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MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 4, 2020Justin HutsonNew WilliamsNoah BlackwellLas Vegas, Nevada Air Force - 77, Fresno State - 70 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Fresno State. COACH HUTSON: I thought it was a hard-fought game. I thought they handled our pressure this game a lot better than they did the previous games before. And we actually tried to pressure a little bit more. And they handled it. They didn't rattle. Only had eight turnovers. And they broke it in and got it inside and scored on us. Hats off to that coaching staff and those players. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Noah and New, just as you kind of look back on the season, why do you think it was hard to get going and get in a rhythm? NOAH BLACKWELL: Just a lot of ups and downs. We had a lot of injuries, getting used to everybody coming back and playing with each other. But we're a tough team. And they just got the best of us today. NEW WILLIAMS: To piggyback off what Noah said, we had a lot of injuries early. And when guys are coming in and out of playing, you have to get that chemistry back with playing with certain guys on the floor, playing with certain lineups. I think that's why early we struggled. But like Noah said, we were a tough team, and regardless of that we didn't want to make that our excuse, and we wanted to go out every night and play as hard as we could. Q. Do you guys agree with Coach that maybe the biggest issue tonight was getting stops on defense? If yes, why do you think that was a problem tonight? NEW WILLIAMS: Yeah, we pressured. The guys played hard out there. We got a little bit sped up. And Air Force is a good team and they were able to take advantage of some of our mistakes. Q. Can you explain the mindset when you're hitting 3s and still facing a deficit, and then you overcome it, you take the lead, and then they score right back. Is that, when you've been fighting to overcome that hill and then you lose it, what does that do? NEW WILLIAMS: That's really just part of the game. Basketball is a game of runs. So you make your run, the other team makes their run. The key is just to keep playing hard and focus on the next play because basketball is a game of runs, and that's going to happen. Q. New, what do you think about where this program is at going forward with the young guys? What do you think about the future of Bulldog hoops? NEW WILLIAMS: We have a lot of really good young players. And a lot of those young players contributed to us heavily this year. So I think Bulldog basketball is on an upward trend. We have a great coach in Coach Hut right here. And the guys believe in his ability and he believes in the guys' ability. So I think they have a great future ahead of them. Q. I know you guys aren't going go on, but do you give Air Force much of a chance against San Diego State? Do you think they can give them game tomorrow? NOAH BLACKWELL: It's a game of basketball. Whatever happens, happens. NEW WILLIAMS: Yeah, I mean, this is a good league. And everybody's 0-0, Air Force is 1-0. They're going to go out and play as hard as they can. And San Diego State is going to do the same. So anybody can win. It's anybody's game; it's just who goes out and plays the hardest. Q. New, I know it's tough because your season is coming to an end, but you kind of had it going tonight. Maybe in a few years when you look back on it, maybe you can kind of look back on it say, oh, man, at least I had kind of a fun game offensively in my last time putting on the Bulldog red? NEW WILLIAMS: Yeah, I had it going a little bit. But I felt like I didn't do enough. I've got to do more. And moving forward, I'll look at this as an okay game for me because we didn't come out with the win. And that's what's most important. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Kind of building on what I was asking the players, we've talked about it a little bit this year, but it just felt like it never really could get into a rhythm from game to game -- a good game, maybe, and then a not-so-good game. Why do you think it was such a struggle? COACH HUTSON: We weren't as good as we would like to be. The good teams are consistent. They're consistent is what you're asking for. So there was a lot of reasons early, which were not excuses; they were pretty much reasons why you're not going to have inconsistency when you have so many injuries. We had three or four concussions. Blackwell was out for three games, then out for 11 games. New was out for four games. Nate had a wrist injury for a while. So that hurt us early. But once we got them back, we've been getting better. We showed more signs of consistency. We just could never really get over the hump, losing a one-point game to Vegas twice, a one-possession game at Nevada. Beat a good Air Force team twice who had actually beat us last year at home. So there was a lot of good things going on. We were just trying to get over the hump to be a little more consistent as you