MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2005

Joel Anthony

Lon Kruger

Ricky Morgan

Michael Umeh

COACH KRUGER: Just a hard-fought win. I'm really proud of our guys. I thought they hung in there and battled. We got into a margin midway through the second half and played with that down the stretch. The kids were going to fight and compete, and they did that and came back late and made it very interesting. I'm really proud of our guys. I thought a lot of guys stepped up; Michael Umeh in the first half was just terrific, and I thought our big guys inside battled Wyoming's big guys and held their own on the boards, and I thought Ricky did a terrific job down the stretch of handling the ball and getting to the line and converting. It was a very good win and a hard-earned win.

MICHAEL UMEH: It was just trying to be aggressive, just trying to come out and get a good start, just trying to be aggressive, trying to attack. Just hit a few shots that got us going.

JOEL ANTHONY: In the post, we were just trying to make sure we fronted the post, trying to deny a lot of the post catches. Their big guys are pretty good so they could hurt us a lot offensively, so we just tried to deny them as much as we could from engaging the score.

RICKY MORGAN: I just didn't want to go home. I've been shooting I think under 60 percent for the whole season from the free throw line and I wasn't too proud of that, so tonight when I got to the line, I was just trying to focus and shoot the ball straight. Our assistant coach, Coach Henson, always tells me just shoot it straight, get up there and follow through, and I did a good job of that tonight.

RICKY MORGAN: I'm just so happy for Mike. He was one of the guys here with me this summer and he worked really hard. As of late he's been carrying us a lot offensively and we've been leaning on him to get us going. He's been our emotional leader, and tonight he got some big shots and big time drives to get us going.

MICHAEL UMEH: It's no problem. You know, I know the guys have a lot of respect for me just like I have a lot of respect for the guys. It's a team effort. If they look to me to do those type of things, I'm willing to step up always and take that responsibility.

MICHAEL UMEH: It was a little different down the stretch. We knew we had to keep fighting, keep attacking, keep trying to play good defense and do good things to try and get things going. You just want to make good things happen.

COACH KRUGER: Not really. We have not really talked about that at all. None of the guys have made any comments that were concerning about their fatigue or lack of wind. I don't think it's been on anyone's mind.

JOEL ANTHONY: Well, you know, I'm definitely ready to go out there and play against him. He's a really, really talented, skilled player. We've just been watching a lot of film, already played against him already. He's obviously a tough match-up, toughest post player in our conference, one of the best in the country, so I just know the job I have to do and I'm ready to go out there and get it done.

RICKY MORGAN: I just think different guys have been stepping up. Each of the wins that we've had as a team effort, cohesive effort, nobody can do it but ourselves, so at times when I have lapses or Mike or Joel or somebody else on the team, somebody else usually steps up. Curtis Terry has been played great, Villepigue has been playing great for us. We need everyone to win games. We can't do it ourselves. When somebody is out of sync, somebody steps up and usually just feed off each other.

COACH KRUGER: Well, especially there in the last quarter of the game when it got very disjointed, all the fouls, all the little mini-runs. We'd get to 9 and then they'd cut it back to 5, 6, and we couldn't quite get away from them, and again, you don't expect them to stop fighting and they didn't. Very tough to finish that game.

COACH KRUGER: Well, it would be awfully difficult to think that. Odartey has been so consistent for us offensively. He's scored big for us every game with the exception of one, and in that ballgame, I think it was Air Force, some other guys stepped up and did a nice job. Like the guys mentioned, different guys have stepped up at different times. I might Michael and Odartey have stepped up and been there, but different guys have stepped up and complemented their play.

COACH KRUGER: I don't know that I've got the answer for that. No one has. New Mexico played them extremely well in The Pit, and Ray has done a great job and Bogut is so terrific that he'll take it if you don't double him, but he's very comfortable making plays for his teammates if you do cheat too much onto him. I think they're a terrific basketball team and playing well, and each guy is playing with great confidence and great conviction with regard to their schemes. That's why they're the best team in the league.

COACH KRUGER: We had a lot of pretty good looks there early that we couldn't get down and even some lay-ups there in the second half. It seemed like we got to the rim but couldn't finish. Maybe it was just that first tournament game, who knows, but we certainly are going to have to do a better job tomorrow to have a chance to hang with Utah.

COACH KRUGER: The tournament is here so we're a very big fan of the tournament in Denver. Obviously there might be some other options down the road that we might be excited about, but right now we're excited about being in Denver. The facility is great and the hospitality around the venue is great and the people are working awfully hard at it, so we're excited about being here.