MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2023

Tim Miles

Omari Moore

Tibet Gorener

Thomas & Mack Center

San Jose State Spartans

Postgame Press Conference

San Diego State 64, San Jose State 49

TIM MILES: It was a disappointing night for San Jose State basketball, but credit to the victor. San Diego State is elite defensively. Their physicality really got us off kilter, and they made a lot of timely shots.

Credit to them. We just weren't at our best, but they're a big reason for that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes.

Q. For Omari. Where are you at emotionally right now?

OMARI MOORE: You know, after a loss like that it's definitely frustrating and a little bit disappointing. You know, just trying to see the bigger picture with everything, but it is definitely a little bit frustrating.

You know, possibly my last game of the Mountain West. Not sure yet. It is a little bit bittersweet for sure. It's a little sad. We're moving forward. We have more stuff to look forward to after this.

Q. Omari, just the other players that came in had total respect for what you did all year long, and they were definitely obviously keying on you, but everything they were doing defensively on you, what else could have been done against a great defense like this, do you think?

OMARI MOORE: San Diego State, they're one of the best defenses in the country, to be completely honest. I think they typically have a pretty good game plan coming into it, and that's a lot of credit to, you know, what they have going over there. Lamont Butler, Adam Seiko, those are both really good defending guards, and then at the rim they have the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year back-to-back.

A lot of credit to them and what they're doing. Some of that is also just stuff not falling for myself. I shot, what, 3 for 13. So, you know, it's a little bit frustrating, but credit to them. A lot of credit to them.

THE MODERATOR: Tibet, would you like to respond?

TIBET GORENER: A guy like Omari has a lot of gravity, and teams definitely key on him, but in situations like that we need to step up and try to help him as much as we can.

Obviously a great defensive team, and he is a great offensive player, so...

Q. Tibet, what was it like for you to step up towards the end of the second half for you just with the way things have been going?

TIBET GORENER: I mean, it was good to see some shots fall. Like I mentioned earlier, San Diego is very gap-heavy team, and they were keyed on Omari, so I had a couple of open looks, and I just had to knock them down.

Q. This is for both of you. You know, regardless of what happened tonight, you guys are still part of the team that won the first postseason victory of San Jose State yesterday. What are you guys going to take away from this season overall?

OMARI MOORE: I think this was definitely a special season as far as San Jose goes. You know, its kind of hard to see that right now after a loss like that, but it was definitely a special season for us. I'm really happy for everybody on this team and proud of what we've been able to do. Even if we feel like we could have done so much more, it's a special group. You know, that's just going to show the way that San Jose is going in the future. I think Coach Miles has this thing trajected to do really well. I'm excited to see what's in store for San Jose.

Q. This one is for Omari. Can you take me to the locker room right now just where the guys are at emotionally?

OMARI MOORE: Yeah. Like I said earlier, it's a little bit low in there right now. Everybody is not jumping with joy. It's kind of a sad locker room because, you know, that's our last guaranteed game together. We should be in some postseason play, but it is sad in there.

You know, we're all just trying to keep our head up and keep going because hopefully we're playing again in a week or so.

Q. Tibet, you started to get some traction late in the first half, and then the Aztecs answered with a couple of threes late. How deflating is that when you feel like you're really starting to get on a run, and then they answer and push the lead back up?

TIBET GORENER: I mean, they just made some timely plays. You know, we had a little good momentum going, but they made us pay for a couple of missed assignments and miscommunication, but, I mean, it's not the end of the world. There's still a half of basketball to play so, we were just looking forward to the second half.

Q. Then what was it like to play in front of San Diego State's crowd? I guess this could be for both of you.

OMARI MOORE: Yeah, I mean, they traveled pretty heavy. It's just like another away game. Nothing too different. You know, their crowd came out, so that was good for them I guess.

TIBET GORENER: Yeah, I mean, it was a lot of San Diego State fans yesterday, last game, so we knew they were going to be here and be loud. I mean, kudos to their fans for supporting the team.

THE MODERATOR: We thank you, gentlemen. Questions for our coach.

Q. You talk about and other coaches talk about when they play San Diego State about the physicality of them. What do coaches mean by that? What is it about how physical they are that makes them so hard to score on?

TIM MILES: My son flew in from Lincoln, Nebraska the other day, and we came into the gym yesterday to play Nevada. You get there about midway through the game of the game before, the Colorado State-San Diego State game. We share locker rooms right next to each other, and Gabe Miles is sitting there.

