Utah (No. 13) obtained its highest ranking since the 2004-05 season on the strength of its overtime win against Wichita State last week. Plenty of obstacles remain for the Utes, starting with rival BYU Wednesday in Provo, Utah, where they haven't won since 2005, and a date Saturday against No. 10 Kansas.
It may be too early to declare that the Utes are back, but in his fourth season, coach Larry Krystkowiak appears to have them on track for their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2008-09. Krystkowiak spoke to ESPN.com about Delon Wright's dedication, providing bulletin board material and "the other Coach K."
Krystkowiak isn't an easy name to spell or pronounce. Do you sometimes take a pre-emptive strike with people to shorten it to anything?
Coach [Mike] Montgomery at Montana called me Krystko, people have always wanted to make it a little easier. I've never been too particular. It took me a while in kindergarten to get my star on the board for spelling it right, too. I've always been sympathetic with people. I know people all over the country, same family line, have dropped the K in the middle. I've noticed that in a lot of phone books. I think when you look at it without the K in the middle it's easier to digest. It's kind of what we're going through with Jakob [Poeltl] right now, people want to pronounce it right.
Sharing a Polish background with Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and having similar names, would you ever allow someone to call you "the Other Coach K," or the "West Coast Coach K"?
It's actually kind of taken on a life of its own over here, and that's all to keep it a little simpler. Far be it from me to think that there should be any comparison other than a lot of consonants in the last name and being Polish. But it is helping people I think over here. In recruiting and stuff, it's used a little bit. It is happening. I have no problem with it. As I said we just always try to keep it simple. No disrespect to the real Coach K, but it is kind of taking on a life of its own here in Utah.
Last season, you lost eight games by four points or less including three in overtime. So how big was beating Wichita State in turning the corner in that regard?
It is huge. I think a lot of times it's a little bit like shooting. It's based on confidence and your ability to make some plays. We took a long, hard look at some of the misfortune we dealt with a year ago -- I think there were 10 close games and we only won two of them -- so we've tried to be a little bit better prepared as a coaching staff and our players have a year under their belt. So maybe they've been able to mature a little bit and realize what it is we've got to capitalize on. It's one of those deals you don't want to experience the other side of it because then you're kind of reliving a little bit of last year. It could have been really detrimental. It's hard to say until the year's over, but a lot of times you need a little springboard and you need something positive happening to give you some momentum. ... I'd like to think that there were plenty of opportunities in the Wichita State game for it to not be a one-possession game. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot the first four minutes of that game and the last four minutes of that game and were pretty clean in between. It would be great if we could take care of business and not have turnovers and breakdowns in our coverage to where they're becoming close games again.
Was it hard to envision the success you're having now during the midst of going 6-25 during your first year in Utah?
I never really tried to envision anything. I've said all along, I think people around here are tired of the same old statement I make, but we're strictly on a day-to-day deal and we have been since we took over here. You try to figure out a way to fix something and improve a little bit each day and you hope over the course of time your graph is trending upward and you're making progress. I think that's kind of what's come to fruition now. We continue to make some progress and our talent level has improved and some of the success of our team has improved and we try to keep the same blueprint going. No reason to try to change it now. Pretty much stay in the moment as much as we can, stay in each individual day.
What was the tougher season to take: going 26-56 in your only full season as the Milwaukee Bucks head coach in 2007-08 or winning just six games in your first season with the Utes?
It was more difficult dealing with the Bucks experience because the nature of it. We didn't necessarily expect that and I felt a little bit helpless being able to make any changes. In that profession, your days are somewhat numbered. In Utah, the first year, we kind of realized that was the beginning and we had to start somewhere and it was going to take a while to recruit and it was a long-term plan so we kind of kept that vision rather than maybe seeing something coming to an end.
You flew some 5,000 miles to see Poeltl play in person in Vienna, Austria, and you don't speak German. Have you ever learned a new language in order to sign a recruit?
No. It always sounds good but at the end of the day it comes down to time. I'm a creature of habit so I'm not sure I'm the best person to be learning another language. I know when I coached Yi [Jianlian] with the Milwaukee Bucks I got the bright idea that I was going to learn Chinese, and that lasted about 10 minutes.
Delon Wright shot 22 percent from 3-point range last season and he's started off 47 percent this season including a big 3 in overtime against Wichita. Did you change his shot mechanics or was it just a matter of him getting in the gym and practicing in the offseason?
Even a year ago, I never for a minute thought Delon shouldn't be shooting some of those shots. I think, as I mentioned before, a lot of times shooting is so much confidence. When you're watching games closely and you see how he missed shots, a lot of them were in-and-out kind of shots or maybe the ones that are an inch long or an inch short. It wasn't broken. I think he's shot a thousand shots, he's taken it real serious in the offseason and he's seeing some of these shots go in and I think he's shooting it with more confidence. Never for a minute did we think it was broke and it needed to be fixed. It's not a jump shot per se it's more of a set shot, but people are playing off him and I think he's managed to take advantage of it to try and keep some people honest. I've always had a lot of faith in him, but certainly it's paying off for him.
You call shooting 100 free throws a day "taking our daily vitamins." What would you say shooting all those jump shots was for Delon?
