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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: MILWAUKEE

March 16, 2017

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Iowa State - 84, Nevada 73

THE MODERATOR: Joined by Nevada Head Coach Eric Musselman. Nevada student-athletes Cameron Oliver and Jordan Caroline will be with us as well. Oliver had 22 points, 4 blocks, Caroline with 20 points, 8 rebounds. Again, Coach will make an opening statement and then questions for the student-athletes.

Coach, please.

COACH MUSSELMAN: You know, we lost to a team that's really good and better team than us tonight. I think they're the 6th most experienced team in the country. And I thought in the first half that their experience really showed. We start three sophomores and -- you know, but I thought the second half -- I couldn't be prouder with the effort and the energy that they played with in the second half.

And like I said, you have to give a lot of credit or all the credit to Iowa State. Their seniors played really, really well. I thought that was the difference in the ballgame right now is -- was just their veterans and they stayed composed and we really struggled to score in the first half.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Cam, where does this defense of Iowa State put up on you guys rank as far as the teams you've played against this year?
CAMERON OLIVER: The defense is pretty good. You know, they held us to certain percentages. We executed ourselves, wasn't finishing at the rim. The ball wasn't really going in the basket for us the first half. The second half we tried to turn it around, and we can't really play catchup ball with a team like that.

Q. Jordan, you guys had a lot of close looks. Was it their length or nerves or what was the cause of missing a lot of shots around the basket?
JORDAN CAROLINE: I would say just the nerves, really. I mean, those are shots you make anytime. Just nerves.

Q. Cam, you guys made so many great comebacks and cut it to 4 a couple times in the second half. What was the key of not being able to get over the top? Whenever you guys got close, they would hit a key basket.
CAMERON OLIVER: Yeah. We couldn't get over the hump this time. You know, we had small things, you know, small things with turnovers, and they execute off our turnovers, then the foul calls that happened, unfortunately. But, tried our best to fight back and played as hard as we possibly could. We couldn't get over the hump.

Q. Jordan, they shot a pretty high percentage. Obviously a very good offensive team that can spread it out. What was the biggest difficulty in trying to stop them offensively?
JORDAN CAROLINE: I guess just them having capable shooters. Them spacing the floor kind of got us a little out of whack, I guess you could say.

Q. For both you guys, this is an historic season in Nevada history. Not the end you guys wanted. What did this season mean to you and what is the feeling now that it's over?
CAMERON OLIVER: It hurts the way we just ended it, you know, but I couldn't be more proud of these guys, man. We definitely had an historical season. We worked hard over the summer, you know, through the non-conference, conference, post-season, whatever, you know, and tried our best to do everything you possibly can. The one thing I can say about these guys, we worked hard, we worked hard. Didn't give up. Fought through injuries, fatigue. Anything you could possibly name, we fought through it. So --

Q. Same for you, Jordan.
JORDAN CAROLINE: Like he said, it hurts, you know, but I love these guys. We put a lot of work in the season and we got to where we wanted to get. Obviously we didn't get result, but, you know, it was a great season.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the student-athletes? Guys, thank you. Coach's questions now.

Q. Eric, you said you guys struggled to score points. Marshall kind of got off to a slow start. What were they doing defensively to him?
COACH MUSSELMAN: I thought that, you know, Naz Long did a great job on him, face-guarded him. He's long, he's quick. What are you going to say? The guy did a heck of a job on him making every catch difficult, making every shot difficult. But at the end of the day, we scored 46 points in the second half and there was a lot of really good things we did.

I mean, coming into the game they do such a great job of taking care of the basketball, and we felt like if we could cause some turnovers and we could take care of the ball a little bit better -- we had 7 turnovers to their 13, that hardly ever happens, and scoring 46 points against them in the second half, I just thought we had a real struggle scoring in the first half. That was really the difference in the game. We made enough runs in the second half, but I mean, they're a better team than us tonight, plain and simple. And our bench, I thought both guys that came off the bench for them, Bowie and Jackson, were phenomenal.

And like I said, there was a lot of good things. One area we're probably the most disappointed in is the rebounding because we felt that that was an area that we needed to succeed in tonight. And then to lose the battle of the boards by 10 is, you know -- that's the biggest difference in the game. They had a couple long rebounds. But they averaged ten 3s a game. We held them to 8.

