March 9, 2012

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THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UNLV.

Coach, some remarks on tonight's game.

COACH RICE: Absolutely. I think the first thing is, extremely proud of our guys. For a majority of the game our defense was as good as it's been all year long.

When you hold a team like Wyoming with the balance they have on offense with Waddell and Washington inside, Cruz and Martinez, you hold them to 3 24, you've done something right. We shot 40% both halves. That's a credit to Wyoming's defense.

At times this year, as you saw tonight, something happens to us. We get a big lead and we miss some shots and we just didn't guard the same way. Yet very proud of our resiliency to come back and close it out at the end.

Even when we hit stretches in the first half when we didn't make shots, we continued to guard. These two guys were terrific tonight. Anthony has become such a good leader for us this year, become a go to guy. He's been terrific.

Then Mike played like Mike. He was terrific tonight in terms of all the things that he brought.

The thing probably with Anthony, along with Mike, those are our two best rebounders on our team. They've both been in double figures in rebounding the last few weeks.

Credit to Wyoming. We played them Saturday. We knew what a difficult game it was going to be with the turnaround. It's one of those deals where we watched a lot of film of Wyoming before we played them, knew how good they were from when they beat us in Laramie. Almost became paralysis by analysis with our staff. Tried to find something to do to counter what they do, but our defense was terrific tonight.

Got some run outs when we couldn't get off to a good start offensively in the first half. We continued to guard. So for tomorrow we know what a challenge it will be against a very good Lobos team.

We saw the games today. Other than the second game, San Diego State is terrific, wins at the buzzer against Boise, then New Mexico built a big lead like we did, and then Air Force was resilient, came back, made a little bit of a game of it, and then New Mexico won going away.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student athletes.

Q. Mike, what were you doing defensively in the first half?

Mike Moser: We really just came out intense on defense, just bodying through a lot of screens. Wyoming really does a good job of setting away from the ball screens. We'll trying to be physical and not give up any easy shots.

Anthony Marshall: Yeah, kind of what Mike said. I felt like our defense triggered our offense. If you watch the games where we play our best, we play really good defense. When you stop on the defensive end, it allows you to get rebounds or deflections and make something happen in transition. That's our game right there, playing in transition. Credit goes to our defense.

Q. Mike, you had a tough stretch in February, since March two straight double doubles now. What's different now?

Mike Moser: I don't know. Maybe a little fatigue. Maybe a little something else. I don't know. I just struggled in February.

But I feel like I got my legs back, my confidence back. My teammates were positive with me the whole time. I think that helped a lot, too. I mean, I kind of left February in February and just trying to get it going right now.

Q. Can you talk about the third meeting with New Mexico. How much have you been wanting to face them again?

Anthony Marshall: Been wanting to face them again since the buzzer sounded in New Mexico. We're looking forward to the challenge, which is to get to Saturday, to be the last team standing, we got to get through them. Like I said, it's going to be a good challenge for us.

Mike Moser: Just the same thing really. We've had that bad taste in our mouth for a long time now. Getting back on the court back against them is definitely really going to get our blood going and I think we're going to come out and be really ready for this game.

THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student athletes and take questions for Coach Rice.

Q. I believe there was a time in the first half when Mike had 16 points to Wyoming's 9 or 11. How does that sort of individual performance affect the rest of the team going in towards the end of the first half?

COACH RICE: I think the thing that got us the lead was the fact we were taking good shots. One of the things that at times has been a negative by product for us for the offensive system we're trying to play this year is we do have a difficult time managing shot selection sometimes. Want to give our guys freedom and confidence, sometimes we take some ill advised shots.

Going into this week we talked about the importance of taking good shots. The first half we did that. As we built a lead in the second half, we got up I think 22 was our biggest lead, we took some tough shots.

Unfortunately at the other end of the floor we quit blocking out, we quit guarding for a period of time. Then it's very hard to turn it back on against a team like Wyoming who at that point has nothing to lose, high character kids. People forget how experienced that group is at Wyoming.

We lost our focus a little bit. That's something we'll come out of when we watch a little bit of film tomorrow of tonight's game before we move on to New Mexico with the guys.

We showed our resiliency, came back and closed out the game. Credit to Wyoming, during that stretch there were four or five times we took the ball to the basket, threw it in the post, dribble penetrated it, they made great defensive plays. A credit to them. We made a concerted effort at that time to throw it inside and try to get to the line.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, coach.

COACH RICE: Thank you.

COACH SHYATT: Let me first of all congratulate UNLV on an inspired first half and a great game. Then let me say what's really on my mind. If I would really say what's on my mind, my wife would kill me. I would really like to talk about the inspired second half that these guys played in pretty trying circumstances.

