Larry Jewell

3, 2, 1. Coach Neil Roberts of Dixie College. Dixie versus Yavapai. It's a rematch. You beat them before. Can you beat them again? I think so, yes. They're a heck of a lot better now than they were when we played them before, but so are we. And they're playing a little different personnel than when we played them before. They're as probably as big a team as we'll play this year. But size isn't what it's all about. I think that the heart and the desire to win and the intelligence of your teams and the patience and what you put together as far as the year is concerned, all tails off at this time of year. We had a good effort last night, especially the second half. The first half a little lethargic. We made some mistakes primarily, I think because of the two weeks we had between our last ball game and this ball game. Once we got on the floor of things and got it running, we played quite well. In fact, defensively, the second half we played as well as we have all year long. Offensively, that same half we came down, we got the good shots for the first time this year. We came from behind and won. We got ahead, maintained our lead and never really were threatened. Even though they cut it to three points, we were in control most away. You mentioned first time this year you came from behind after trailing at the halftime to win. It's got to be a good sign for the team. It's got to mean that you've hit another plateau. Well, it's maturity of the players. Not only that was very important for us because that way, once you've done that, you realize you can always do that. But yet the road trip we had prior to this, where we went up to CNCC and ceu, a game where we got ahead and just hung on and hung on. As soon as that threatened, we'd go get the good shot and make it, hit the free throws and do the things that have to be done to win. We didn't have the turnovers we usually have. Even though they play exceptionally defense, tonight they'll be playing against a 32 zone, primarily sitting inside, primarily challenging us to shoot over the top. Yet that's our strength. It has been all year long. The challenger. Tonight's ballgame is one. The same kind of feeling I have tonight as we had last year as we went in to play Central. Same kind of feeling as we had when we went up and played CSI, when I don't really think too many people and St. George gave us a chance the feeling here with a group of people, we've got a couple hundred people here. We had more than Mesa, we had more than Snow, we had more than Yavapai. When our players come out on the floor, it's not like it's an away game. The people here are having a great time. They're really enjoying it and our team really enjoys having them here. The kids did feel it last night. You better believe it. There was a lot of comments about it when they came back on the floor after taking the warm ups off. It was a big lift. When we finally did get ahead in the last part of the first half, there was a big lift when our fans behind us really had a good time. Your team seems to be suffering from a Pittsburgh Pirate syndrome. Loose. They are extremely loose coming into this game. Well, a lot of those players have been through it. You know, we've been to playoff after playoff after playoff and it's almost an expected thing at the present time when. Which is a great feeling as far as our program is concerned. The program, hey, we win five more basketball games, we're national champions. We're that close. Last year we went into a playoff situation. I don't think too many people gave us a chance to really get to the nationals because of the difficulty to get there as close as a week ago. I had a guy tell me that our team was really over ranked, that I was too high on them, that they weren't as good as. Everyone says that we've had a lot of teams at Dixie as good as this team. Well, maybe that's so. But yet when it really gets down to win loss time, it's not so. We have a lot of character and they worked extremely hard. Now it's paying off. It's a big game for us tonight. If we can do it, if we can get over this one, which will really be a challenge, I'll feel great about the year. It's really an accomplishment by 12 players that really dedicated themselves. If I remember correctly, last year you had some comments come to you about that team not being quite as good as you thought it was. Well, who knew that we were going to be the third best team in the United States last year? We are never ranked in the top 30. We have never been ranked in the top 30. This year we are ranked as one of the teams to possibly upset Western Texas in a magazine that came out earlier saying would be led by Ron Ince. I hope he's saying his prayers while he's on his mission and I hope he gets some good leadership tonight. Anything can help. I'll say. Who knows, you know, the maturity of basketball players and junior college. It's a whole new crew every year, players that play, of course. Eric and Brad had a great deal of experience. Hammer played about half a year last year, has good experience. The rest of the players that have really come for us, Andy's playing well at the present time. John Bauckham, Tim Fulmer, Dave Rose, who knew? Who knew? When we really started, we knew they were quality high school players. But the maturity and the self discipline it takes to really play with a team in a one year period of time is an unanswered question. I didn't early in the year I questioned if we'd get this far. But when you start questioning