MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 15, 2024

Brian Dutcher

Micah Parrish

Reese Waters

Thomas & Mack Center

San Diego State Aztecs

Postgame Press Conference

San Diego State 86, Utah State 70

THE MODERATOR: For San Diego State we have student-athletes Micah Parrish, Reese Waters.

Coach Brian Dutcher, we'll start with you. Get some thoughts on today's game?

BRIAN DUTCHER: Just this team has always had great resolve. It's got a great grit about it. And we got down 17 in the first half. We don't panic. We just fight our way, fight, fight, fight, and we caught a break.

When Osobor got his second foul, he went to the bench, they were having a good rhythm, and with him out of the game, they had to change how they were playing a little bit. We decide to do play Micah and Jaedon with two fouls each, running the risk of maybe them getting a third foul by half.

I felt the way the game was going we needed to make a stand in the first half. And we were fortunate Darrion hit another halftime buzzer beater to close the gap, and we were in the game at halftime. Then we came out the second half, played our continually good defense, and these two guys made shots.

The first game I think they were 1 for 15, something like that, and today when they make shots, you can see what our offense looks like. They're both capable.

I believe the ball is going in every time they shoot it. Now that they have a little rhythm, hopefully that continues into tomorrow night and into the NCAA Tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. When the game is called like this especially in the first half, what do you kind of have to change about the way you play on both ends to limit your fouls, but to also draw more in the offensive end?

REESE WATERS: I think we just play smarter. We're an aggressive team. We play aggressive on offense, defense. But just making smarter decisions and being on time. Especially in defense. If it's help defense, you're just on the ball, not reaching as much and just playing disciplined.

Q. Your coach sat up here after yesterday's game at the podium and said he's convinced that both of you will make shots tomorrow. You guys are up here for a reason, because you made shots. I don't know if you heard that yesterday, but what does it mean to have the confidence from your coach like that?

MICAH PARRISH: I know us two, we know our coaches believe in us. They put time in us and watch film with us. Each and every one of the coaches, they keep telling us (indiscernible).

We both appreciate it. I know I appreciate it to have a coaching staff like this, to have the coaching staff believe in us.

Q. Micah, a phenomenal first half that was really a huge part of you guys staying in this game long enough to battle all the way back and have one of your best offensive performances of the year. Did Coach say anything to you specifically to get you to be aggressive like that in the first half, or was that more just the flow of the game and it just kind of took you that way?

MICAH PARRISH: My performances the last couple of months, since the beginning of the year hasn't been up to my standard. I know I had to break out soon. I know put the work in. I work every day on my shot, so I knew one day it was going to come. I guess today it came. Hopefully it keeps going throughout the whole tournament run.

Q. Coach, talk about you were down 17 to go up 13, basically turn the game around 30 points at about 17, 18 minutes. Jaedon was super aggressive in that first six, seven minutes of the second half. I think he had 13 points in the first six, seven minutes. Was that something you talked to him about being aggressive, or is that just his natural tendency to understand, hey, we're down and we need some help here?

BRIAN DUTCHER: I don't think we needed to tell Jaedon to be aggressive. We have to dial him back sometimes.

I just felt with both bigs having two fouls, neither one wanted to pick up his third right away, so we tried to go to Jaedon right away and put pressure on Osobor.

Jaedon, I thought he had his best passing night as an Aztec tonight. When he does that, we're going to be really good. When he starts kicking it out and these guys are making shots, now we have the whole package. We have him dangerous inside scoring and now they're afraid to double because these guys are shooting, and he is kicking it out.

I say you get better or get worse, and we're getting better. It's a good time to get better.

Q. Reese, most points scored since December 19th -- 86. Just playing in back-to-back games, does it help with the flow of the offense?

REESE WATERS: In terms of everybody? Yeah. I definitely think it helps. My fault. Can you repeat the question. I lost --

Q. 86 points tonight as a team. The most that you've scored since December 19th. Does playing back-to-back days help with the flow of the offense for everybody?

REESE WATERS: I think especially for us how we practice and how we go through our film and how every individual player talks to each other. We talk on the court and off the court, especially with the coaches. It definitely helps.

I think as a team not having a week to sit down and think about maybe whatever you did in the game that you didn't like, it definitely helps that you have a turnaround. So you have to focus on the next game. You don't have time to sit there and think about or get in your own mind or thought about it.

Q. For both players, you hadn't had a great last few weeks. You're 4-4, I think, coming into the tournament. You lose two straight, which you guys never do. Then you have that big moment yesterday. Darrion makes a shot. Jaedon makes a shot late to get over the hump you haven't been able to get to all year. Does it free you up like the Charleston game did last year and just freed you?

REESE WATERS: I wasn't there.

MICAH PARRISH: Yeah, definitely. I mean, at the beginning of the year, every time we have close games we have to get over the hump. This past recent couple of weeks, we haven't been able to get over the hump. So it's nice to finally get over the hump again and know what it feels like to finish games. That's going to help us in the future.

REESE WATERS: Same.

THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes at this time. Thank you, men. Questions for Coach.

Q. Obviously tough to lose Jaedon in the first few minutes of the game. What did you like about the way that you guys were able to respond -- how he was able to respond as well to go on that run and make it close and then take a lead in the second half?

