NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 15, 2023

Steve Alford

Will Baker

Tré Coleman

UD Arena

Nevada Wolfpack

Media Conference

Arizona State 98, Nevada 73

STEVE ALFORD: Just so pleased that -- we had a lot of adversity last year and didn't handle it very well, and I thought the guys that were returning did a great job of just handling adversity. We had probably more adversity this year than we had last year because we lost Hunter in October, we lost Mike in October, we lost K.J. in early November, we lost Daniel three different times this year.

We've had a lot more injuries this year, and these guys just found a way. Had a nine-game improvement over last year. They were just a complete joy to coach.

It's one thing to talk about team greater than self, but it's another thing to go out and do it, and I think since last April, this team has really done that. As a coach, that's all you ask for. They've given us everything. They've been great, great people to coach, great representatives of our program the way I want it represented, and I think the way our university should be represented.

Just a tremendous year, tremendous turnaround. They were picked ninth, and with a week to go in the conference season, we're one game out of first.

Now to make this tournament, this is a hard tournament to make. All you've got to do is look at the NIT field to see just how hard it is to make.

I'm so proud of these guys. They got a chance to play in it. Jarod Lucas is the only guy that's got any experience. I think you saw that tonight. We just didn't have enough experience.

And you've got to give Arizona State credit. I've watched a bucket load of games on them, and I thought that's as well as they've played all year. That's a great credit to them because if you can play some of your best basketball in March, that's really, really good.

I thought they were tremendous tonight, and our guys kept battling, but they had one of those nights where they made an awful lot of shots.

Q. Looked like it took you guys a little bit to get into the rhythm of the game, but in the second half, I thought there might be a moment where you guys might be able to make a run. How did you feel coming into the game playing here, and when did you start to get comfortable in the game?

TRÉ COLEMAN: I feel like we obviously started off slow, and we was trying our hardest to turn it around. We went into halftime, and we told everybody we've just got to chip away as much as we can, and that's what we tried to do coming out in the second half.

WILL BAKER: Yeah, in the second half we were just trying to stay connected as much as we could and keep on battling, keep on pushing, and just like Tré was saying, chip away at it.

Q. I know it didn't play out like you guys wanted, but what was the vibe like playing in UD arena with millions watching on TV? What was it like for you guys? Looking forward, what can you take from this game, if anything?

TRÉ COLEMAN: Just the experience being here. Like Coach said, none of us have ever experienced it, so just being able to experience it one time and just putting our head down and coming back stronger next year.

WILL BAKER: Yeah, it's a really awesome opportunity to be here. I'm thankful for that. Obviously it didn't end how we wanted it to, but yeah, I think like Tré was saying, lack of experience a little bit, except for Jarod. Jarod has been to the tournament. But we just kind of lacked experience. No one has been to the tournament.

Q. Will, where do you feel like you guys lacked in this game that you couldn't necessarily get in and have a presence inside there early in the first half?

WILL BAKER: I mean, I think our defense definitely was our biggest problem. They were hitting a lot of shots, but at the end of the day, it was our defense.

Q. For Tré, how do you guys hope that you can learn from this experience, and since you have everybody who can return to this roster next year that you guys can come back even stronger?

TRÈ COLEMAN: Really just trying to follow our game plan as much as possible. Our game plan was to try to stop them on defense, and they started the game off and they dominated the paint, and it just led to kick-out threes. I feel like just following our game plan as much as possible.

Q. Mr. Alford, I joked with Coach Hurley about if he wanted to lace them up one time and get out there and go at it. What was it like going against a legend like Bobby Hurley on this type of stage?

STEVE ALFORD: Well, I'm older, so I'm saying that a lot lately, but obviously Bobby had an incredible career at Duke, and for Coach Krzyzewski, who I have the utmost respect for. And he's always been very kind to me anytime I've needed anything. So that program and that family, being the Duke family, is very special.

I had the opportunity to play for Coach Knight, and he's one of my dear friends, dear mentors, just like my father. My father was a high school coach and had the great blessing of coaching with him for nine years on the same bench. And so a kid growing up a little over an hour from here, dreaming of playing for Dad and Coach Knight, all that came true for me.

Now to have 32 years in this business and coaching young men and seeing young men do the things like our young men have done after the season that we had last year is why we do it. It stinks when it's over, but I've been doing this long enough, that's the way March is. You're only promised one game. Another two weeks from now there's still only going to be one team standing.

Bobby has had that chance to do it as a player, I've had that chance to do that as a player. It's great in coaching when you can give your guys that same experience and opportunity. But you're not guaranteed six or seven games in this deal. You're only guaranteed one. That's the hardness of March Madness. It comes to -- it's unfortunate we don't get to continue playing with that group of young men because they have been a special group.

But again, that's March. It's unlike any other month. All the other months you get another game. Not March.

Q. Coach, being a sniper, in the second half I felt like your team played better defensively, kind of into them. And it seemed like there were some moments where if you could have hit a couple shots in a row, maybe get some momentum and get back in the game.

STEVE ALFORD: Yeah, I thought the first half they just dominated the paint. They got too many easy paint stuff and then they saw the ball going in. And when you're in postseason, if you can see the ball go in, you get a lot of confidence.

