At the conclusion of Larry Krystkowiak’s Tuesday press conference, he noted an interesting experience that he hopes will give his team extra motivation to make a push for the NCAA Tournament
At the conclusion of Larry Krystkowiak’s Tuesday press conference, he noted an interesting experience that he hopes will give his team extra motivation to make a push for the NCAA Tournament, despite having a less-than-eye-popping season resume, especially after getting swept in the Bay Area last weekend.
Without the prompting of a media question, Krystkowiak relayed the following:
“You know, it was kind of interesting yesterday, my lucky number for anybody that knows, has always been seven–like, crazy seven kind of guy. And you think about all the sports, the Super Bowl comeback, the [Chicago] Cubs comeback, the [Cleveland] Cavs comeback, and a lot of people were written off. I was just trying to prepare a little something for our team. Somebody handed me a sheet that said we had a 22 percent chance of being in the NCAA Tournament–some website.
“I wanted to share that with our team because I looked down at my phone when I was just starting to think that yesterday when I was driving to work, and it was 7:00, straight up, 7am. And I had seven percent battery left in my phone. I took a snapshot of it at the exact time that it was seven. We have seven games left, and it’s the seventh [of February].
“I believe completely that we’ve got a chance. Those teams, if I’m not mistaken, the Cubs had a 16% chance after they were down 3-1, the Cavs even less than that. Obviously, if you watched the Super Bowl, nobody in their right mind would have thought New England was coming back from a twenty-some point deficit.
“So as long as our guys don’t give up, and they’re in–which we addressed yesterday–we’re gonna go down swinging and have all the belief in the world. We’ve lost a number of close games against the big opponents, and we need to start clicking. It wouldn’t be the first time around here that we started playing pretty good basketball this time of year. So I’m confident we can do that, and hopefully everybody’s in.”
Audio:
Utah guard Parker Van Dyke, who has recently blossomed on the court alongside his relentlessly positive attitude, said seven is his lucky number as well, adding he would wear the number if it was allowed in college. “I view it more than a coincidence,” Van Dyke said. “It tends to happen a lot around him. We’ll stop practice, and it’ll be 4:07 or something like that, or they’ll stop the clock and there will be 7:07 left on the clock or something like that. Hopefully that’s something that’s going to work in our favor.”
