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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2011Dorian GreenTim MilesAndy OgideLAS VEGAS, NEVADA New Mexico – 67 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with Colorado State. Coach, if we could start with your general thoughts on today's game. COACH MILES: I thought it was a battle. We knew it was going to be a battle. It was the two instances at the end of the first half, five possessions, they were able to take a seven-point lead. End of the game, we get a tie, Dairese Gary makes a great back-cut layup, misses the foul shot, then we go down and miss an inside shot, then Bairstow hits the shot at the end of the shot clock. They made good plays. That was the whole nutshell right there. THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll open it up for questions for the student-athletes. Q. Talk about not having Adam Nigon out there today. DORIAN GREEN: For us, Adam is kind of the heart and soul of our team. He brings heart and he brings energy and to feel his intensity. So it was different. But I think he did his job from the sidelines. I know he's just hurting because he couldn't be out there. But he's kind of the heart and soul of our team. Without his intensity out there, he still tried to bring as much as he could. Q. Andy, did you get the feeling throughout the game, knowing what happened last two times, it was going to be this kind of a game, come down to the last couple possessions of each half? ANDY OGIDE: Yeah. I mean, that's how it's been every time we played them. It being the 4-5 game, I knew it was going to be a pretty close game. They just made plays at the end of the each half to win and we didn't. That's basically the game. Q. Andy, can you talk about the inside battle you had with Drew Gordon. ANDY OGIDE: It was physical, as expected. I mean, I don't know if that won or lost y'all the game. It was everything I thought it was going to be: physical like it always was for the first two games. Q. Andy, they really took it to you on the boards. You knew going in that was going to be a key to the game. Why were they so effective on the boards today? ANDY OGIDE: They were getting the 50/50 balls. Seemed like they got every single one. I don't know what the particular reason was. Maybe we were holding our block-outs, not going for the ball. They seemed to get every 50/50 ball. That was a big part of our game plan coming into the game, try to eliminate as many offensive boards as they could get. Q. Wes, you had a couple shots in the last four or five minutes, save some time-outs to set up some plays. Were you able to get the looks you were hoping for? WES EIKMEIER: Well, going in out of the timeout, coaches told us all to be aggressive, be players. If we got an open look, just to take it. You know, I missed a couple down the stretch that maybe would have changed the game. But that's how it goes sometimes. I mean, we got some good looks. Some of them just didn't go down. Like Andy said, they made some plays down the stretch that we weren't able to. That's just kind of what sealed up the game for them. Q. How much did all of you try to overcompensate, give the extra effort with Adam on the bench? ANDY OGIDE: I mean, we're a team. I think we did a pretty good job stepping up. Wes played pretty good today. We missed his intensity. But I think we did a pretty good job of picking each other up and trying to compensate for that. Q. How do you feel about going to the NIT, waiting Sunday to hear? ANDY OGIDE: I mean, it is what it is. We get a chance to play. That's always good. We didn't reach our goal, but at least we get a chance to keep playing. Q. Andy, given this is your senior year, how disappointing is this loss? ANDY OGIDE: It's very disappointing. I mean, you work really hard to get to the point to put yourself in that position, and we just fell short. Only thing I can hope good that comes from this is the younger guys can see how hard they have to work, how hard it is going to be to get to the NCAA tournament. It's not an easy thing. I think they learned that this year and hopefully they'll carry that over. THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll dismiss our student-athletes and continue with questions for Coach Miles. Q. The shot that Bairstow hit. You saw one like that at your place a month ago. COACH MILES: Same spot. That's his spot, obviously. Wouldn't want to play him horse from there because those are huge shots. He either tied it or cut it at our place with a two. They got those shots. We missed the inside shot. Bairstow goes down at the end of the clock and makes the shot. You have to credit him. He's in there because Hardeman fouled out. That was good. That was a key play for them. Q. When did you find out that Adam wasn't going to be playing? COACH MILES: Well, yesterday he went down in practice about 10 minutes into practice. When he couldn't continue practice, I kind of felt like we were in trouble. And then as the night wore on, I talked to him. We took the guys to a movie. I talked to him. There was no way he was going to be able to go (tearing up). It's a travesty for the kid. You can't ask for more out of anyone, more commitment, more effort. I just feel terrible for him. Q. Drew Gordon has caused a lot of teams in the league problems. What makes him difficult at both ends of the floor? COACH MILES: He's a great athlete, got good feet, he has a good skill set. He can make jumpers facing, he can get to his left shoulder. He's a rebounding maniac. That makes him really good. Q. Andy was saying they got all the loose balls, the 50/50 balls. Did you feel a difference in their intensity tonight than last month? COACH MILES: Here are the two things I think happened. One is, Kendall Williams and Dairese Gary put their heads down and drove the ball. Once they get down the driving line, attack the rim at the drive, all bets are off on rebounding. If you can't guard the ball, get that ball stood up and stopped, you're not going to rebound well. That was the first problem. The 50/50 ball, I'm going to tell you two plays. Dairese Gary won that game. Dairese Gary just absolutely diving out once in front of our bench across the way, once in the second half, rolls into a timeout, those are two huge plays. It's not like we weren't scrambling for the ball. He just laid out. Those were remarkable plays by Dairese Gary. Q. You've challenged Andy in the past to step up in big games. What would you say about his effort tonight? COACH MILES: Andy was tremendous again. He has just absolutely anchored our team. You know, he's made guys like Travis Franklin invisible, which is no fault of Travis. We can just go to him at will and Andy finds a way to score the ball and rebound the ball. You know, that senior class is really pretty cool, and Andy is obviously the cornerstone of that class. Q. How disappointing is it to have this happen given all the things you have done this season, to be knocked out in the first round of this tournament? COACH MILES: Yeah, it's disappointing. I mean, I just feel bad for those seniors. They've been through a lot. Not to get to the tournament is just really -- anytime you fall short of a goal, you put a lot of heart and work into it, it disappoints you. This is different because of where we've come from. Q. Can you expand on Kendall Williams' play? COACH MILES: I think he's really good. I think he's going to be a really good player in our league for a long time. He's a future All-Conference player. He can score, make threes, drive it. He's a great athlete. He's going to be really good. He's already really good. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, coach. COACH MILES: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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