This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In the weeks that followed his punching of Utah's Brandon Taylor at the Huntsman Center on Dec. 2, Nick Emery was sort of off-limits to the media as BYU coaches gave the freshman time to clear his head and focus on improving his on-court demeanor.

Emery was gradually allowed to talk to reporters in a setting outside the traditional postgame news conference in mid-January and early February, and on Tuesday I got my chance for a one-on-one chat as the Cougars prepared to take on San Diego tonight (9 p.m. MST, ESPN2) at Jenny Craig Pavilion.

You can read some of what Emery had to say about the incident at Utah here.

As is usually the case, I wasn't able to work a lot of what he had to say into the article, due to space limitations.

Of course, Emery had a phenomenal week last week in the wins over San Francisco and Santa Clara — arguably the best week ever for a BYU freshman basketball player. He called the week "gratifying" after having had more than his share of ups and downs this season.

"December was a rough month for me personally and for our team," he said. "We lost a couple games there, and then of course we lost to Pacific [on Feb. 6]. I think just gaining that confidence back has got me going."

Emery said a lot of people have counseled him the past few months.

"I think everyone was a psychologist," he said. "No professionals, or anything like that. Just my coaches and my teammates, they have helped me the most. You can't win every game. I hate to lose, and sometimes that shows. I think they've done a great job to get my head right and help me keep going forward."

I asked seniors Nate Austin and Kyle Collinsworth what they said to the freshman to keep his spirits up.

Austin: "I just told him don't let something like that define you. Just keep your cool from it. I think Nick has done a good job with that. There's been moments since that game where he's wanted to flip out at a ref or do something kinda crazy, but he's kept his cool.

I think Nick has learned from it. He let his emotions get the best of him and we handled it and moved on. I think Nick's done an admirable job of moving on."

Collinsworth: "I just told him to control what you can control — especially for him, he is having a great freshman year. What he is doing now is only going to multiply as he gets older, the crowds are only going to get more on him as he becomes the guy next year. I just told him to worry about what you can control and don't waste your energy on stuff like that. He's gotten better and he's made strides on that and I'm happy for him."

I asked coach Dave Rose if there was a moment or event, or conversation, that triggered Emery's great play as of late.

"The moment is just how he felt last week," Rose said. "I mean, that was a really disappointing loss to our team a week ago Saturday [to Pacific]. All of our guys really got to a place to re-evaluate what we are going to do, and how we are going to do it. What are we going to be? How are we going to finish this thing? Nick had quite a few conversations with all the coaches on the coaching staff about the expectations that he personally has for himself, and that we have for him as a team.

I just think that he went out and he just had a great weekend, one that we hope will remind him of when he was playing his best basketball in high school.

It is difficult. I don't think anybody — I served a mission and then came home — knows how difficult it is to find your game again. It doesn't just happen. I mean, you have so much time to think when you are on your mission, and there are so many expectations you have, by yourself, when you come home.

And when you have a hard time — because you want to be way better than the person that left — and what is really difficult is to get back to be the guy that you were, when you left.

Everybody has their own timetable. I think Nick, this weekend can really help him in the pursuit of being the player he wants to be. Because he was really good. My goodness, the numbers are like video game numbers, when you look at it.

And then you look at who was going to be the West Coast Conference player of the week, and then just look at the numbers, and then the national freshman of the week and I think he got another award today. They were pretty impressive numbers because they got way outside of the WCC and Provo Utah, to a national level."