He had a combination of things he spent a lot of time on beyond shooting jump shots. He was in the weight room trying to get a little bit stronger. He led the Pac-12 in minutes a year ago, and I'm not sure we're going to venture far away from that. We need him to be on the floor so some of that strength is paying off for him. On the mental side of things, I think he is being more of a leader. He came in here as a juco player and a lot of times I think you defer a little bit to try to find your way, the lay of the land, and he's shown a lot of leadership skills. As far as all the shots go, whether it's daily vitamins or whatever, it's reps and you spend hours and hours in a gym a lot of times while nobody is watching. It's no secret. If you're talented to begin with and you put some time in, I think that big basket he hit in overtime is some of the fruits of that labor paying off. It's been a situation where we're trying to convince our guys you're in there working and it's a lot of hard work and when you're presented with that opportunity, that's what a lot of people perceive as luck. It's just the regimen they're on and taking it seriously and building some habits.
Of a tough stretch of games including BYU you said, "We're playing five elite teams, well, four-and-a-half if you count BYU." By all accounts that's proverbial bulletin board material for the Cougars. Hypothetically speaking, if one of your players said the same thing, would you have made them run extra laps in practice?
Oh no. It's funny. That's what the rivalry is all about, right? At least people don't have to make up stuff -- they can throw me right in the middle of it. I've got a lot of respect for [BYU coach] Dave Rose, and they know that there. Our schedule has been upgraded a lot, and I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking except maybe to get it going. We completed the Wichita State game, we were on to the next one. I don't anticipate anybody needing any extra motivation to play harder or any type of thing there. No disrespect to them. Sometimes I try to be funny and it doesn't always come out that way. There's not that many pockets in America anymore that have a rivalry that goes back that far. There's some good basketball in this state and sometimes I think there's an opportunity to have some fun. There's going to be 20,000 people screaming and I might be the focal point for some of those folks. If it takes a little heat off of some of our players, it's probably a good thing.
As the only three-time most valuable player of the Big Sky, you were drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 1986 before being immediately traded. Do you ever stop to consider that maybe you were the missing piece to helping Michael Jordan win a championship before his first in 1991?
Oh, so you're going to be the comedian now? It's interesting, Portland was picking 24th and said make sure you're sleeping well tonight because worst-case scenario, we're picking you with the last pick of the first round. Of course I started bragging to my friends and family and we had a party and were watching on ESPN. That's when they only had the first round on television and with the 24th pick the Portland Trail Blazers select Arvydas Sabonis. That was kind of the beginning of the whirlwind. They went to pick 27 on TV, which was [Dennis] Rodman going to Detroit, then they went off the air. I got picked 28th and then a couple hours later I was traded to Portland. A week went by after I was a Trail Blazer, so I finally called them and said I don't know what the summer plan is. They said you don't know it yet, but you've been traded to San Antonio. They were going to announce the next week. It was kind of a brutal indoctrination into the NBA from being the kingpin at Montana to being some damaged goods. I'm not sure I could have done much for the Bulls. At that time, I think that plan probably went as they had it marked out.
STATE OF THE GAME
Each week we'll have a coach talk about an aspect of college basketball.
Kansas coach Bill Self: "I would definitely eliminate the one-and-done rule. I would allow a kid to go straight out of high school or I'd make them stay longer if they went to school. Much like the baseball rule or the football rule is they've got to stay three. I don't know what the number is, but I would definitely do something about that. I do think our game isn't as high a quality game as 15-20 years ago because then you had more great players still playing. And now our guys aren't allowed to become great because they're leaving too soon. We have more good players than we've ever had, but you have less great players playing in the college game than what we've ever had."
TALKING POINTS
St. John's coach Steve Lavin appeared on "SportsCenter" and shared his reaction to the news he had cancer: "Initially, it's numbing, just the shock of it all. I will say from the moment you get that news you begin to see the world and life through a different prism, a different lens. Having cancer informs our sensibilities in terms of what's really important. And after that call from my doctor I called my wife, Mary, and then I called my mother and father. And then I didn't share it with anyone until the end of that first basketball season at St. John's because I didn't want to distract or burden our team. I wanted to be sure we had the type of season we were capable of. I know what a distraction it can be when you're in a major media market like New York or L.A. I didn't want to shift the story to anything but the improvement of that particular basketball team that made a run to the NCAA tournament. And at the end of the season I began to do the real research in terms of what path of treatment was going to be best for my particular form of cancer."
Coastal Carolina coach Cliff Ellis on his emotions after returning to Auburn and beating the Tigers 58-54 in his first trip back since he was fired in 2004: "This is a win‐win situation. I needed to come back. And everybody that was involved with my program, we've been kind of out of the picture for the last 10 years, but we're here to help this thing get back. It's a healing, and we're going to do everything we can to help Bruce [Pearl] do what he has to do to make this happen. We're going to help him."
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan on the helpless feeling watching the Badgers football team lose 59-0 to Ohio State in the Big Ten title game: "Because of my age, I've been involved in probably any kind of score or numbers you could ever imagine. As a player and as a coach. When things like that are going on, first of all, you know that we have a very well-coached team. We have very good players, players who have a lot of pride. But when things start turning the way they do at times during games, our games, I can picture us playing Maryland in the [2002] NCAA tournament. [Wisconsin lost 87-57.] We're trying to compete, trying to compete and then, whoa, and we turned around and we're down by 25. I don't know what it was. But it sure turned in a hurry, didn't seem anything could go right, and you just keep playing hard. I did not see Wisconsin stop playing. I saw Wisconsin still competing. I saw them. Unfortunately, when you're in a position where you know the coaches and you know the players and you know how hard they have worked, what you say is how about the fact that we get another game, though? So like the NCAA tournament against Maryland, when we got beat, there was no consolation. There wasn't another game that year. For the Badger football program, they've got Auburn and the Outback Bowl, so good for them. I think they'll be just fine. I felt for them. Believe me. Been there."