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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2007

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by University of Wyoming head coach Steve McClain and student-athletes Brandon Ewing and Brad Jones.
Coach, if you want to just begin with some general comments on the game.
COACH McCLAIN: Well, I think our kids came into the game with the same idea we started out in Denver with last year: it's a whole new season, it's a whole new beginning.
These two guys did nothing but talk to those other guys about being focused, walking in here with a purpose. And yet we knew we were playing a great team, a team that has won a bunch of games this year. We knew we'd have to compete and play as hard as we could.
I thought these two guys got our other guys to get that done. They deserve the credit for it.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Brad, you got off to an 8-0 lead. Every time they had a run, you had an answer. How big was that and what were the keys of answering everything they threw at you?
BRAD JONES: I don't think we lost the lead, not once the whole game.
COACH McCLAIN: They got up once.
BRAD JONES: That was the key. Coach just told us to stay focused. He said in pregame, They going to go in back doors. Get up threes. That's what they do. If they do that, don't get down, keep talking to your teammates.
We went out there focused, like coach said. It was a great team effort, a team win.

Q. Both of you, Coach McClain talked about you guys coming in here with a purpose. Was that purpose today to be aggressive and essentially take the fight to them today?
BRANDON EWING: Most definitely. We definitely wanted to be aggressive on offense and defense. We wanted to dictate the pace of the game and not let them dictate the pace because they are a very good team if they had total control of the game.
Coach preached to us all week, make sure we had the pace of the game the way we want it.
BRAD JONES: Like Brandon said, we wanted to get into them early, get the early lead. Coach told us it would be important for us to start off good and start off early. We did that with the first play of the game with a dunk, kind of got the crowd into it. We just kind of controlled the game from there.

Q. Both of you I thought got snubbed on the All-Mountain West team. Was that ever in your thinking? You both exploded for big numbers today.
BRANDON EWING: Well, yeah, I would say so. Me and Brad was kind of frustrated for like 24 hours. But all the coaches, all the teammates, all the people around campus told us to keep our head up. It don't matter about the individual accolades, just keep playing as a team. If we win the Mountain West tournament the he whole team wins.
BRAD JONES: Like Brandon said, it was kind of frustrating for both of us. I think Brandon deserved first team. Like Brandon said, it's not about the individual accolades. We both team players. We just want to win.

Q. For both players, came down to hitting the free-throws there at the end. Burtschi missed four. Seemed like Wyoming was up to the task to hit the free-throws down the stretch.
BRANDON EWING: That was kind of big for us. Every time they caught a timeout when they got fouled, coach kept saying, They definitely going to miss one, so make sure we box out. We played in Laramie, we thought they was going to hit the free-throws, we didn't box out. That's kind of what hurt us in Laramie.
Coach let us know that every time they were going to miss at least one free-throw. That's what they did tonight. Especially on neutral court. That played a big factor for us.

Q. What has to change and what has to stay the same in order for you to be able to get a win now against BYU in the semifinals?
BRAD JONES: Well, we're focusing our attention on BYU now. The coaches do a great job of getting us prepared. We just got to stay focused and take it one game at a time.
Tonight I'm sure we'll have a meeting and just go over things about BYU.
BRANDON EWING: One of the main things we have to do, like Brad just stated, is stay focused. We came down here with one thing in our mind: Come out with the championship. That's one thing we wanted to do.
The coaches are going to have us well-prepared to play BYU. Like Brad said, we're going to have a meeting as soon as we get back, go over game film, probably go over each individual, and we'll be ready tomorrow.

Q. You talked about winning this thing. What is the mood like in the locker room? Was it celebratory after the game? Do you feel you have some unfinished business?
BRANDON EWING: We feel we have unfinished business because we going into the BYU game. That's a team that swept us this year. They actually beat us at home. We want to come out and just win the whole thing. That's our mindset in the locker room.

Q. You showed a lot of defensive intensity out there. How difficult is it going to be to have that intensity two days in a row?
BRAD JONES: We're young guys, young college athletes. If you can't get excited to play in March, I don't think you should be playing basketball. Like Brandon said, we can go for days. We can go play pickup right now. We can play. It won't be a big deal for us.
THE MODERATOR: Brad and Brandon, thank you, guys. We'll let you two go.
BRANDON EWING: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach McClain.

