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MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 11, 2016Eric MusselmanTyron CriswellCameron OliverLas Vegas, Nevada San Diego State - 67 Nevada - 55 THE MODERATOR: Coach, if we can start with you. Just your thoughts on today's game. HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: I thought that tonight was indicative from an effort standpoint of how we've played all year. I think everybody in Reno and anybody associated with the Wolf Pack has to be happy with the effort that these guys have had all year. We played excellent defense tonight, lack of shooting. And tonight uncharacteristically we turned the ball over too much to beat a championship-caliber team like San Diego State. Q. Last time you played against San Diego State, you said you hadn't played against a player like Skylar Spencer before. What do you think about him this time? CAMERON OLIVER: I felt they were good. I fouled him out. So I felt that was a good part of me. I just pretty much studied the film really, really good, see what he does on defense. I know he's an active player on defense, and I know I can probably get him out of the game, and that's exactly what I did. Q. We've asked you throughout the season how good you guys have gotten in just one season. But now that it's finally over can you look back and tell me what the season meant to you and for this program? TYRON CRISWELL: It meant a lot, especially getting as good as we did so fast. And the turnaround was great. I'm just glad my senior year we went as far as we did. I wish we could have went farther, but I'm glad we made it this far. Q. It seems like the biggest negative stat was the turnovers. What was the biggest reason you guys struggled with turnovers? CAMERON OLIVER: I just felt -- we just really didn't take care of the ball. They're long, athletic. And they play hard. Their big thing is defense. We didn't take care of the ball. Q. Did you feel you guys defended well enough to win when you got them in the half court situation? CAMERON OLIVER: I thought we defended half court well. Our big thing was transition defense. I thought turnovers didn't get back on transition defense. Q. What does it mean to you what Coach Fisher said about you? TYRON CRISWELL: It means a lot. It means our hard work paid off. And I was glad I was able to do it with a group of guys that really worked hard every day, summer and throughout the whole season. Q. You said yesterday you didn't want this to be your last game in a Nevada uniform. If the opportunity to play in the postseason, would you want to have that experience with the guys? TYRON CRISWELL: Yeah, I definitely want to have that experience with the guys. Right now we don't know about any postseason, but we definitely would like to play any postseason tournaments in the future. Q. How excited do you feel about the future of this program, what you have been able to do and the groundwork you've been able to lay this season? CAMERON OLIVER: I felt like what happened last year, this is a great turnaround. And I know with the whole program, Coach Muss, we try to go as far as possible. I'm very proud of these guys and I feel now for the future of this program it's going to be bright. Q. What was the key to their defensive effort tonight? Obviously they have great length and No. 1 in the nation in field goal percentage. CAMERON OLIVER: That's it. Just their length. Their length and they're pretty athletic, so they're going to get and really rim protect. And we had to know that from the start. And that's pretty much how their defenses are. Q. After a season like this and a game like you just played, how does the team and yourself walk out of this arena? CAMERON OLIVER: With our heads up high. We fought this whole season. All the hard work we did over the summer, even during the season, off the court, on the court. We've got to have our heads up high. We fought hard. Q. Obviously tomorrow night's winner goes to the NCAA tournament. But if the Aztecs were to lose, do you feel their résumé is strong enough for an at-large, and if not, is that an NCAA worthy team that you played tonight? HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: I don't think there's any doubt they're NCAA worthy. I think with the two tournament games they're maybe 18 or 19 and 2 in our league. I think it's a great league. It's a league that's hard to win on the road. And I think when a program is able to sustain success over time, I know they talk about it's only this year, but they have a veteran-laden team that knows how to win close games. And I don't even think that they're just a tournament team, but I also think they can win games in the NCAA tournament. Q. You mentioned the uncharacteristic turnovers. How much of that was San Diego State doing what they do versus you guys making mistakes? HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think San Diego State is one of the premier programs in the league. They're obviously one of the best, if not the best defensive team in the entire country. Having said that, we had no legs. We ran out of gas. I think that because we were so fatigued based on playing a really close game last night, we don't go nine deep. And therefore, I think we had a lot of uncharacteristic mental mistakes. And again, it's no fault of our guys. Look at the minutes tonight, 39 for Oliver, he played 40 minutes last night. I think we took him out right before media timeout for 12 seconds. When you have a freshman play 39 and 40 minutes and you're playing against a team that's deep and they keep coming at you in waves, you know, it was too much for us to overcome. Again, defensively we out-rebounded them tonight. All the effort things were there except what's been our problem all year, we go 2 for 16 from three. And we knock one or two of those down at some point. And we had a little bit of momentum going and foul trouble really, really hurt us. When Lindsey Drew picked up a second foul the first half, I thought that was it, because Marqueze is hobbling around, and Eric Cooper has been a 2-guard except when teams played zone. We ran out of bodies tonight. Q. A couple of weeks ago you talked about how this is one of the favorite teams that you've ever had a chance to coach. What will you take away from this group of guys? HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: You know, I think that all coaches are leaders in whatever -- a business leader or whatever, you always think that hard work and putting people in the right frame of mind