MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2022

Steve Alford

Grant Sherfield

Thomas & Mack Center

Nevada Wolf Pack

Postgame Press Conference

Boise State - 71, Nevada - 69

THE MODERATOR: Okay. We are now joined with Nevada, Steve Alford and Grant Sherfield. We'll have an opening statement from our coach, then we'll ask questions of our student-athlete, dismiss him and allow you to finish up with questions for our coach.

So Coach Alford, if you'll have your opening statement, please.

STEVE ALFORD: Yeah, I thought our guys played hard. I thought both teams played hard. Really appreciate their effort. We got a good lead in the first half, and they had a great run. And then we got it back to five, a two possession game at half. And then I thought they pulled ahead in the second half, got up 12, I think, 12, 13 points. And then we really battled back from -- about the 11-minute mark of the game, we really battled back. And I loved our effort.

We got some really good key stops. Just thought in the last two minutes, you know, we didn't execute. I thought we executed what we wanted to get. We missed a front-end in that time, we missed two shot free-throws at that time.

We got a really good look at the end. Grant got a good look. You know, might have got hit, but it was tough play. And I thought he did a -- Grant put us on his back for a good stretch of this thing.

I thought Grant, we mentioned yesterday, he's just really developed into the leader that we need him to develop into. I think he's really done a good job in the last two weeks of doing that. And that bodes well for the future.

This is a very difficult team to play against. They're very tough, they're very physical, big, and they made some key plays.

But I thought in the last about five minutes of the game, I thought we were in really good shape. And we just weren't able to make enough plays.

THE MODERATOR: Okay. Questions for our student-athlete? Okay. Well, did we -- oh, okay.

Q. Coach mentioned, you know, the leadership and put the team on his back and sort of thing. And to me, I really saw that the last eight or 10 games. Would you agree with that assessment, and how did that leadership role treat you?

GRANT SHERFIELD: I mean, like, I felt like it treated us well. We didn't come out with a win tonight. But it's just good seeing guys having more energy. I guess earlier in the season, my energy wasn't always as well, as good, because I guess I didn't really need to get others going.

And I saw when we were losing that I got to be able to get everybody going and just get everybody ready for the game. Because some people aren't -- don't do a good job of getting each other ready. So, yeah. I don't know, that was a tough question. I messed up.

Q. Hey, can you just reflect on this season? Obviously, it didn't go the way you guys expected. But you were dinged up, COVID.

GRANT SHERFIELD: Yeah, I mean, this season was a roller coaster. It was wild. A bunch of adversity hit. And I feel like -- honestly, me personally, and everybody on this team, I just feel like it turned us into better players because we had to experience something that none of us -- or some of us have never been through, having a losing season.

Losing six, five straight games, me personally, I've never been through it. So it just made me, like, respect the game more.

Because every game I go out there and play, I have to play to the best of my ability, because I never really thought how good it feels to win until I started losing. So I just think after this year, it just turned me into a better player, honestly. It just made me fight through adversity, game after game after game. And I feel like -- and I was fighting with my brothers. It was fun, too. But just we didn't come out with the outcome we wanted this season. So it's just really back to the drawing board.

Q. Grant, just how important was it to go out there and get that fast start, knowing that Boise State was going to press thing early, although it wasn't the result that you guys wanted, but to, just, cut the deficit out there at halftime?

GRANT SHERFIELD: It's always tough. They're a tough team. So I want to say we were -- both games this year, they punched us in the mouth and they got out on us quick.

In our huddle as a team, we were just telling each other when we get out there, let's go, let's go, let's go. Let's try to hit them first this time. And I feel like we hit them first, they responded. And then second half was just a battle.

Q. Grant, what did you hope to take into the offseason and just feel like what are the things that you feel this team has to do better to have better results next season?

GRANT SHERFIELD: Really, just toughness. Just getting tough mentally, more tough physically, and just being together more. We fought through adversity this year, so next year let's just try to get something going to where we can be at the top of the league, like Boise, Wyoming, Colorado State, those guys.

THE MODERATOR: Okay. Any more questions for our athlete? Okay. Thank you.

Questions for our coach?

Q. As this happened a few times this season, late in the first half, there was -- I believe it was 12-zero run, 14-zero run, and you've talked about -- I think you called it droughts earlier in the season. Were you ever able to diagnose why those are happening, or is this a case of Boise State being a good team? Is that more accurate?

