Utah State head men's basketball coach Craig Smith addressed the media on Thursday in preparation for the Aggies' home contest against Eastern Oregon on Friday, Dec. 28. The complete transcript of the press conference can be found below.
 
On Eastern Oregon:
"They are scoring almost 88 points a game, so they can clearly score it. They are led by Jordan May, who has had a game of 41 points and another four games with 30 or more. He can get it going in a lot of different ways. They have a lot of guys out there who can really shoot it. They put a lot of pressure on you. They will want to get up and down on the offensive end. They shoot 25 threes a game and 20 free throws a game. Whenever you see those two numbers you know there is a reason they are scoring 88 points a game.
 
"Defensively they will mainly play man, will press a little bit and play a little bit of zone, but that is not their staple. The biggest thing about this time of year is that you better be back on track after you've had five days off.
 
"We really need to lock back in. I thought we had a really good practice today. We need to keep getting better and then take care of business on our home court like we have up to this point."
 
On how the team has come back following the Christmas break:
"We are coming off of the Houston game, where I thought we competed really well. We shot ourselves in the foot on the offensive end. We missed some shots that were good shots, but the turnovers were our big bug-a-boo that game. Going into Christmas we encourage the guys to get in the gym, not every day as we want them to enjoy their families, get away and mentally recharge. But we want them to keep their conditioning up and shoot the ball. Yesterday we went back to fundamentals, which we do a lot anyway, but we needed to get back into a groove and rhythm. We worked hard, but it was sloppy. Today I thought we were very good and very focused as well."
 
On if Houston's pressure in the second half is the blueprint to defeat the Aggies:
"They are a top-15 defensive team in the country and have made a lot of teams look semi foolish on the offensive end. They are very athletic, quick and have great rim protection. They can do a lot of things and then they have depth so they can throw a lot of different guys at you. We were up 10 at half and I thought we should have been up 15. The last three minutes, we turned the ball over on four of our last six possessions to end the half. It was a preview of what was going to happen. We still need to keep getting better and find a way to make that next step. We need to find a way to win against a team like that. They are one of only five undefeated teams in the country. When you are a team of that caliber, you can win in a lot of different ways. Their staple is defense and rebounding and I like to think that we are going to be able to grow and learn from that experience. I didn't help our guys enough on the offensive end with some of the stuff we were running. In hindsight, I wish I would have run some different stuff and played through some different guys, but hindsight is always 20/20 and I need to do a better job to help those guys."
 
On what the team hopes to accomplish against Eastern Oregon
"Our schedule has been very goofy. We played all of those games in a short amount of time early, and now we've had three games in three weeks. It has been good for practice, but you could tell at the end of practice today that our guys really had the itch to play again. This game, we want to take care of business at home and play well at home, which we've done very well all-in-all. We want to have some positive momentum going into league play. There are three seasons, the non-conference season, your conference season and then post-season play. We want to continue the momentum that we've had and finish the first third of our schedule on the right note."
 
On Eastern Oregon's Jordan May:
"He does everything. He is very quick and is a good athlete. He is very explosive and can change gears really quick. He is a shot maker. He can shoot it coming off of screens. The sneaky thing about him is he's had multiple games where he has shot 10 or more free throws. That is what really good scorers do, they find a way to get freebies and find a way to get fouled and he does that. They have a lot of new guys and have had a lot of transfers. They are 8-8 and have won five of their last seven and feel good about themselves. All of those new guys are starting to figure out their roles and how they are going to score. They put a lot of pressure on you because they have so many guys who can shoot, so it opens up driving lanes for him to make some of those plays. We just need to mind our P's and Q's and execute our game plan defensively, like we have all year, and then we need to handle the ball and make good decisions on the offensive end. That has been a clear focus for us all year, but especially after the 17-turnover performance against Houston."
 
On Eastern Oregon's rotation:
"They are a lot like Alabama State, in that they are a constant work in progress. That is difficult to prepare for. They know their core guys, but outside of that it varies. We've put a lot of onus on our players to know 12 to 13 guys. Our guys are looking at film and wondering who they need to key in on, but we need to be prepared for all of those guys. We have smart guys and we've been doing this for two months now, beginning with our closed scrimmage against a team that played a lot of different guys as well. Our guys have done a good job of understanding that, as a whole. At the beginning of the year it is a little bit of a struggle, but I feel like our guys have really settled in to guarding personnel like that."
 
On if Utah State needs another shooter outside of junior guard Sam Merrill:
"We want to be able to stretch teams out. Our goal is to score at the rim, have a mid-range game and a 3-game. We want to score at all three levels consistently. We are not at a point where we are telling players not to shoot, but we have been inconsistent with that. In the Irvine game we made (13) threes and then at Houston I thought we had some open ones, but the speed of that game may have made us feel rushed. Brock (Miller) has struggled shooting it, certainly he can shoot it, but I need to help our guys to get into those positions to make those plays. We need to get all three levels more consistently. Some games we've had that, but some games we've shot the three well, but haven't scored inside. Other games we've scored inside but haven't shot the three. In the ideal world you want consistency with all of that. We are to the point in the season where 60 percent of our practice time is over, but we are less than 50 percent done when it comes to games. People forget that we are a really young team. When you look out on the floor sometimes, we've got this freshman and this freshman, and this sophomore and we have a lot of inexperience. We are still working some kinks out and are a bit of a work in progress in a lot of things. Particularly in the point guard play, it has been this guy more and then another game it's been this guy more and it isn't very fair to those guys, but they need to figure it out. We try to help guys out the best, but I am a big-time feel guy as far as who has the hot hand and is playing well. It isn't just the hot hand in shooting, but who is rebounding well and just has the look to them. We keep track of every lineup during the game and it is amazing that this lineup will be plus-7 while they are in together. Although this player may be plus-9 and this player may be minus-10 and we stat that out. It is funny how guys or lineups will just rise to the top. We are still a work in progress and that is nice because we can really keep moving forward with positive momentum and keep getting better as a unit and I feel like we will."