Utah State head men's basketball coach Craig Smith addressed the media on Friday in preparation for the Aggies' Mountain West contest against Colorado State on Saturday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m. The complete transcript of the press conference can be found below.
 
On Colorado State:
"They are playing their best basketball of the year and have won two in a row. They are sitting at 7-10 overall and 2-2 in the Mountain West. They got back-to-back home wins over Air Force and New Mexico, and resounding wins at that by 20 or so against Air Force and 16 against New Mexico. And now they've had their bye week. We've been on the road six of the last eight days with two road W's, so that's nice. But, we've got to get our legs under us and get ready to face a really good team. Their loss at UNLV to open the conference season was a lot like our game with Fresno State. They led the whole way, they controlled the whole way and essentially, UNLV tips it in at the buzzer to win the game.
 
"They are led by their 6-11 center, Nico Carvacho, who is No. 1 in the country in rebounding with 12.4 per game. He's No. 5 in defensive boards and No. 6 in offensive boards and is getting four offensive rebounds by himself. If you are getting over two per game, that is really good, and four a game is incredible. He's No. 10 in the country with 10 double-doubles, and No. 29 in the country in field goal percentage. I'm going to stop praising him because I've had a headache thinking about him the last two days. He's a really good player. He's big, he's physical, he's experienced and can score with his right hand or his left hand and gets fouled. He's a good defensive player. It starts with him.
 
"They have two other guys who are double digit scorers in J.D. Paige, who is averaging almost 15 a game. He's a senior, he's experienced, he's a big guard and is a lefty. He's played a ton of minutes throughout his career. And then (Anthony) Masinton-Bonner who is averaging 13 a game, but has missed the last game and half with an injury, not sure what it is, some sort of a foot injury. Then they are starting two freshmen, who have really come on in these two wins, and have played good basketball. Kendle Moore is a jet, 5-10, 160, and is faster than fast. And Hyron Edwards is the same type of player at 6-0, 170. You combine those two with Bonner and those three guards are not really tall, but they are explosive, fast and get on you quick in transition. And then Adam Thistlewood is another freshman who can really shoot it. And Kris Martin, who we played against at Oral Roberts, has put up some numbers. They have a lot of different guys. They basically play four guards out there with Carvacho. They are one of the better offensive teams in the country.
 
"Post defense is going to have to be at its premium. They don't turn it over very much. They don't foul very much. They are the type of team that you need to beat them to beat them."
 
On if Colorado State is similar to Utah State with its similarities in coaching backgrounds:
"I was at South Dakota last year and he (CSU head coach Niko Medved) was at Drake and we played each other last year. That was the first time our teams had played each other. They play a different brand. They run a high-post continuity and ran it almost exclusively at Drake. They do that a lot at Colorado State, but have veered away from it some. Of course, there is some terminology that is the same. When you work together for five years under Coach Miles, the current head coach at Nebraska, there are some things with terminology that is similar. The way we recruit, we look at some of the same attributes. You can see with who they were playing early in the year to who they are playing now that we look at a lot of the same things that we value in a player. Some of the things we emphasize to win games are very similar, playing hard without fouling and not turning it over. You play guys that value the same things. There are some similarities, but Niko was at Furman for four years and I was at South Dakota for four years, so you learn and grow and figure out what is you. But we worked together and that is what is cool about coming back to the Mountain West is that we have a familiarity with the league and what it takes to win."
 
On if this game has more of his attention because of both coaches coming back to the MW:
"There is a relationship there, but I don't think that Sam Merrill knows J.D. Paige or Neemias Queta knows Nico Carvacho, so there isn't really a similar bond. I don't think any of our players have played with theirs. I was at Nebraska for two years and (CSU assistant) Ali Farokhmanesh he came to Nebraska the year after I left. There are a lot of similar relationships. Niko and I worked together for five years and helped flip that program around from basically an expansion franchise because we only had two players returned to that team when we got hired. You go from winning seven games in one season, we went 0-16 in the league together and that is not an easy row to hoe. We won the 8/9 game in the conference tournament and it felt like we had won the Super Bowl. There was a lot of highs and a lot of lows and you go through that together. There will always be a bond there and a relationship there that runs deep. When you go from seven wins, to nine wins, to 16, to then being a bubble team and host an NIT game, to then going to the NCAA Tournament was a cool thing to go through. There is some familiarity there and he knows what I believe in and I would say I know what he believes in."
 
