MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2023

Steve Alford

Jarod Lucas

Kenan Blackshear

Thomas & Mack Center

Nevada Wolf Pack

Postgame Press Conference

San Jose State 81, Nevada 77

THE MODERATOR: Coach, go ahead.

STEVE ALFORD: Congratulations to Tim and his staff and team. I thought they played really well. I thought it was a really good game. We just got beat in the paint.

I thought the first two games we did a really good job with the paint, and tonight we got beat bad. What, 46-26 in the paint? I think that was the difference in the game.

Threes really weren't a difference. Board play. We outrebounded them. We got 14 to their 8 offensive rebounds, and before the game I'll take that. We only turned the ball over nine times. I thought our guys did a lot of good things.

We didn't defend the paint well and we didn't attack the paint the way we needed to, so you get beat 20 in the paint, I think that's hard to overcome.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. For Jarod, take me inside the locker room. What does it feel like right now?

JAROD LUCAS: It's not easy. We still have some young guys too. You know, it's a process. It's never easy winning in March and we're realizing that, so we just have to keep on building.

It's not easy, but trying our best to maintain positive mindset in a tough week or so, so...

Q. Kenan, what do you feel like was the difference in this game?

KENAN BLACKSHEAR: Our physicality and our defense was -- we weren't, like, attention. We wasn't paying attention to what the coach was saying. Coming out of timeouts we wasn't executing what they was saying and stuff like that, so I feel like any time you do that, you can't really win.

Q. Jarod, you don't know what kind of postseason basketball you'll get, but you'll play postseason basketball. What does this team need to do to refocus for whatever that lies ahead?

JAROD LUCAS: You know, we'll go back to practice. We'll look at film, especially on the defensive end. You know, we have some things we have to improve on. We'll find a way to be better. I trust the players in this locker room.

It's the first time we've hit adversity losing multiple games in a row, so we'll find a way. We'll get back and figure it out.

Q. As one of the leaders on this team, how do you keep the locker room together at this point right now, Kenan?

KENAN BLACKSHEAR: Just keep talking and just keep pouring into the younger guys really, and just having the older guys just come with me and just back me up really. So that's all I have to do.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and dismiss you gentlemen. Thank you.

And we'll continue with Coach.

STEVE ALFORD: These two were terrific all year long. I feel for them because we really -- the only bad stretch was our last ten days, and they've just done a lot of good things. Overachieved in a lot of different ways. Very proud of those two guys and proud of a lot of the guys that have made a lot of strides this year for us.

We've talked about it all year. It kind of caught up to us I think in the end, but there's been a lot of games this year where, like, how these guys are doing it, we just don't have the experience.

When we lost Hunter and we lost KJ and lost Daniel, that's a lot of experience. I thought our young guys have really developed. They've done a lot of good things. This has really helped them. It's not easy. It's not fun. March has the dramatic to it of you're only guaranteed one more game when you hit March after the regular season. Then you are just hopeful. Upset for those guys because they've worked awfully hard all year long, and hopefully there is some ball still to be played.

Q. You guys were so great all year long at finishing games. What do you think was the difference to not being able to finish games here in the last, I guess, couple of weeks?

STEVE ALFORD: Yeah, the two overtime games we just didn't guard well in the overtime. We gave up 15 against UNLV and gave up 16 tonight. Our defense, you know, just wasn't what I would like, but we also haven't shot the ball well.

We had a miserable shooting night against UNLV, and tonight we shot -- I think they shot 49 percent. We shoot 38 percent. We just have gone through a stretch here of three games -- Wyoming, UNLV, and tonight -- where we haven't shot the ball well.

We're not making shots at the rim. We got back to the free-throw line and made -- it's one of those games where we haven't had all year where we got to the line and shot 65 percent from the line. That hasn't happened to us all year.

It's just tough timing. You would like to have seen this happen maybe in November or December instead of now. It's just tough timing for the guys. But, you know, it's nothing other than I just think we do have some guys that maybe are a little anxious and haven't been through this, haven't been through the pressure.

You know, hopefully they can -- we get more time to play, they can relax and play a little bit.

Q. You mentioned before the disparity with points in the paint. In particular, Will Baker only got two shots, and one of them was from beyond the arc. Why was it so tough to get anything going inside?

STEVE ALFORD: I thought they really defended him well. I thought they did a good job. He had (indiscernible) been the first two games, and we got to get Will going again.

Just not -- we're not getting that production, and so -- but I think they just hurt us so much with pick and roll that we ended up going Nick, and I thought Nick did a lot of good things. Nick really rebounded well. He defended well. He scored well.

So Will is no different than anybody else. When you have had games that aren't to your caliber, you have to figure that out, and the next game you have to be better.

Q. You guys really had a big advantage in board play, especially offensive rebounds. You had 14. You were plus 8 on the glass. If you thought you could do that well in rebounding that that was something you could push you to a win?

STEVE ALFORD: That was a huge concern, and we had beaten them bad two games -- the two games we played in transition. I didn't think we converted in transition like we needed to offensively, and then we didn't convert enough of those offensive rebounds into fouls, kickout threes, or layups.

You got to convert on those. But to hold them to eight offensive rebounds and beat them on the boards, yeah, we would have taken that.

But it's a little misleading because we missed more shots than they did. You know, we shot 38 and they shot 49. It's a little misleading.

Q. Done this for a long time. Do you think it you're in or out of the NCAA tournament?

(Video glitched.)

STEVE ALFORD: Yeah, that's hard. Good things. It's what's happening across the country. You are seeing it in other leagues too. That's just a matter of whether our league gets punished for beating up on one another. I mean, there's always going to be one team or two teams where that happens, but, you know, when the power 5s, you are looking at teams that are .500 to a game above .500 and below us in net and those type of things.

You know, we just have to wait and see. Obviously, this is the only ten-game stretch where we haven't been, like, 7-3, 8-2. We've really had really good ten-game stretch and been consistent all year.

We've just had a tough finish. You know, you lose at Wyoming when you're 4:00 to go, it's right at tie, and then you lose your last home game after going undefeated in overtime and you lose the first round -- or the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament in overtime.

So it's -- we're very, very close, but we just have to wait and see on Sunday of where we shake out and where the Mountain West shakes out.

Q. As you get ready to play whatever version of postseason basketball, what do you have to do as a coaching staff to kind of prepare your guys and what do you feel like you need to kind of get back to doing in order to have success in the postseason?

STEVE ALFORD: Yeah, we've lost some of the physicality that we've played with. You know, I don't think it's anything in particular. You know, you are talking about two overtime games and a loss at Wyoming.

Like I said, UNLV we missed free-throws. We have not missed free-throws -- we got there 35 times. We haven't missed free-throws all year. We have been around 80 percent all year. We haven't shot the ball particularly well in the last three games. You know, and it's -- the guys have done a tremendous job. We battled illness. (Video Glitched.)

We battled an illness with Daniel. He tried playing today. That really hurts our defense when he can't play. He gave it a shot and tried. You know, hopefully we can -- hopefully we can get healthy. No excuse at all.

That's not what I'm saying, but when you are asking me what do we do, it's not like we have to try to wave a wand or something. These guys have done a great job, and they've been a really, really good basketball team all year and gone beyond expectation in an awful lot of areas.

I love them. It's been a joy coaching this group, and hopefully we know -- we'll find out Sunday what we're doing and put our best foot forward and try to have a long postseason.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

STEVE ALFORD: Thank you. Appreciate it.