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MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 4, 2020Dave PilipovichA.J. WalkerLavelle ScottieLas Vegas, Nevada Air Force - 77, Fresno State - 70 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Air Force. COACH PILIPOVICH: For an opening-round game, that was a heck of a game, I believe. That was two teams that put it all on the floor and played and had fun and, wow, I thought it was pretty good. The woman in the hallway, and you have great people who run the event, work the event, and one of the volunteers in the hallway said, How do you feel? I said, A lot better than I did 40 minutes ago. But what a great effort by our team. I thought the grit and determination and the character -- and then I thought our seniors really, at the end -- Lavelle's putback off of two missed free throws for a score, a score inside -- Ryan Swan, our coaching staff jumped up when he turned, spun and shot it, and they said some things I can't say right now. But when it went in, they were the first four to jump up and cheer. And what a shot. And A.J. was just consistent throughout the game. And credit to Fresno State. New Williams, wow. How many shots did he make? How good was he and their team and their preparation? And Coach Hutson does a great job. And this time of year it's hard because someone leaves and doesn't play again. And just all the credit to them. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Could you talk about your defensive efforts tonight? Being able to get eight steals, creating 15 turnovers and also making the most of that with getting 14 points off of those turnovers. LAVELLE SCOTTIE: Yes. I think the defensive effort came from just high energy, leaving it all on the floor, us just playing for each other. We did a great job focusing in on our defensive report. And that led to us giving it our all on the defensive end. A.J. WALKER: Yeah, the activity on the defensive end really helped us, just having fun out there. When we're getting steals, getting out on the run it was like we were playing in high school. It was fun. Q. A.J., 5-of-7 from the 3-throw line. Can you tell us why you were so hot tonight? COACH PILIPOVICH: Coaching. A.J. WALKER: Yes, sir, coaching, practicing in the gym after practice. Before practice, getting shots up. Tonight it was just falling, so it felt good. Q. What was the key to beating the press so consistently? I think you had maybe one turnover and faced that the whole game? A.J. WALKER: Just patience and my teammates finding the right spots, helping me out, good spacing. When they were open I got to them and they helped me attack the press better. Q. Seemed like the key was every time Fresno would start to go on a run, you guys would find an answer. Can you kind of explain the mindset that led to that? LAVELLE SCOTTIE: The whole mindset going into that is let's get a stop, let's get a stop, keep preaching to each other, we're good. Just because they go on that run don't mean we have to let them keep going on the run, right? We were just talking with each other, communicating with each other, just being very intense and just, like I said, leaving it all out there, and focusing in, just helping over when we need to help over, taking charges when we needed to take charges. When they went on their run, we made it an emphasis to get a stop for us. Q. What did you think of Ryan Swan's bucket, the turnaround jumper, whatever you want to call it? LAVELLE SCOTTIE: I loved it. At certain times in games you've got to take big shots. It was a big shot. I'm glad he took it. Q. Lavelle, talking about the scoring mark, you passed the two big guys. Now you're 10 points short of No. 3 all time. Having done it, what's it mean? LAVELLE SCOTTIE: It just shows my hard work and dedication for this game. I love this game. Without my teammates I wouldn't have got here. I want to emphasize that. And I thank them because they helped me on my journey to get where I am today. Ten points shy, I'm not worried about it. I'm ready to go out and win the next game, prepare for that. Q. Speaking of the next game, what are your thoughts on San Diego State? LAVELLE SCOTTIE: Well, they're a good team. They're definitely a good team. But like I've told you this before, they put their shoes on like we put our shoes on. If we keep that focus and intensity and effort that we had tonight and learn from our mistakes, you never know. Anything could happen tomorrow. Q. Going back into this game, could you talk about how you guys were able to really get inside and score a lot of points in the paint, and also just taking that away really from Fresno? LAVELLE SCOTTIE: I think we talked about moving the ball around a lot, getting the zone to move. Once we got the zone to move, the holes would start to open up and we would flash in the high post and look opposite, kick opposite, stuff like that. We kept moving the ball, setting screens for the top, allowing us to penetrate the zone. And you saw some of those dump balls, some of those skip outs for 3s, things like that. Q. A.J., what do you remember from the last