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MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 9, 2016Tim DuryeaJalen MooreShane RectorLas Vegas, Nevada Utah State - 88 Wyoming - 70 THE MODERATOR: Just get your thoughts on today's game. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Okay. Really, really proud of my guys and pleased with the performance. I thought they came out from the get-go, really shared the ball well. With Wyoming's situation, didn't know how much zone defense we would see. They usually don't play a lot of zone. But we knew they had a zone they could play. Being shorthanded, we really didn't know. I was really proud that we came out and executed well against the zone because it's been a while since we've seen much zone defense, and thought our guys really moved the ball, made the extra pass and then when they had a chance jumped up and knocked shots down. Got off to a good start and just kind of kept it going. Thought we had a couple key defensive performances on Josh Adams and McManamen, and Shane and Jalen had -- Shane had Josh for a lot of the game. Jalen had McManamen some. So I thought that was a key to the game, as well. Q. It got down to 8 during the second half and they went on that run. Sensed a little frustration with the team. You stepped up and made that three. Did you feel you needed to step up to get things back on track? JALEN MOORE: Definitely. Like you said, it was an 8-point game. We couldn't get anything going for a little bit of a span on offense. I was just trying to take the team over and hit the shots that we needed to. And I was able to do that and I just couldn't let our team lose this game. We've been in too many games like this where we had the lead and at the end we ended up losing. I couldn't let that happen again, so I was trying to do what I could to get the win at the end. Q. You got the start tonight and then had a career high in points. Do you feel like there was a little confidence boost giving you that start? What was your mindset going into the game? SHANE RECTOR: You know, I just wanted to do whatever I had to to help the team win. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: You can tell them the truth. That you want to start. You can tell them. SHANE RECTOR: I mean, who doesn't want to start? (Laughter.) Yeah, he let me start tonight, so I came out and I knew it was going to be on me a little bit more to get the game started. So I just came out. I was being aggressive, just like Coach told me. And it was a good game. Q. You kind of touched on it, you guys have had the lead in a lot of games, especially in the first half and not been able to hold on to those leads in the second half. Is it a monkey off the back to stop that run and finish off a game? JALEN MOORE: Definitely. For me, we lost the other games, like I said. It was frustrating for all three of us and the rest of the team because we knew we had games that we should win. And this game was kind of turning out the same way. And we put an end to their run and were able to go up by too many points. Basketball is a game of runs. We were up by almost 30 at one point and they were able to chip away. But we were able to keep at a distance that they couldn't reach back. Q. You guys started the game with just an amazing amount of energy. What did the coaches tell you guys coming into the conference tournament to get you so pumped up? SHANE RECTOR: They told us all year long we were better than what our record said. Coming in we were really confident and we knew what we had to do to get the win. And I think we did that tonight. We got off to a strong start and we didn't really let up. Like Ja said, basketball is a game of runs, so I think we did a good job of keeping our composure the whole time and listening to the coaching staff. And we came out with a victory. Q. What did you try to do defensively against Adams? SHANE RECTOR: You know, Adams is a great player. I just tried to get into him as much as I could, just try to make him take some tough shots and that's what we did. He still ended with 18. I think we did a pretty good job with him as a team and myself. Q. Could you talk about the three-point shooting. You guys have been pretty good this year. But talk about the start, hitting those 3's, and getting confidence going. JALEN MOORE: We were making the extra pass, making the right play. Everyone was driving and kicking. When we were doing that we were hitting the open 3's, and everyone was making 3's. And we're capable of being a really good shooting team. And our stats say that, too. So when we came out we went on that run, made them have to call time out, try to gather themselves. Our three-point shooting is deadly when we drive and kick and people are knocking them down. Q. You guys have been close with San Diego State, lost by three at home. Obviously tough test coming up against the top-seeded team. You guys haven't been able to beat them since coming to the Mountain West. Could you talk a little bit about the challenge ahead? SHANE RECTOR: You know, we know they're a good team and the No. 1 team in the Mountain West. The first game we played them, we played them pretty tight. Second game we were in it for the most part. As a group we feel we can play with them. And this is a tournament. Anyone can win one game. We're going to go out there and compete and try to do what we did today. Q. Basically same question for you. The chance for getting a shot at San Diego State again. I know you've had a lot of chances against them. What gives you guys confidence going into this matchup that you can pull off the upset? JALEN MOORE: It was a three-point game in our place. In their place we were in it for most of the game. Having a big win over Wyoming definitely gives us confidence, and coming off a big win like that, our guys know we can compete with any team in this. I hope everyone comes out with energy and gives it an effort. If we rebound and break their press, don't give them the ball, I think that will give us our best chance of hopefully coming away with the W tomorrow. Q. Any specific matchups that you're looking forward to against San Diego State and specific positions? JALEN MOORE: I think all of them. It should be a fun game. They play hard. They play good. As long as we are patient on offense and make them have to guard us a little bit. And like I said, don't turn the ball over, I think it should be a close game. Q. There was a pretty big disparity in the fouls called. How much of an impact did that have on the team, particularly in the second half with most of the team in foul trouble and then getting a lot of free throws? SHANE RECTOR: When you play defense hard, sometimes you're going to foul. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention to that. JALEN MOORE: I looked up at one point and it was like 10-3. We don't blame the refs, we just blame ourselves. We've got to be able to move our feet. We knew having a lead they were going to be aggressive, try to get to the free throw line and get some points with the clock stopped. So it's not on the refs, it's on us. We've just got to play better defense, not foul people and put them at the line. Q. What did your guys do better in terms of maintaining a lead tonight? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: You know, I really saw no signs of panic whatsoever. And they were chipping away. And we had talked about it, there's going to be a run. You can almost count on that. And I was really thrilled to see Jalen Moore step up and make those two shots when the game did get to eight. That is the one thing we've really been missing all year long in the league. We are kind of an equal opportunity type team. We really don't have one guy that we play through. We really don't have that closer, you know, that we can give the ball to, give space and he can get it done. We are a group effort offensively. I thought tonight maybe more than any other game the ball kept moving, nobody thought, Hey, I've got to take this shot, I've got to make this shot. But I did see Jalen have a really, just a really calm look in his eye and just played at a great pace and got to his spot, jumped up and knocked it in. Two biggest shots of the game, I think. Q. Tell us about the foul trouble that was later in the game and how that may have affected how the boys were playing. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: We had to mix and match and shuffle a little bit more than we would like to. And that was the frustrating thing about the game. We talked at halftime probably the biggest key to the second half was not fouling early in the half so that they were on the line late in the game to where they could just put their head down and drive and score. When you have a big lead the last thing you want is your opponent being able to score without the clock moving. When you foul early that's the position you put yourself in. That was probably the one frustrating or disappointing thing tonight is in the second half I thought we had a couple of fouls that we could have stayed away from that would have kept the game moving a little bit more for us. And it's something we can't do tomorrow, obviously. Free throws are huge in these games when you're one and out. And that's an area we'll try to build on tomorrow. Q. Talk a little bit about deciding to start Shane Rector. Obviously it paid off and he had a career night. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Yeah. I didn't say anything about that because I wasn't a hundred percent sure I was actually going to go through with it. Darius has started every game for almost two years. And the biggest thing was, I just thought athletically Shane Rector on our team had the best, and maybe the only chance to matchup quickness-wise with Josh. He is so hard to handle on the open floor. And Shane Rector has tremendous quickness. Doesn't always use it. But today he was locked in and I thought that was defensively the key for us is we took away Josh's layups. We talked about he steals the ball and lays it up. He gets offensive rebounds, tip dunks and lays it up. He drives the ball in transition and lays it up. We had to take some of those things away, and I thought Shane did a great job of that. Q. You had Shane with a career night, Julion had a big burst there in the first half, Elston, Taylor had big defensive plays, rebounds. How important were the role players in this thing? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Really good. When Julion plays well, we almost always win or we were in position to win. And that's kind of been that way all year. I don't really know a reason why, other than he does give us some scoring pop off the bench. And so when he gets off to a good start that to me is one of the best signs I can see, you know, as a coach, because we usually go ahead and play well. So just thought the ball movement was so good early on in the game that guys had easy looks. And then they just jumped up and knocked them down and got a little contagious, similar to what Wyoming did to us up in Laramie, they knocked a few down when we were right there, the floodgates open and everybody thinks they can make one, and it goes from there. Q. I don't know how many 11 a.m. games you've had. Talk about the early start and how you had to approach that, and what a terrific start you got off to tonight. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Good question. That's a very unique game time for us. In this league sometimes you play some 2:00 games, but you really never play earlier than that. A couple of teams turned down their shoot-around time, so we were able to move our morning shoot around at 7:30. We actually took that. Sometimes I'm not sure we would have, we were the only league team that didn't come here for a road trip this year. We played Vegas one time at our place. Our guys have not been in this arena all year long. We thought it was important, even though we thought it was going to be over here at 7 a.m., just to get 25 minutes of shooting in on this floor in this arena. We were able to get on the floor at 7:30, and that helped us a little bit. We did most of our prep at Logan and took advantage of the shooting time here even though it was early. And I think that helped our guys, I really do. Q. What do you have to do better tomorrow against San Diego State than you have previously this season? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: You know, we've got to rebound the ball similar to what we did today. We've been an improving rebounding team as the season has gone along. That's step one when you play them. We've not had any luck against them on this court or their court or our court. You've got to rebound the ball, No. 1, and you've got to stay patient, yet really aggressive. If you're not aggressive against them offensively they will just chew you up and spit you out with their defense. You have to be aggressive and yet you can't force shots. There's a real fine line there. And we've got to find that tomorrow. Q. Are there any specific matchups that you're looking forward to and specific positions against San Diego State tomorrow? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: You know, the Winston Shepard matchup has always been a hard one for us, because of his size. He has had really good games against us. So if I had to -- if I had to single one out, which is hard to do, that's probably the one that we've got to do a good job there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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