MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2023

Tyson Degenhart

Leon Rice

Jace Whiting

Thomas & Mack Center

Boise State Broncos

Postgame Press Conference

Utah State 72, Boise State 62

LEON RICE: Well, hard-fought game. Utah State is a great team, and it's going to be a heck of a championship tomorrow. We have a lot of great teams in this league.

Really proud of our guys the way we battled. You know, you've got to make some shots, and we missed some free-throws that kind of was a crucial -- at a crucial point when they built a little bit of a lead.

But always proud of our guys the way we battled, and they really -- we did a great job in that first half. They understood the game plan, executed it perfectly. We knew that Utah State would respond there. Like I said, they're a great team. They made some good shots the second half. It's a game of making some shots, and they were able to do that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Coach kind of addressed it there, but a tale of two halves again. From your perspective, in the second half what really was the difference?

TYSON DEGENHART: Kind of a mix of not getting stops and then not making shots on the offensive end. That's just about it. We just couldn't get it done tonight.

Q. Tyson, throughout your career you've been so good at taking charges, and that one that got called a block seemed to be one of the swings in the game. From your perspective, what happened on that play?

TYSON DEGENHART: He caught it in the corner, and I'm guarding Bairstow in the corner and he kind of fumbled it a little bit, so I was, like, trying to cat and mouse him a little bit.

I saw he was going, and I tried to do my best to get outside the restricted area before he was going up. Just one of those calls that could go either way. It's unfortunate that it went not our way tonight.

Q. Tyson, how tough was it to respond from that call, though? That was a pretty crucial point in the game. Not only did it send Utah State to the free-throw line, but it gave you your fourth foul and you had to come out of the game.

TYSON DEGENHART: Tough situation. I hoped that would go away a lot more times than not, but that's a position I put myself in with three fouls going into that time.

Probably got a couple of dumb ones early in the game. It's just a learning experience for me and not getting any dumb fouls early in the game.

Q. You guys had a lot of success in the paint in the first half and some struggles there in the second half. There was about a ten-minute stretch there in the final ten minutes where you had one field goal. So what did Utah State do well that you guys struggled with, or maybe it was just ball didn't go in the bucket? I don't know.

TYSON DEGENHART: We just didn't make shots in the second half. I think we got a lot of good looks and the ball just doesn't go in, and that's basketball for you.

Q. Jace, for you to be called upon in the foul trouble and just getting a lot of minutes and play the way you did, and also Lucas coming off the bench, what kind of confidence do you gain from this tournament and playing like you have and taking that into next week?

JACE WHITING: Getting a lot of the those moments, it just gave me a lot of experience. The more minutes I got, I felt like the more comfortable I got, and that gave me more confidence. I just wanted to go out there and play hard and play with confidence, play fearless, so that's all.

Q. Jace, you might answer first and then Tyson. Selection Sunday is a couple of days away. You guys are 24-9. What do you think about where you stand in terms of the NCAA tournament?

JACE WHITING: I'm a freshman, so I don't really know how it works too much, so I'm going to have to ask Tyson.

TYSON DEGENHART: I think we're in a good shot. I think our résumé speaks for itself. A lot of quad 1 wins and no quad 4 loss like we did last year, so I'm hoping we get a good spot. Hopefully somewhere close, like Sacramento or Denver.

It's going to be hard waiting a couple of days for that, but we'll be ready.

Q. You guys get five or six days off before you play again. How much do you guys -- does this team need a break here physically, mentally, whatever, just to go into next week?

TYSON DEGENHART: It's going to be huge. Especially like this week, I think we played really fresh yesterday like after having four or five days off. I'm hoping that we can have the same kind of success as we did in the first half of both games in the tournament.

Q. Tyson, you've had to do this. You did this last year, this quick turnaround. What's it like from a player's perspective having to play two games and then having to come back and play 15 hours later on dead legs? And what does it do -- how much does it take out of you going forward into the tournament?

TYSON DEGENHART: Well, I think having a couple of days to get some rest will be big for us, but it kind of feels like an AAU tournament in a way where you have that quick turnaround.

The games are a little bit longer in college, but it still has the same kind of feel where you play a game and then you play the next day. But it will be good for us to get some rest this week.

THE MODERATOR: Jace, you want to respond to that too?

JACE WHITING: I don't know. In that second half it felt like we got a little bit juiced. Just playing the second day is hard. Getting that rest you need, I don't know, it feels like you need a little more umpf when you start to shoot it, and you start shooting it with your arms more. It will be good to get five to six days of rest and get our legs back under us, so...

THE MODERATOR: We thank you, student-athletes, and we'll release you. We'll now take questions for our head coach.

Q. Get straight to the point, Leon. That call that went against Tyson Degenhart, the blocked call, how big and how much of a swing did that happen? What was your vantage point of that call?

LEON RICE: I thought Tyson answered that great. What did you see, Jay? What was your vantage point? I'm not allowed to have a vantage point on that.

Q. It seemed like on both sides there were some swing calls. That wasn't the only one. There were some others as well. Was it tough to kind of know what to get a flow or know what the officiating was going to be like on both sides? It seems like 42 fouls in a game like this, it just seemed like it was a lot of guys in foul trouble and just not a clean game from that perspective.

