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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: SAN JOSE

March 18, 2010

Wayne Tinkle

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

New Mexico Â– 62
Montana - 57

ROGER ROSS: We would like to welcome the University of Montana here. We have Coach Wayne Tinkle, Brian Qvale and Anthony Johnson. Comments from the Coach?
COACH TINKLE: Well, first off, we're disappointed. We talked about not settling in our Tournament last week and we didn't want to settle for where we were at today. Then on the flip side I'm really, really proud of our youngsters' efforts.
To come in here back against the walls, nobody gave us a shot to have a lead at half, to go down 14 or whatever at some point in the second half and battle back, cut it to 1 several times I'm really thrilled.
We showed a lot of heart, a lot of character and it doesn't surprise me because that's the way it's been all year, but for a few plays here and there maybe we would have been the team that went first in this deal.

Q. A.J. you seemed out of sorts tonight with your shot. Did you maybe feel -- after the expectations were high after last week's performance and maybe taking on too much pressure?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: No, that didn't play a part in anything. I just picked a bad day to have a bad shootin' night. Credit to their defense, though. Gary is a tough guard and he's really strong, and he was pretty physical with me throughout the game and that threw me off a little bit.
But I made the adjustment. I was getting to the spots on the court where I like it. The shot just wasn't falling, but I'm glad Big B.Q. here picked it up and other guys on the team picked it up and had my back, and it kind of sucks to go out like this. But I'm proud of where we got so far and I'm proud of my team for rallying around me and pickin' it up.

Q. Brian, given the success you had in the first half it didn't seem like they collapsed and double teamed you much, if ever. Were you surprised that they didn't try to collapse and force you to kick it out?
BRIAN QVALE: We talked about it at halftime. If they were going to double and I was looking for the double team and was ready to kick it out. I just tried to make a move before the double team could come and it worked out.

Q. Anthony, when you hit that shot to cut it to 1 it was 57-56. At that point were you still thinking it didn't matter what had happened the whole game that you could make your mark on this game? Was that what you were looking to do?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: For sure, we take it possession after possession, and during that moment there was no doubt in our minds that we were going to win the game and come up with the stops to be put in a position to win.
At that moment, yeah, my confidence was high and the rest of the guys were as well. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out that way.

Q. Maybe not the best time for you to reflect, but can you say what your time at Montana has meant for you in your life and as a basketball player?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: I'm just very grateful, very, very appreciative, glad to be at Montana, and it's had a profound affect on me, my family, and I mean, they just provided an opportunity for me to live out my college dream, and that's just to play basketball and get an education and I get to finish up in the summertime. So I get the experience and the degree.
I'm forever grateful to Coach Tinks and the coaching staff for believing in me enough to bring me on board and provide a spark for the team. I'm just thankful.

Q. Anthony, was there a point in the game where you kind of just thought, okay, my shot is not falling tonight I've got to do other things and facilitate on offense?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: For sure. When I got to the huddle my friend and teammate, Vassy Banny, he pulled me to the side and he said hey, I know your shot is not falling, but you've got to get into the lane and kick it off to shooters and stuff. So, yeah, I couldn't agree more. I started doing that a little bit and we got into a flow and shots started falling for other guys and I was happy but at the same time being a scorer, you still want that ball in your hands, you know, and that's kind of the double-edged sword there of being a scorer and a leader on the team, is you want to be put in that position where you're either going to be a hero or you're going to take the heat.
I welcome both with open arms. Today it just didn't work out in my favor. But, again, our guys fought and fought and fought and we were just a couple of possessions away from upsetting this team.
COACH TINKLE: I thought it was big. We said at halftime and throughout the second half A.J. wasn't having his best night and until they made that run we were hanging with them and we fought all the way back there and at the end of the four media time-out I grabbed A.J. and I said don't worry about what's happened to this point. It's a brand new ball game with 3:36 left, and you're going to make the plays now to pull this game out when it's most important, and he got to the free-throw line he stuck that jumper.
It just seemed like we came up a little bit short and credit to New Mexico obviously for making the plays down the stretch, I just noticed their last field goal was at 6:44 proud of our guys' defensive effort and the way they stuck together when our super star wasn't having a great night.
To A.J.'s credit, never once did he put on or hang his head, any of that. He kept telling our players to hang in there, stay with it, you guys are going to get back in this thing and it shows the maturity that he's developed over the last couple of years and what a great, great role model for some of the younger guys and especially a kid like Will Cherry. That's going to be a real lasting affect on our guys for years to come.