the abilities of young players, you find out what the character those players really are. Last night we showed that. I get a feeling that this is kind of an education of the fans in St. George. Here you come into a tournament with eight losses and a lot of people thinking, well, there's really no hope. This is kind of an education no matter what the losses are at the end of the regular season. A lot of things happen in tournament. Yes, you have to look at the type of schedule we played. Yes, we lost our first two games we played. We lost a game here in Phoenix early in the year to an AAU team. We lost snow twice to snow. We lost to CSI. At CSI, we were 8 and 2 in conference, the same record we had the year before. We beat some good conference teams, the conference probably comparable to what it was the year before and we ended up with the same record. Yet real key for us is the way the team develops throughout the year. Do they progressively get better game after game? Do they not have the lulls? And when they do have the lulls, do they really reach down and practice next Monday and lift themselves up? We've had good maturity this year. Our team has come a long ways. We're a threat to win every basketball game we play from now on. The offense seems to have come faster than it did the first two years you were at Dixie, the defense slower. Is that a fair assessment? Well, the first year I was at Dixie, we had a lot of players that were carried over from the year before, didn't have anybody to shoot. That's what it's all about is offensively you got to be able to put the ball in. We had some great players in that. They worked extremely hard. And also you as a coach learn a great deal your first year out it's not just the players. But the first year you make a lot of mistakes. The first year you learn a great deal about who you're playing. Everyone gets to look at you. Once you have to look at everybody and you don't really know what's going on. You're not used to the travel, you're not used to the situations that come and it's. And a tie up, a thing like this, you know, we've been to the playoffs all three years. We've been to a post season situation. The first year we lost our first game by one point. Last year, of course, we went a little further this year. We won the first one. We have a chance tonight to win it and get back to the nationals. It's been a long time since that's been done by a team from Utah. But yet if we don't, and as long as we give that complete effort, then what else can you ask for? The kids look like they're ready to have fun with basketball. That seems to be a lost cause with some teams in postseason play. Is that a plus to be able to have fun when you're in pressure situations? Well, it says a little bit for the type of individuals they are. You have to look at it realistically. If we lose, we're through. You know, we pack it up, we go home, we get out the golf clubs. If you win, you continue to go on to a dream. It's something that's held out there as a mystique. The first year we went to the nationals last year, I'd heard so much about the quality of teams back there, I thought, oh, Jesus, good to be here. I just hope we don't get embarrassed. After we got out of there, we had the feeling of, God, we could have won this darn thing. Same thing. This time we're going back saying, hey, we came so close this year. Why not just get it? Why not get a hold of it and win? And the same thing here. Tonight's a big basketball game. It meets a great deal for us. Our players are close enough to what happened last year to taste it tonight. Yeah, they're loose. Believe me, they know how big it really is. Let's talk a little bit more about Yavapai. The odd man front on his own defense seems to be popular. 1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 1, 3, 2, zone. That's becoming more popular now. Yes, it is, because the middleman cuts back. As far as penetration is concerned, the middleman also helps inside a great deal. They're forcing you to shoot the ball from the baseline and the point, which is where most people don't shoot the ball very well. However, we have been fortunate to have Craig Hammer and John Bauckham and Tim Fulmer and Eric's claymaker that can shoot the ball extremely well from those positions. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a challenge because they play it as well as any 3, 2 zone. I've seen another thing about Yavapai three times you've seen them that I know of in St. George scouting last week and last night. They seem to be almost three different teams. They run, sometimes they hold the ball, sometimes they take the ball inside, sometimes all the time and at other times they'll just free and easy and just shoot the ball. We watch them play four corners the whole ball game. We watch them in spread offense, we watch them in a stack. It's a little scary from a coach's standpoint to know what to expect tonight. We expect a heck of a game. Is there extreme disappointment that Snow didn't win? And this is a number three matchup between Dixie and Snow. I was glad to see Snow go home. No matter who beat them, they played really poor last night. I was really disappointed. The team fell apart. They lost the complete composure on the floor. The coach lost composure. He got kicked out of the game. They had 12 points because of technical fouls on coaches or players. They lost by four. I don't think it was the ability of the players that lost the game tonight. Key for Dixie. The key for us is to play