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MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 6, 2020Craig SmithNeemias QuetaSam MerrillLas Vegas, Nevada Utah State - 89, Wyoming - 82 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student-athletes. CRAIG SMITH: I know it's a late night so I'll be quick. But congrats to Wyoming. I thought they have had an amazing tournament. I know certainly anytime you lose it's always very, very difficult, the finality of it. But they are, they have always had our ultimate respect. They always show up. They play super, super hard every night out and they play together and they play connected. And they have been playing very good basketball now for the last three to four weeks. And maybe it hasn't always shown in the win/loss column until this tournament, but it was easy to see. You can just go back and look at their scores over the last three to four weeks. And they played unbelievable tonight. I mean, literally they played fantastic. You go 15-33. It felt like every time we made a mistake they made us pay. They played very connected, they played with great pace, and they made it very, very difficult for us. But at the end of the day our guys finished very, very strong, finished on a 13-0 run, we had seven straight stops down the stretch, and we found a way to win. And at this time of year, March Madness, it's the old what do they say? Survive and advance. And that's what we did. So these two young men played fantastic. I thought we played very connected on the offensive end. I wish we could have had a few more stops but that's a great credit to Wyoming. So we'll take it and move on to play a heck of a team tomorrow night or tomorrow afternoon. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student-athletes or coach. Q. Sam, we'll start with you again. Once again, right down the stretch you had hit a couple of big shots. That three almost the same spot as last night. Was it just time for you to go one-on-one? Did coach give you the okay to go one-on-one again? SAM MERRILL: Yeah, he just let me go. Just echoing everything that coach said. Every time it felt like we were going to make a run they responded and hit a three or got to the basket. They just made a ton of plays and they tied it up with, what, four or five minutes to go. And I don't know, I just felt confident and coach let me go one-on-one. And it was fun going against Jake, because I know Jake pretty well and we played pickup all the time in the summer. And on two or three of those he played really good defense. I just hit some pretty tough shots. But, yeah, it was just like you said, time to work. Q. Sam, you took a couple big spills out there. Looks like it took you a second to come back to it. How are you feeling and are you going to rest and be ready for tomorrow? SAM MERRILL: I'm feeling great, Bill. I'm just happy that you're here. Yeah, I'll be good to go. We'll all be good to go tomorrow for sure. If you can't get yourself physically or emotionally motivated for a championship game against a top-10 team, then you probably don't deserve to be here, yeah. Q. This is for both of the players. What was going through your minds when the score was tied 66 against a scrappy upset-minded team? And also, my second question is for the coach, how do you think you guys match up against San Diego State tomorrow. SAM MERRILL: Yeah, you just got to keep playing. Like we said, they hit a ton of really tough shots. Guys that haven't hit a ton of threes all year continued to make shots. And I think you feel a little pressure, but we do a good job normally of just moving on to the next play and focusing on the task at hand. And I think once they tied it up we went on like a 13-0 run, so that was a pretty good response by us. CRAIG SMITH: In terms of tomorrow night's game, they have had an unbelievable year, certainly being the top 10 most of the year, top 5 most of the year, and they have playmakers at every position, whether it's their 5 man, their 4 man, 3, 2, 1, you can go right down the line. They have a great bench, and they're one of the best defensive teams in the country. So they took care of us both times. I thought we played very, very well at their place and gave us every opportunity to win that game, on their Kawhi Leonard night. So we know it's going to be a heck of a battle and we'll see where it goes from there. Q. Seemed like the momentum kind of changed when you got a few blocks there. How much does that help the momentum and kind of energize you guys at the end of the game it seemed like? DIOGO BRITO: After they started making a lot of threes we just kept sending them to the paint. I think that I did a really good job just staying out of foul trouble and just either blocking or an affecting the shot. They were not, they were not doing that the whole game, so I just, I felt that we got them off rhythm by doing that and I think that it helped us a late, especially late. Q. For Sam and coach. Sam, I'll start with you. So you guys kind of had a rocky regular season. Started the season off ranked number 15, big wins against Florida and LSU, and then there was a loss against Boise State in January, which is one of the worst losses I'm sure you've had in your career. After that loss it seems like you guys kind of