MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2005

Dale Layer

Matt Nelson

Matt Williams

COACH LAYER: Well, it was a hard fought game. I'm proud of my team for hanging in there through a lot of adversity this year. You know, they gave me everything they had every day, and I'm extremely, extremely proud. It's unfortunate we came up short. I thought we played really hard, but didn't make enough shots, and you've got to make -- you've got to play pretty close to perfect to beat a team the caliber of Utah who is well coached and as mature as they are.

MATT NELSON: I guess it was just an off night. Some of them I was leaving more than others. The hooks and the little jumpers, they usually go in and today they didn't. It was unfortunate it happened today and not a couple of weeks ago, but that's the way it goes. You've just got to take it.

MATT WILLIAMS: It's a hard moment for the whole team. I think the biggest thing is we're going to miss the relationships looking back for the past four years, five for Rak and Nelly, just the relationships and the adversity. Adversity makes you grow tighter with the people you're around. That's the biggest thing you're going to miss.

MATT NELSON: We had that run a couple of years ago which we'll look back on and say we did that. Last year we beat the No. 1 seed, and unfortunately this year we went through a lot of stuff. We always go through it with guys leaving or guys getting hurt or sick or what have you. You've got to keep battling through, and unfortunately this year didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, but I wouldn't trade the guys I played with all year.

MATT NELSON: I think going to halftime we were pretty confident with the lead and doing what we needed to do, getting stops and rebounds. The second half we came out slow and then we came back and tied it up and kind of felt like the ball was starting to roll our way, and then they went on another run, and then towards the end with about five minutes we went on the run and started to swing the momentum, and they hit a shot and another hit and it seemed like the same old story; just we couldn't get over that hump again. That's the way it ended up.

MATT WILLIAMS: I don't think we figured out what it was. It's tough, a lot of times we'll play good first halves and it's hard to get over the hump in the second half. I thought we battled it off today, had a little falter there at the beginning and then made some big shots. I give them the credit for that. Basketball is a game of runs. In the second half they went on their runs, and when there was seven minutes left we went on our own run and thought we had a chance to come back, but it was too little, too late.

COACH LAYER: You've said it. You know, we've probably thrown four or five different looks at him in the three games. I think we rattled him twice in, what, 120 minutes? I'm not a very good mathematician, but he's mature beyond his years, he beats you in every which way. I thought we did a better job tonight than we've done, but he's a guy that picks you apart with his passes. He's wise, he's an unbelievable rebounder because he rebounds outside of his area. Not many seven-footers ever probably rebound outside his area like he does. But yet he's -- he doesn't get in foul trouble. He only takes good shots. He's a terrific passer. I mean, he's the best player who's ever played in this league. He's a man playing among boys. As good as Matt Nelson is, and Matt Nelson has had an unbelievable career, I can't say enough great things about the contributions of Matt Nelson and Matt Williams, but Andrew Bogut plays at a different level than anybody in our league and quite possibly 95 percent of the nation.

COACH LAYER: Well, I thought we got some good looks. We didn't get enough good looks, but we got some good looks. We didn't make enough shots. Again, you can't beat a terrific basketball team and not make shots. You know, we went inside and got some looks. I thought there were several times, you could pick it apart and say, yeah, we had four or five looks that we rushed, but just because we're talking that way makes you understand that we have to play pretty close to perfect to beat them, and we didn't do that. Did we play hard enough? We did. Did we have a pretty good game plan? I think so. But it's a special basketball team. Can they be beaten? Yeah, I think so, but somebody has to play an exceptional basketball game to beat them in our league.

COACH LAYER: Well, when you hold -- they shot 38 percent the second half. They shot 50 in the first half. I think whatever adjustments we made were pretty good. I'll take holding them to 38 percent any day at half. We tried to continue what we were doing. If you've got a one-point lead at halftime defensively, I think you're pretty good against Utah. The problem we have is offensively. We couldn't make enough shots. I thought our defense got them back on their heels and kept them a little bit off balance, but, you know, you've got to put the ball in the hole. Our defense all year, we were holding people to about 40 percent. It's top 25, 30 in the country. We'll live with that any day. I think there would be 29 that would trade with us. We're okay with that. We just couldn't put the ball in the hole enough. That was our problem all year. Sometimes turnovers hurt us. It didn't tonight, but we've got to click on a lot of cylinders and we didn't click on enough of them tonight against a team like Utah. I'll take any of them tonight, I'll take the defensive effort. I just wished we could have knocked down a couple shots.