Q. Brian, I know Coach said it at the top, proud of your effort, do you guys take consolation in the way you showed up and played the 8th ranked team in the country the way you did?
BRIAN QVALE: We can say we gave it our best shot, and it's disappointing, but we can be proud of our effort and we just didn't make the plays down the stretch when we need to do. But we definitely worked hard and they definitely knew we were there.
ROGER ROSS: Thank you to your student athletes here, we appreciate it. Questions for Coach?

Q. Coach, I don't know if you're in this mode yet, but you've seen Washington and now New Mexico. Any thoughts about Saturday's match-up between those two teams based on what you've seen?
COACH TINKLE: Not really. Got a lot of respect for both. We played both teams. Played 'em both tough. Had opportunities to beat 'em both. So I think it's going to be a great match-up, two well-coached teams with a lot of talent. Other than that, I'll maybe think about it on Saturday, a little bit, sorry, wish I could help a little bit more, happy for Lorenzo, I know that, class guy, heck of a win.

Q. Wayne, what was it in that stretch early in the second half, I think it might have been a 17-0 run. What did you not handle well?
COACH TINKLE: I think we lost our composure. We talked to our guys at halftime that they had no choice but to come and just really pick us up, get physical with us, pressure, and there was going to be a moment of truth where we just needed to do draw that line in the sand, and uncharacteristic mistakes, throwing the ball into the third row, being soft with the ball, not executing.
I thought we executed a lot on our end line, out-of-bounds, had some good stuff, especially in the first half, second half not quite as sharp, turnovers, our guys just started to doubt a little bit, and the credit goes to New Mexico for coming out and really pickin' up the intensity defensively.
But we've seen that in the past and we've handled that in the past. We tried to use some time outs to squash it and you know, didn't get some breaks, you know? And all of the sudden they've got all the momentum and we've got a little bit of a hole that we dug for ourselves. We said in one of the time-outs, guys, you're digging yourself a hole and the easiest thing to do is quit digging.
We made a simple plan, we kept telling our guys to continue, why wouldn't we throw it to Brian every single possession down the floor. We did hit a three to start the second half, and I thought maybe we settled a little bit for some jump shots when they picked up the pressure and we coward just for a minute.
But it didn't take us long where our guys flipped the switch again and battled back like we have all year long. You know what's amazing our biggest loss was 11 points at home to Northern Colorado and it was a two-possession game with 2 minutes to go, every single ball game we've played this year it's been a one or two possession with under 2 minutes to go. That tells you a lot about this group. You know, the resiliency that they've shown through some good and bad times.

Q. Coach, I know you talked about how Brian was going to be a big key coming into this game. Was he playing with any different kind of mentality, or was he just exploiting the size advantage that he had inside?
COACH TINKLE: He played with an intensity and urgency that we've expected all year long. He was demanding the ball. He was working for it. He grew up big time in this thing.
He played really well at Weber with 14 rebounds and six blocks. But offensively we made it clear to him this week that we were going to go to him he needed to beg for the thing he needed to continue to fight and post and scrap and claw and that if he didn't do that, we were going to get blown out.
So I am proud of him for buying into that and really giving us what we needed. He had a big, big ball game and if he would have had some help from some guys, it might be a different story. But I'm super proud of him and he's had a tough time with some things this year and he was a man among boys in there for a while.

Q. To go back to Anthony, you've seen him experience the highest of highs with all the attention, and I'm sure nobody feels worse than him after today's game and you talked about his maturity and him being a role models. But what have you seen from him the way he handled the attention and the highs and now this low?
COACH TINKLE: He's been great, some of our tougher losses throughout the year he fell on the sword, he enjoys -- he does enjoy when he plays well and when we win like most guys do, and he spoke in the locker room for a little while, thanked the coaches and the players for the opportunity.
He said I feel bad that I let you down, but he's won an awful lot of games for us and he's a pretty big reason why we're here today. So it's unfortunate, they really defended him well, the shots didn't go in, he turned it over a couple times late, but we wouldn't be here without A.J. and I really think our guys that are going to be coming back can learn a lot from his integrity and leadership that he's provided. He didn't have those things where he needed to when he first stepped on campus, and credit to him for buying in and developing those things and it's going to help him throughout the rest of his life not just with the game of basketball.
ROGER ROSS: Thank you for your time, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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