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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 13, 2009

Dave Rose

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

San Diego State Â– 64
BYU - 62

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by BYU student-athletes Jimmer Fredette and Lee Cummard, and Coach Dave Rose. We'll start with some opening comments about the game by Coach Rose.
COACH ROSE: I think it was two really good teams battling to try to get to the Mountain West Conference championship game. Both teams playing really hard. Defensively, you know, I think it was a really great game to watch. I think it was pretty even field goals, pretty even from shooting three-point shots. They made a couple more free throws than we did.
Bottom line was we had a lot of chances to win, and San Diego State made a couple more plays and were able to pull out the win.
I think you just got to give them credit. They played really well and were able to beat us at the end.
THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll open it up for questions to the student-athletes.

Q. Lee, you've had a tremendous career. When you look back at your career at BYU, are you going to feel some type of void that you didn't win a conference championship in the tournament?
LEE CUMMARD: I don't think necessarily a void. I wish we could have got one of these while I was here. It's tough. Last three years here, have the same feeling leaving. You just kind of got to deal with it.
I think how things have been great. Like I said, I wish we could have got one, but not too worried about it.

Q. Jimmer, did you feel like they were playing some extra attention to you, trying to stop you after the game you had against them last time?
JIMMER FREDETTE: You know, they were doing some different things. Obviously, you know, they were blocking the ball screens, making me go away from them, bringing the big guy, kind of helping them out. It's a little different than what they did last time.
But, you know, definitely they were trying to stop the ball. I was just trying to get my teammates involved in the game and, you know, get the big guys rolling to the basket and things like that, so...

Q. Lee, can you talk about some of the little things maybe that San Diego State did a little better than you guys when it came down to the last seconds.
LEE CUMMARD: I think Coach Rose already said it. They just made more plays. I think we had a stretch where we just kept turning it over, another turnover, another turnover. They made more free throws.
It was a good game. Two game plans trying to be executed by both teams. A few letdowns, myself included. We had chances; just didn't take advantage of them.

Q. Lee, what happened on the missed free throw where you didn't get the rebound?
LEE CUMMARD: Which one is that? At the end?

Q. 10 seconds left.
LEE CUMMARD: Well, they kind of runaway at the free-throw line where they cross and try to screen and just kind of change it up, just go after it. I don't know. I thought I pretty much was able -- was going to be able to just grab it. It felt like I got pushed from behind. It ended up, I think, going out on me, as far as I remember.

Q. Jimmer, can you talk about where you were fouled attempting the last shot there. Did you think you were going up for a three-pointer?
JIMMER FREDETTE: You know, I wasn't sure. I pump faked it originally, then I pump faked again. Got up in the air a little bit. I went up and shot it. I didn't check my feet or anything like that to see if I was behind the three-point line or anything like that.
They overturned it. So obviously I must have been -- must have been clear evidence I was on the line, so...

Q. Are you already looking ahead to what's next?
LEE CUMMARD: I mean, that's something that we can do to get this bad taste out of our mouth, is think about we've played this whole year, after the whole season's gone on, we still have a chance to play. That will come next week.

Q. Jimmer, even though you had a tough loss, you probably still went in the locker room realizing there's some positive stuff coming ahead.
JIMMER FREDETTE: Yeah, definitely. Obviously, you know, Coach was saying that a lot of teams are going home at this point, not playing another game for the rest of the season. We have the opportunity hopefully to be playing, you know, again. That's what we have to look forward to.
So, you know, it's obviously not going to help with the bitter taste we have in our mouth right now. At least we can look forward to the next game we have ahead.

Q. When you play in these post-season tournaments, these teams who are really on the bubble, trying to get in the NCAA tournament, how different do they play? Does that play into it at all?
LEE CUMMARD: I don't think the whole bubble thing affected today's game. We beat them twice this season. They wanted to come out there just because of that. They're a good team. They're definitely one of the most talented teams in the conference.
THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll dismiss the student-athletes. Thank you, men. Open it up for questions for Coach Rose.

Q. Did the official explain to you on the technical foul what transpired or what was said?
COACH ROSE: Yeah. He said that he fouled on the shot. When he was on the floor, I think he called it unsportsmanlike reaction. So he called a technical foul.