COACH LAYER: Oh, I don't know that there's one thing ever. You know, we've had to try to trick people a lot this year. We've had down numbers, we're playing three freshmen, I guess three freshmen that have played more minutes than any other freshmen in the league. I haven't researched that, but we've tried to play games with smoke and mirrors and not necessarily the way I like to play, but it's hard to play the kind of defense we're playing for 40 minutes and go toe-to-toe with people. I think people kind of get a little bit of a rhythm the second half, and we're not quite as deep or as experienced or as athletic as we thought we would be before the season began. You can't change up as much as I would like. So I think second halves normally they get in a little bit better flow offensively, and I think we've certainly been inconsistent with shooting the ball all year, and I think that probably factors into it, as well.

COACH LAYER: We're going to get a few more team doctors and have them at every practice. You know, again, we've got three freshmen who have played. I think all three exceeded our expectations. I think you could make a case if Jason Smith were not in a league, Sean Morris would have been freshman of the year. He was the second leading scorer among freshmen. If those two weren't in the league Stuart Creason might have been Freshman of the Year because he was the third leading scorer and second leading rebounder. So just the minutes that those three guys got, I think you've got to be encouraged by that. I don't think anybody envisioned any of the three playing the kind of roles they did, but that's good stuff and I'm proud of them. I'm proud of what they've accomplished. You know, you've got to have a full complement of players, and we did not have a full complement from August on, and to be able to play different ways, change tempos, change styles, make adjustments, you've got to have 13 good players, and we never had that from day one, and we ended the year with -- there were times when we had eight or nine scholarship guys, three of them freshmen. That's a little difficult. I think we've got a really good recruiting class. Michael Harrison was the District Player of the Year, Northeastern Junior College Region 9. He was also the tournament MVP, and he will be on one of the all-American lists, 6'10" kid from Denver who's a terrific athlete, and all of the signees, three or four of them probably had better years than we thought. So we gained some experience, we've got some good guys coming in.

COACH LAYER: That's a great question. It's one I'm not prepared to answer. Let me just think about it for a sec. Philosophically I think this is a great venue. It's a world-class arena. It's a city that is capable of supporting basketball. It's drivable for more fans than probably any other neutral site. Being a neutral site, I think every coach would prefer having that. I don't know if that answers your question or not, but this is where it ought to be, and I don't know of another coach who would disagree with that, but at some point it's got to resonate with more people, and hopefully we'll see the crowds build the next couple of days because this is good basketball. Andrew Bogut is projected to be in the top two picks in the country. Danny Granger is projected to be a first round pick. Odartey Blankson has a good chance of getting drafted, Matt Nelson has a decent chance of getting drafted. You know, if you stack that up with the teams who came in the regional last year, those eight, I don't know that there are four better players in the NCAA regional in those eight than there were in our league. We've got players, we've got rivalries, we've got regional loyalties. I just hope it catches fire.

COACH LAYER: Oh, I think we hit a stretch, San Diego State, UNLV, Wyoming at home, where we were closer to that. But never was I saying, wow, this is the way we wanted it to be and planned it to be. We had a lot of adversity and a lot of injuries and never were able to do that. We played a lot slower this year than was my preference, but when your best players are seven-footers and not exactly up-tempo guys, you've got to make adjustments. You know, we tried to -- I don't know of one game that our team quit, and if you look across the country, if you follow basketball like I do and like a lot of people do, you see teams quit all over the country. I don't know of another team who faced the adversity we have. You look at Michigan, faced a lot of adversity, not as much as us. Texas, faced a lot of adversity, not as much as the Rams. You know, you look at Kansas losing their best player. You know, we lost four out of six, they lost one guy. There's a lot of teams out there, not that those teams quit by any stretch, but there are teams out there who cashed in a long, long time ago that faced less adversity, and I know what this team is about and what they did every day in practice. I know what kind of energy commitment they gave me. I'll live with that every day. They're winners in my book, and I'll fight with them every time I can possibly get a chance to.