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MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 6, 2020Allen EdwardsAJ BanksHunter ThompsonHunter MaldonadoJake HendricksLas 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. ALLEN EDWARDS: First, before talking about the game, just want to send our seniors out the right way. What I told Jake and A.J. in the locker room for the two years both of them being Junior college guys dealt with a lot last year with injuries, this year injuries, illness, and youth, but of this made sacrifices for these young guys in this program. So I told the young guys to show their respect because even in life and in your journeys sometimes what you go through may not be for you, but it may be to help someone else. And I think these two guys have given our young group a good foundation by being a right example, on and off the floor, for the type of kids that we want to have in our program. Tonight the game, you know what, proud of our guys, to fight all the way down to the end. I think sitting there with under three, a little under four minutes, 4-point game, and even when we started pressing and trying to get quick fouls and quick baskets, I thought we had a few good looks to even cut it back to four. But I thought Sam Merrill made some really big, timely tough shots down the stretch. But, again, loved our guys' fight, proud of them, nobody thought we were going to be in this situation, like I told them, nobody thought we were going to be here. But I said, nobody but the guys in the room. Everybody looked at this as a Cinderella situation. I told our guys, even at the beginning of the year, just to stay focused on the work, the process, and again, don't pay attention to the outside noise. We understood that we were young. We didn't expect to go through the injury and illness bug again. But being one of the last four or three, however you want to put it, coming into the tournament as an 11 seed, nobody thought we had a chance, and with under three minutes left we're playing a very good Utah State team down to the wire. So appreciate our fight. And also what I told them, any team in America, I shouldn't say any team, but most teams going through what we have went through probably would have packed it in, but like I said on previous opportunities, these guys come with the right energy to put in the work and just stayed true to the process. So happy to be their coach. And again, we left it out there. We left it out there. So I'm proud of them. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes, please. Q. Jake, I wanted to ask you, I mean, you guarded Sam for quite a bit of that night and I know that you mentioned yesterday and you came up kind of in the same area. What was that like guarding him? What did you feel like you needed to do or did you feel like you had anything to prove? Or just kind of describe what that was like guarding against him. JAKE HENDRICKS: It was a lot of fun. I know Sam pretty well. I, when I go back home I talk to him quite a bit, so it was fun for me. I didn't feel like I had anything to prove. I just wanted to come out and win and guard him the best I could. Q. AJ, what was the scene like in the locker room after the run that you guys had and then coming up short? AJ BANKS: Kind of like coach said, we just took it and looked at it from our perspective from the inside. We were believing that we could win every game that we played in. So this tournament wasn't anything different as far as within ourselves just believing and knowing that the work we put in would eventually pay off. And so just after, obviously it hurts, but we know how much we overcame and how much we were against and we know that within ourselves we believed the entire time. Q. Hunter, you guys have been a media darling the past couple of days. I know a lot of college basketball players they don't really like to talk about the media attention but was it nice for you knowing how poor of a record you guys had, a lot of guys would talk about how poor the record was, was it nice to get that media attention and recognition the past couple days? HUNTER MALDONADO: I think like AJ kind of said we always believed in ourselves, so whether the media was giving us the recognition we thought we deserved or they were hating on us, we kind of just put that aside and I think this tournament kind of showed that, that we still believe in ourselves and just coming out and fighting with the guys we had, just locking our arms and being together. We didn't really care about what the other people think because if we would have thought that the season would have been over a long time ago. So just to be able to come out here and just believe in ourselves, I don't think the media affected it at all. HUNTER THOMPSON: I agree with everything Maldonado said. Q. AJ, for the past couple seasons coming into the tournament you're kind of coming home and having an opportunity to play in front of your family and the community you grew up in. To come back this time and to really put on this kind of a show and show this kind of effort and shock people, does it feel a little bit better to for your senior year to kind of go out this far into the tournament? AJ BANKS: Yeah, I'm very grateful that I'm able to end at home. I had a lot of people come out in support, I've always had support from afar, but it's different when they're actually here. Not everyone gets an opportunity to come out and see games and be an active member in what I've been doing the last few years, so being able to come here and just having their support from the beginning was great, but then being able to win for them, not once but twice, was even better. THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you for coming down, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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