is important. And I think that they understood that our coaching staff really believed in them. And so I learned this year that if you can build people up and believe in them that it goes a long way, especially with people the age of our student-athletes. And so I don't think they ever walked into a locker room pregame and thought that we thought that it was cool to just finish close. I mean, they knew that we wanted to go into every game and try to win, and that we believed we could win. And I think that was a big hurdle for them to overcome, even early in the year I'm not so sure there was enough belief, but eventually there became belief. And like I said, our season ended with a good team. Q. Are you pleased with the foundation you've been able to lay, 9 wins to 19? HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: I'm really excited for what we have looking forward, and a lot of it -- when we put together a plan, we wanted to gain respect from people, from playing hard this year. But we got four guys sitting out and there was a plan that we knew we weren't going to be very deep. And then when we had an all-conference player leave us midseason, we knew our depth was really, really going to be affected. And then early in the year we made a decision to start two freshmen and a sophomore. So two guys that never played a college basketball game and then a sophomore who virtually didn't get any run or any burn last year. And then we started a guy who's a junior and will be back. We have four returning starters as well as four guys sitting out. So we're really excited about the future, but we know we've got a lot of work ahead of us this summer, without a question. Q. Is there a sense in the locker room that you guys are not done? You don't know where, but you'll probably be playing somewhere next week. HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: You never know about anything until someone invites you somewhere. Rory and I have had really good talks and he knows and he and I are both on the same page, that we would like to compete. It would be a great thing for our seniors. It would be a great thing for our young guys to be able to play in the postseason. I think that's what we want to do. We want to send our guys that are done playing college basketball out the right way. And we certainly want our young guys to get as much experience as they can, because not a lot of guys on our current roster have had an opportunity to play any type of postseason play. So if we're fortunate enough to be invited, I know from my perspective and from our players' perspective we'd really like to be invited somewhere. Q. Cam and TC scored about 60 percent of your points in this tournament. What happened with the perimeter guys? Why did they struggle? HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: I don't think they really struggled. I think that Marqueze not playing -- where else do we get points? Maybe DJ is a guy that didn't score the ball these last two games and shot a lower percentage. But basically our points are going to come from TC, DJ and Cam when Marqueze Coleman doesn't play. We struggled to score all year. And then you put the recipe of one of the nation's best defensive teams and against a struggling offensive team. And they struggled offensively against us. They shot 36 percent. Q. What do you think Cam learned about himself and the impact he can have on a game in this tournament? HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: I think that the whole year -- I don't know if Cam understood how much we believed in him. I think these last couple of games he understands that he can be a go-to guy for us. How he goes, we'll go. And so we have a lot of things we'll continue to work with Cam. He's basically been a face-up guy. And we're going to continue working with him to not only be a face-up perimeter player, but play with his back to the basket. I think Cam can make 40 3's next year. That's a goal I've already talked to him about. With his size and strength for him to be able to knock down the 3-ball will be really important for his development as a player. Q. Cam said he wants the players to walk out of the building with their head held high. Do you do the same with what you accomplished this tournament and this season? HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: I will tomorrow. I'm not one to feel good after any loss, and I don't tonight. But are we really proud of what everybody did? Yeah. But I think that locker room is hurting tonight. And I'll hug them and kiss them tomorrow, but I want them to think about tonight's game. It's like when you watch a pro team and they stay out and watch a team celebrate when they won a championship, because you kind of want to taste that feeling of -- you know. So I'm glad that the locker room isn't just jumping in the shower and acting like it's nothing, because the locker room is hurting right now. Q. Did you have thoughts of putting Lindsey back in in the first half? The rule of thumb is two fouls and you sit the rest of the half. What impact did that have? HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: To be honest with you, I thought we kind of owed it to Marqueze to give him a shot. I think last night he wanted more of a shot. And I think both nights he played like 10 and 11 minutes. Your senior leader, you've got to give him an opportunity, but it was too much to overcome, his ankle. And again, I think that a lot of media guys thought I was playing possum, but I think anybody that watched the last two nights, we shot straight with everybody and said that he hadn't practiced and couldn't go. So we've had that two-foul rule basically the whole year. And again, I had to try to let him get an opportunity to play. Q. If there's one lesson you want your guys to have learned this season, what would that be? HEAD COACH ERIC MUSSELMAN: We told them tonight like before the game, you can't be satisfied with last night. I think anytime you play an emotional game and everybody pats you on the back and tells you it's the first time you've ever won a Mountain West tournament, you know, that you've got to go earn everything. And I think we learned -- we see how hard San Diego State played. We played hard. But I think it's just we've got to get better in the shooting category and guys have to get in the gym on their own. It's a process for us, but I think it's moving in the right direction. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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