PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 8, 2023

Kyle Smith

Mouhamed Gueye

DJ Rodman

Washington State Cougars

Postgame Press Conference

Washington State - 69, Cal - 52

THE MODERATOR: We welcome Washington State. Coach, if you would like to make an opening statement and then we'll take some questions.

KYLE SMITH: Yeah. No, I thought we played really well tonight. Actually, Cal is a very physical team. They've got a lot of length and athleticism there and we did a good job defensively, took care of the ball. We didn't shoot a great first half, but we were just kind of there. The game tightened up just a smidge, got to 11 there and our veterans kind of made good plays and kept that thing at a distance and hopefully give ourselves a shot tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Questions?

Q. I think that was pretty close to -- well, I know that you matched best defensive half and then pretty close to best defensive point total performance. What do you think it was about the way, especially in that first half, that the defense was performing that gave them some fits there?

KYLE SMITH: I thought we did a good job on Brown. I think Bamba and Dylan. Brown played really well at our place and he just came off a really good game at Oregon State. He's hard to keep in front. Our bigs also helped a lot around the rim with Mo and Jack plugging up the lane on Brown. So I think we slowed that down and then we're pretty good on the scout, other than Rodman the first play of the game, he blew it, but after that we were nails.

DJ RODMAN: That's right. (Laughing.)

Q. (No Microphone.)

DJ RODMAN: On the court, that first play we didn't walk through in scout, so --

KYLE SMITH: That's fair. We did not walk through it.

DJ RODMAN: -- I got hit on that. I mean, we locked in. We want to win all four, so I mean, we're locked in and we're trying to win. We're trying to win no matter what it takes, no matter who, how hurt you got. Like, Andre lost his tooth and kept playing. No matter what, as long as nobody, like we can't physically play, then we're going to try and make it all four and make it as far as we have.

Q. You guys out-rebounded Cal by 14. What do you guys have to say about the rebounding effort?

MOUHAMED GUEYE: DJ got a double double. So that's all him. Jaki did a great job. Kymany. Bill was 6 gang rebounding and the guards got rebounded too.

KYLE SMITH: Justin had six. When we played them at Cal it was only 10, 11 days ago and Andrej and Rodman they both struggled a little bit offensively and they kept 'em off the glass. So it was good to see that we were able to bounce back.

Q. Really good night for perimeter defense tonight. Was it the rotations or just really locking down your man behind the three? What led to that? There wasn't a single three in the first half.

KYLE SMITH: We pride ourselves on defending the three and we got really good play from our bench, which has been an emphasis. Our starters have been playing so well together it's hard to sub sometimes. So some of those minutes have been, those roles have been diminished a little bit, and that's hard for young guys, and most of our guys off the bench are young.

But they did a really good job of keeping us fresh out there, especially I think Kymany, Dylan, and Jabe, they did a good job there. Jack gave us a good 10 minutes, and really did a good job defensively, I thought.

Anything to add?

DJ RODMAN: As a team, the starters need to stay fresh for the four other games. It's nice having the bench play well, as well as they did, especially our freshmen as well, Kymany and Dylan playing as well as they did and Dylan guarding a fifth year senior like he did. That shows that our bench can really hold their own out there, especially against a team that plays that hard. It's great signs for the next three days and like we're hoping to play four games in four days.

KYLE SMITH: We got one for sure tomorrow.

DJ RODMAN: We got one for sure. So we're hoping to play four games in four days, so we need our bench to step it up -- well, not step it up, but play like they did today and really help us out.

Q. When it got to 11, I think later in the game you took a timeout. What was the message and how did you like the response?

KYLE SMITH: It was a great response. Just concentrate. It was 19, I think, and we fouled three-point shooter to cut it to 16, and then we just had, and put a certain player in there -- won't name names, put in there and just gave up a three to Bowser to get to 11.

And, you know, we needed that. It was a good response. Handling success is sometimes as hard as handling adversity and we were leading that thing and anything can happen. There was plenty of time, 11-point game that, unfortunately I watched -- my dad's Michigan State fan, or went there, so the Iowa-Michigan State thing is fresh in your mind, like you got to tighten it up and they did and made shots and made good plays.

Q. You were standing over Andrej when he lost the tooth there. I saw you call him over. What was it like seeing him have that tooth out there?

MOUHAMED GUEYE: I was surprised. I was like, What happened? He was touching his mouth and he smiled at me and I see the missing tooth, and I'm like, Go sit down. They'll take care of it.