flipped the switch and started playing excellent and it's showing in the tournament. What did that loss do to you guys? SAM MERRILL: To be honest, I think we flipped the switch, not flipped a switch, but started playing much better even before that. We lost those three in a row ending at Air Force, where that was embarrassing. And then we came back and beat Nevada soundly, had our bye week, and for 37 minutes played probably our best basketball of the year at Boise and then everyone knows what happened those last three minutes. But, yeah, from that point that was very devastating for us. But like I've talked about, we have a ton of resilient guys, a lot of guys with high character and a lot of pride, so we responded from that and we have been playing much better lately. CRAIG SMITH: Yeah, I echo Sam's thoughts. This isn't an excuse. It's just reality. We had to, we have had to deal with a lot of things that are a little bit out of our control, and that's injuries. And basketball's a game of rhythm, right, and continuity and fluidity and chemistry and all that stuff and we have great chemistry, but you got to go do it on the floor. And so getting Neemy back, and his injury that he had this summer, we've had to kind of change our identity two to three times now this year and that takes some time. We have kind of had to re-invent ourself. But we have tremendous character. We have had a few ups, we have had many, many ups and a few downs. But there was never a doubt, we weren't going to flinch, we were going to keep responding and keep fighting and we put ourselves in a very good position and now we get to play for the title tomorrow. Q. Sam mentioned a lot of you guys are going to be ready to go after the question about the injury. What about Abel? CRAIG SMITH: Just don't know yet. I would anticipate that he'll give it a whirl again. It's just, you know, a day-to-day deal and obviously, he was out there and kind of tentative and kind of, so we'll just see what happens. But it's nothing like, I don't think his injury is like a long-term deal, by any stretch. It's just a day-to-day thing right now. Q. For the players, but then also coach. You faced San Diego State in the title game again last year. There's already been a couple of those through the tournament so far. How much does last year's game kind of factor into your preparation for tomorrow and how much can you rely on that experience? DIOGO BRITO: I think that everything is pretty much similar. The game is pretty, I think it's at the same time. We played, they played the first game. We played the second game of the semi's, and I just feel that we're still going to go through everything that we still did last year and I think that we're going to keep the routine and I think that that's the right way to do it. SAM MERRILL: Yeah, the teams are, obviously both teams are very different. But we went through this exact schedule last year, so we'll finish up here, go back to the hotel, watch some film, and walk through their stuff, and then hopefully coach let's us sleep in a little bit and walk through their stuff again in the morning and be ready to go by 2:30. CRAIG SMITH: Breakfast at 7 (Laughing.) Q. Sam, when Neemias is playing with the type of energy that he did tonight and is active at both ends of the floor, how does that rub off on the rest of you? What sort of, I guess, energy does it translate? SAM MERRILL: Yeah, he does a phenomenal job. That's, when we went on that big run that was spurred by him and his blocked shots and his energy. And he also helps us a ton on the offensive end. He's a good pressure reliever for us. We know he can score on the block, but he's also a great passer when teams double-team him. So he's one of our catalysts for sure. Q. Neemias, you've had an injury-riddled season. And when you played San Diego State the first time at home your knees were still hurt. How are your knees feeling now going into the championship game? NEEMIAS QUETA: After two games in two days I would say pretty good. But I'm just ready to go, whatever. Even if my knees were pretty bummed, I would just try to play. It's the final and we're just trying to win another conference championship. And that was the goal for the season and I think that we just got to put aside whatever we got and just try to play through whatever adversity we got and just try and win it again. Q. So last, I think last night's game seemed like it probably frustrated you a little bit. What was your mindset coming into this game and what were your motivations, what did you want to improve tonight? NEEMIAS QUETA: I wouldn't say it frustrated me. I would just say that it just, I just had to deal with it and just try to overcome the foul trouble and not being in the game for too long and just getting warmed up again. I just felt that today I needed to give another, have another edge and just try to play harder than yesterday, but still staying out of foul trouble. I think I did a really good job. I think I only had two fouls. I had two fouls and they were both late in the second half. So I think that's a big key for us for us to keep climbing the ladder and just keep climbing and keep playing hard and just trying to win another one. Q. The bigger the game gets the more you've had to use your veterans on the