Again, they don't turn the ball over. We turned them over a lot compared to what they normally do and, you know, unfortunately, we didn't rebound like we thought we were capable of.

Q. You guys have been able to get by despite limited depth throughout the season. They almost had as many guys in double figures as you played. How big of a difference was that they were able to roll in guys who would chip in throughout?
COACH MUSSELMAN: Yeah. Like I said, I thought two guys in particular were phenomenal and we kind of knew that. We talked about Jackson really being a starter and Bowie started for them earlier in the year until they moved Solo Young in there. They're experienced and, you know, I thought that the difference was their experience. I think this season is really going to help our young guys next year. I thought Josh Hall played really, really well in the second half. Lindsey Drew did a great job for us. And look, you have to give all the credit to Iowa State. They were -- they're a great basketball team. The conference that they play in, they're as hot as any team in the country. When you play against a team that's got the seniors that they do, that has the experience that they have, you know, it's what happens.

Q. You just talk about the season in general, what you guys accomplished, haven't been to the tournament in like ten years and getting there and what it means for the future also.
COACH MUSSELMAN: Yeah. I mean, I think that we're proud of what we did. We're all hurting. That locker room, we had a lot of guys crying. You know, guys are hurting. They didn't want the season to end, the coaching staff didn't want the season to end. But again, you know, you got to give credit to a better team. And I think the future of the program is in great shape when you think about all the young guys that we have and their development and growth and, you know, Jordan Caroline really stood up tonight, and Josh, like I mentioned, and Lindsey. Those guys are all young guys that gain valuable experience. And, you know when you haven't been in this type of situation, you know, experience really matters.

Q. The first half you were able to get a lot of shots around the rim. Was it nerves, adjusting to their length that they didn't fall?
COACH MUSSELMAN: No. They had three blocked shots. I mean, I didn't think -- it's not like they have unbelievable size inside. We missed some shots we didn't finish through contact. I thought there was -- it was a physical game around the rim on both sides, and we were unable to finish through contact. And, you know, might have been nerves as well. I think both student-athletes mentioned nerves or Jordan did and, you know, I thought in the second half we settled down a little bit, came out of our locker room with a little bit more composure and just too big a gap playing against a team that's got that much offense.

Q. You guys do make 3s, runs, get it to 4 twice and 5 once. Is that just their experience in veteranness (sic) to be able to come up with a big shot to push the lead back up to 8 or 10?
COACH MUSSELMAN: We played toe-to-toe with them in the second half, and we got down too much in the first half. And that's the difference in the game. I mean, we're down 13 at half and played really good the last 20 minutes.

Q. Coach, do you expect Cam back next year?
COACH MUSSELMAN: Cam and I haven't sat down and talked. The only thing that we've worried about is how does Nevada compete and play against Iowa State. And you know, we've been pretty single-minded every game, every night, and there's no reason to talk about it up to this point because we had games to play and, you know, we're here to support Cam in whatever decision he makes.

Q. You guys obviously had a special season, special run. What's the feeling now that it's over? This group of guys won't be back together again.
COACH MUSSELMAN: Yeah. That's college basketball. Guys graduate and -- I mean, right now none of us are feeling really real good. I think in three, four days we'll look back and, you know, be really proud about what we've done. It was a goal to make it in the tournament and we'll reassess our goals, give them a couple weeks off and get back to work like we always do and, you know, it hurts tonight. There's no doubt, but again, I told the team that our coaching staff loves them and hang your heads high because they conducted themselves the right way, and I don't think anybody will say that we didn't play with effort, especially in the second half. So we played as hard as we could play.

Q. You mentioned experience a couple of times. Obviously you can't get NCAA experience until you've played in a game. What do you want them to learn from this and take into the off-season?
COACH MUSSELMAN: I think there's so much to learn. You're playing on the biggest stage of college basketball. So I think all our young guys are going to learn a lot, just like I'm sure Iowa State's guys have learned year after year after year they've been in it.

Great learning experience. You know, hopefully everybody in the Mountain West thinks we represented the conference well by playing as hard as we possibly could. And again, it's a tough loss, but all you can ask your student-athletes is to play hard and really care and that locker room really cares.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? Thank you.

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