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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2014Dave RiceRoscoe SmithDeville SmithLAS VEGAS, NEVADA San Diego State – 59 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UNLV. Coach, if you could make a couple comments about tonight's game. COACH RICE: First of all, just congratulations to San Diego State. That's an extremely experienced and very tough basketball team. Thought we did a good job, very good job, defensively with our first shot field goal percentage defense. Just had a hard time keeping it off the defensive boards. I thought the difference in the game really was second‑chance points and then the fact that we had a few key turnovers. But I was proud of the fact we kept battling, working the entire game. We didn't give up. We got down, hung in there, and got ourselves within striking distance. But again credit to San Diego State. I thought these two guys played extremely hard. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Talk about the challenge of getting into a flow offensively against this team. DEVILLE SMITH: Well, they did a good job defending well. But I just feel like our team, we should have reacted even better to their defending. I got to give credit to them also, how they did well, what they did. Q. Roscoe, were they defending you a little differently in the low post than they had been previously? ROSCOE SMITH: Once again, first of all, give credit to San Diego State. They definitely showed like, you know, different faces for me and Khem by playing Winston Shepard. He was their second big. You know, it wasn't they played it differently. With our shots we normally make just wasn't dropping at one point in time. It was just, you know, a tough one. Q. What happened from your vantage point? It was 33‑31, then they went on the 12‑0 run. Do you feel you panicked a little bit offensively? ROSCOE SMITH: No, I don't feel like we panicked. I think we was in a nice rhythm, you know. Once against, you know, shots we normally make just didn't drop down. You know, just some schemes on defense that we made a small error on, the kind that just cost us. But, you know, give all credit to San Diego State. Q. Roscoe, we were talking about what Birch means to this team. Came out and didn't score in the second half, but the effort was always there. What do you think you guys got from him, clearly less than 100%? ROSCOE SMITH: Khem, you know, even though he was hurt, he definitely gave 110%. He battled. He gave 110% of effort. We couldn't ask any more of him, you know. Well, we can, but he did as much as he can for us, you know. We definitely just tried to follow his lead, with his effortness [sic], continued to battle on the boards, continued to play good defense on their guards. Q. Roscoe, you obviously had a lot higher expectations. What do you take away from the season at this point and do you think all the guys want to play in some post‑season tournament? ROSCOE SMITH: Mentally 100%. We was definitely focused on this tournament. Any post‑season questions, you know, coach will answer that. But, you know, the season, yeah, we had a lot of expectations. We got a lot of talent. We still feel like we one of the best teams talent‑wise in this conference, you know. There were just, you know, some things. Yeah, a couple losses that we wished we would have had back. But, you know, it happens. It's part of basketball. We'll continue to grow and continue to mature as a group. Q. Roscoe, what are you going to think about or when are you going to think about thinking about coming back next season? When are you going to make that decision? ROSCOE SMITH: We have a team meeting tomorrow. Once again, it will be up to coach. I'm 100% just trying to get better, just being with my brothers as a team. I never even thought about that mentally. Q. What do you take away from this season with obviously a disappointing ending? DEVILLE SMITH: It's just a learning experience. That's all I took from it, learning. The mistakes we made this year, try not to make the same mistakes next year. THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with questions too Coach Rice. Q. While your guards seemed to struggle, was there any thought of putting Kendall Smith in? COACH RICE: Sure, there's always a thought of guys who are on the bench. Certainly have confidence in Kendall and his future with our program. It was just a coach's decision not to play him today. I think he's got a very, very bright future in our program. Q. He talked about when you had offensive rebounds down there. It did seem like watching, he was going to make your guards beat them. Did you get the feeling you weren't going to get the post touches maybe you had wanted going in? COACH RICE: They are extremely tough. That's a credit to the job Coach Fisher has done. The experience of that group. I think Josh Davis has been the difference maker. Xavier Thames is the MVP of our conference. Davis has brought a fifth‑year toughness to their group that is very important to what they do. They're physical. I again thought that the difference in the game was just the momentum swing when we get a defensive miss and then they get an offensive rebound. We got to go guard for another 20 or 25 seconds. Q. In that realm, even though they get 13 offensive rebounds, they keep 20 more balls alive. COACH RICE: Absolutely. I can't think of a team across the country that's better on the offensive boards. We scheme to try to keep from giving up an offensive rebound on free throws. We even block out on free throws different against San Diego State than we do against other teams just because of how lethal they are on the offensive boards. I think I counted six or seven guys that got an offensive rebound. You look at the score, we lose by eight, second‑chance points we lose by seven. That doesn't tell the entire story. Just how tough they are on the offensive boards. They're a fantastic offensive rebounding team. Q. Can you talk about the post‑season and living to play another day. COACH RICE: We got a group that loves to play. Our whole focus was on playing in the Mountain West Conference tournament. Our whole focus was taking it one game at a time, Wyoming yesterday and San Diego State today. We were hopeful we would win today and have a chance to play tomorrow. I'll sit down with our athletic director, Tina Kunzer‑Murphy, and talk about those things, if there is an option to play in the post‑season. Then we'll have a team meeting and see where we are. We got a group that loves to play. I was proud of the fact that we had a hard‑fought win yesterday. Certainly was disappointed for our group with the outcome today. Got a lot of guys coming back. Something we haven't even started to think about yet because our whole focus