What Utah's Alex Jensen said after exhibition loss to Nevada

Utes head coach broke down what went wrong in loss to Wolf Pack

Utah Runnin' Utes head coach coach Alex Jensen enters his first season at the helm of his alma-mater. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Despite a big night from transfer guard Terrence Brown, the Utah basketball team didn't have enough juice down the stretch of its exhibition opener against Nevada on Friday and fell, 80-77, in Alex Jensen's unofficial debut as head coach of his alma mater.

Brown poured in a game-high 27 points, though it wasn't enough to overcome the turnovers and poor transition defense that plagued the Runnin' Utes throughout their first game back at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. Utah committed 18 turnovers, including 11 in the second half, that led to 20 points the other way for the Wolf Pack, while the defense yielded 17 fastbreak points to a squad that enters the season ranked No. 310 in the country in tempo on KenPom.com.

"[Nevada] did a lot of things that our guys weren't prepared for," Jensen said after the game. "But I think the turnovers and the fastbreak points were the hard part for us tonight."

Here's more from Jensen following his team's 3-point loss.

On his team's energy and effort

"We said it in the locker room after — they played hard. There's things that we can be better as a coaching staff, and help them in situations, but they played hard. I was happy for that, and we can remedy and limit the mistakes."

"The transition [defense] is one of those things we've talked about a lot, like every day in practice. So, yeah, it's a great game to have a lot to learn from, but it's hard to move forward unless you can have those basic, foundational things that we've tried to we've tried to teach them."

On the status of Seydou Traore and Don McHenry

On Traore: "Lower leg; he's gonna get checked by the doc tonight, and I think we'll find more out [tomorrow]. Hopefully it's not too bad. We're a different team without Seydou."

On McHenry: "I think we'll find out more about that. We have a week till we play Oregon and again, being, I guess, the preseason or exhibition season; [there's] no rush. You don't want to make it worse. We'll take it as it goes. But hopefully he's ready to go next Friday."

On what impressed him about Terrence Brown's performance

"He plays hard. It's a nice thing as a coach to have to tell a kid to slow down, because he has one speed, and good guards have multiple, two or three or speeds."

"He kept playing hard. And I think he's improved a lot since he's been here, and he was good tonight, and just kept going. So that was a great thing."

On his rotation

"Well, to be honest, we're still searching for a strategy in the rotations and substitutions. New team, new coaches, trying to find the best combinations and it might vary by every team we play. I think also using the substitutions and rotations to help teach, right? Like, you know what you need to do to be on the floor, you know?"

"I think Josh [Hayes] came in. Kendall Sanders, great; came in for three seconds in the end of the first half, and he was ready to play. It was encouraging to see him tonight."

On being back in the Jon M. Huntsman Center as a coach

"It was interesting, because we were on a different bench than when I was here [as a player]. But it was good. It's a special place, and myself and the team, we want to do the teams and people who have come before proud. So, it's a great place; a lot of great games there, and hopefully there'll be many more to come."