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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2008Andre McFarlandTim MilesAdam NigonMarcus WalkerLAS VEGAS, NEVADA THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you want to begin with some opening remarks about the game. COACH MILES: Well, now I know how McGovern felt after he lost 35 straight states and won Minnesota (smiling). It's political. Sorry folks. No, I was proud of the kids. You know, they never quit. They never -- you know, we had a good quality two days of practice. Finally it felt like we believed we were going to win. You know, we got tired of losing and down the stretch when Wyoming came at us we just said, Nope, nope. We've done this enough. We're going to break that mold. And for that I'm proud of them. Because they made plays. There's no magic wand. As a coach, there's no magic play you run. They found a way to make plays. It was a good win, and we're looking forward to playing BYU. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach. Q. Ewing was 21 points in the first half. But he didn't do too much in the second half. What did you do to stop Brandon in the second half? And this is for Marcus, what did it feel like to finally win? MARCUS WALKER: For the first question, you know, he was on in the first half, but sometimes you just, you know, you want -- when you are playing the score you just got to -- either the day going to be on one night and not the next. I think we did good the first two games. He had a real good game. But just containment, trying to stop him in transition and stop him from getting easy baskets. I think we kind of fouled him a lot in the first half and we limited him in the second. As far as the win, it feels real good. I think tonight I think Andre started it off for us. I think he had a lot of key shots that, you know, fired up the team. I just think everybody played good today, and, you know, fed off the girls' game from yesterday. Hopefully we can just keep playing and, you know, go as far as we can go. It's March. Q. This one's for Andre. Just what did it feel like there in the first half when you finally got going and your family was in the stands cheering you on? ANDRE McFARLAND: Beginning of the game I was extremely nervous. I had the shakes. I just wanted to come out and relax and just have a good game. I know my family, they're going to support me to matter what. That wasn't even the case. I just wanted to relax and have a good game and try to perform. Q. Adam, wanted to ask you, it seemed like the guy guarding you in the second half kept collapsing in to help guard Marcus and you guys were really able to exploit that. Was that something you were looking for or did it just kind of happen in the flow of the game? ADAM NIGON: They put their center on me. They've done that throughout the year, you know. And when they do that, I just try and use my quickness to my advantage. When they come out at me I'll back cut and just get easy lay-ups like that. And fortunately we were able to do that tonight and got a big win. Q. Adam, how does it feel to be playing another game in the Mountain West tournament here in Vegas when a year ago you were in rec league? ADAM NIGON: Yeah, watching it on TV. It's great. I love this. To keep playing in this tournament and to go all the way would be just amazing. I'm excited. Q. Two part question. What does it say about the character of this team that you went winless in conference season and come and play a game like today? ? MARCUS WALKER: I think I'll speak on behalf of the team. We never gave up on each other. Throughout the season I don't think there's been too much bickering, blaming each other, you know, for our losses. I think we just stuck together and believed in one another, that we would get our win, you know, eventually. That's one thing, you know, I feel fortunate about is just being on the team where, you know, everybody is for one another, and not necessarily, you know, blaming, you know, each other for our losses. And we just stuck together and it paid off. Q. Was there something in particular that was said maybe before the game or at half-time that really -- besides the girl's game, that got you guys going. COACH MILES: Don't answer that verbatim (laughter). ANDRE McFARLAND: Actually it was the night before. Coach put on the film that inspired all of us. It was Jimmy V, Jimmy Valvano. He did a nice conference in front of fans of his, of businessmen. Was it the Million Dollar Club? COACH MILES: Yeah. ANDRE McFARLAND: Just an inspiring film. He was talking about what it took, where he was, where he was in the present, and where he wanted to be. We just took that and ran with it. And everybody went to bed sleeping on it and just thinking about how good it would be to beat Wyoming. ADAM NIGON: I think them beating us two in a row almost was enough in itself. And they talked a little bit of trash, you know. It just all fueled the fire. It felt great. THE MODERATOR: Adam, Andre and Marcus, thanks. We'll let you three go. We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. I mean, we've seen