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MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2016Tim DuryeaJalen MooreJulion PearreLas Vegas, Nevada San Diego State - 71 Utah State - 65 THE MODERATOR: Coach, just some thoughts on today's game. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Yeah, tough, tough loss. Tough loss to end our year. I thought our guys really battled. You look at the stat sheet and a lot of the categories where you really want to take pride in your team, take pride in your team's effort, your team's fight, I thought we were really good, really tremendous. I told them in the locker room, you know, sometimes it's a bounce, it's a call, it's a tip that just doesn't go your way that decides the game. Sometimes it's two teams that really were fighting to win, trying to win, thought they were going to win and sometimes you just can't control what turns it the other way. And I thought our guys played really hard, really tough, really well, stayed together and deserved to win the game. Somebody is going to win. Somebody is going to lose. But I was extremely proud of them today. Q. How proud are you of the fight that your team showed against the top seed in the conference? And also what was the biggest reason why you guys had trouble making a basket in the final seven minutes of the game? Was it not going in? Was it their defense? What was the biggest issue there? JALEN MOORE: First off, I'm really proud of how the guys played. I feel like this might have been one of the hardest games we've ever been in. Everybody played hard. Nobody wanted to lose. I felt all five guys on the court, all the guys on the court, all the coaches, felt like we could win this game throughout the game. I never had a thought in my mind we were going to lose the game until at the very end. In the last seven minutes when we couldn't score, just they were a tough defensive team. They're always good at defense. And the other thing is we were guarding them a little bit, too. It was a back and forth game. But that's all I'd say. They were defensively sound and they picked up their pressure the last seven minutes and kind of made us stall a little bit, couldn't score on them. Q. What happened on that intentional foul with Jeremy Hemsley, were you trying to foul him or they just called it, what was going on there? JULION PEARRE: No comment, please. Q. On that last possession before the free throws came, you caught the ball up top, drove it in, didn't make a shot. Can you walk through the play, what you were trying to do, what you saw, what ended up happening? JALEN MOORE: We got the ball and I looked up and I think there was 18 seconds or so, you know. I wanted to at least get a shot up in case we missed that we had enough time to foul them. And I think we were only down by one or so, or two. And if we get up a shot quicker than later, then it would give us enough time to foul them and make the game a little bit longer and make them have to make some free throws and put pressure on them, just to give us enough time to put a little bit of pressure on them and give us a chance to have the ball back. Q. Towards the end with the foul from Shane Rector, you made a specific point to go over and help Hemsley off the ground. Can you talk a little bit about that, why it was so important for you to go over there. JALEN MOORE: I just don't want them to think that we're that kind of team. I don't think Shane meant to do anything, like any damage or anything like that. But I don't want them to go off thinking that we're dirty players. I just wanted them to know we played hard. I told him, Heat of the moment, that's why he did that thing. I asked him if he was good and everything. I just didn't want him to think we were that kind of team, and I just wanted to make sure he knew that. Q. Being in foul trouble with Evans and Jones and Taylor obviously affected the team throughout the game. But it seemed like you were able to balance that in the second half, adjust to get rebounds and still have defense and keep in it. Was there something specific you were doing to do that, just being smarter or what was it that you did to be successful there? JULION PEARRE: We just battled. Coming into the game Coach told us we had to rebound. We had to fight. We knew they were I think coming into the game we were plus-8 on the boards. So we came in with the mentality that we're going to out-rebound them, we're going to play hard, and that's what we were able to do. Even when we got in foul trouble we stuck together as a team and kept fighting. Q. Can you talk about this tournament, two games in a row you've come off the bench and added an offensive spark and been consistent. Talk about your approach to this tournament. JULION PEARRE: My approach was I was coming in, knowing my role off the bench was to come in and try to give us a lift. Coaches had faith in me, my teammates did, they found me and I was just able to knock down shots. So I just give all the credit to God, but that's the reason. Q. Can you kind of sum up this season, probably not the results that you wanted, but you finished strong, you've got a lot of returning talent coming back next year. Can you talk about where this program is headed. JALEN MOORE: We're definitely headed in the right direction. I feel like towards the end of the season we definitely got a lot better coming into this tournament, as I think a lot of people could see that throughout the game today and yesterday. Like Coach said, ever since the game at Wyoming we've been playing really well. I feel like he said, he wished he could start over with how we're playing now. I felt like if we did that we'd definitely finish towards the top. But I feel like a lot of guys played hard. We played hard this year, did what we could. A lot of people know we were in games to the very end, we just weren't able to win them. I wouldn't say we were a bad team. We were right there every game. We've got good guys coming in, we've got good coaches and I feel like every year we're getting better in the Mountain West, compared to the first year, so we're looking forward to that. JULION PEARRE: Yeah, same thing as Jalen said. We've played a lot of close games, just weren't