LEON RICE: I thought it was so well-done.

Q. Did you see any fatigue in the second half from your guys?

LEON RICE: Yeah. Yeah. The three-day tournament like this benefits the deeper you can be. You know, you need that depth. You know, last night, the overtime game, that was a hard-fought battle. That's probably maybe one of the weaknesses of this team is the amount of guys I play.

So that probably showed up in our shooting a little bit, that we missed some shots maybe that you are, like, oh, I have seen us make those. But you've got to credit Utah State. We knew it was going to be a heck of a game.

Like I said, we played a great first half again, and I did see a little drain, no doubt about it. That's why I think San Diego State, with the depth that they have, they have a big advantage in this tournament tomorrow. I mean, you know, doesn't mean Utah State can't win. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that this -- a three-day -- especially how good everybody -- every night you're going to have to go battle somebody and how good everybody is and the heavy minutes you're going to have to play to win a game, when you don't have that depth it wears on you, no doubt.

Q. You guys have been so good at responding and regrouping.

LEON RICE: Yeah.

Q. After a loss going into the NCAA tournament, how do you get the guys to do that one more time?

LEON RICE: Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, this is maybe a blessing in disguise. I've never liked to lose a game, but we wanted to play for the championship tomorrow. I mean, our guys are so competitive and all this, but maybe I'll look back on this as a blessing where we need some days.

It's been a grind of a league. Like I said, our guys -- maybe I'll look back on it, who knows, and say, wow, thank you. But you don't feel like that now, and our guys don't feel like that. Obviously we're competitors and wanted to play in the championship tomorrow.

Q. Didn't give Max a lot of free room for shots, and he had the fall at halftime too. One point for Max in a game like this, what were your thoughts on it?

LEON RICE: Yeah, you look at our guards didn't shoot it the way they have been. You know, you have to dance with the ones who brung ya. The ball didn't drop for them tonight. Credit their defense too. They did a great job tonight.

Q. Leon, we've talked about Selection Sunday for the last couple of months. You've been so focused on the next opponent you've kind of deflected those questions. Now that your résumé is complete, what do you think of where you stand on Selection Sunday?

LEON RICE: What a body of work that we've done, these guys. When you stack it all up, you know, the wins that we have and how even the losses, I mean, we were right there in a lot of those. Overtimes, one-possession, those kind of things.

This is a great group that went out and built a quality résumé. Our numbers reflect it. The league is getting the respect that it deserves, so the numbers are where they should be. You know, so it's nice to have our league do what we did this year, because we're deserving of multiple, multiple teams.

We've earned it. I'm proud of our guys, and we're excited for Sunday. Really excited.

Q. To your point, I've heard about rest. I'll give you a stat. Of teams that have played in the Mountain West Conference final, 11 straight have lost in the NCAA tournament.

LEON RICE: Yeah.

Q. You've been through this turnaround.

LEON RICE: Right.

Q. So much it talked about student-athlete welfare. Is it time for this league to step up and say, we can't make athletes do this?

LEON RICE: No, I think -- Mark, I think you always have to be evolving and you have to be looking at how can we be better, how -- we're a legit basketball league. Is this what -- is this the right model for -- but there is truth to that.

I mean, a three-day tournament and then the next day selection and then you have about a day to get ready and then the next day you're traveling. I mean, it does, no doubt about it. Because you've got to remember, I came from Gonzaga, and there's no team that's gone to as many Sweet 16s in a row as they have.

They play their championship on Tuesday. They only play two games in their tournament, right? Granted, they have been a great team, but I know for certain that they go into that thing as fresh and as -- their legs are live. It does make a difference.

I'm not saying -- as a basketball league you've got to keep turning it over, keep finding ways we can keep making it better, because we are making it better. I mean, this year what every team did in the preseason, everybody scheduled the right way for them, everybody went out and won games.

I mean, amazing. So let's keep looking at it. We'll keep trying to make it better. We have great leadership, and, you know, that's our job. What can we do, number one, for our student-athletes, number two, the NCAA tournament? We have to find ways to get more teams in and set us up for success in that, because this day and age that's what you're judged by and that's -- there's a lot of things that go with that for your league.

So, you know, I know for a fact that we will look at all this stuff. Like I say, we have great leadership. I'm so excited about Gloria and what she -- I mean, you know? We know where she came from. She knows what she's doing in a basketball league. Not that she doesn't know football. Don't take that as that (laughing).

But we will keep getting better, and we'll keep evolving. I'm excited about the future of this league and excited about -- I mean, you know, it was a terrific year for the Mountain West. We lived it. I've been in this league a long time, but the beauty of it was it got the respect because of what we did in the preseason, because it's always been tough. You go out on the road, you know. You guys that have traveled to these places have seen that up close and personal.

This is the year that it got the respect it deserves where a road loss was -- a road win was so hard to come by and a road loss was excusable because of how good the numbers were. So it stood up. That's big progress. Let's keep building on it, and let's take it off from here.