So they saw that happen. They dominated the paint, which was an issue going into this game. We knew how athletic they were. They're very deep. They've got a lot of experience, got a lot of older guys that have been in Power Five leagues and other good leagues like the Mountain West. I think that showed because I thought it took us a while to kind of get calmed down.

At halftime -- I didn't know if we could make it to halftime, but we got to halftime and I think we calmed down a little bit. And in the second half when we started making some shots, we had about three or four straight possessions where we fouled jump shooters. Instead of them having to make shots, they got to make free throws.

So we weren't really -- we cut it to like 20, and if we don't foul the shooters, who knows, maybe we go down and we make a little bit better run. But the fouling of shooters, I thought, really hurt us in the second half.

Q. I know you mentioned it just a little bit there, but do you think the nerves got to some of the guys there early in the first half? It seemed like they weren't as tense and as tight as they maybe were in those last couple games that we saw.

STEVE ALFORD: Yeah, you know, we've been trying everything we can. These guys have been under some pressure, and that's all part of the game. But there's not a lot of experience dealing with it. We don't have one player that's been down a stretch run fighting for a conference championship. I think we cinched that. Only Jarod has been in an NCAA Tournament, and it's not taking anything at all. He had a great run, got to the Elite 8, but you did it in a bubble with nobody around.

This is a great environment. They put on a first-class event here in Dayton, and it's a great basketball town, and it's sold out. It was a tremendous crowd.

It's hard to say. But I think we build from it. I think we talked about it already, and we'll talk about it more. Last April we were trying to come off of a losing season. This April we're coming off a 22-win season and a really, really good basketball year that was exciting for our community. And now we've got to build on, hey, we lost our last four games, so let that sting a little bit and let that be the motivation of going into next year trying to fight and learn what it is to win a championship, and then try to get back in the tournament and advance in the tournament.

Q. How will you remember this group? A few words that you'll remember, this group of guys this year.

STEVE ALFORD: Yeah, I just think they've been a part of culture and maybe an overall shift of culture, not just within the basketball program but our entire athletic department. Stephanie, our new athletic director, and her staff are doing a tremendous job.

One of the things our team really appreciated -- I'm not a huge social media guy, but we saw a lot of videos coming from back in Reno of our athletic teams there, both on the men's and women's side, and that means so much for them to do that and congratulate us and wish us well in this tournament. It speaks of just kind of what's happening on our campus, and our guys are a big part of that.

I think they appreciate that, and I appreciate the efforts that they've given. They've given everything they've got. I probably played -- Doc's probably -- hopefully he's not in here, but I probably played Hunter four or five more minutes than I was supposed to, so I went over his minutes. So we've been on restricted minutes with Hunter. We've dealt with some young players that I think have really grown during the course of the year, but also kind of hit some walls, too, because they're young, and they've never been through it.

Now they'll understand that in training. Then we've got some guys that have never been in leadership roles that had to be leaders, and they've done a really good job of doing that. K.J. who only played four games and had to lead from the bench and Hunter doing that for most of his year. We've just had a lot of good play.

Kenan hasn't played but about two games at point guard going into the season, and he's the point guard of this team and led us to 22-11 record. Transfers came in and did a great job for us. Jarod, we had all kinds of accolades in the season with our players, which is always good to see.

So I thought all of them, Will, Tré, Darrion, they all made great strides this year, and it was good to see. Nick came back off a redshirt and had a phenomenal year, I thought. All in all, it was just a really special year.

Just this time of year it's not fun because when you lose, you don't get that next opportunity. And you chalk it up as a very, very good year, and now you have a great off-season going into next season where I don't think we'll be picked ninth next year. We were picked ninth this year, and like I said, we were right there.

Now can we make that next step, and with these young guys and these guys coming back, I think that's going to happen.

Q. When you look at this season as a whole, maybe it's hard to think about now, but was there a turning point when you knew that this group was really special? Was it before even games started this year?

STEVE ALFORD: Yeah, I talked to Maury Hanks about this a couple weeks ago, and I think it was the MT event in the Caymans. We played UT Arlington on the way down, who was playing really good basketball at the time, and we played an outstanding road game and got a road win going down to the Caymans. And then in the Caymans played outstanding basketball. The only loss was an overtime loss to Kansas State.

I thought coming back from the Caymans, we knew we had a team that just kind of had that moxie to them and had that toughness, and we were growing. It was early on, but I thought the month of November really helped us because it got us going.

We play a lot of games in November usually. And I can't remember now, but we played seven, eight, nine games in November to early December and really got off to a good start. I think that got our guys some momentum and some confidence moving forward.

But it was also the time we lost K.J. We lost him the first game in the Caymans. To lose him there, just four games in -- and I think we might have been undefeated when we lost him -- it just puts a lot of pressure on Nick and Will.

For the majority of the season, we had two bigs down there. When we split guard forwards, we had two bigs because we lost Mike in October and we lost K.J. four games into the season.

To just try to orchestrate that and get as much out of Nick and Will as we could, I thought they did a tremendous job of giving us great effort.