MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2022

Niko Medved

David Roddy

Isaiah Stevens

Thomas & Mack Center

Colorado State Rams

Postgame Press Conference

San Diego State - 63, Colorado State - 58

THE MODERATOR: We welcome Colorado State to the podium.

COACH MEDVED: Tough loss. Really hard-fought game. Give San Diego State a lot of credit. They're a tough team. Really, really battled.

I thought our guys battled like crazy the last 15 minutes. We probably didn't have that same mentality early in the game.

But, you know, you look at it, and I think we had that at six for a long time. Every time we had it at six we just couldn't get over the hump, whether it was a key turnover, a defensive miscue. And then despite all that, we made another run at the end there.

And we just couldn't get a stop in a two-point game when we needed it. And give them a lot of credit. To win a game like this you've got to make your free throws. We shot probably uncharacteristically poor from the free-throw line tonight.

But that's basketball. And give San Diego State a lot of credit. And I told these guys, like we've done all year, this one's going to sting. And it should sting. These guys are competitive, and we wanted to win.

But when we wake up tomorrow we're going to let this one go. And we're going to turn our attention to Sunday. And Sunday's going to be a special day. This team has had a phenomenal season. And it's going to get a chance to play on the biggest stage, in the NCAA Tournament. They've earned that. When we get a chance to do that we'll celebrate that. And then we're going to turn our attention and we're going to try to win in the NCAA Tournament.

Q. Isaiah, Niko touched on it, there was a six-minute stretch where they had a six-point lead, you had multiple chances to cut it down. How frustrating did that get when you don't make that rush?

ISAIAH STEVENS: You definitely start to feel it a little bit. But at the same time if we have the ball in our possession and we have the ability to go make a play, and we just weren't able to make those at the clip we needed to tonight.

But we'll look at the film. We'll learn from it, and we'll grow from it see how we can attack those situations better.

Q. David, I know you had two big goals this year. One was to win a title here. One was to get to the NCAAs. You get the second one. Is there a little sting? How much sting is there to not getting the first?

DAVID RODDY: There's a lot. We had two opportunities to win, regular season and the tournament championship. We came up short. But that doesn't take away the fact that we're going to be seeing our banner on Sunday.

So, again, like Coach said, we'll flush it and focus on whoever we have to play. But the season has just been an amazing journey of ups and downs as well as just so much growth, just personally as well as just with the team. So I couldn't be more proud of the way they played. And we have a lot to learn.

Q. Three games in this stadium this year you guys shot in every way kind of worse than your season average. Is there any reason that you guys can pick out, are the sight lines uncomfortable or what?

ISAIAH STEVENS: We just didn't make the shots. I don't really know what to say to that. I promise you it's not on purpose. That's all I can say about it.

DAVID RODDY: Kind of the same way. Just that's it.

Q. David, you guys had a highly physical defensive game last night. Another one tonight. Just what kind of toll does that take on you guys physically and maybe mentally as well?

DAVID RODDY: It does take a little physical toll. But we're used to it. Again, this is our third Mountain West tourney as well as in the NIT last year was kind of a similar way.

But the training staff has done an amazing job with us this year -- Tony. And just veterans on the team just trying to get in treatment as much as possible is what really makes this team special. And, again, making late runs into the tournament.

Q. You guys weren't able to take last year's postseason loss and follow it up with three postseason wins in the NIT. What can you take from that? And can you take anything from that experience of just kind of turning heartbreak and focusing it on the next goal at hand?

DAVID RODDY: That's what we do. Every time we lose a game this season, we kind of bounce back. Using that, all of last year, is still fresh in our minds. We still remember that feeling on Sunday, waiting an hour and never seeing our banner.

For us, it's just -- again, we're going to see it, and now we're just going to try to embrace it and enjoy the moment as much as possible and play as hard as we can.

Q. Isaiah, good start to the first half. The beginning of the second half, didn't have as many looks, but got going later. What was San Diego State doing defensively, or did it just take you a little bit longer to get in the rhythm?

ISAIAH STEVENS: They're one of the top defensive teams in the nation. I'm not a guy that tries to go out there and just force the issue. I'm the point guard. I'm supposed to be able to control the whole show, get shots for myself as well as the guys around me.

And so definitely want to stay aggressive. But at the same time, just not trying to force the issue, like I said, and their style defensively. I was trying to be aggressive as much as possible without forcing the issue.

Q. I know you had a couple of defensive keys tonight. Did it seem like you didn't do a bad job defensively but there were just enough moments where some of them weren't covered that it hurt in the end?

COACH MEDVED: I thought late, as the game went on we did, I don't think early we did. I thought we had too many miscues on rotations, ball screen coverages, appropriate help.

And then you give them credit. Some of those guys, Arop made a 3 for them. Pulliam made a big 3. But we made too many mistakes. Gave up an offensive rebound on a free throw, left Bradley wide open, we came off a strong side help on Seiko and gave their shooters open 3s that way. And then too many easy baskets in the paint.

I thought we tightened up as the game went on. But I thought we let some of those guys maybe get into a little bit of a rhythm.

But all in all, we did a lot of good things tonight. We just didn't do them for long enough periods of time to get a win.

Q. Roddy and Stevens accounted for about 75 percent of your point production. What can you do better to help get other guys in the rhythm and more scoring opportunities?

COACH MEDVED: I can say great point. I don't know. This was one game. We've had a lot of guys followed us throughout the year that stepped up and had huge games. For us, tonight just wasn't one of those nights.

