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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2015Daniel BejaranoLarry EustachyStanton KiddLAS VEGAS, NEVADA San Diego State – 56 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Colorado State. Coach, just some thoughts on tonight's game. COACH EUSTACHY: Well, I was proud of our guys. I heard Coach Fisher talking. J.J. Avila could have played for us tonight. I mean, he was healthy enough to go, but we didn't want to ‑‑ we're in the tournament. We just didn't want to risk anything. It just wasn't the right thing to do. You know, but San Diego State fought the same thing with Dwayne Polee. I heard Coach Fisher said he wished our J.J. played against them. I believe him. He's a gentleman of the game. Dwayne and I go back eight years. I've known him since he was, you know, a sixth grader in camp. I was happy for him that he's back. They're going to be a tough team to reckon with. With that said, I was really very proud of our guys. You know, we slugged it out till the end. That's a really good team that we just played. I thought we went toe‑to‑toe with them. We had it to seven. Think the biggest play of the game was that shot, I don't know, I think Quinn hit it or somebody hit it, from the three with two seconds to go that got it to 10. Proud of our guys. We'll start a new season pretty soon. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Stanton, what makes a team like San Diego State so tough to score or get good looks against? STANTON KIDD: They're pretty long, athletic. They do a real good job of containing penetration and packing the paint when you drive the basketball. Also they took away our bread and butter, which is screening and rolling. It gives you a hard time, guys like me and DB, if he sets a screen, to pick and pop, get a good look. They played a really good defense tonight. Q. Daniel, how much of your guys' offensive struggle was you and how much was not having J.J. to feed the ball through and not work things around a bit more? DANIEL BEJARANO: J.J. in or not, obviously a good defensive team. Like Coach Fisher said, when his team is hitting shots, they look good. Like when we hit shots, we look good just as well. We weren't hitting very many shots. Every shot we took was probably tough. We just got to give them credit. But we still went down low with Tiel in the first half. You can't forget about that. He did do work. Q. Obviously you wanted to win this one. Did you feel like you were playing with nothing to lose, going up against San Diego State? DANIEL BEJARANO: We don't really try to think about that. We were just trying to play against San Diego State, just trying to have fun. We weren't glad that we just beat Fresno, we were trying to win the whole thing. Obviously we didn't, so... Q. Stanton, without J.J. that left you guys one short off the bench. Played seven guys tonight. Do you think you ran out of gas playing the second game in two nights? STANTON KIDD: Coach always preaches about how much the body can take. We was pretty tired but we kept fighting. That's the thing that coach liked about the game tonight. The first thing he said after the game was over was that we kept fighting and we didn't give up. I think that's going to do us a big favor when we get to the NCAA tournament and we got J.J. back with us. When we feel fatigued, we're going to keep fighting through. Q. Stanton, how different were they in the second half? They started attacking the rim, going inside for their buckets, had a lot of success. Were they doing things differently or was there some reason they were that much more successful at it? STANTON KIDD: There were a couple blown assignments, giving guys angles we shouldn't give. I fell like we played pretty good defense, making them score over us. They got a lot of second‑shot chances and a lot of put‑ backs. When we get back to practice, we're going to definitely work on rebounding and getting ready for the tournament. Q. Have you thought at all about what you deserve? Have you given that any consideration at all? DANIEL BEJARANO: At this moment, I really don't care, just as long as we get in. It's all about beating the team in front of us and moving on, so... Q. You played twice without J.J., that's against Nevada and San Jose State at home. How different were those games from tonight? DANIEL BEJARANO: It's just like all year, like I've been telling our coaches and players. When someone goes down, more people have to step up. I believe in our coaching staff as well as our teammates. It is different when someone goes out that is a big part of our team. Obviously it was J. You can see the difference. We need everyone. But we still fought. Q. Stanton, you said you'll have J.J. back when you're in the NCAA tournament next week. You sound confident. I want to hear you state your case for making the field of 68. STANTON KIDD: That guy is a big part of what we do, just like all three of us. I always tell J.J. and Daniel, I say, If we don't have good nights on both ends of the floor, we won't win. We're the leaders of the team and we have to lead by example. Tonight we didn't do that on certain ends and certain points. When J.J. come back, he's going to be healthy and be fine and I think he'll hit the ground running. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student‑athletes at this time. Thank you. We'll continue with questions for Coach Eustachy. Q. You said, We're in the NCAA tournament. Life on the bubble can be tough. Why the confidence? COACH EUSTACHY: We're not on the bubble. We're 28 RPI. I've been through this a lot, and we're squarely in the NCAA tournament. You know, if you read the criteria, the body of work, I think we've had about as good a body of work as most. You know, we won our first 14 games. It's supposed to mean as much as winning your last 14. I have no doubt that we're in the NCAA tournament based off what the criteria is, so... It gave us the luxury to sit J.J. and it's nice knowing that you didn't have to win that game to go, in my opinion. I've been wrong once in my life, but that's only once, so... It's a joke (laughter). No, I just think it's kind of a moot deal. We're too far deep into it. You know, there's too many teams that are questionable ahead of us. The people that know, the experts that do it for a living, you know, we're in great shape. Q. Without J.J. how do you think that affected your depth? COACH EUSTACHY: You know, I think the real story in this game was that San Diego State made a great adjustment and they decided not to press us. And if you know, I think when we beat them at our place, we got some easy baskets off our press offense. So they backed up and just packed it in. So I thought that was as big as anything. And, of course, you know, you just adjust. I mean, again, I'm so happy for Polee. They adjusted and learned a way to win. I was confident going into this game that we could win this game without J.J. along with not having to win it to get into the NCAA tournament. Obviously there's an adjustment period. We played through it. I thought the game was a little closer than 13 points. A few layups here, a few shots there. But, I mean, that's a team that goes Sweet 16 that just beat us. Q. You've done the NCAA drill before. The preparation is a little bit different because you don't know who you're going to play, the travel comes up. Having done that before, how much of an advantage do you think it's going to be having been to the Big Dance before? COACH EUSTACHY: I mean, obviously it helps. It's a great question. It helps. I can give the players a heads up as to, you know, when they say this time, it's this time, and wear this, you wear this. It's an advantage. But really the biggest advantage is we are who we are. We could play whoever we draw tonight again. You know, time doesn't really help us. We play a certain way. I think we play the right way. But obviously, you're saying I'm old is what you're saying. I'm an old guy, right (smiling)? You look at these coaches, I mean, these guys that are up there, I think they're the better guys in the country. The guy that just left, is there a finer coach? That's why I like being around him so much, he makes me look young, I hope. That's not a knock on him. But you look at Bo Ryan. When he hit 60, it was over. Now it's just starting for a lot of coaches. But it helps. Experience always helps. Q. If circumstances had been different and you had to have played J.J., how effective do you think he could have been? COACH EUSTACHY: I think he could have been really effective, you know. But when you get that soft tissue and you just happen to hit it the wrong way... He's been invited to Portsmouth. There's other things you have to think about. The number one thing is the best interest of the student‑athlete. I mean, I had to talk him down, talk him out of it. I had to tell him that this is not good for long‑term. So I think he would have been fine. We caught them on a real good night. Q. If Wyoming wins tomorrow and gets the automatic bid, do you think the NCAA Selection Committee will take four teams from what is the 12th‑rated conference in the country, or do you think somebody might get left out? COACH EUSTACHY: I don't know. What do you think? You guys are the experts that write about it. You know, that's where I think the human element comes in. But if you go by what you're supposed to go by, Boise State certainly deserves to be in. We certainly deserve to be in. San Diego State. Just because we have this unusual situation, these guys have worked for 22 weeks now. They shouldn't be penalized because all of a sudden, We don't want three from‑‑ I thought we were 11th, 12th. Whatever it is. You have to remember, our league is not the Missouri Valley. Our seventh‑place team was UNLV.  Our eighth‑place team was a school called New Mexico. So, you know, San Jose State has struggled. He's doing a great job, but there's a couple schools. Reno, Nevada was tough this year. You make it an eight‑team league, it's a hell of a league. I mean, ask Arizona how UNLV is. Then they finish seventh in our league, didn't they? Yeah, it's a strong league. I think it's a little misleading because there's a couple bottom schools that are rebuilding. Q. Do you think JJ's injury will have any impact on your seed? COACH EUSTACHY: I would hope not because he's healthy enough to have played tonight, and he'll be fine, you know. It is a factor. I had to talk him out of not playing tonight. You know, we're going to get the proper paperwork and say that he could have played. So I would say no, because we have a healthy J.J. He's going to be healthy for sure by that time. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. COACH EUSTACHY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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