major level. They shoot it well. They shoot a lot of threes. They score it inside. They put a lot of pressure on you in a lot of different ways. They are very, very skilled. Most of the time they will have five guys on the floor that can shoot the three. We are going to have to be on point. We've had a week off. It's crazy, we had four games in eight days and then we didn't play for seven or eight days. It will be a great test for us. It will be a fantastic challenge in terms of the Mountain West/Missouri Valley Challenge. Certainly, there will be a lot at stake in terms of our team, but also with our conference."
 
On the week break:
"We gave them a few days off and enjoyed Thanksgiving. The practice after Thanksgiving, was like most practices after Thanksgiving. We were running off all of the turkey and gravy and whatever else. It has almost been a theme of ours. We are really banged up and we've been banged up since the second we got here, quite frankly. We've been trying to get guys healthy, while at the same time we are getting guys who haven't gotten the minutes back into the flow of things. Guys like Ben Fakira, Abel Porter, Crew (Ainge). John (Knight III) has been playing a lot, but it's been getting him to the next level. We've been fine tuning things on both ends. A lot of our focus was on defense over that run. We've gone back to a lot of shooting and fine tuning our principles on the offensive end, while adding some new schemes on the defensive end. It is a great time to add some things, get guys back into a rhythm and try to get healthy."
 
On what he wants to see from his team after coming off of a loss:
"You always want to win every game. We watched a lot of film on the Arizona State game and we did some great things. We defended very hard, but we fouled too much. They shot 43 free throws. At the same time, we shot 35 free throws, so it was just the nature of the game. We had some miscues there. We tightened up our screen-and-roll stuff. Offensively, we didn't turn the ball over the first 13 minutes of the game and we turned it over 20 times over the last 27 minutes. That has been a monster emphasis, and has been from day one, to tighten that up and not just give away possessions. We gave a lot of freebies away. Now, you also have to credit Arizona State that's what they do. They come at you hard and just fly to the ball. They are really athletic. The speed caught us a little bit, and you'll have some of that. But we also had some great possessions in that game. Some of those possessions we were hooking and cutting, and it was a thing of beauty. We either had some of our best offensive possessions or some of our worst offensive possessions and somewhere in there is a middle ground."
 
On the similarities that he sees in Northern Iowa:
"There are some similarities with some of the things we do. Defensively, they are very similar. They are going to guard personnel. They will be very well prepared in terms of scouting reports. They are going to protect the paint and pack it in to take away certain things. Offensively, they let it go. They want to run. They will take threes at any time and all their guys can shoot it, some of our lineups are like that, as well. They play a lot through their big guy. They have a lot of Princeton principles to them. They'll pass it into their five and then run dribble handoffs, backcuts and it is a hybrid of some of our stuff, some of Utah Valley and some of Hartford. They are very, very skilled. They backcut you. They are very good at reading their progressions. They have so many guys that can make shots but can also drive and make good decisions. A big key for us is that we'll have to stay disciplined because they can hurt you in so many different ways."
 
On his history with Northern Iowa:
"(We never played them) at South Dakota. When I was an assistant at Colorado State we played them and they were really good and we were not good. It was one of those games where we lost by 19, but it felt like 39. The one thing I know is in order to beat these guys, you have to beat them. They've had a ton of close games. Every game they've been in has been tight. They've been in a 54-53 and a 90-85. They've played a lot of different styles. They are this close to being 6-0 coming into our game. That is a fine line at our level when it comes to winning and losing."
 
On Alphonso Anderson:
"Fonz, just like Happy Days. First of all, he's an unbelievable person. He's 6-7 and 220 and full of life. He is very charismatic. He can walk into a room and wow the room. He's got this enthusiasm about him. He communicates like crazy on the floor and off the floor. That's a great thing. It is hard to find guys like that who are always communicating. He is also a guy that has a lot of versatility. He's got great size. He's a very mature young man. He can guard multiple positions. Is an excellent rebounder. Offensively, you can put him in a lot of spots. He can really drive it and is an excellent passer. He scores with either hand around the basket and can really shoot it. The common theme among the players that we've signed is versatile players who are gym rats. He is a gym rat, he loves being in the gym. When he watched our practice, he was able to remember certain sets and was remembering the name. Not many guys do that. He has the drive to learn and get better. He was watching what we were doing in some screen-and-rolls and said, 'I have to remember to tell coach that.' Not only does he love being in the gym, but he is a student of the game. Generally speaking, that is an awesome combination to have."
 
On if he is amazed at Sam Merrill and what he can do in games:
"Yes and no. He is one of the most intelligent players that I've coached and is one of the hardest working guys. We've put a lot of his plate. Teams are game planning to take him out of it. He's truly the marked man and that is a different burden. That is a different sense of responsibility. I'm amazed because he handles it so gracefully, but nowhere near surprised. I'll always remember our first meeting together, he is just so driven and determined. You saw it today in practice. We came out and he is communicating so loudly to everybody on the sets that their running, what we are supposed to be doing, and everybody falls in line when he's doing that. That is a trademark of not only a great player, but an elite player. He has that ability to elevate everybody to his level. He's been a pleasure to coach. He's bought in to game planning and everything we do. He understands how important it is to be sharp on a daily basis. How important it is to have a great attitude and effort on a daily basis. He is a high achiever and one of those guys who will not accept no for an answer. He has expectations that others may not think are realistic, but he does. That trickles down to everybody in the program."
 
On the impact that Neemias Queta has had and keeping him out of foul trouble:
"I've been thinking about that the last three days and clipping out all of his fouls to show him. Him and Quinn (Taylor). It is hard to play them when they are always in foul trouble. At some point we have just played him so he can be on the floor and so he can get the reps to do it. Going into the Arizona State game, according to KenPom, we were No. 1 in the nation in 2-point field goal defense. We are No. (11) in field goal percentage defense all the way around. Certainly, Neemias is a big part of that. Guys will get in the paint and they will have one eye on the basket and one eye looking for number 23. His blocked shots speak for themselves, but if they kept a stat on altered shots, that would probably double that. When you have a rim protector like him, he can cover up some mistakes that our other guys might make. But he also allows us to do some things schematically to help our overall defense because we've got him sitting at the rim protecting. We need him on the floor. People forget though, he's a true freshman. He doesn't look like a true freshman, but there are times, very rarely, that he plays like a true freshman, but his fouls are freshman fouls. Where he is just a half step behind or out of position. Or, he has a youthful exuberance where he thinks he can get every rebound. In some of these games, some of these officials are not used to a guy like him who can go right over a guy and get a rebound. It may look like an over-the-back, but it's not. He's just that big, long and athletic and instinctive. He just needs to adjust."