We had some good looks from some other guys, and they didn't go down. And so I think that happened tonight. I don't think that's been a characteristic of our team. That way we've had a lot of different guys on different nights that have really stepped up.

And it's a good point. Tonight we needed probably somebody else to just make a few more shots and plays that way. But guys -- the game, as much as we missed some free throws, but the game was right there. It was right there. And it was going to come down to the wire. And tonight give San Diego State credit, they made a few more plays than we did.

But like all these other ones, it was going to come down to the last three minutes, and it did tonight. And we had our chances, but we just didn't get it done.

Q. If someone told you that you were going to hold Matt Bradley to seven points and you were going to shoot 48 percent against the number one and number two statistically defense in the country, only going to score 63 points, would you have felt pretty good?

COACH MEDVED: That's a great point. I would have felt really good about that. But you've got to give them credit. And Dutch does such a good job with those guys. Other guys stepped up for them. I thought Pulliam really played well tonight and some other guys made some key shots for them.

But, yeah, I think we probably would have taken that, coming into the game, but then I thought we did shoot 48 percent, but there was more out there for us.

We were going to have to get over 60 at least to win. But they're a good team. They're going to play in the NCAA Tournament like we are, and they're there for a reason. And just like we are.

Tonight was their night. But going into the game I thought we did a nice job on Matt Bradley. I think overall, other than turning it over a little much, other than that little stretch, I thought we were able to generate some quality shots tonight.

Q. Just the big picture, when you look at the whole season, was one of the things that, I guess, the way you scheduled, you're hoping that you guys could build so that a moment like this doesn't prove decisive going into Sunday, and can I do that work during the season and prepare through that schedule?

COACH MEDVED: Yeah, we know this, we decided going into the season, we were going to go for it. We were going to try to schedule up, play as tough a schedule as we could.

And I thought the league was going to be good. I didn't even realize how good the league was going to be. And I said it -- I didn't say it out loud, but I told a lot of people, I said: My goal for the regular season, maybe more than any, was I wanted to show up here in Vegas at this tournament and feel like we were in. You know?

And we did that. That's hard to do. You know what I mean? That's really hard to do. So our guys had a phenomenal season. We came here. We want to win this tournament. And hard-fought win last night, we didn't.

I think this team's prepared. I think they have confidence, and we'll see what Sunday looks like. But because of the way we've challenged ourselves in the non-conference and the league, I think our guys will take that and have confidence going in so whoever we play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, we're going to go for it and try to give ourselves a chance to win.

Q. Despite tonight's loss, how would you describe their efforts in this 2022 season, and what do you plan to look forward to this Sunday?

COACH MEDVED: The season's just been phenomenal. These guys just all the way around. The way the guys have played. The fan support. Being ranked. I could go on and on. I'm so proud of these guys. It's been so fun. And Sunday's going to be a special day.

When you talk to any kid, and you recruit them, they say I want to play in the NCAA Tournament, Coach. Every kid dreams of that. That's what they watch growing up. And they want to be a part of that.

And there's so much that goes into it. The amount of work and the pressure and the ups and downs and understanding what this team went through last year. It's going to be an emotional day for them because that's what they've wanted. And they've earned it. They have earned it. So that's going to be a really cool day.

And just like today, we'll worry about it. But on Sunday, Sunday is going to be a day to celebrate and for these guys to feel really good about what they've accomplished. And then like we always do, we're going to wake up Monday and we're going to get ready for whoever we play and we're not there just to be in the tournament. We want to go and try and win.

Q. Talk a little bit more about -- you just commented that every kid wants to be in the tournament. What these guys have accomplished to help you sell this program going forward when you're talking to a young man who wants to be in the tournament.

COACH MEDVED: I think it's huge. People when I was fortunate enough, and people believed in me to hire us -- and this was our vision.

Our vision was to build a great program that could compete at the top of the Mountain West and have a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament.

And we've been able do that. I think now we want to celebrate this moment, but I agree with you, how do we build on that? How do we continue to grow as a program and do that and give ourselves an opportunity to compete at this level year in, year out. It's very difficult to do.

People don't realize how hard it is and the work that you put in and the level you have to play at consistently over the course of the season.

But it's a great stepping stone. It's a great building block for us. And we'll enjoy this moment, but I agree, I think it's something that we can build on and that's what we want. We want to be able to do that consistently.

Q. The Mountain West in the last, I think, four or five years in the NCAA Tournament is 1 and 7 in the first game in the tournament.

COACH MEDVED: I knew you were going to bring that up.

Q. Looks like you're going to get three, good chance you'll get four teams in. How important is this tournament for the league as a whole to gain the trust of the selection committee and the public at large that this is a really competitive league; you send four teams, they go in four, it can hurt that?

COACH MEDVED: I think that's a good point. I don't know if it affects the selection committee as much. I'll give them credit in saying that they take every year in and of itself. But I think for the brand of the league, yes. I think for the brand of the league to prove that -- the league's gotten a ton of attention this year. And it should. The league's played at a very high level. But we now have an opportunity to go out there on the big stage and find a way to win.

And I'm confident that we can do that. But it is big for the brand of the conference. I think that we've got a lot of momentum right now. And man, if we can go out there next week and find a way to win some games -- we've got four really good teams. If all four get in -- I think they all deserve to get in -- they're all terrific teams. They're going to play other terrific teams.

I think it would be huge for the Mountain West to try to go out there, make some noise and continue to get everybody who maybe is not staying up tonight to watch the semifinals on the East Coast, to realize that this is high-level basketball being played here. And I think it's only going to get better.