Q. Seven wins in a row right now, longest streak you guys have had all season. Do you feel like you're playing the best basketball you have all season right now?

DJ RODMAN: I feel like for me I knew that we had this in us the whole time. I mean, it's about time we showed it and the best time right now. We're hoping to get eight tomorrow and keep going. As long as this win streak's going to go, we're going to keep playing, keep playing hard, and leave it all out on the floor.

KYLE SMITH: The way our schedule fell and the injuries we've dealt with, I was like, I don't know if it's true, it's an unfortunate schedule, we were really banged up and we finally got close to healthy here, and this group the more time, I think it's a pretty close group. They like each other, they play together, and I think that's, we've talked about just stay together, stay together, and they did. The leadership's been great. Rodman, Mouhamed, and TJ have been good that way and the young guys responded and it makes you feel good as a coach when they do that.

Q. I want to get your thoughts on your relationship with the women's basketball team, who won the PAC-12 tournament. Obviously any inspiration you guys can draw from the run they had and then just talk about the relationship that you guys have with them and just seeing them have the success that they did here in Vegas last week.

MOUHAMED GUEYE: We supported them. We was proud. We was watching the finals. I mean, we watched every game. I watched every game. We watched the final. We are really proud of 'em, and we hope to carry the momentum and we need it too right now.

KYLE SMITH: They put it out there, man. Winning four is tough, but our guys, I told 'em, we finished about the same place in the league, maybe a little better in our own league, and why not us? It was fun to watch 'em. No one works harder than those girls. The Legend, she's just fun to watch too. So they're very inspirational and hopefully we can get some of that juju.

Q. You were touching about injuries earlier. Mo, I saw you go out the tunnel and I know on your story your best friend is the athletic trainer. So how is your stomach feeling or was it your back or what's going on? How are you feeling?

MOUHAMED GUEYE: I'm great. Everybody banged up this time of the year, so we just got to fight through everything and just play. I'm good.

Q. To the student-athletes, DJ, I know you're a calm guy, Edward R. Murrow. This experience is unique. Mo, this man interviewed you like, what, a couple months back. You're big into art. Las Vegas has a big art seen. How has being here in Vegas affected your world mindset about making connections with some of these guys in the media or the viewing art. I don't know who goes first, but I'm just curious.

DJ RODMAN: For me, it's great to have sources to help in my career outside of basketball. I've talked to Ashley Adamson, who obviously you guys know works in the PAC-12, and I'm hoping to get to do some stuff with the PAC-12. It's just a nice thing to have resources and getting to meet people to help me and my career path outside of basketball. Being in Vegas, I mean, Vegas is the source of where everyone comes and now we are here.

KYLE SMITH: For basketball. Exactly. Exactly.

MOUHAMED GUEYE: There's a lot to do in Vegas, obviously, but we got games to win, so you don't really do that.

KYLE SMITH: Easy. Pump the brakes.

MOUHAMED GUEYE: You don't get to enjoy it until after the tournament. So we're just locked in right now.

KYLE SMITH: He's kind of a renaissance guy. He has some interesting, he listens to Joe Rogan. You wouldn't think he would do that. You got some things, art.

And honestly, DJ's been very lively, I would say, in Vegas. I think him just getting to this part of his career it's neat to watch him blossom as a guy and then have an opportunity to do two things, play and be a part of this and be a part of the Washington State legacy, part of the PAC-12 legacy, and it's just kind of a neat environment, so soak it up.

Q. So just quickly, up ahead against Oregon, you beat them narrowly. Do you have an early scouting report for what you might see and what you go up against?

KYLE SMITH: Yeah, they're big. One of the biggest teams in the country. They're very athletic and their guards are really good. They're hard to stop. Really good. We'll have to, we'll watch our last game where we did a good job at home -- and we played pretty well at their place, a little short handed, and they got a little momentum in that second half and kind of got away from us. I think we're a different team now than then. So hopefully we just -- hopefully we can get rested, get enough rest. We'll need our depth, we'll need our bench to step up again because they run about eight or nine guys at you and big bodies and we'll have to really battle them on the glass and everywhere.

DJ RODMAN: It helps having the best scouting coaching staff in the country. So I know Coach Shawn's going to be on that.

KYLE SMITH: No, no, he's on it.

THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you, guys. Appreciate it.