USU men's basketball head coach Craig Smith addressed the media on Thursday and answered questions about the home opener against Hartford on Friday, Nov. 9. The complete transcript of the press conference can be found below.
 
On Hartford:
"They are a veteran team and coming off of a 19-win season, which was a school record for them. They start five seniors. They are senior laden. They've all played together, are very prolific on offense and are very well coached. They have great synergy together on offense. They pass the ball well. They are one of the best passing teams we will face all year. They all seem to know their roles in a very good way. They play five guys that can all shoot the three, can drive it and can pass it, so they put a ton of pressure on you. They run a lot of Princeton action, with long continuities that really space you out. We will have to defend well for a long period of time. Defensively, they throw a lot of different things at you. They guard screen/roll a lot of different ways in man and we'll see a decent amount of 1-3-1 as well. Early in the year we need to expect the unexpected. They lost their first game so they'll be coming in here hungry."

On if Hartford's big men can go outside and shoot:
"Oh, yeah. All their bigs can shoot. All their bigs can handle. All their bigs can pass. When you play teams like that, it puts a lot of pressure on you in so many respects. Not only that, when you have bigs that are skilled like that and then you have Jason Dunne who can really shoot it and is a preseason all-league guy and J.R. Lynch who was an all-conference guy last year as their point guard who's ultra-quick and can just punch gaps and really make plays for his teammates, but also for himself… (Travis) Weatherington can really, really stoke it. Shot, what, mid-40s from the three last year? They're just one of those teams. I'm not sure you're ever going to play perfect, but they really put a lot of pressure on you because you feel like their chemistry with all these guys playing together for so long and their skill set, they just expose you when you make mistakes."
 
On Hartford being ranked high in the preseason America East poll
"It's a great test. Polls are what they are. At the same time, every single poll, in terms of the America East, has Hartford winning it or Vermont winning it. It's one of those two in the top two in every one of them. So, anytime you're in our situation, this game is going to show us a lot about where we're at. We're coming off an emotional win. Now, you have a two-day turnaround where you're flying back on one of those days and now, you're playing a team like this where it's their veteran playmakers versus our youth and their brand of basketball, especially on offense, with our inexperience. As a coach, I'm really curious to see how we come out and perform."
 
On the Montana State win being important:
"It was huge for us. There's no doubt about that. It gives us a lot of confidence. We were able to play all 12 guys in meaningful minutes throughout the whole game. We played all 12 guys in the first half, some because of foul trouble, some because that's just how we're going to play. That was a great confidence boost for us. At the same time, when you have young guys, sometimes if what you did yesterday is a big deal today, you haven't done much today. Sometimes when you have youth, you have to guard against getting too high and too low. There's always that balance. But, we're super excited to be at home and play in the Spectrum again."
 
On how much all 12 guys playing was rotation versus foul trouble:
"It was all of the above. We were planning on playing everybody. That's maybe who we are to some extent. Some guys haven't totally separated themselves from others. Obviously, there's certain guys who have. That's who we are. I love our buy-in. We have some versatility to be able to play some different guys. Certainly, in that game, we did have some foul issues, especially on the front line where we were juggling some guys all over. Depending on the game, depending on the match-ups, that's what we're going to be able to do."
 
On if the large rotation is indicative of how the team will play in the season:
"This team is going to be a little bit that way just because of developing consistency, where every single day in practice, every game we know exactly what we're going to get with guys. Then, some guys just start playing really well within the confines of the game and you're figuring out ways to keep them in the game. Maybe some guys are going to struggle, and you pull them out and give them pep talk and the next man up mentality. That's how we've been since we've been here. Last spring, our guys got better. This summer, we just had this mantra of 'Hey, we've got something to prove' and playing with a chip on our shoulder. So, we might be a little bit of a chameleon from game-to-game in some respects of lineups."
 
On junior guard Sam Merrill's 37 points at Montana State:
"That's the most efficient 37 I've seen in my life. It got to a point where he had a lot, but I didn't know. Generally speaking, I never look. All of these arenas have all the screens, but I don't look at that kind of stuff. I did try to catch an eye of where he was, and I rarely look at the stats after the media timeouts. What's exciting, we were a bit anemic those first five minutes, which I wasn't crazy shocked about to be frank. But, once we settled into a groove, and Sam, certainly anchored us, hit a couple threes and then we got into a good flow. Sam's just such an unselfish guy that it's easy to be unselfish with him. Sometimes you get scorers who just want the ball and they just have to go score all the time. That can have a negative effect on all of the guys sometimes. But, he's so unselfish, making the right play all of the time, it's super easy to give him the ball because you know he's going to take a good shot or make a good pass or whatever it might be. Our veterans that whole game I found were really good. Sam's game, obviously, speaks for itself. Diogo Brito, his efficiency. It's been one game, but he's No. 1 in the country in efficiency right now. Dwayne (Brown Jr.) had a very good game, as well. He kind of anchored our scoring. How many times do you score 101 points and you have two guys in double-digits? He did a great job with his shot selection. Then, Quinn Taylor played Quinn Taylor basketball. He's out there making plays that most people don't even notice. Those four guys really carried us on Tuesday night."