Where before this game I told these guys I wasn't sure if we ever trailed a team this entire season by more than 13 points ever. I don't know if there's another team. I seen some of these top teams in America, I've seen them get obliterated by 20 30 on certain nights and crumble, and I'd never seen that. We may have been on the brink tonight.

But in a lot of different leagues with a lot of different teams, because I'm an old guy, I don't know if I've ever seen a team play more inspired in a time of adversity. And I got to tell you I love 'em. I think the world of 'em. I think they've earned the respect of a lot of people who I think lacked respect for them. And I'll never forget 'em if this is the end of the road.

The fact that UNLV could make 56 points from these guys is incredible. It's absolutely incredible. And if you want to ask them any questions, you'll find them to be just as classy as they were all year on the court.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for the student athletes.

Q. That was a rough first half. Just not knocking down shots or what was UNLV doing that was so effective?

ADAM WADDELL: When you have Moser had some huge shots in the first half and when we shoot 12%, that's kind of a half right there.

But you see a team that comes in and keeps fighting in the second half, everyone in the arena saw that we kept fighting and we've done that all year.

Q. JayDee, what was the mood like at halftime? What are you saying to each other?

JAYDEE LUSTER: The mood was like it's been all year. We all came together and we told each other we ain't gonna quit, we don't give up. Paco came in at the free throw when it was at the free throw line. He told us, We gonna play harder than them this half. We all came together collectively. That was our mindset. I felt like the second half we did play harder than them.

Q. Paco, I know it's disappointing right now. There's probably some post season in front of you guys. Are you thinking about that now? What is going through your mind now since this tournament is over for you guys?

FRANCISCO CRUZ: We thought about how proud we are from each other because we came like a family during this season. If it happens to be a post season for us, it would be great. If not, we really have a good season and we came together like a family.

Q. Arthur, you got good looks, open looks, looks at the rim. How do you not get frustrated when something like that happens?

ARTHUR BOUEDO: You know, just try to rely on our defense as we always did. I mean, when it's not going in, it's not going in. There's nothing you can do about it. Just believe that your next shot's going in. That's what we did. That's why we came back in the second half.

As they say, I'm proud of every one of our team, from player to coach. I really hope we still got something in the future to come up. I think we deserve it.

Q. JayDee, does it matter which tournament? Does that matter to you? Just hoping you get to the post season with this group of guys?

JAYDEE LUSTER: You know, at this point that's out of our hands what tournament, if we even make the post season. That's something that we can't really focus on.

We just got to hope for the best. And I really just want to play again with these other five guys, you know. This year has, you know, been the best year I've had by far since I've been here at Wyoming and even been in college. You know, I really love these guys. I got a lot of respect.

I thank Coach Shyatt and the staff for coming in and changing the culture of the program, giving us something to believe and fight for, installing a whole new identity for us. We just appreciate it and we don't want it to be over.

THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student athletes at this time and continue with questions for Coach Shyatt.

Q. I know it was a struggle in the first half. Moser had a huge half. Was it that and just not being able to knock down shots or was there anything else you were seeing from your guys that wasn't working tonight?

COACH SHYATT: Well, I think the first half, when you go 3 24, I'm not sure it would matter who you're playing more or less a team as talented and nationally ranked on their home court.

But I got to tell you, at half, at the end of the game last Saturday here, and at half, I saw the same body language. Like I said, it's incredible. Many and most teams, you think about your team, whoever you admire. Many and most teams, when it's not going for an individual offensively, or it's not going for their team offensively, it gets ugly and they surrender. Not these guys.

I feel like we ran out of time tonight. I feel like if they'd have put four or five more minutes on the clock, the outcome might have been different.

Q. Was there any speech? Anything that triggered the turnaround in the second half?

COACH SHYATT: There's too many women in here.

No, realistically I talked about where we'd been in our body of work this year. And this was undeniably one of the worst situations we were in. We probably could do three things: we could flee, we could flow or we could fight. And I trust them.

I said the only way I've ever seen anything like this happen is to divide this up in four and five minute segments. It didn't look good after that first five minute segment. It got worse before it got better.

But these guys have a heart more than any team I've seen this year and like I said, I love them to death and I respect 'em.

Q. You don't have control over what happens in the post season. I assume you feel this team is worthy to be playing somewhere in the post season.

COACH SHYATT: Yes, I do. I think they've earned the right to play in some high level tournaments.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about UNLV playing on their home floor. Can you put into words what kind of impact that makes?

COACH SHYATT: I'm not going down that road.

Q. You say they missed a lot of shots the first half.

COACH SHYATT: I thought they were doing a great job defensively. I always thought they had the high level of intensity on their defense. That contributed a lot to missed shots. It wasn't turnovers this time, it was missed shots.

On the other hand, I thought the second half was quite the opposite. I think my guys did, too. Fortunately there were two halves.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, coach.