able to close them out. I think we're going in the right direction. We've fought through a lot of adversity this year with injuries and people leaving. But we stuck it out. We never gave up on each other. Coaches never gave up on us and that just shows the character of this team. So we just are looking forward, we've just got to move on and hope for a better year next year. Q. Were there any times towards the end of the game when you wanted the ball and maybe it didn't get to you? JULION PEARRE: Of course. I mean, every player wants to make that big shot. I'm sure every other four guys on the court, they wanted the ball, too. But, yeah, I wanted the ball. I wanted to be the guy to make the shot or bring us back in. But just didn't happen and we weren't able to close the game, but just how basketball is. Q. Can you talk about the free throw shooting, that's something that's frustrated you at times. I know you practiced a lot on that. Tonight once again struggled, especially in the second half. JALEN MOORE: Yeah, definitely that was one of the main keys, I think, that lost the game for us. I think we missed 11 or so. And I feel like if we at least make, well, obviously six of them, we'd go into overtime, or more than that the game would hopefully be ours. That really hurt us right there. With all that said, I feel like we were still right there, we still had our chances and that just kind of made it harder for us to get the win. Q. What was the explanation when they appeared to call a foul on I believe it was Cheatham? You were up two with a minute 47 to go, you get the ball back there, it's a pretty big play. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Yep. No question. I thought we would have free throws and maybe the ball or at least free throws. The explanation given to me was when they blow the whistle they can go over and look at it and they can take the foul back. And they determined that it was not an intentional foul. It was not a flagrant foul. And then they determined that it was not a foul. So in their opinion it basically becomes like a play on without the whistle blowing. So they awarded the ball to San Diego State who had possession when they blew the whistle. And then you play on from there. So that was the explanation I was given. Q. Did you agree with it? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: You know, it's hard at that point to say because I didn't -- I had turned my head to look up the floor so I didn't really see what had happened. Lew said he had gotten hit. When we huddled as a team, he said he definitely had gotten hit. We were talking as though we were going to get the free throws and the ball. We were proceeding along those lines until Larry called me over and told me what they had ruled. Q. With the two other calls that were made with fouls that kind of put you in a frenzy toward the end there, what was your opinion on those? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Trying to think of the specific plays. Q. Shane Rector's, for example. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: The flagrant foul on Shane? Q. And Julion's intentional. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: The flagrant foul on Shane, he was going for the ball and as he was falling down he reached out and grabbed the jersey as kind of a reflex action. There was nothing dirty whatsoever in that play. There was no intention, there was no anything. But when they went to the monitor they said he made a basketball play, and then he reached down and grabbed his jersey. And there again, in their opinion, that was a flagrant foul. But there was nothing intentional there. The intentional foul on Julion is really more my fault. We wanted to foul Allen as the ball was coming inbounds, and so Julion grabbed him. And the explanation given to us was that he didn't have enough to do with the play for us to be able to grab him. And the rule said that was an intentional foul. So there you go. Q. You guys have been in so many games this year, able to finish Wyoming yesterday, not able to finish today. The way you did play in these final two games, though, can you carry that over with a lot of returning talent coming back next year? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: I think for sure we can. I really believe we've been a very solid team since the game in Laramie. I told our guys that. I don't think other than Fresno State who won their last six, I don't think there was anybody in the league playing better than we were. We let a couple of those get away. That's kind of our MO for the year. But every night out I saw a team that was playing well, was playing together. And we had a lot of confidence. We had a lot of confidence going into yesterday. And then today, you know, that was a really confident group this morning when we got together. And obviously you have to keep your plan pretty simple in a tournament setting. You don't have a lot of preparation time or court time with an early game. But I thought our guys were extremely confident. We're going to get those guys eventually. We haven't gotten them since we've been in the league. I think to a man we all felt like today was the day that we were going to get them, just the way that we had played, our style offensively, gives you a chance against them. They're so good defensively and so long. I think it came down, really, you guys touched on it, the free throws. We missed a few key free throws. And if we make those, and I think the play of the game maybe was when we steal the ball and have a two on one going down with Shane and Jalen, we don't convert and it seems like always in basketball when you miss a layup or an opportunity on one end seems like the other team always gets a layup on the other team. They got a layup and a foul. That was a five-point turnaround in my mind. I thought that was huge. Q. After yesterday's win you said rebounding was going to be a key in today's game. How did you think your team attacked the glass? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Really proud of them there. And we didn't really make an adjustment at halftime, we just talked about being more disciplined. The first half we were undisciplined on the ball and we kept giving up penetration, and once you do that and the ball goes up on the rim it's a free for all on the boards. The second half we did a better job of being disciplined, staying down, keeping the ball in front of us and we were able to rebound. And then if you look at the totals, you can't ask for much more than that against that group, to out-rebound them by 7. They're plus-8 on the boards in the league. I have no gripes with our guys' board effort. I thought they were tremendous. Q. Can you talk about Julion, you talked about him yesterday. He's a guy that's come off the bench and been consistent these last two days for you. HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: No doubt. Like I said yesterday, when Julion plays well we play well. That was the story again today. I thought he was really good for us. Probably should have found him a few more minutes than we did. But he was efficient offensively. And one of the things I thought we did well, when you have to play them, you have to drive the ball. But then you have to drive it to pass it because they do such a good job protecting the rim. And we drove it well, passed it. And Julion, who has come a long way in that department, because in high school all he did was drive it and score it, he's really learned and become a better player. He penetrates. He gets it on the glass when he should and most of the time he makes a play for his teammate when he should. I thought he was tremendous in all areas today. He was really good. And with the way he played, with the pattern we've had all year, like I said, we usually win those games. Q. You were proud of the board efforts from your guys, you had three that were in foul trouble pretty early on in the game. Was that something that just comes with the battle of the boards or was that a referee thing, they weren't fouls? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: No, that was us being undisciplined. We had foul trouble early on with Lew and Quinn and Elston and most of that was of our own doing, just being undisciplined, getting out of position. And again, we talked about that at halftime. When I went out the second half I was determined basically to play those guys like they had no foul trouble and just go from there. And if one of them fouled out we'd go with the other one and we can always shift Lew over there to the five if we needed to. I wasn't going to play the second half worried about those guys being in foul trouble. I thought if they were a little more disciplined I thought we could eliminate a lot of those fouls and we did in the second half. Q. You were behind the 8 ball with 3.8 seconds to go. Did you want Rector to miss the second free throw? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: No, we wanted to make the free throw and we just tried to keep extending the game. We were trying to get a five count, a steal on the inbounds and then a foul immediately and just keep going that way. Q. Chris Smith had uncharacteristic output point-wise. Was it something specific that they were doing to defend him to shut him down? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Yes, Winston Shepard. He is -- he does a phenomenal job on Chris Smith. His size and his tenacity as a defender really makes it hard. He's not the only guy that makes it hard for, but he really does a good job on Chris. Chris hung in there and tried to get some things going, he just -- it's tough. It's tough when you're going against him. Q. Do you think, although you played them as if they weren't in foul trouble, do you think they were any less aggressive, specifically Elston Jones? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: Elston didn't get as much of a chance in the second half, but, you know, I don't. I thought Quinn, especially in the second half, was really active, really aggressive. I thought Lew did a good job all day. I thought Lew played one of his more complete games of the year, offensively, defensively, passing the ball, trying to make some plays for his teammates. He had one turnover, for sure, that wasn't his fault. And so I was really proud of his effort, too. Elston I don't think in the second half really got as much a chance as he did in the first half. Q. Now that you have a year under your belt as coach, is there anything that you would change or that you will change? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: You know, personnel-wise we'll try to go into next year with a little bigger group and we still have some recruiting to do in the spring. There probably is, I just haven't had time to stop and think about it. I think there's probably some different things I'll stress with our team and try to get better at. And I do think hopefully I'm a better coach today than I was the day we started this year and hopefully I'll be better next year. That's part of the process. You always want your players to get better from year to year. And I think as a coach you've got to try to get better from year to year. Next year's group will be a little bit different than this year's. It's our job as coaches to accentuate those strengths. Q. How do you feel about the Aggies' fan support throughout the Mountain West tournament? HEAD COACH TIM DURYEA: You know, hopefully we've had -- I go back at Utah State to the days in Anaheim, where in the Big West tournament we would basically go overtake the arena in Anaheim with Aggies fans. Then we moved to the WAC and we did the same thing in Reno, we went en masse. And we hope in the coming years with our performance and our team and our team's chances in the tournament, hopefully that we can come and overtake this arena some day. It's a huge advantage. We played Wyoming last year in the tournament and the arena was mostly yellow. Big advantage when you feel like you're playing a home game in the tournament. And so we have great fans. Our fans support is widely known. Hopefully starting next year we can get to where we have the outcome and the support that San Diego State had this year, that New Mexico has brought to the tournament in the past. Hopefully we can get to that level. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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