Three or four guys, big strapping guys, you know, 6'6", 6'7", I mean, just big, strong shoulders and legs and big butt, right? Gabe says, wow, those guys are big. Then four more guys come out, and they're bigger than those four.

He goes, Dad, they recruit grown men. So, I mean, that's -- what I mean by that is, first of all, they're phenomenal athletically. They're strong all across the board. Then they're together. They really work hard together. They're connected defensively especially.

The way they switch, whatever actions they need to. They're well-defined defensively. They know exactly how they're handling certain screening actions or ball screen or off the ball or whatever it might be. They know what they're going to do when the ball goes in the post.

They're connected. They're communicating all the time. So you never feel like you can get to your spots because they have the ability to stay in front of you because they've got exceptional quickness, strength, whatever across the board, right?

You know, they have better depth. When I was in (indiscernible) the first time, they didn't have this depth. They always had good size. I go over and over, Malcolm Thomas, Kawhi Leonard, Billy White, right? Then they had little guards, right? They had the guys.

Then as time has gone on, they've got bigger and bigger and now they're huge across the board with the exception of Trammell. What I mean by their physicality is, like, you can never -- about the time you think you get your shoulder by them on a drive or you get an advantage on a screen, they're able to switch and eliminate that advantage.

I heard Dutch earlier, and he is right. Somebody is going to have to go out and bang a whole bunch of outside shots on them or they're going to have to have a bad night offensively.

They've had some. Every team in college has that dreaded four minute without a field goal thing that everybody -- everybody is like that, and everybody struggles with that. You know, Bradley is probably the go-to guy. He is the guy I voted for Player of the Year because I couldn't vote for my guy. Otherwise I would have. I think they're just really tough.

And their physicality you see not only in their scheme, but not only in their togetherness, but certainly their natural athleticism.

Q. On what you just said there, you could physically see the difference as well, but what approaches or game plans or adjustments did you try to do at least?

TIM MILES: You know, we have some stuff where we try and keep -- we try and get Omari on to their five-man and see if we can't get an advantage, and we just couldn't get the corner turned on any of that.

Then we have some other stuff where we keep our five down out of the way, and we try and track their three or four man. Whatever matchup we think we like. Well, we scored 49 or whatever it was (laughing), so it was all for not tonight.

We just couldn't get it going. Then we had no "Robin," right? We had no -- we need a secondary. You know, the old NBA big three, and you need a secondary scorer.

Tibet was pretty good tonight as the game wore on, but we just didn't have enough. We just didn't -- guys didn't have good nights, and part of it is we just never got -- we look at feet in the paint. I think we had six paint points at halftime, right? We ended up the game with 28, which is pretty good, but we needed 44. 28 is fine when they only get 26, but we probably needed close to 40, right, to really be effective because once we're in the paint, you get the foul line more, you open up your three-pointers more. We've got to be a good paint team with this team, and we weren't very good. We missed a dunk. Missed some layups. Missed some little shots.

They do that to you, but we didn't play our best. They had a lot to do with that, but we weren't at our best, and it's disappointing.

Q. Darrion Trammell went scoreless yesterday, but he came out, made the first shot of the game, had three free-throws, ended with 15. How was his scoring kind of impacting what you guys were doing defensively?

TIM MILES: Yeah, I was hoping he would try to go O-for again, but he didn't cooperate. He played a really good game. We know he's a bonafide scorer. I think he was at Seattle, right? So you know he can get going. So can Matt Bradley and Parrish can make threes and Seiko can really make threes. They've got enough weaponry and enough offensive guys.

When he started hitting, I was -- that made me worry because there's a certain amount of the way the offensive rebound and the way they run good stuff and the way they're in the paint that you know they're going to get some stuff anyway. You're not going to be able to hold Matt Bradley down for a long time. I thought we were solid against him tonight.

Trammell was important for them, and we just couldn't get him under control. Keshad played really good against us both games at their place and here. When they get -- I think I heard Dutch say, they've had so many different guys lead them in scoring that they have a lot of talent.

Q. How hard is it for you to watch Omari go out the way he did?

TIM MILES: Well, we're not done yet. We're going to be in a postseason tournament, so he is going to have another chance.

It's disappointing. Any time the dream dies, right? The old NCAA dream for San Jose died tonight. That's really disappointing and frustrating, like you heard it from the players all the same way.

What I told them, though, is when you put your head on your pillow tonight, you accomplished a lot this season. You should be very proud of that.

Q. (Off microphone.)

TIM MILES: Yes, we would.

Thank you.