|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2008Lee CummardJimmer FredetteDave RoseLAS VEGAS, NEVADA THE MODERATOR: The all-tournament team is Lee Cummard, BYU; Curtis Terry, UNLV; Wink Adams, UNLV; René Rougeau, UNLV; and Luke Nevill from Utah. Tournament MVP Wink Adams. Coach, if you want to begin with some opening thoughts on the game. COACH ROSE: I thought it was a hard-fought game. Both teams played really well. They play with a lot of energy in the second half, made a lot of big plays. I think that energy level in the second half was a big difference. They out-rebounded us, got some offensive rebounds. They were really good. They played great. Deserved to win. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach. Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Lee, UNLV on the offensive glass in the second half, what happened with their performance there? LEE CUMMARD: They would throw it up and go get it. We had no answer for it. Didn't play with enough energy. Congrats to them. Q. Lee, last year you kind of had the same experience here. Do you think that carried over at all to the NCAA tournament? What effect might it have next week? LEE CUMMARD: We know we're a good team. We're actually a really good team. I don't think this will have an effect on what happens next week. We know we're still going to be playing and we're locking forward to competing. Q. The first half you seemed pretty aggressive, kind of established that lead. Was it just more them in the second half or do you feel like you lost some of your aggression? JIMMER FREDETTE: I don't think we necessarily lost some of our aggression. Just, you know, like we were saying, they stepped up and hit some big shots. It's not like we weren't playing hard, playing good D. We were trying to get out to their shots. They were just able to stick 'em tonight. Q. Jimmer, what enabled you to have so much success offensively tonight? JIMMER FREDETTE: You know, I guess they're -- just pushing the ball up the floor as fast as we can, being able to play our game, get it into the post, throw it back out. Play our game, dribble penetrate, looks for myself or my teammates. Q. Jimmer, this is your first experience in this tournament. What do you take away from it? What do you think you learned that you can apply to next year? JIMMER FREDETTE: You know, just that it's a live-and-die situation. All the teams are coming out here to play, to try to get into the NCAA tournament. They're going to do anything it takes to be able to win that game. You know, the intensity is much higher. The crowds are great. So just be ready for that next year. THE MODERATOR: Fellas, thank you. Questions for Coach Rose. Q. Wink Adams scored 14 straight points in that stretch late in the second half. What enabled him to get on that hot streak? Did you have trouble defending him? COACH ROSE: Probably a lot of hard work in the summertime. You know, working out. He's a terrific player. He's one of the best players in our league. There were a couple maybe defensive mistakes during that string. But for the most part he was just making big plays. We were contesting his shot. He can get space, you know, with the dribble. He back-dribbles well. He's a good penetrator. He was making big plays at a big time in the game. Q. Really aggressive first half. Was it more them in the second half or a combination -- do you think you got on your heels a little bit? COACH ROSE: We shot the ball very well in the first half, which gave us, I think, a little edge as far as energy was concerned. Our effort was really terrific in the first half. We had some opportunities where we turned the ball over at times, untimely times. I thought the second half, the game was a lot more physical. It was a lot tougher for us to get the ball in situations that were comfortable offensively. But we competed. We competed hard. They competed hard. They started making a lot of shots. I thought a couple of shots Joe Darger made, we had a hand right in their face. That's why they won 27 games. Good team. Good players. Q. This seemed kind of similar to last year. Did it feel that way in the second half? Your offense kind of abandoned you for a while. Is it similar in a way? COACH ROSE: I think the feeling I have right now is similar, yeah. Q. After the season that you had, the best in school history, regular season, is there a sour taste in your mouth as you go into the tournament? Do you have any psychological work to do on your team going into the tournament after this? COACH ROSE: I think you heard it from our players. They know it's a good team. It's tough to lose. This is a very competitive group. What we need to do is get home, get back out on the practice court and get after it. So that's what I expect us to do. Q. What did UNLV do to kind of stay in the game when Wink got in foul trouble through the first half as you built a lead? COACH ROSE: They do what they do. They're extremely aggressive defensively. Very active, athletic defensive team. One of the things I think that is a telling stat is that I think we had 20-some-odd field goals and only eight assists. They don't allow you to just get open catches and open shots. So you have to create things. I thought we did a good job of that for the most part. But I think over time it kind of wore us out. They've done that to a lot of teams. Q. How frustrating is it to come in here two years in a row, have games that kind of were the same, end up losing on UNLV's home floor? COACH ROSE: It's frustrating. But I'm very proud of our players because we battled, we competed. We came up a little short. But in this situation, came up a little bit short because I think UNLV played really, really well. It's a credit to them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. Good luck next week. COACH ROSE: Thank you.
End of FastScripts� |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|