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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2008Tim MilesAdam NigonMarcus WalkerLAS VEGAS, NEVADA THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you want to just take a minute or two and provide some thoughts, general comments on the game. COACH MILES: Well, I've said this before, and I'm sticking with it, I mean, you got to use your imagination in this a little bit, but those guys remind me -- BYU reminds me of the Harlem Globetrotters. I mean, they pass, they cut, they make shots. Oddly enough didn't the Washington Generals wear green and gold? I mean, it just looked to me like the way they play and the way they move the ball, you know, they had 23 assists on 30 turnovers, that they really look like a marquee team to me. I was very impressed with BYU. And to our team's credit I thought they -- you know, we battled for most of the first half. We just turned it over a few times and allowed transition. You can't allow transition for BYU or they'll get away from you. So credit to BYU. I'm proud of our kids. I thought they battled. They never gave up all year. That's more difficult to do than you think it is. But at the end of the day, they played with great heart and soul, and I just appreciate that. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach. Questions for the next few minutes for the student-athletes. Q. Marcus, what was going through your head when they went on that run in the second half? I mean, it was kind of like everything they threw up was going in and nothing you guys could do was right. MARCUS WALKER: Well, for me it was just not to let the, you know, lead get too big, you know, to where we could hopefully get it under control. But, like coach said, a couple turnovers and a couple mistakes, leaving shooters to try to help, you know, that wasn't a part of the game plan. Kind of, you know, messed it up for us, so... Q. Adam, let's put coach on the spot right here. Do you think you earned a scholarship for next year based on what you accomplished this season? ADAM NIGON: I don't know. I'm not really worried about that right now. I wasn't worried about it in the season. I just had to keep playing hard and just kind of earn my way on the team. I haven't even really thought about that. COACH MILES: I don't think you are really putting Adam on the spot there (laughing). Q. All told, even though it probably was a little painful against BYU, was it worth staying overnight, you know, getting the extra day here? ADAM NIGON: Definitely. It was definitely worth another day, you know, to play another team. It's hard when you don't win a conference game and you get matched up with a team like BYU your second game after the tournament. We just can't put ourselves in a position like that. Q. Marcus, it seemed like in the first half offensively you guys were kind of doing what you want to do, shots were falling, hitting the three-pointers, getting the drives. What did they do differently defensively that changed that? MARCUS WALKER: Well, I think they played good defense. But I think, you know, we kind of messed up more offense a little bit and, you know, handed them a couple turnovers that led to, you know, easy buckets for them. So I think it was more or less on us. And, you know, they did play a good game. But I think it was more or less on us making, you know, mistakes. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Marcus or Adam? All right, guys, thanks. Questions for Coach Miles. Q. A pretty remarkable season when you look at it, all told. BYU is a team that has great what they call spurt-ability. They're the kind of team that, you know, all of a sudden they put up a 15-1 run on you. When you know you are playing a team like that, what do you have to do to make sure that that doesn't happen? COACH MILES: Well, you've got to make it as ugly a game as you can in terms of style of play. You know, when they run and they're able to run, they're remarkable. And I don't think I'm overstating that either. They really are fun to watch when they run. I mean, they're as good as a lot of teams across the country, obviously - and I mean the elite teams. So you just got to eliminate that. And we just -- like we told our guys in the locker room, when it got away from us, we really played bad offense. We took bad shots, made bad decisions, drove it, forced a shot instead of stopping and finding the next open guy. Kind of quick playing for our teammates and we got worked up. When you do that, that plays right into their hands and they're talented. Now they're just going to break it down. And now when they're just running down the floor, it's: Katie, bar the door, it's over. So you have to avoid that at all costs and just muck it up and make it a low-possession half-court game. Q. What adjustments do you think BYU made at half-time that made all the difference in the second half? COACH MILES: Well, I thought they, you know, got to some of our actions. Got to Andre McFarland a little better than they had been. I think they did that late in the first half actually, then just stuck with it and really solidified their game plan. We tried to show a few new things. We got that for a while. And they're smart. They just made the adjustments necessary. So I saw it more right toward the end of the first half where they got to Andre McFarland. Everybody does the same thing to Marcus: tries to deny him as much as possible, and we need other guys to step up. Nigon did, right? Adam did. But some of these other guys didn't. Some of the young kids didn't. Josh Simmons struggled a little bit. Jesse Woodard struggled a little bit early, you know. And, you know, when you are depending on freshmen, that's what you get some days. But, you know, at the end of the day BYU I thought was just real solid defensively. Q. Now I put you on the spot. Does Adam deserve a scholarship? COACH MILES: Adam deserves a lot of things. And he and I have sat down and visited with that. And I'm going to treat him right when that time is right. And I love Adam. I love him to death. And he's been remarkable for us. His family's really supportive. And Adam is -- I mean, he knows where we need to go and he wants to be part of it. Now whether I scholarship him or not, I have not decided. We're' just going to see how recruiting goes, see how keeping the nucleus of our team goes. You never know what talent you might retain or not retain. Q. Finally, is there almost some relief that you've got this behind you and you just go on the road recruiting tomorrow, if not tonight? COACH MILES: I told Craig Smith, our ops guy, as the buzzer went off, I said, Ding-dong the witch is dead. I just have this visual of the house coming out of the tornado and falling on the Wicked Witch of the West. Maybe that will translate into slippers next year. That's the optimist in me. Q. What does your team take out of this, this getting this extra day and all that? What does that mean for this team and for the future? COACH MILES: At least, you know, when you go into your off-season, you don't go there having lost 18 in a row and just feeling like, Oh, my God. You know, we're -- you know, we can do anything. At least they have that luxury of knowing that, you know, Hey, we still remember how to win and the resolve that they never gave in, you know, that they competed no matter what, tried to play the game the right way. And I put them in a position, you know, that was going to be shorthanded. That was my deal and they knew that going in and they embraced that. They were fine. Then we got beat up. That one we just couldn't afford. We could never overcome that. And the kids, you know, in their credit, you know, they just -- they never complained. They never -- they just played, and they played hard. You know, they played hard. Q. In this whole season, obviously obstacles from day one, but did you see spurts of what you want to see and do you feel like you guys grew enough to be successful like you want to be next year? COACH MILES: Well, we're only going to be successful if we recruit well and get these guys some help. Now we've got a couple guys sitting out that are fine. A young guard coming in. What I did see real positive were the freshmen; their attention to our game plan, understanding, okay, you know, where we go, how we're going to double this guy or how we're going to guard this action. And at the beginning of the year it was a cluster of bad things. It was no good. And now at the end of the year, we had guys out there, freshmen out there, saying thumbs down, thumbs down, you know, and calling out all of our calls and bump, bump, bump. When you see that and hear them speaking the coach's voice, that's very encouraging. And I did see some of that, especially the last four or five games. So I am encouraged by that. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach Miles? COACH MILES: Thanks, folks. End of FastScripts |
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