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MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 9, 2017Tim DuryeaJalen MooreKoby McEwenLas Vegas, Nevada Nevada - 83 Utah State - 69 COACH TIM DURYEA: I give a lot of credit to Nevada. I thought they were tremendous. And I didn't think we played poorly. But they were very, very good. And when you're the No. 1 seed and you come in and that's in the back of your mind and you're somewhat expected to advance and win, we were hoping that they would feel a little bit of pressure, have some kinks to work out. We thought we were past that yesterday. And, boy, the start they had was really good. I think they were -- they played extremely well. And we needed them to have a little bit of a slow start and have some doubt, and they didn't do that. If you would have told me before the game that Fenner and Oliver would miss a lot of the first half, then I would have thought we were in better -- we would be in better position than what we were. But part of being a really good team, kids like Kind, comes in the first half and he's shooting less than 20 percent from three on the year, makes two 3's. And Lindsey Drew throws in a couple of three's, and that's not his role for them. And Josh Hall plays well. They took up the slack and wouldn't let us close the gap. I give them a lot of credit. I thought they were very, very good today. Q. You guys seemed to sort of weather the first couple of minutes when they came out with a lot of energy and you guys made another run. Late in the half what did you see that sort of got them going again? Because I think they scored like 14-2, when they finished the half. JALEN MOORE: Their bench players came in, played well, did some things that we weren't expecting them to do. That's tournament basketball. Everyone plays their best. And they came in, like he was saying, hit some 3's, played good defense. And that's pretty much it. Their bench players took over different roles that we couldn't really get back into the game. We were in a big hole and kind of just stayed within like 14 points to 11 points, we couldn't ever cut it back into single digits. Q. My question is for Jalen. You scored 27 points, the same amount that Koby scored yesterday. Can you talk about what went well for you offensively. JALEN MOORE: I was just trying to be aggressive. Just trying -- just playing my game. Like I said, just being aggressive, trying to keep the game close. I do what I needed to do to lead the team, be the senior leader. I didn't obviously want the season to end, I was trying to be consistent, make the open shots and just play consistently. That was pretty much what went well for me. Q. You guys played some rough customers in pre-league. You went to Cancun and had to play Purdue and Texas Tech, and you played BYU, too. How does Nevada play compared to those teams you faced this year? COACH TIM DURYEA: They're right there. I think athletically they can play with either one of those teams. Obviously Purdue gives you unbelievable trouble with their size, with Swanigan and Haas. But on the perimeter, Nevada is every bit as good or better than them. Texas Tech athletically, size-wise resembles Nevada a lot. Those two teams remind me of each other, style of play, style of players, with athleticism, shooting ability, a lot of multidimensional guys that can do different things. So I think that's a very favorable comparison, Texas Tech and Nevada. On a neutral floor, I think that would be a very good game. Obviously Nevada could more than hold their own. Q. Obviously it's right after the last game, wondering what do you feel like is going to be the biggest takeaway from you for this first season, playing so much and getting the experience you got? KOBY McEWEN: Just learning how to keep your composure when teams make runs. Basketball is a game of runs. They're going to make their run. We're going to make our run. And it's really what you do on the defensive end, just trusting your teammates on the offensive end. Biggest thing for me my freshman year is the difference between high school game and college game, because the players are a lot bigger and faster. You've got to think quicker, make smarter decisions. That's what I'm going to come back next year and work on my decision making, just work on the things that I need to work on to become a better basketball player for this program. Q. You've had a great career at Utah State. Now it's over. Talk about how it feels and look back on your career for a second. JALEN MOORE: Goes by really fast. I mean Koby's going to look back on it and realize how fast it goes by. It's been a blessing to play with all the players I've played with, the coaches I've played for. It's just been a fun run, getting better every year, playing with different players, playing in this conference is fun. Playing against good teams. Playing against good competition every night out. It was fun to get in the weight room from high school and just get bigger, stronger, getting better every day. Those are the things I enjoyed. So I appreciate the coaches giving me the opportunity to play here and just playing with all the different teammates has been fun. And there's nothing like college basketball, so it's been a really fun four years of my life. Q. Can you talk a little bit, the start was really rough, but seemed like you weathered that first run, got back within a point, and it seemed like the first half was momentum swings both ways until they finished off the half. KOBY McEWEN: They came out of the gate making tough shots. There's nothing you can do about that. When they made tough shots, you've got to shake their hand and say good shot. There's nothing really you can do. But really what helped them was their bench. They came in, a lot of the guys they usually don't come in and do what