watch out there and have more better possessions as a group. And tonight Air Force had better possessions. Q. What's going to be the biggest challenge, you think, with this young core that's coming back -- Nevin, Orlando, Jarred -- as far as where can they improve the most going forward? COACH HUTSON: Everywhere. Each one of them have different things they need to work on, whether it's IQ or whether it's getting strength, skill work. We've got to add a few pieces in to go with them that are a little older so we're not always young. Q. Can you just talk about those three seniors and maybe what they meant to you and to the program? COACH HUTSON: Yeah, sad to see them go, really is. I knew those three seniors when I got here and we spent a lot of time over the next two years, and they were a big part of our successful season that we had last year. And I feel bad for them that we came in with higher expectations than what we've handled this year. But couldn't control some of the injuries and it happened to those three guys. And couldn't control that we were playing that many freshmen early and they started playing well. All we could control was our attitude and our effort. And those three seniors brought that every day. So I'm going to be sad to see them leave. I want to make sure they finish up their degree. Know that they're always Bulldogs. And we'll be sad so see them leave. I wish we could have left on a little more positive note, but we didn't. Q. The stat that jumps out is the 30-10 advantage Air Force had in the paint. Given the size advantage, what do you make of that number? COACH HUTSON: That was the one thing we talked about in the locker room. When we threw the ball inside, it didn't quite materialize. We went inside early and often. We went inside early and often in the last game in Fresno. We kind of got bumped off our lines. As we're making moves, we're bumped off, we're not finishing quite well. We dropped it a little bit. And that was the story of the game because if you look back at the film, previously Scottie and their center was not scoring on us inside. And they made strong moves and finished and scored inside and we did not. Q. What made it so hard for you guys to guard A.J. tonight, especially from the 3-point line? COACH HUTSON: We were in a zone. It's a matchup zone. We didn't want to guard their Princeton offense with so many freshmen on the floor. And they have so many shooters out on the floor, you kind of go with the flow on who you're going to have attention to. And once he got going, those first three, we gave him a lot of attention after that. But then you have some breakdowns. Q. Even though you guys didn't play as well as you had hoped to, what can you say about this team's resilience coming back from 11, because there's some teams perhaps that would have folded at that point, but you guys got back into the ballgame and were in it until the very end? COACH HUTSON: That's part of our culture. We don't want that to be the, we're a team that comes back all the time because we had quite a few comebacks last year. But that's a part of our culture. We're going to keep playing, keep fighting. We're going to stick together. And we're going to keep believing that we can win. So, I think we came back and took a lead and we needed a big stop and couldn't get it. And hat's off to Air Force. They made nice plays through the pressure and through the zone and got the ball where they wanted to get it and finished it. Q. As you prepare to build a team for next season you mentioned getting some older pieces. There's a chance that the NCAA transfer rule could be changed in April effective next season and players wouldn't have to sit out a year. How do you look that from both sides, from going to get players and also teams looking at your real good freshmen core and try to get them from you? COACH HUTSON: I try not to be emotional about it because you know the ins and outs. Most of those rules seem like they're based on the Power 5 rule, and it's going to trickle down here. But it's going to be inevitable that there's going to be different people leaving every year on your team, whether it's trying to go higher, trying to go lower. So recruiting is probably going to change. It really will. If you get one-time transfer and you don't have to sit, that's different. So we'll see how it plays out. You have to roll with the punches and adapt. Like in this business, you're going to have to adapt and figure things out. We always are going to love our kids that are here and let them know that we want them here and they're worthy and treat them right, push them the right way. But that's not going to have a lot to do with transferring sometimes, if they can transfer to a higher level and get nicer stuff. It's just going to happen. That's just the way of the world right now. They already do it and they have to sit out a year. Now if they don't have to sit out a year, it's going to be wild. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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