meeting with San Diego State about a month ago? A.J. WALKER: The energy that we brought to the game. They went on their run, we had our run. It's a game of runs. If we stay together, stay poised, I think that will help us in this next game against them. Q. Lavelle, you guys were up 14-6 to start the game, you had seven of those points. What did you tell yourself to get yourself off to such a hot start today? LAVELLE SCOTTIE: I think it was just the preparation, just going in and staying focused, not worrying if I missed a shot, not thinking about it -- just on to the next play. And having that on-to-the-next-play mentality allowed me to keep going and have the start that I did. Once again, I wouldn't have those seven points if my teammates wasn't hitting me when they should have. Q. Do you think it helped to be able to play the first game right away where -- I've heard from some other teams they say it's kind of dragging along that they have to play the night game and waiting around in the hotel? What are your thoughts on that? A.J. WALKER: For sure, it does help, get the feel of the gym. I mean, that's really the big thing, just being able to play together on the court here, so we can carry on the energy that we had today, it will help us a lot. LAVELLE SCOTTIE: For us, we're used to getting up really early. This is an advantage to us. I don't know if other teams are used to getting up this early and playing at 12:00. So it's in our favor, I guess. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Just looking at those two teams on the court size-wise, there's not a lot of comparison. COACH PILIPOVICH: You noticed that too? Q. Outscored them 30-to-10 in the paint. COACH PILIPOVICH: But that's the way we are with most of the teams in this league. We're a little bit shorter and smaller. But I thought our preparation, as they said, we tried to attack inside/out. We try to move the ball quick. At times we stuck it a little bit that we like to move it a little bit quicker. But we were able to get the ball side to side, get it inside. And you know, you've seen us play more than I have probably, but when we make some shots early, we're okay. And we made some shots early and our confidence built on that. And we were able to play off that. And I thought defensively and taking care of the ball was really good today. Only had eight turnovers. They had 15. And for us to outrebound them by two -- I should have brought my glasses -- Nate Grimes is so talented. He's a double-double and a local Las Vegas man. He's represented himself and this program so well through the years, in the Mountain West -- and New Williams. They beat us twice this year. I thought we played really effective at home. A lot to do with them. When we were out there, we were able to manage the game in the first half, took the lead in the second. And they were able to come back and beat us. You're playing a team that's beat you twice. But we spent a lot of time watching tape -- where were we wrong; what could we have done different; what could we have tweaked? And we put those things mixed it up and when the horn blew today we were a plus-7 which is pretty neat. Q. When you get this A.J. Walker, what does it mean to -- COACH PILIPOVICH: I like this A.J. Walker. He's very talented with the ball. He can create and score for himself, but he can also create and score for others. A.J. is just an unbelievable young man. If there's any negative that I would say about A.J., I'd like him to be a little more selfish sometimes. And that's just from a basketball standpoint, to do some things. But he's such a good teammate. And that's a character to his family and how they've raised him and where he's at. He's talented. He's quick. He can get by people. He can get by and create for himself, and he can create for others. And when he's making the long ball, he's pretty good. He got his first foul, I think, with two minutes into the game, and I'm starting to think, oh, my, because we need him on the floor. Let's be honest, we need him on the floor. But he was able to manage that and we were able to manage some things. And we shortened our bench a little bit today. But we got great play from Ameka Akaya and Chris Joyce and LeSean Brown off the bench that gave us opportunities to contend and continue our lead and expand the lead at times. Q. And Sid Tomes, you keep looking at the stat sheet, and his plus-minus is -- COACH PILIPOVICH: In the minus. Q. It was plus. But the numbers don't stand out other than that. But what did he bring tonight? COACH PILIPOVICH: Toughness, Sid's grit and his toughness. Now, he's 0-of-3 from the field, 2-of-2 from the free-throw, four rebounds, four assists, no turnovers, but a plus-12. He's just leadership. And he was chasing New Williams all over the court. They ran double stagger screens from the baseline, and I swear -- I don't swear -- but when I watched that film I thought we were draped all over New Williams on a couple of those shots. And he just makes them, but he does that. And Sid was very upset with himself after the foul and the four-point play. And then he gained his composure