our game, to do the things that we've done well all year long, to go with the players that have won for us all year long. At this stage of the game, you don't hope some guy off the bench comes in and wins it for you. You go with the seven or eight guys that have been doing it for the 30 games that you played. Also some keys. They're extremely strong inside. We're going to have to help. We're going to have to make them shoot the ball from outside, get out and run, attack their zone with patience. Finally, coaching staff, you and Sam, how loose are you? I hope the players don't feel like I do. It's as important for us as this is my job. This is what we play for. This is dreams. And if we could get there, maybe even win it, get there a couple of years in a row, it's like an opportunity to play for the state championship as a high school coach, three or four times in a Row. Sometimes it happens, but yet you also have to realize that at this stage of the game, the luck becomes important. The bounce at the right time, the disciplines that you worked on all year long. I have complete confidence in our team. I know we can win if we play well. Coach Neil Roberts, thank you for being with us and good luck tonight. Thank you, Larry. We're talking with Yavapai head basketball coach Dave Brown. Coach, the second time you face Dixie this year. Yes, that's right. They're a fine team and we're really looking forward to playing them again. We didn't have very good luck the first time we played them, and it was quite an enjoyable experience for us to come up there and play in the tournament. And you have a fine basketball team and it's going to be, I think, a very good basketball game tonight. Super win last night against Snow College. We were very pleased. The game got out of hand late, but we, I thought, carried the game to Snow early and dictated a lot of things that we had hoped our players were ready to do. And so we were quite pleased with the win and looking forward to another exciting game tonight. Two big performances. Herman Brown inside, Casper Ware outside. Yes, they've been very good players for us. Casper, of course, has been probably our most consistent player all year. And Herman had a fine game on the board and did some things offensively he hadn't done for us in a couple of games. So I hope he'll be able to carry that momentum on into tonight's game. Here. Big musket or ball club up front and you like to jump. It seems to be good rebounding team. Yes, we, I thought, were very physical with Snow last night, and evidently that's one of their stronger points and we were able to hold our own. And I think that was one of the turning points of the game, very honestly. Well, that would be one of the keys tonight, rebounding. I think it is. I think it is in any game that you play. And we felt like when we played your team up in Dixie that we had the board and I thought that you carried the game to us. And I hope that our players can hang in there tonight against your very fine team. Caspar Ware has just been named All Region. Congratulations on that. He must be a super quarterback for your team. Yes, he is. Casper has been a consistent player. He's a very fine freshman young man from Los Angeles, California. He's an exciting, dynamic player. Carries a lot of the game on the floor to the other players, and we're fortunate to have him and I look for him to become quite a quality major college basketball player. Your team has done a lot of different things recently since into the tournament play, and you slowed things down from your previous running game. We have changed things just a little bit. We tried to play each game separately as we felt like we had to play it to win. And we were getting a little erratic with our running game and I thought our performance was somewhat inconsistent because of that. And we tried to get our players a little more controlled situation and so far it's proved to be effective for us. Last night you had a chance to go back to the running game a little bit more. Do you see that as more of a strength to you now? I think it'll be a game that could go up and down tonight. Very honestly, we're expecting Dixie to get it up and down the floor and we're not going to be afraid to push it either. So I look forward to be kind of an open game, a lot of offense. You've got a team that can really shoot the basketball and we respect that. And so I feel like that it could be a game that would be in the 80s anyway, 70 or 80 point range. What about starting lineup for your squad tonight? We're going to start the same way we started last night with Herman Brown and Warren Webb and Michael Hitchcock, our three inside players, and then our outside people in Cath Beware and Bruce McCree or Rafael Durden, whichever one I decide to go with. Durden seemed to get his spark against Dixie before. That was really the first time he played much this year, wasn't it? Yes, that's right. Rafael had come on strong, he had a slow start. He's a very talented athlete that once in a while gets out of control. And as long as we can keep him within the bounds that we have set for him as a basketball player, why, he sometimes can have great ball games. He didn't play very well, I didn't think, against Snow last night. So we're hoping that he'll be on top of his game tonight. Coach Dave Brown of Yavapai College, thank you for being with us and good luck tonight. Thank you. It's a pleasure to play your fine team and your program and it ought to be an interesting game.