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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2011Lon KrugerAnthony MarshallChace StanbackLAS VEGAS, NEVADA San Diego State – 74 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with UNLV. Coach, your comments on tonight's game. COACH KRUGER: Really a big-time battle. I thought first half, on our heels a little bit. San Diego State dictated for most of the first 20 minutes. Gathered ourselves and fought like crazy the second half. San Diego State is a terrific ballclub. We didn't quite finish the way we would have liked to have finished. But a good fight. Proud of the guys. We'll learn from it. Disappointed in the result right now. But we'll take steps forward. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for the student-athletes. Q. Can you talk about what happened on the last possession. CHACE STANBACK: Coach drew up a play for Tre to set a back screen. I was supposed to throw it up. Just wasn't high enough. ANTHONY MARSHALL: Yeah, you know, we had a play designed. We had an open look at it. They just happened to get their hand on the ball as it went up and that caused the turnover. Q. Chace, how disappointing is it knowing you're open, the ball could come, and then it doesn't happen? CHACE STANBACK: It was very disappointing. But, I mean, that's the way the game goes. Sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way. Q. Can you talk about the disappointment of not just losing to San Diego State three times but losing to them in three games where you were in it in the last minute or two. ANTHONY MARSHALL: It's pretty frustrating 'cause we know we can compete with them. You go into games like that expecting a battle. Those are the type of games you're looking for. To come up short three times in a row, it's very disappointing. We're looking forward to the tournament now. Games like this get you ready for the atmosphere and battles like that in the NCAA tournament. Q. What did you learn last year going into the NCAA tournament off an emotional loss? How do you avoid the pitfalls you had last year? CHACE STANBACK: Just maintaining our focus in practice, focusing on what we have to do as a team and as a unit. Just playing hard together, making plays for each other. Same as we've been doing for the past few weeks. Nothing's changed. ANTHONY MARSHALL: Yeah, pretty much what he said. We just got to play hard 40 minutes going into the tournament. Last year we kind of fought our way through the first half. The second half we kind of turned it up. We got to come out from the gate playing hard, flying around, dictating, taking passes away, the stuff we've been doing over the past couple weeks, and over the season. Q. The last play. Looked like a high-risk play to some people. Did you feel like the play was there, it was the right call? CHACE STANBACK: Yeah, I felt like the play was open. It just didn't -- the ball just didn't get high enough. They took the ball. Unfortunately, it just didn't bounce our way. Q. This is a tough loss, but do you feel like you're carrying momentum going into the NCAA tournament with how you've played? ANTHONY MARSHALL: I believe so. Like I said, games like this against a top-10 team in the nation, it prepares you for the NCAA tournament. We're feeling good about what we did, what we're doing and did. We came up short tonight. But the exciting thing for us, we feel we can play better. We feel we can play a full 40 minutes of good basketball. That's what we're looking forward to. CHACE STANBACK: We just got to play the full 40 minutes. First half, I felt like we kind of dug ourselves a hole. Tough to dig yourselves out of that when you're playing a tough team like San Diego State. We just got to play hard for 40 minutes. Q. Chace, talk about having a breakout game against San Diego State. Struggled against them this year. In the first half, you carried the team offensively. CHACE STANBACK: Coach drew up a play for us and we kept running it. My teammates kept looking for me. They was finding me, and I was able to knock 'em down. THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll dismiss our student-athletes and continue with questions for Coach Kruger. Q. Take me through the design on the last play, what you were thinking, what you saw. COACH KRUGER: We run it once in the first half. Simply Tre is going to set a back screen on Chace. They're not leaving Tre. Get the ball in Oscar's hands. If it's open, throw it, if not, we had Tre popping for a catch and drive with Chace setting in the corner. It was open. Oscar made the right decision. Just didn't get it quite high enough. Game of inches. Q. You were down 10 at the half. It looked like in the second half you came out and were a little more aggressive. Was that by design? COACH KRUGER: Defensively we had to do something more. First half I thought San Diego State did what they wanted to, threw it where they wanted to, didn't have much opposition from us. I thought in the second half that's where it started defensively. We got much more aggressive. That created some opportunities to run out and attack a little bit more offensively. It started with us defensively in the second half. Q. How much more do you like the way this team is going into the NCAA tournament this year? COACH KRUGER: Experience is valuable. Last year when you lose that last game, it really hurts. Having experienced that last year, now you're going to work a little harder to try to make sure you're going to do everything you can to avoid the feeling of a loss. That's what experience is about. Guys are right there at the end against Northern Iowa a year ago. Didn't happen. Very disappointed. I think they'll benefit from that, knowing that feeling, this time around. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH KRUGER: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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