PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2022

Kyle Smith

Efe Abogidi

Tyrell Roberts

Washington State Cougars

Postgame Press Conference

Washington State - 66, Cal - 59

MODERATOR: We have Washington State here with us. We have Coach Smith and Efe Abogidi and Tyrell Roberts. So, Coach, we'll have an opening statement and then we'll open up to questions.

KYLE SMITH: It was as I thought it would be. Cal is very physical, and they bother us with their physicality. And they got on the glass, got 25 offense rebounds. But our zone was really good, our defense, and we did a decent job taking care of the ball, and we were able to make free throws.

Both teams went to the line a lot in this game. And didn't expect much less, but gives us a chance this time of year, get a chance to play tomorrow, 6 p.m. Advanced.

MODERATOR: Open up to questions.

Q. First off, Coach, want to say congratulations. Huge win. Excited to see you guys play tomorrow. Couple questions. First one is you guys played looked like a 3-2 zone defense from where I was sitting for a bunch of that first half. What was the reason? It worked really well. So was there a reason you guys played 3-2 today?

KYLE SMITH: No one got in foul trouble early. And we've had success playing zone against them. And seemed like it was a tight whistle the whole game. Once we had success, that's normal, I think any coach would do that. If we're going pretty well, we stayed with it, and the limited -- man was pretty good too.

But it was good for us. We just couldn't get a rebound out of it. But we were rotating pretty well and getting pretty good got contests.

Q. Efe, 19 points. You played off the charts today. You made Thiemann look ridiculous out there, which is fantastic. You guys looked great. Were you nervous going up against one of the biggest dudes in the Pac-12 today?

EFE ABOGIDI: Not at all. I'm pretty comfortable playing.

Q. Good. Because you looked awesome. Good job.

EFE ABOGIDI: Appreciate it.

Q. What went into the decision to play Ryan Rapp and DJ right off the bench right away?

KYLE SMITH: Ryan is like a middle reliever in baseball, and it was a situation where we were in foul trouble, Noah had two early, and there was -- I think did Ty pick up a second? Someone did. I don't know. Regardless. We're playing zone. Ryan is good in zone. He's big. He'll rebound out of it. Obviously hadn't played a lot. But he was ready to go. And I told him in the locker room he played -- in that situation, he played four minutes, and we were plus three. Won the game by three when he was in there, and gotta try to play mistake free, and maybe you can get some opportunities.

And he's a guy that's meant a lot to our program. He played a lot of minutes for us last year, and he's all about the team. So it was nice to see him contribute in a meaningful way.

Q. How does not having Mo out there change the dynamic of the team and just your approach to this game?

KYLE SMITH: That's probably why you saw zone a little bit too because Mo is really good man defender. You can switch a lot of the stuff like with Anticevich, and he can switch onto a guy like Shepherd or Foreman.

And then DJ and Andrej are really good in zone, just really smart, crafty guys that kind of -- they will go after the ball too rebounding-wise. But that probably contributed to our zone a little bit, now that you mention it. We didn't have Mouhamed. He's a good defender.

Q. Cal shoots under 30 percent most of the game. I guess going into the game against Cal, what was your defensive philosophy with those guys?

KYLE SMITH: We're more worried about just keeping off the glass, kind of going in there, and make them shoot tough twos. Keep them in front. Shepherd can -- when they are very -- Shepherd can go off. And what did Shepherd end up with? Did he take a lot of shots? I need my glasses.

All right. Four turnovers. We did a good job. We felt like he got three late, but I thought he was a guy that he was going to have to go big to get us. We did a great job on Grant, who's bothered us, and Celestine had a career high on his last time and played pretty well. We knew we had to just twos overhand and do a good job on Shepherd.

Q. Similar question. You held them to 3 of 19 shooting from deep. What was the key to getting them to shoot so off tonight?

KYLE SMITH: Luck. I think we were in good position. I can't answer those sometimes. Neither team was exactly roping it from three. But we were in good position. We're in good hands. Our guys are on the scout. And -- but we couldn't get the rebound as much as anything.

But we did a good job on coverage because they get the thing in the high post, and they were trying to fly some shooters around there, and they got a couple looks, but we were able to recover and run at them pretty well.

Q. Coach, talk about Cal's physicality bothering you guys a little bit. You're playing UCLA tomorrow night. Obviously a pretty physical team. How are you gonna prepare going into that game to negate some of the physicality they play with?

KYLE SMITH: Two things. We'll have an ice bath for everybody, kind of recover, and then we got an ice cream social, which I'm really looking forward to. Then we'll go over to UCLA. Happy guys play well. So really looking forward.

We got shut out last night. MGM Grand -- Park -- what are we in? They kind of shut us out on the ice cream last night. We still played well. We didn't shoot it well. But I think it's the ice cream.

That's what we're gonna do.

Q. What flavor of ice cream?

KYLE SMITH: I don't know. We didn't get to see it. Rocky Road would be my preference, if anyone is watching this.