On Colorado State's 0-16 year in league during their first year in Fort Collins:
"I think we started the year 4-2, we won three games in four days at the Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Alaska. There was one high-major team there, Oregon State, so they put Colorado State against that team, and we beat them. The second game we played Middle Tennessee State and we had a little guard that got 43 and we beat them, and we won by eight. The last game we played Portland State, who was an NCAA Tournament team that year, and we didn't lead the whole game. We called a timeout, our guys screwed it up, we somehow threw it to some guy who throws it up and misses, we get the offensive rebound tip it in and we won the game, literally at the buzzer. We won three games in four days, won six games in November and December and then didn't win again until March 15 in the 8/9 game when no other teams are in Las Vegas yet. That was a long, long year. You never want to go through that, but you learn a lot and Niko would probably say the same thing. There were some rough days in there, but still we were enjoying it and having fun and helping our guys get better. Sometimes, as a coach, you can let losing define you and winning define you and it should never define who you are. You should be the same person and that is hard to do, but Coach Miles did it."
 
On if Colorado State has finally gelled this season:
"That is a great question. They are really talented. Carvacho is as good as anyone in the country, that guy can go. They are very athletic. Their guards are very fast and are on you and explosive. Their style of play is a lot different from what it has been the last few years with Coach Eustachy, not that I got to see those guys play a whole lot, but it is different. It takes a while when you have a new coach to figure some things out. I'm not comparing, but I've always been very positive about our players because the buy-in from our players, and the willingness to learn, that takes time and our guys have really embraced that. I think Colorado State is very good and there is no doubt that they are playing their best basketball right now. It is going to be a battle on Saturday night."
 
On Sam Merrill's health
"I think he'll be fine. It is just an ankle and nothing catastrophic. You know Sam. Sam is a warrior and a tough kid. It was really two things. He was mad when we pulled him out, like he always is and that is a compliment, and he also had two fouls. And then we started clicking and really started rolling. We anticipate him playing on Saturday."
 
On the team's success at San José State when Sam Merrill was out of the game
"I thought that was huge. It was different guys stepping up. Everything is more magnified with social media, but that is another hour conversation. It is such a long season and I don't want to be cliché, but you can never get too high and you can never get too low. Teams are going to go through ups and downs. Especially young teams. I was looking at it the other day and we have four freshmen and a junior in a pivotal moment of the game, and we extended the lead. People forget how incredibly young and inexperienced we are. That has been exciting to see different things this season. There was a stretch there that Diogo Brito, and I say Diogo, but there have been various guys that have struggled. You just have to fight through that and not believe all the hype, good or bad. You have to look within, and we are here to help and Diogo has fought through that and has had back-to-back very good games. Brock (Miller) has been a lot more consistent since Christmas, in that you know what you are going to get out of him. Neemi is playing more like a sophomore now than a freshman. Tauriawn Knight has had his best week and a half of practice and we throw him in there and it shows. He only gave us four minutes, but I thought they were good minutes at Wyoming. And he was really good the other night. You never know when your number is going to be called, you just don't know but when it is you need to be ready to roll. It is all about production. Justin Bean, when he was on the floor against San Jose, had our best plus/minus differential at +24. He was number one and Tauriawn Knight was number 2. Two of the guys who have had the least minutes before Christmas. It is a long season and you just have to keep on working and keep on grinding. It was fun to see to go from basically down 10 to up six with Sam out of the lineup to finish that first half at San Jose."
 
On the maturity of players in games that are going back and forth:
"Let's not get used to these slow starts. Sometimes we forget how long games are. Some teams when they get down start to think that they have to run an eight-point play. There is no secret. You just have to find a way to get stops. This team has done a good job with that. Our first home game we were down 9-0 and then we were up 18 or 20 at the half. It is amazing how a lead like that is not as great as it seems when you are good defensively. When you can string together three, four or five stops in a row and then score on half of those you can chip away a lot quicker. We've had two games where it felt a little overwhelming and that was at BYU and at Nevada. I see a maturing process with this team. Guys have had to adjust with different roles because of injuries and departures. We are still working our way through that and guys are still figuring things out."