was on trying to win this tournament. Q. Bryce only played 17 minutes. Is there a specific reason he wasn't in? COACH RICE: Just a coach's decision. I felt like Kevin Olekaibe and Jelan Kendrick gave us good minutes today. I thought they did a good job breaking the press. That was, again, just a coach's decision. Q. When you look at the three games against them and then other teams you might have lost to, knowing who is coming back, would you agree when you see a game like this maybe an upgrade you need is to make it a lead guard position that can dictate you through positions like this? COACH RICE: I think there's two ways you address issues on roster. I'm proud of the progress our guys made. I think you do it through recruiting. You also do it through developing players you have on your roster. I think that a lot of our guys have a great deal of motivation. We may not be done playing yet this season. There may be a post‑season opportunity for us. We'll see how that shakes out. I think a lot of our guys will have great motivation through the spring, fall and summer to come back and be better next year. I'll take a look at all those things, where our needs may be, where we need to get better. A big part of that is developing some of the young guys we have in our program right now because they showed flashes of being very, very good this year. Q. If the post‑season does happen, Khem Birch, is a couple days going to be enough for that hip? COACH RICE: 22 rebounds against Reno, then eight or nine rebounds, then 15 rebounds. He's become an absolute warrior. He's playing at a very high level. When you lose a game like this, you feel bad for your players because they played their hearts out. They put a lot of time and effort in certainly. But he heals quickly. He plays hard. Again, if, in fact, that's what ends up happening, we got a group that we can motivate to get up and get ready to play. The one thing about us, I think it's a credit, you never want to lose games. During our time here, we've never lost more than two games in a row. The point of that is you never want to lose any games. But we've always bounced back. We've had situations this year. You've watched us a number of times where we've had poor performances and we've always bounced back. I think that shows our resiliency. Even today, as much as we got down, we didn't quit. We continued to play. I think we got it down to five. We were looking for a miss from Polee, the sixth man of the year. He's so mentally tough. We got a miss off the Shrigley free throw. We needed a miss off one more free throw. Polee made all the free throws down the stretch. That's mental toughness. My hat is off to Polee for making all the free throws down the stretch. Q. I think you might have looked at Polee when he was transferring. He had six points the first game, 16 in the second, 18 today. Did you see this over the course of the season? COACH RICE: When he left St. John's, that's why we tried so hard to recruit him. I thought his athleticism and his background, the fact that his dad was a terrific player, he comes from a basketball family, I just thought that he had a huge future in basketball. I just believe that's what championship teams do, is that guys develop. You have guys like Thames who become great players. You add pieces to the puzzle in the case of Josh Davis. You have guys that come in off the bench. It's a huge deal and a credit to guys like Polee who was a starter at St. John's, potential Big East all‑conference player. He comes and is willing to become a guy who comes off the bench. That's certainly what championship teams are all about. It's a credit to a guy like Polee to I assume check his ego at the door and probably today, other than Thames, be the best player on the floor. Q. Do you feel it's important with the possibility of a post‑season tournament to get the extra time in the gym and the extra games or do you see a scenario where UNLV would reject an invitation to a post‑season tournament? COACH RICE: You know, we haven't even had that discussion. I think you know me well enough to know that the competitor that I am, I want to always keep playing. I don't know what options are going to be there for us. Again, our whole focus was on winning this tournament. But whether we're playing post‑season or whether we are just getting individual workouts, weight lifting, all the things we need to make us a better team next year, we're going to be in the gym right away. We're going to figure out the guys, and it's not a threat, it's not a leading statement, we're just going to figure out the guys who truly want to be here and give us the best opportunity and chance to win moving forward. So I think guys who want to be in the gym, guys who want to be better, is what this whole thing is all about. Q. There's speculation about Khem Birch might not be able to play. He looked better today physically than he did last night. Did you anticipate he'd be able to play as well as he did tonight? COACH RICE: As he limped out of the locker room yesterday afternoon after we beat Wyoming, and he walked down the hall, I wasn't sure he was going to be able to play. I went and checked rooms last night. We stay in a hotel in the conference tournament. I want to give the guys an experience like we're on the road. He said he was feeling better. He got treatment. He was going to get more treatment today. It was a pretty amazing thing that he was able to play at the level he played at today. Q. No secret that this conference could use some success in the NCAA tournament. Obviously both San Diego State and New Mexico will be representing the league there. Do you see those teams at strong enough to be able to make a deep run in March? COACH RICE: I do. I do. I think the way both these teams are made. The thing that gives both these teams, other than they have talent, that's always the most important part, two things. With New Mexico they have two guys they can throw the ball to in the block. Then they have great experience. Bairstow is a senior. Alex Kirk is a fourth‑year junior, Kendall Williams is a fourth‑year senior. Then San Diego State is as experienced as any team in our league. They returned most of their starters from last year's team. Then two fifth‑year seniors, in terms of Thames has grown in that program. No doubt both those teams are very capable of making runs in the NCAA tournament. Anything can happen when you get in survive‑and‑advance mode. I think these are two teams that are going to represent our conference very well. Don't count out Boise State. Boise State is a team that has NCAA experience from last year, as well. They still have an opportunity, as well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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