STEVE ALFORD: Well, yeah, they, obviously, a really good team. We had them down eight, and then I think they went on maybe a 13, 14-0 run. But even with that, you're only down two possessions.

So we were able to battle back. That's not really the lulls I've talked about this year. The lulls I've talked about really are more to do with the effort and the toughness and understanding good shot, bad shot. Understanding the disciplines defensively.

And, yeah, we made some mistakes in those runs, but -- then there's time you got to tip your hat off to who you're playing. So we made our run early, they made their run a little later in the second part of the second half.

But I really thought our effort was good. I liked our attention to detail. Guys were listening, working. We, obviously, made some mistakes. But I like it when they're effort and mistakes where guys are really trying. I thought we had that tonight.

Q. I don't know, you know, without having seen it again, can you take us through that last kind of possession where Kenan did take that last shot? Was that where you wanted to be? I know everything was moving really fast there. I don't recall if you did have a time-out or if you didn't --

STEVE ALFORD: Yeah, we did. But they're a top two, three defense. And they're very physical. I don't know if we could have called time-out with eight seconds to go and get any better look.

I thought we had a great look. I liked the flow of how things were going. We opted not to foul. We wanted to get a stop and we got a tremendous stop.

You know, we just -- in the last two minutes, we missed the front-end of one of one, that's two points. We missed a two-shot foul, that's two points. And I thought we got a really good look. I don't know how -- you know, you got eight seconds to go, they're not going to let you get the ball to Grant without doubling. They're not going to come off of Des in an 8-second time-out. And you've only got 30 seconds to draw that up.

And I thought the flow was good. If I didn't like the flow, I probably would have. But inside 10 seconds, I like what we did. I thought we moved the ball and we got a wide open look.

And, you know, Kenan, I feel for him. He's very down. But he got a great look. Next time he'll get it. But we got a really good look late in the game.

Q. Hey, Coach. I'll ask you the same as Grant. You had the high expectations coming into the season, picked third. As you reflect back on this season, what you guys went through, how's the growth process gone, in your opinion?

STEVE ALFORD: Well, I think we've grown. We didn't know we'd have this much adversity. But we did. We had a lot. Removed a player from the team, had three different COVID shutdowns, lost Grant and Warren for a good stretch of the conference season, a key two week part of the season.

Those aren't excuses, it's just what happened to us. And we didn't get the results that we wanted. But I will give this team and these kids a lot of credit, in that there wasn't complaining, they continued to come back to work, they continued to fight.

And like Grant said -- and I hope that the rest of the team feels like Grant does, that -- you know, that adversity, it's never any fun to go through, but there can be some great growth.

And we won't know what kind of growth until next year. But I thought we had some guys really grow during the stretch of the season that was going to be crucial.

And it really gives them a good idea in the offseason what they got to work on. But with all that said, it was obviously not the year we wanted.

I've been very blessed in 31 years not to experience very many seasons like this. But if it helps our guys grow, you know, on the court, off the court, then it's, obviously, well worth going through it and hopefully we can grow from this.

Q. Coach, I know you talked a lot about just Boise being very -- much older and very skilled. But just how tough was it to guard them? Because it's not like you guys were leaving them open on all of those shots. I mean, you guys were defending them but they were just getting past you.

STEVE ALFORD: Well, that's what good, old, mature, experienced guys do. They make big plays. And I thought Akot made some really big shots for them. Kigab comes up big all the time with his physicality. And he's hard to handle one-on-one.

So happened to double those guys, left some other guys open. And Degenhart is a good freshman that plays off of those order guys. And I thought it was a slow start to Shaver, but I thought he really ended up hurting us late, too.

He got to the free-throw line 10 times. We would have liked to have gotten Grant there a lot more times. I think Grant puts a lot of pressure on defenses. But he got there five times and Grant ends up being a 88, 89 percent foul shooter. And we just didn't get him there enough.

But they're just really hard to guard without trapping them and doing different things to them. And I thought our guys really responded well and gave us a chance -- all we ask, Give us a chance to win in the end, and I thought the guys did that. We just weren't able to make the plays.

THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for our coach? Okay. Thank you.

STEVE ALFORD: Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it.