your guards play and they play well. We've seen them here and seen them on TV there. They outplayed Jones and Ewing in that second half. Talk about that. Talk about coming down here, and the inspiration you gave your team to win the game. COACH MILES: Well, we felt like Marcus Walker, Willis Gardner were good guards in the Mountain West. And, you know, Walker essentially, you know, was right there leading the league in scoring, you know, and a real go-to guy when teams were teeing off on him, was able to kind of sustain through the whole season pretty good numbers. And, you know, Gardner's been about playing 65%. Although I just think that he's at the end of the year and he knows he is having surgery soon. You know, if we lose tomorrow, he's playing tomorrow night and he's got surgery on Friday. So I think he wants to avoid that as much as he can. That might be his inspiration. As far as the kids, they just, you know, they listen to you. As a coach, you know, I've had teams not listen and be really good, which is probably a good idea for them. But I've had, you know, teams that, you know, these guys listen and they wanted do well. We just don't have a lot of firepower. But tonight we were able to do enough, get enough stops and eliminate transition and get transition. So they just never quit. And that's a sign of a bunch of good people. Q. Coach, obviously you don't have a lot of time to enjoy this win. You are right back on the court tomorrow. Talk a little about the match-up tomorrow with BYU and the problems they pose for you guys? COACH MILES: You know, we weren't bad against them last time we played them. I don't recall, did Stu play against BYU last time or did we play totally small? Do you guys remember? I think we were totally small that game. So we didn't have any centers last time, and Plaisted went eight for eight or nine for nine. We just kind of hung around, you know. And I like the -- this sounds crazy, but, you know, in match-ups, you like some match-ups, don't like some match-ups. I like this match-up better than I like some. So they're 20 whatever in the country. They're really good. That's not saying that I feel, you know, like we're a favorite or anything crazy. But I really feel like it's a good match-up and I look forward to playing the ball game. Q. Could you talk about the lift that Andre gave you. He really played a whale of a game. COACH MILES: We talked about, you know, we need third and fourth scorers, right? You know, we said some of you freshmen really have to step up tonight. We just need you to make shots, bottom line. You rarely talk about that. You shouldn't talk about that as a coach. You know, because talking about your shot is kind of off, you know, it's taboo. It's off limits. You don't do that. But we lost enough I figured we could probably bring it up, and just say, Listen, we're going to need you guys. And we ran a couple different sets for him and he really liked them and got some good looks. Then you could see his confidence was on. And, you know, we'll need it again tomorrow too. Q. It seems like in the first half especially you guys were able to benefit from a lot of offensive fouls called against them. There were certainly some against both teams, but the majority went against Wyoming. Was that something you were doing defensively? Was there a little more effort to get tighter on them and maybe see if you could get some of those or was it just kind of pure luck that they went that way? COACH MILES: I'd say it was a slim majority by the way. Q. Five to two. COACH MILES: Was it five to two? It didn't feel like it. But, no, we ran our game plan like we always did, honestly. You know, we had one tweak we thought about using, we didn't use it, a tweak on our zone. You know, I thought about it just one possession. Then he had a whole bunch, a slew of shooters out there. And we had Ronnie in, who hasn't practiced full court yet with us. So we decided not to do it. But, you know, I think our kids just moved their feet and did a good job. Q. Could you enlighten us about the first half T? COACH MILES: It was my first career technical at CSU. Well-deserved. I thought it was well-deserved. I thought that, you know, yeah -- never mind. Anything you say you get in trouble. I don't want to get in trouble here. I'm the new guy. I got one win. Q. Did you drop a certain bomb on the ref? COACH MILES: When I did this stumble thing? He said, I didn't see it. And I said, You didn't see this? And I stumbled and fell and showed my athleticism there. As my assistant said, that was a good technical. You looked like a real athlete out there falling down (laughing). I talked to the officials afterwards and he says, Are we okay? I said, I'm fine. I just needed to get that off my chest. Q. Seriously, any chance in the world for Stu tomorrow? COACH MILES: I say Stu is -- what did Belichick put Brady? He's got a shoulder problem and is likely or unlikely or questionable? Stu is probably doubtful. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach, appreciate it. End of FastScripts |
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