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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: ALBUQUERQUEMarch 15, 2012Justin HawkinsAnthony MarshallDave RiceALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO Colorado – 68 THE MODERATOR: Coach Rice, an opening statement, please. COACH RICE: First thing I want to do is give credit to Colorado. They were tough, as their team has been all year long. They earned a hard‑fought victory. I told the team after the game that losing is very, very hard. It never gets any easier. But I said the thing that makes me the saddest is any time it's the end of the season, it's the last time that we as coaches get an opportunity to coach our group. At the start of the year we dedicated the year to our seniors, first year staff, and those guys have given us absolutely everything that they have. I told them that all the success we're going to have in the future, I'll always refer back, or I'll always refer to the seniors and the job they did for us this year and for the returning guys, it's important for us to bottle up exactly how we feel right now, so we can get to work. Because while this was a very rewarding season, we're proud of a lot of the things that we accomplished. We didn't ever feel like we were satisfied with how it went. Certainly these two guys to my left are going to be a big part of our off‑season. We're going to learn from it. Everything we'll do from now until the start of next season is getting us ready to get back to the NCAA Tournament again. I'm very proud of our group this year. Accomplished a lot. Just did not get off to a very good start tonight. Missed some easy shots and lost a little bit of a sense of urgency, and we made a furious comeback. We're down 20 with 15 minutes to go and made up 18 points in about an 11‑minute period. When we play like that, we're very good. It's just hard to dig ourselves into that kind of a hole. Again, I'm very proud of our team. Very proud of the season we had, and just know that we've got a lot of work to do between now and next season. Again, congratulations to Colorado and best of luck to them in the next round. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the UNLV student‑athletes. Q. Anthony, can you talk about what you felt got you into that 20‑point hole tonight, and just talk about your emotions of losing a game like this for the third year in a row in the opening round of the tournament? ANTHONY MARSHALL: We got some good looks early on. Our shooters felt comfortable. Everybody felt comfortable. We just didn't make shots and they did. That kind of put us in a hole. They outrebounded us the first half. Any time you're playing a good team like that, it's kind of hard to come back. But we made a fight and a surge to come back, but the balls just didn't fall our way toward the end. It's disappointing. I think I'm more hurtful for our seniors, not getting them out of the first round. They laid the foundation for us and stuff so we've got a lot to build off of and just get ready for next year. Q. Justin, when you guys were making that run, they broke off that big dunk and that seemed to kind of quiet your momentum a little bit. Just how big of a momentum killer was that for you guys? JUSTIN HAWKINS: I would say it was pretty big, but we knew they were going to get a score sooner or later. But we still had a lot of time left after that dunk. We were only down 5 with 1:15 left, and we knew we were going to knock down shots and just keep playing defense until the end. Q. Anthony, can you expand on the disappointment? You guys talked so much about how you wanted to use last year's slow start to play better this time around? How frustrating is it that history repeated it safely little bit? ANTHONY MARSHALL: Very frustrating. Like I said, I felt we know coming into the game what's at stake. Any time you get down early at this level it's kind of hard to fight back because you're playing the best teams all the way around. It's no cupcake where can you get down and just come back easily. I'm proud of our guys. We made a fight. Never rolled over and just kept battling. It's very disappointing and hurtful for our seniors. They put in so much time and effort into the program over the years. They've been tremendous. So to go out like this is very disappointing and hurtful. Q. Justin, looking back on everything, do you consider this a successful season? JUSTIN HAWKINS: I believe it's a very successful season. New coaching staff, players really didn't know how to react at first, but I think we all bought into the system well. We got a lot of good wins. We had a lot of losses, but I wouldn't really count those losses. We really learned from all of those. I just felt that looking back after now we really stepped up big. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Rice. Q. For the first 25 minutes or so did you feel like Colorado was a much tougher team and they were kind of taking it to you? COACH RICE: I did think that they played with a greater sense of urgency than we did. I thought that we certainly got off to a rough start. I think the shame in it would have been for our seniors if we hadn't made the comeback that we made and if those guys would have had to live with the fact that we just didn't play well and didn't make that kind of a comeback. I'm very proud of the guys. Extremely disappointed for our team. I thought we certainly had a great opportunity to challenge a very good Colorado team, but disappointed with the way the game started, but incredibly proud of the comeback. I think that will give us some momentum going into the off‑season. Q. What do you attribute the shooting woes to for the first three quarters of that game? COACH RICE: I think any time you don't shoot the ball well, you have to give credit to Colorado. Tad's defense is extremely good. We just missed open looks. We have not shot the ball overly well for about the last three or four weeks. I do think that we've got a team that's been a little bit tired. We had some time to get our legs back and we got good looks. Just were not able to make them tonight. We take those same looks again, it's how we won 26 games and have been ranked 13 straight weeks, and it just did not go in tonight. The frustrating thing was the number of offensive rebounds that we gave up to start the game. That put us in too deep of a hole. Q. With this being your first year as a head coach, what are some of the things that you've learned throughout the season that you'll take to next year? COACH RICE: Well, I think first of all, I learned that we've got a team that's got a chance to be special. We've got a group of 11 guys, all of whom stayed, and I think it speaks volumes about UNLV and our coaching staff and the direction that we're going. The fact that we were going to win 26 games this year and be ranked 13 straight weeks and be undefeated in the regular season at home, certainly gives us something to build on. I have a group that's very disappointed in the locker room and is ready to get back to work. I've got a number of recruits that are excited to get to campus and get going with the next season. I just think it's a situation where there are special things that are happening, and this is the start. We're disappointed with how it ended for our seniors. We wanted to continue on. We felt like we had a team that could have played a little bit longer. You just wonder sometimes as a coaching staff, as we all watch NCAA Tournaments, why do good teams not shoot the ball well? We've all watched games in the first four, we all watched games today. We saw teams that played over their heads. We saw teams that are good that didn't play nearly as well as they're capable. That's the beauty and a frustration of a one‑and‑done type tournament. That's why everybody gets so excited about it. I know we're here. We'll learn from it. We're bitterly disappointed, but we've got a group that works hard and try to make sure that it never happens like this again. Q. You appear pretty upset early in the second half. Called two timeouts after a couple of defensive lapses. What were you seeing out there that you were angry about? And what did you think kind of helped you turn things around and make the comeback? Was it the full court defensive pressure? COACH RICE: I think from a coaching standpoint you're just always trying to look for a way to motivate your guys to play. We've got a group that did not play well to start the game, yet we know how much they wanted to play well, so just was trying to give them the motivation they needed. Certainly they got a few steals, probably the magnitude of what was going on probably had an effect on the fact that we turned Colorado over 23 times, but was just proud of our guys and how they responded. Can only talk about it took them too long to respond, but the bottom line is like we have all year long, we responded. We came up four points short, but it put us in a situation where we can build on this and move forward. We'll learn from it and be better for it next time around. Q. Can you expand a little bit on‑‑ this wasn't technically a road game, but it was away from The Mack, and just expand on the frustration and why this team doesn't play up to its capabilities away from home? COACH RICE: I think one thing all year long is that we've struggled a little bit establishing a go‑to guy. We've got a lot of willing guys who have worked extremely hard. So I think going into the off‑season, one of our goals and those of you who are around our program know that we have a number of team goals. One of our main goals next year will be to play better away from The Thomas & Mack Center. We're extremely proud of winning. We went undefeated in the regular season on our home floor. But we need to play better away from The Thomas & Mack Center. We'll do that. I don't think we have all the answers right now. I just know that we've got a team that's very disappointed and determined. I've always said that when you are in the NCAA Tournament, you get knocked out, it's always difficult, no matter whether you lose in the first round or until the tournament is over because you just feel that somehow, some way you should still be playing. It will be tough for us until that Monday of the Final Four. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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