again and came back. Lavelle being a senior and A.J. being a youngster -- but this was only the sixth victory for Air Force in the Mountain West Conference tournament, correct? Only the sixth time. That senior group has won three of them. Okay. That's something to be said about those young men. They've won three of the six. Hopefully they've got a fourth one. But they were -- we talked about it -- focused, aggressive, and have more fun than anybody playing in this tournament. And I thought we did all three today. And we're going to get some rest and hopefully come back tomorrow. Q. What can you say about the high tempo and pace that your team played today, being able to get 14 points on the fastbreak and also being efficient on the inside and scoring 30 points in the paint? COACH PILIPOVICH: We want to push tempo. We set some records this year for offensive efficiency for our team and probably maybe hurt ourselves defensively because we gave up more possessions to our opponent and sometimes we struggled guarding. But we wanted to create some tempo today, if we did. And the press bothered us twice when we played them. We're able to break the press. And then once we broke the press at times -- not always -- but at times we wanted to attack the score and I thought we were able to find out when to go and when to whoa, as they say. And I thought we did a pretty good job of that. Q. Fresno State shot 10-for-21 from 3 in the second half. How were you able to fight that off and calm your team down to hang on to the lead? COACH PILIPOVICH: The way I looked at it, I thought they made 21 of the 10 they shot, because they made some shots. As coaches know, there's sometimes where you execute what you want defensively and the other team just makes a play. They want to win, too. And they made some shots. But I thought we were able to grit it out, especially late, and maybe got a little bit closer without fouling and some shots bounced off the rim we were able to rebound it. There was nothing really we needed to change from a schematic theme defensively. We were switching all four perimeter players keeping our five locked to the five and eventually hopefully they would miss a few and we'd rebound it. But credit to their execution offensively and how hard they cut the score, but we were able to manage and get a few stops there when we needed to. Q. I'm reading here that it says that Air Force has never won a quarterfinal in the Mountain West Tournament. COACH PILIPOVICH: That's true. Q. You're playing a team tomorrow that I think has won like 10 or 12 straight quarterfinals and is fifth in the country and 21 is rested, and you talked about watching a lot of film for this game. COACH PILIPOVICH: Really pumping me up right now. Q. My question is on paper doesn't seem much of a game. But is it? COACH PILIPOVICH: I think it's a credit to our conference. You're talking about -- I don't know what today's date is -- March something -- but you're talking about we have one of the top five teams in the country playing in the Mountain West Conference. I think that's a credit to our league and where we're at. Now, for us to play that team, they've only tripped once this year. They're very talented. Coach Dutcher has done a great job with them. Malachi Flynn was Player of the Year in the conference. And they're talented. They can space you and shoot it and score. They can score inside with Wetzell. They defend as one of the best teams in the country. We only have one film to watch because we've only played them once this year that was at our place. And probably for 32 minutes we were pretty good, as a lot of teams were with them this year. So we've got to go back and look at the film, what adjustments can we make and what things can we do. And I know from our players, not just these two but the other 13 in the locker room, we're going to come out play hard, have a lot of grit and some toughness and maybe the basketball gods will be wearing blue tomorrow. And when the buzzer sounds maybe we'll be up one. Q. UNLV was a double-digit underdog against San Diego State and beat them outright. Aside from the Xs and Os that you get your guys ready for tomorrow, what do you tell your guys to be motivated and hyped up for the game so they can come out and have their best performance? COACH PILIPOVICH: You know, that's a really good question. But I will flip this. And it's not going to be this case. But if that group's not motivated and excited about playing in the quarterfinal of the Mountain West, which we've never advanced past, and playing the top five team in the country, then we've got the wrong guys. And I know we don't have the wrong guys because our institution doesn't have those type of people. So we're going to be ready to go. We're going to play extremely hard. We're going to have a lot of fun. And hopefully we'll have some people cheering us on. Maybe the people that come in who aren't wearing red or blue will decide to wear blue because we're not fifth in the country. How about that? Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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