BRIAN DUTCHER: Yeah, we played without Jaedon for a while and held in there. Heide did a good job. He had a putback, and he was playing pretty good, but he made a couple of freshman mistakes. The game was hovering, and the coaches asked me do I want to put Micah back in? I said, yes. They figured, well, I was getting soft. They said how about Jaedon? I said put him in two.

We put them both in with two fouls and it kind of turned the momentum of the game. Because at that time, Osobor was out, so we could go outside to Jaedon, and Osobor wasn't guarding him. I don't know if he scored a lot, but he drew fouls and changed the momentum of the game.

We had a good stretch to finish the half, which we needed to get back into the game. Are then the second half we came out, played good Aztec basketball and guarded. We out-rebounded them. Defensive rebounds are going to win championships. That's what we preach and believe in. I thought we guarded and rebounded at a high level.

Q. Jaedon and Great, one of the better matchups in this conference. What makes it such a great matchup, and what was it about Jaedon today that made him get the better of Great today?

BRIAN DUTCHER: They're both really good players. They're versatile. They can hit jump shots, drive the ball, post up, so they're not one-dimensional bigs. They can do everything.

Jaedon made some jump shots which kind of got him going. Osobor is very good. The last time we played him, he had seven assists, so we changed our whole scheme as to how we played him. We didn't want to double him right away because he had seven assists and they were getting three-point shots. So we went into the game and said let's make him make twos and not give him threes. You have to change the way you play he's so good.

Q. With LeDee off the court and Great Osobor in on the game, was there a thought to putting Jay Pal on Great at all? You decided to go with Heide, but was there a thought to go with Jay Pal at all?

BRIAN DUTCHER: Yeah. We were thinking Elijah or Jay Pal, trying to front them. But they run such good set plays, it's not like he just comes down to the block. They cross-screen for him and duck him in different ways. He's hard -- for a guy that's not as big and strong as he is to guard. We did our best. We were fortunate that we came away with a win today.

Q. You're down 17. Similar thing happened against Colorado State at home. Came back and just roared past them. What is it about this team? Were you nervous on the bench, or just kind of like this is what our team does, and we'll be fine?

BRIAN DUTCHER: I mean, like I said, if you are going to be behind, it's better in the start of the game to be 17 down. If that was the second half, I think we would have been in trouble.

We find a way to fight our way back in. I was hoping to be under ten going into halftime, to be honest with you. If we could be under ten, I would feel pretty good about it, and I think it was three. We exceeded what my expectation was going into halftime.

A three-point game at halftime, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. To get down and fight our way back, we felt like we had to change the momentum of the game, so we wanted to start the second half and build on that momentum, and I think we did.

Q. You held Utah State to 32% from the field in the second half. I know the switch kind of happened halfway through that first half. But specifically in the second half, what did you see different from your team defensively that really shut Utah State's offense down?

BRIAN DUTCHER: I don't think we shut them down. I think we disrupted. We pick up on the full court, and we deny the point guard. We make other guys initiate the offense. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

They're such a great set play team that if we could disrupt their sets and make them maybe shorten their playbook or run stuff out of character or what they're used to running, sometimes that's good for us. I thought we disrupted.

They didn't turn it over much. I think the turnovers, we had five, they had eight. Both teams took care of the ball. I thought we set the pace of the game with our pressure.

Q. You guys have been the best program in the conference for a long time, but there's upsets all over the country this time of year. What is it about your program that's had so much success in this tournament every year making the Finals?

BRIAN DUTCHER: Just because I don't think we have to rely on our offense to win. We can suffer through a bad offensive performance and hang in the game long enough and give ourselves a chance to win at the end.

So I think it's our defense that separates us, and that's what we rely on. And I tell them, at some point we're going to find something that works. It may not work for the first half. It may not work for three-quarters of the game, but we'll find something to put it in. We have to hang in the game long enough till we find that thing that works. We rely on our defense and our rebounding.

Q. Darius Brown played 36 minutes tonight. You guys held him to 3 for 11 from the floor. What helped defend a guy like that?

BRIAN DUTCHER: I mean, he's everything to them. He plays 40 minutes a game usually, and he makes timely, important shots. We were fortunate he didn't make a lot of threes tonight. He makes dagger threes against everybody. And he had a couple of looks, and we were fortunate they didn't go in.

Maybe it's a fact he played back-to-back games, which is the only time he's going to have to do it. In the NCAA Tournament he'll be sensational because he'll have a game and a day between to recover. He's so important to them, and that's why he is a first-time all conference guard.

Q. You had five guys in double figures tonight. Three of them were guards. We know guard play is very critical this time of the year. What can you say about Lamont and Darrion and how they ran the show, how the team only had five turnovers?

BRIAN DUTCHER: Lamont and Darrion are great. They're Final Four starting guards. They should be good. They're used to playing this time of the year. I thought Reese not only was making shots says, but I thought he got offensive rebounds. He was running balls down. He did other things to affect the game other than just shoot it in.

The same thing with Micah. Micah affects the game even when the shot is not going in. When they're both making shots, then they really impact the game. So hopefully that continues tomorrow night and into the NCAA Tournament.