they did. A couple of those guys hit some 3's unexpectedly, Kind and Drew had a couple of 3's. We weren't expecting that. We kind of weathered it out a little bit. But they just made that run with their bench. We'll learn from it and get better next year. Q. What did you see at the end of the half, I think the guys were talking about thinking that you were within -- you were down ten, got within five and they made that run to finish it out. What did you see there that sort of went against you guys to let them sort of build up that cushion? COACH TIM DURYEA: Yeah, you know, I was thrilled after we survived the first run, obviously. They came out of the gate and I knew that there was no jitters, there was no issues in terms of their performance that I hoped there would be, honestly. And so to weather that storm and get back into the game, I thought from that point on it would be anybody's game the rest of the way. And it seems like good teams, when you're on a roll, you overcome adversity in a lot of different ways, whether it be an injury, whether it be foul trouble, whether it be cold streaks, whatever the situation may be. Obviously they got two key guys in foul trouble. The game should swing our way a little bit and yet the game went their way. And that, I think, was the game in a nutshell because instead of us being able to go to halftime with a lead, with some confidence, maybe the pressure shifts to them a little bit. The game turned the other way where they probably had more confidence than they had even to start the game. When you've got two starters that score a lot of points for you sitting on the bench and you expand the lead after another team makes a run at you, that's a big bonus and a big mental boost for your team going to the locker room. And conversely for us, that's tough to overcome, because we did overcome one run, felt like we were right there, we were playing back and forth, kind of settled into the game. It's not we really did anything wrong in terms of the way we were guarding them, we gave shots up to people that we wanted shooting the ball. And they converted. Like Koby said, you kind of tip your hat and hope you can overcome another run, and we just weren't able to do that. Q. You had a decent start to the second half, Julion and Quinn Taylor, just going a little smaller and got within ten. COACH TIM DURYEA: We were talking about that four-minute stretch, is what you do when you're behind, you don't want to be in that situation a lot. But at the end of the first four minutes at the first media timeout, we've whittled six or seven points off the lead and we were -- I thought that we would continue to play well. Obviously you're going to have to deal with their starters out there. But thought we were doing a lot of good things offensively. And then we gave up a couple of easy baskets during that time defensively where we really needed to string together some more stops to get the game down to nine, eight, where the pressure can switch to them. When we needed a basket, we didn't get it. We had some stretches where we took a couple of tough shots and then we got some really good shots and didn't convert them. When you give them easy shots and they can withstand a couple of surges, that probably spells your doom from there. Q. Kind of a rough night for Alex and Norby, they didn't play very many minutes, and you went smaller. Is there a reason? COACH TIM DURYEA: I just didn't think they were -- I just didn't think they were ready to compete and never really settled into the game. I thought Norby, really, two games in a row, wasn't the player that he had been down the stretch. I really don't know the reason for that. Two teams that he should be able to match up fairly well with, and we just really got zero production out of him. And the way Nevada was playing our ball screens, almost trapping, they were showing their hand early in terms of jumping out on Koby, on Sam. There was a lot of things open for Quinn that he could take advantage of with his mobility and his passing mobility more than Norby could, so we went that way the rest of the half. But that lack of production hurt us a lot during the tournament. Q. What has Jalen Moore meant to this program? You recruited him, what has he meant to you? COACH TIM DURYEA: I've known Jalen since he was eight years old, and he has been the same kid, from a tremendous family, and he has been everything that you hoped he would be when he came to your camp as an eight-year-old. And you saw him go through high school. We got a commitment. He wanted to stay home, play for his family. And he has been a phenomenal representative of our program in the airport, on the airplane, in a restaurant. People compliment him, us, all the time, regarding the kind of representative he is for Utah State, and that doesn't even say anything about scoring a basket or the kind of player he is. We can all see that. He really is what college basketball is supposed to be about. Great kid. Great student. Great player. You want to coach about ten of those. Q. Can you talk about the future? Looks like it's pretty bright with a lot of players coming back. COACH TIM DURYEA: I think our freshmen guards have learned a lot. Sam Merrill was out there today with duct tape and everything else going on. He's got lots of stuff, lots of issues physically. Koby learned -- I thought Koby played really well today in terms of his passing and just the way he sees the floor. He's come miles from where he started the beginning the year. I think we're in great shape with those guys. We've got to improve internally, we've got a couple of kids coming in, got a couple more to add, pieces on the front court. But I like the direction we're going. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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