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MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 9, 2017Dave PilipovichHayden GrahamZach KocurLas Vegas, Nevada Colorado State - 81 Air Force - 55 COACH DAVE PILIPOVICH: First of all, congratulations to Colorado State. What a fine game they played. And a really, really good team. And I think all year people have asked, and even sitting back there, you only have seven players. If you have the right seven it's not bad. And I think they have the right 7. They're talented, and athletic. Never more proud of our team having the opportunity to do what they did last night and the energy and excitement they put through our program and to represent the Academy and have the opportunity to play. Tonight they were a little better than us, and hats off to them, and we're excited to move on. Q. The way yesterday's start went and tonight you passed into the interior and it goes to the basket. Did you feel that maybe some of that fortune was going to carry over the way things started? HAYDEN GRAHAM: A little bit. We started off the game well, it's not like we came out flat by any means. We had energy, enthusiasm. The ball was going in the basket. The stops weren't as prominent as yesterday. We couldn't string together as many stops. We were there, ready to go. And after halftime we kind of opened up quite a bit. Could never recover from that. Q. When Clavell gets hot like that, some of the shots were contested or leaning back, is there just really nothing you can do when a guy like that gets hot? HAYDEN GRAHAM: He's Player of the Year for a reason. The dude can score. There's not a bad shot for him, really. He's done it to every team in the conference, it's not like he just lit us up. He's a great player, and he finds a way to get his, and he's an energetic guy, you can tell when you're playing on the floor with him. Q. Zach, did you feel like this was a game where everything had to go right, just given the matchup with CSU, is that kind of the mentality in this game? ZACH KOCUR: I don't think so. I don't think -- I think we could have still came out with a W with some mistakes in there. But definitely they're such a good team that we got to take care of the ball. It was a big thing that we didn't do as well as we should have early. But I think for some reason it just wasn't there. Tip your hats off to them. They played great. I think if we could have limited some of our mistakes, but I don't think we needed to play a perfect game in order to beat them. Q. You wrap up a tough season. Any thoughts now you take with you into the off season after your career is over? HAYDEN GRAHAM: There's an extremely bright future for Air Force basketball. There's some talent on this team that maybe hadn't been around Air Force before. And you can see glimpses of it from certain people. And for Scottie, he plays a lot, and he's going to have a great future here at Air Force. I'm excited to follow it, see it. I'll be around the program next year, because I'll be down at the prep school and still at the Academy. I got these guys to get to points that haven't been reached before. Ask and everybody believes in them. ZACH KOCUR: It's been a great four years. I know we are haven't won as much as we would have liked, but we've been blessed with great coaches, Coach P, we've been fortunate having them around, getting us better every day. The guys are also close. Because of that I think they're going to have a bright future. Q. There was about seven minutes at the end of the first half that you guys didn't score. Did you just run out of gas? COACH DAVE PILIPOVICH: You know, there was -- their defense caused that. I think we were up 24-23 at one moment. And then they go on a 16-2 run, and they were -- we had some open looks we didn't make. And they converted on the other end, obviously. We didn't get second-opportunity chances. Their size and their athleticism bothered us during that stretch. And that was obviously the factor of the game. Q. Does it cause more tension when you're not getting second chances? COACH DAVE PILIPOVICH: Puts more pressure on the first looks. We did have some good shots from good people. It didn't fall. And on the other end, we contested a couple of Gian's shot. I think one he was in Reno and made. He made some shots. He's talented. I told him when I walked in here, he was walking out, 30 years of coaching basketball and being around, he's one of the best competitors I've ever seen. Scouting and seeing all the games through the year, Gian Clavell coaches that team. And he makes sure players are in the right place. And his effort and competitiveness is unmatched. He's really on. Q. What kind of taste is it going to leave to have come here and won a game? COACH DAVE PILIPOVICH: We talked briefly, because we'll address this next week. Yesterday was fun. Yesterday was really good. Yesterday we did things that I don't think people thought we could do, and beat a very good Wyoming team. And the way we did it from the beginning to the end is really something. That's what we'll remember, that's what we'll look upon when we look back at the season. Tonight is for our returning players to see. We have to get better and more evenly compared to the team on the other bench, as far as size and strength and competitiveness, and we can do that. I like what we have coming back. We have to ratchet it up a notch and now we see what we need to do and where we need to go. And I think we'll be able to move forward with that. Q. Give those freshmen six minutes. COACH DAVE PILIPOVICH: No question. They have a taste of Mountain West Conference Tournament action in the quarterfinals. Now the next step is to play in the semifinals. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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