court and spend some minutes on them. Can you talk about how nice it's been to be able to rely on those guys to give you those heavy minutes but yet be extremely productive down the stretch late in the game? CRAIG SMITH: Yeah, we have, we got a lot of dependable guys, been down this road before. I think they do a great, a very good job of taking care of their bodies with rest and recovering and nutrition and hydration. And that stuff can't be understated, how much that stuff matters. We do have an influx of quite a few new players in our program but yet we have six guys that have played a ton of minutes last year, obviously, a ton of minutes this year. But we still have a relatively young roster. Obviously Sam is a senior and Diogo's a senior and Abel is a Junior, eligibility-wise, senior in school, and those three guys are going to be graduating and moving on. But Neemy's still a sophomore, but obviously has tremendous experience. Justin Bean is a sophomore but didn't play a crazy amount last year. So we're just kind of getting a mix with some of these guys. Brock Miller is only a sophomore, did play a lot of minutes last year. So those guys have been there, done that. We've played a very difficult schedule, our non-conference schedule. I mean, you're playing at Florida and in the Orange Bowl Classic in a neutral game, right, and playing LSU in Jamaica and North Texas, wins there. We played some very difficult teams in very difficult environments. So they know what that's like, they understand the moment, so to speak, and I think most importantly they just really trust one another. And it's amazing what you can do when you believe in each other and you can look each other in the eyes that we can get this done. Q. So this is for Sam. You went on a tear in the second half scoring 18 points, including a seven-point burst to put the team up by 12. Do you ever have a moment where you just like think to yourself that you need to turn it on? SAM MERRILL: No, not necessarily. I think I just try and let the game come to me. I know everyone says that, but I truly feel that. Obviously, there's moments where you feel like maybe guys aren't making shots or maybe guys are a little tense and I need to take a shot myself. But at the end of the day, with the, with our style it's about creating open shots for whoever. It's not about getting shots for one specific guy. So hopefully tomorrow night we can create open shots for each other and knock them down. Q. Abel only played four minutes tonight. When you took him out was it more of him saying he can't go or did you just see that he wasn't ready to play? CRAIG SMITH: It was a little bit of both. I took him out because it was about the four-minute mark and just like we know he's not a hundred percent, so just trying to get him a quick rest. And then just went to talk to him and I could just, could just kind of sense, you know, where he was at. He never said like, Coach, I can't go. But you just get a feel for things that way. And we have very capable guys on our roster, obviously, and so we went with those guys and we'll see where he's at tomorrow. Q. (No microphone.) CRAIG SMITH: Yes. Q. Sam, going back to your second half scoring, down the stretch coach puts you in an isolation situation late in the game last two games. What's your mindset going into those possessions when coach trusts you to go one-on-one and get a bucket? SAM MERRILL: We talked about this a little last night, this is the first time that we have done this, really, coach isn't a big one-on-one guy, but -- CRAIG SMITH: Tells you how smart I am (Laughing.) SAM MERRILL: But I don't know, I just, you work on that all the time, those one-on-one moves and you play one-on-one with your buddies all the time, so I feel confident out there when there's space and feel confident in my jumper, so I feel like can I get a shot whenever I need one. But shots fell tonight, they fell last night, hopefully they fall down tomorrow. Q. Can you talk about -- Alphonso Anderson really had some big minutes off the bench for you. He's done that earlier in the season, but lately he's been really playing big for you again. CRAIG SMITH: He has, I'm glad you asked that. Fonz had I thought, a very -- he was very good in the first half, didn't quite go to him as much in the second half, I thought Neemy was really good all night and I thought Bean really kind of settled in. He took a couple, he had a couple in the first half that, you know, but he's always going to bring great energy. But Fonz was kind of cooking and he got going. He took the one shot that kind of he missed badly, but he really settled into the game and he's really been sound for us and we're asking a lot out of him, we put him in some different spots. At times he's our, you know, a lot of times he's our back up 5 when Neemy has been out of the game and so some of those guys got a lot more height and a lot more girth, but he's a strong dude and has played very good minutes for us, both last night and certainly tonight really kind of was a catalyst there for awhile in particular from that first half. THE MODERATOR: Okay, thank you for your time, coach. Thank you, guys. CRAIG SMITH: All right, thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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