Q. I think about 39 seconds to go San Diego State, I think Jackson got a three, they got the rebound, called timeout. Were you expecting them to run more time off the clock? Did they catch you off guard with that baseline cut to Wade?
COACH ROSE: You know, we played zone most of the night. In that situation, we'd actually talked about what we thought they would do and how we wanted to guard it. We wanted to switch that and try to get to a front.
But Lorrenzo made a great play. He made a great play, got to the ball, quick cut, quick pass in there, and he scored. That's what he's done the last two nights, is make really big plays for his team. He made a big one there.

Q. Billy White didn't play in the game in San Diego. He didn't have a lot of points today. Did he change maybe the way they approached attacking your zone?
COACH ROSE: He made a couple really big plays, especially second shots. Being able to catch down there on the baseline where he kind of floats around. You know, anytime you can get another player minutes and competing in a game like this, there are so many advantages that that brings to the team, plus the confidence level.
I mean, this team right now is the team, the San Diego State team, they've had a lot of players during the season that have been injured, missed a lot of games. If you look at their stat line and see how many players have actually played all 31 games or so that they've played, it's not very many, especially of the nine players that they play.
But right now they've got them all playing. Coach Fisher's got them in a great mindset. Those five seniors are really playing well.

Q. You talk about some plays they made, opportunities you had. Are there a couple that stick out in your mind?
COACH ROSE: I think you get to a point where you always remember like the last couple, the missed free throw, and then us not being able to actually come down with the rebound. That's a tough play at that time. If we get that, either secure the ball or get the call, that puts you in a situation where you have to make a play, but you're in a pretty good situation.
There's a lot of things that you think about that maybe you could do. You know, our guys were really competing. They were really competing. The one play, you know, when they came out of that timeout and Lorrenzo got the ball in the post, we could have done a better job of guarding that.
But there's a lot of plays we had earlier. We had some really good looks at the basket that we normally - or we have in the past - made those plays to get a little bit of a lead at that time. Then we can get a situation where, in the last minute or two, they foul us, we go to the free-throw line. We didn't get those opportunities tonight because we never could get the lead.
But it was a game that we kind of expected. It went right down to the wire.

Q. Can you talk about your bench. Got some good minutes out of James, out of Noah.
COACH ROSE: We got great minutes out of Charles. Lamont played a few minutes in the first half. I think the way they were guarding Jimmer, it was difficult for him to be able to be effective at the two, so we put him back at the point and then played Charles.
James did a really good job coming in, kind of giving us a spurt there when we were having a hard time in the post. And I think it really helped Chris' confidence when James went in and played well because when Chris came back in, he played a lot more active and a lot better.
Noah played 20 minutes of really competitive basketball as far as helping his team.

Q. Is this the kind of game that's good training for the NCAA tournament when every possession is difficult?
COACH ROSE: This is a really talented team. We talked about this earlier in the year after we played San Diego State, that when you talk about just athletic-wise and bringing in players that have size and quickness and are talented, it kind of reminds us of the Wake Forest team that we played. This is a senior-oriented team. That was kind of an underclassmen, sophomore-oriented group.
But that's the same kind of game. We played a lot of minutes of zone tonight. I thought that was something that helped, you know, slow them down a little bit. But they did a really good job guarding us. We just need to be able to take more advantage of opportunities when we have 'em. But a lot of it goes to how well they guarded us tonight.

Q. When you looked at the monitor on Jimmer's three, were they looking to see if his foot was on the line or the time on the clock?
COACH ROSE: I think it was both. It was pretty obvious when he said he was going to shoot two free throws what they called. I really didn't need an explanation.
We've been in that situation before this year. Both those plays have been kind of tough.

Q. What are your expectations for the next few days? What are your hopes for your team now? What do you think your team deserves?
COACH ROSE: This team has been terrific. We've won a lot of games, just like this game tonight. This one got away from us. But you got to give a lot of credit to San Diego State for making the plays and winning.
But you win the Mountain West Conference, share the title, you play as consistently as this team has played all year long, I think this team deserves being in the tournament. We'll see what happens on Sunday.
But there's not a lot of things that are going to make you feel good right now because of the fact that these are competitive guys and they want to win this game. But, you know, the fact we're gonna get to keep playing will help us through it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach Rose.
COACH ROSE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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