Q. Last time you came down here and got a win, you didn't really get to enjoy it. The world ended like 12 hours later.

KYLE SMITH: The world changed.

Q. Knowing that you were going to get to play another game in this tournament, unlike last time, just are you going to savor this one a little bit more, considering last time got a little spoiled?

KYLE SMITH: No, puts things in perspective because I remember exactly where I was when we heard we weren't playing. No one really -- everyone -- it's almost like 9/11. You kind of knew where you were when the world stopped for a second.

And it's just nice to feel like things are getting back to normal and being able to play in March Madness. We didn't have March Madness that year.

So it's fun to be part of it. A lot of these international guys, that's why they come here, to participate in it. This is just the beginning, and hopefully this win gets us closer to another postseason tournament where we can experience that as well.

Q. Tyrell, you started 4-4 in the second half, and I think everybody else in that span was 0 of 18. When everyone was struggling a little bit, did you -- how much did you put it on yourself to spark the team a little bit there during that period?

TYRELL ROBERTS: Coach was saying kind of feed the hot hand a little bit. He was seeing that I was hitting after my first one, so luckily they were able to go in and I was getting in the paint a little bit, and I was hitting my threes.

So they were just falling tonight, and my teammates trusted me to keep hitting shots.

Q. One more for Coach. Some of the offensive fits, and what I just mentioned, in the second half there, what would you attribute to being able to sustain the lead like you guys did?

KYLE SMITH: Only one way for us, defend. We got to get rebounds. It's been -- I don't want to harp on it, but we've struggled in those situations.

I think it's a little bit just being in -- as a group, we haven't been in a lot of competitive, meaningful games. And we snuck -- I think we snuck up on people our first few years, had some big wins. We've been consistent, people giving us good shots. We're going to make those layups. Bamba missed a layup, then Dishon followed up, missed a layup.

And we're just a little tight. We haven't played in postseason. This group is pretty new. So we'll compete. We know you gotta defend, rebound, take care of the ball, give yourself a chance. And we've been playing better offensively, and these two guys bailed us out there.

Q. Kyle and Efe, how big was Tyrell during that stretch when not a lot else was going right offensively and kind of booing you guys until the offense came around? How thankful were you for him during that period of time?

EFE ABOGIDI: Stick with the game plan. Coach called a play, and we run it, and we just did what we have to do.

TYRELL ROBERTS: Give me something.

KYLE SMITH: I just remember we were a little tight because we came out in the beginning, we had some decent looks, and they're physical. We some didn't go in, they did a good job of keeping us off the offensive boards, and then Ty finally hit one.

And he's been playing really well too, I think, since we had a little chat. Good chat. Good talk. I told him he's been doing good all year. He's really hard on himself. I said to not play last year and come from Division II and be a Pac-12 starter, play 30 minutes a game on a winning team, made a ton of threes for us this year, he guards, he does a lot of good things.

And now he's coming into his own. Like he scored 14 points on 9 shots, and picking his spots to drive and stuff like that. I'd say we're going to be really good if this thing went to June. We're still getting better. Unfortunately it ends in April.

Q. Mo back tomorrow?

KYLE SMITH: I think so. I think at least in some limited capacity, I've been told. But whatever is best for Mo. I like our group that -- he helps us, obviously, but the guys -- Bamba did a great job off the bench. Andrej was on the glass, having to get a start for Andrej. Might have been a little jittery, but he kept playing hard and got on the glass and he was ready.

Q. Coach, UCLA tomorrow. What do you guys need do to get a win there?

KYLE SMITH: We've got to play better, for sure, and we gotta -- that was our one game I felt like they just -- they blitzed us pretty good down at Poly, and I don't know if it's a bad matchup or not, but we'll have to play better and look at what we did last time and make some adjustments.

Were we missing anybody? They didn't have Tiger. We're usually missing somebody. No Bamba. Jaylen Clark hurt us a lot, and Bamba is kind of our version of Jaylen Clark.

So you need some perimeter athletes that can guard them and keep them in front. But they don't turn the ball. They don't beat themselves on the offensive end. And obviously they went to the Final Four and a really good team.

Q. Question for Kyle. Obviously you have higher aspirations for your program, and you want to get better, but when you took over this program, they were down. You had a lot of success here early and brought a new kind of energy to WASU basketball. What's been the key for you bringing that energy, and how can this program turn around?

KYLE SMITH: You know what, it's a simple formula. We just want guys that really want to be here. And we sing our song after every win, and we tell everyone we're from Pullman, and we love it.

And you gotta get guys to embrace it. They have great attitudes. They work hard. They love each other. They do. They really -- they will sing in the locker room.

We're a little off today because we didn't sing. We didn't have the speaker. So that might have attributed to our poor shooting. So we'll be singing tomorrow after the ice cream social. Was that the --

MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Coach.

KYLE SMITH: Thank you.