Q. How important was that fast start and that alley-oop to start the game? Was that scripted, something you had planned coming in?
COACH McCLAIN: Brandon scripted it. I was getting ready to give them a set play to run. I hear him in the huddle going, Hey, if they start that way, we're going to run. It has a name.
You know, I was like, Well, you know... Brandon made this comment when we were getting ready to play New Mexico. He said to all the young guys, We're not young any more. New Mexico was kind of the end of their sophomore year, junior year, freshman year, whatever.
I heard him in the locker room saying they were going to run that play, and it's one we work on. You know what, if he believes it will work, then I don't mind putting a little faith in those two of what they think happens out there on the court.
It was kind of fun there at the end of the game to just kind of stand there. Best thing I did was clap my hands and go, Nice job, Brad; nice job, Brandon. You know, they made free-throws. Then Joe stepped up. I always love it when a guy makes one that nobody thinks he will. The whole crowd goes crazy.
But, no, we came out with the idea we were going to run that play right off the bat.

Q. Talk about Brad coming out after having to sit out the last game, not playing against Air Force before. He came out with some determination to take control.
COACH McCLAIN: Well, I think, again, I go back to what I talked about: those two, from the minute the New Mexico game was over, we took Sunday off. When we got in there Monday, all they started talking about was focusing and getting ready.
If you aren't going to do that -- I heard them say it to their teammates. They said, If you aren't going to do it, don't go with us. You know, as coaches, when people might say, Why would your players say that? Because they needed to understand, we're going somewhere most of 'em haven't been. You know, I thought they did a great job of preparing our guys.

Q. They kept trading shots back and forth. Was there ever a sequence or an event there that you thought really turned the game in your favor, where you felt like you had it? Did that happen when the final buzzer sounded?
COACH McCLAIN: When the final buzzer sounded I knew we had it. You know, I knew they'd make a three or two late, and they did. But a couple plays: Brandon got a couple. He got a four-point opportunity; he got fouled on two threes.
I thought the play when we hit Joseph late in the game, he went up, they ran at him. Instead of trying to dunk the basketball he just went up and scored it. Then Brad had a big three-point play. It goes back to -- I think that's when they had taken a one-point lead. We get a three-point play. Took the lead back. From that point we played in the lead.
I can't say enough about Air Force. People keep talking about, Now they've lost four straight, this, that. You know what, what they need to talk about is our league is really good. Nobody in this league will give you anything. You know, we've got two top-25 teams in this league. They were in the top 25 all year.
Forget about all that other stuff. This league's got really good teams. It was a great game. I just go back to, I don't know that we've ever had, in my four years with this group of seniors at Air Force we've had one bad game, and they know that was no good, and we did.
Every game's been like that. Our kids compete hard. They respect each other. It was just a great college basketball game.

Q. Down the stretch, it seemed like your team used the shot clock. Was that your idea? Was that the strategy you wanted?
COACH McCLAIN: Really early in the game we took the shot clock down about four or five times. Again, their idea is to get you to rush and take a quick shot, then you're going to go guard for 30 seconds. Our idea was, let's let them guard for a while, then we'll go down.
We'll still have to guard, but if we just make them wear down a little bit maybe those cuts aren't as hard. Maybe it's just not quite as hard to guard.
Yeah, so there wasn't any question then. I thought our kids managed the time well at the end of the game.

Q. How much did that opening play, the alley-oop slam, how much did that set the mental attitude for your team?
COACH McCLAIN: I think it had a lot to do with it. Again, you never want to overexaggerate it. It's kind of like somebody running back the opening kickoff and going, Oh, that's the game. Well, no, it's not the game. But it gave our kids some confidence.
When we went 8-0, then we knew, Okay, if they make a couple baskets we're still in the lead. So it gave us a lot of confidence.

Q. What do you have to do to get BYU tomorrow? Is Air Force an at-large team for the tournament right now?
COACH McCLAIN: I don't think there's any question on that question. Air Force should be in the tournament, will be in the tournament. I don't debate that. You have to look at their overall -- I go back to what I said. Somebody out there needs to say we got a pretty darn good league here is what we got.
How do we beat BYU? Let's see, you got to stop Plaisted, Young, Ainge. You know what, they've got a great basketball team. Dave's done a great job with them. We've got to do a better job on Keena Young. Hurt us both times we played them.
We got to figure out something to do to him. But yet that's why he was the Player of the Year. Nobody else really figured out how to stop him either. Plaisted is so good. Tavernari. Dave's just done a great job with them.
We've got to control the tempo of that game.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach.
COACH McCLAIN: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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