MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2023

Niko Medved

John Tonje

Isaiah Stevens

Thomas & Mack Center

Colorado State Rams

Postgame Press Conference

San Diego State 63, Colorado State 61

THE MODERATOR: Joining Coach Niko Medved will be John Tonje and Isaiah Stevens. Coach, go ahead.

NIKO MEDVED: You know, I've been fortunate to be a head coach for a while, and the one thing you learn is at some point these seasons are going to come to an end, and unless you're cutting down the nets in a tournament, it's going to be a difficult thing.

We did a lot of things right here today. I tell you what, I don't know that I could ask our guys to give a better effort. If you would have told me that we would be the team that got 14 points off turnovers to their only one point off turnover -- yeah, we only turned it over ten times tonight.

We battled on the board and guarded our tail off and just fought like crazy. I'm really proud of therm for their effort. We just needed one more play.

It's been a hard year. It's been a hard year in so many ways for this group. All the things we've dealt with, injuries and you name it.

I just kept asking these guys to improve and to stay with it. No matter what the circumstances were, that's what they did all year. I couldn't have asked for two better leaders.

I told them, you know, I say it all the time, you learn the most through adversity, and I learned who these guys were this year. I learned who they were as young men and how they have grown and how they stayed with it, and that's going to carry on with them for the rest of their life.

This one hurts right there to win, but I thought we learned a lot about ourselves towards the end of the year.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. John, did this just feel like a game where every shot you took was going to be contested, and if you did get one of those uncontested open looks, it was going to be a rarity?

JOHN TONJE: Yeah, for sure. Against a team like this you've got to just take whatever look you get, so whether that's midrange or three. Yeah, you've got to kind of pick and choose what shots you want to take. If you get an opening, you've got take it, for sure.

Q. Then, Isaiah, just the highs and lows of basketball. I mean, the highs from yesterday. How do you handle what happens today and just you guys have a chance to make plays and today just didn't work.

ISAIAH STEVENS: It's part of the game. That's why you go out there and compete and work on your skills and prepare the way that you do, but that's the kind of sport basketball is. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose.

We just didn't make as many plays tonight, but we were right there for it. So those are the kind of games that we enjoy being in. Man, like Coach said, it definitely stings.

Q. Isaiah, at the 9:00 mark in the second half a time-out got called, and then after that you went four straight possessions where you scored. Some of them without a pass. Just really being aggressive. Was there anything said in that time-out that kind of flipped your mindset, or was that just kind of an internal thing? I mean, what changed that you allowed you to do that?

ISAIAH STEVENS: I was just reading the game. When you play a really good defense like San Diego State, trying to force the issue isn't always the way to go about that.

As the point guard, I've always felt going up against them, the more I could get my teammates involved and get them open looks, the more it will open up for me just because I feel like they've always had so much attention around me.

So when I was able to get downhill and get some angles, I felt like I tried my best to take advantage of those opportunities.

Q. You knew you were going to have to be out here to come out here and be as competitive as you were, but it's another thing to come out and do it. So can you just talk about the competitiveness of today's game?

ISAIAH STEVENS: I think it preaches to our culture, our team, the guys we have. Even after the season that we've had with all the ups and downs, we never flinched, we never back down from any opponent, any game, any moment.

Like you said, it just comes down to executing it, and today we executed a really good game plan, but we just came up short.

Q. John, you had 13 points early on in the game. Really just went right at San Diego State. Was that kind of something you were thinking about going in with just how physical they are that you kind of have to be the one that punches first in the fight?

JOHN TONJE: Yeah, for sure. You know, I played them numerous times in my career, so I kind of knew what the game was going to be. I had to be aggressive and couldn't wait for them to throw the first punch, so I just came out aggressive.

Q. Isaiah, can you take us through that last sequence after Mensah missed the free throw. You don't call a time-out, just like you didn't get Fresno State. What were you looking for there? Were you satisfied with the shot? What did you see?

ISAIAH STEVENS: Really just get it and push it up the floor. I didn't think we necessarily needed a three right there. Just played downhill, played aggressive. Tried to force some confusion between switching because typically teams like to switch in those scenarios.

We got right to a pull-up that I've shot a million times throughout my career. Just rimmed in and out, man. I thought it was down, but that's the way the game goes sometimes.

Q. In some ways does this feel like a representation of the season? You guys are right there in so many of these games, but unable to quite pull through. How frustrating is it to be kind of that close?

JOHN TONJE: Yeah, it's pretty frustrating. Every game is a game of its own, so today just happened to be another one of those. Yeah, I mean, we've had a lot of close games this whole season, but, you know, every game is its own. Today we fell short.

Q. Isaiah, the third time you guys have seen the Aztecs this season. What about their defense makes it so difficult to score?

ISAIAH STEVENS: I would say their personnel. They're really disciplined. They have multiple guys that can move their feet, and they can switch and contain.

They're physical. They have great length on the perimeter, so it makes it hard to just attack one-on-one matchups. They're loaded in gaps. They're sound in that, like I said.

You really have to try to get them moving, try to get the ball side, top side, and then play if you got the floor lifted because they got Mensah sitting behind them all. That's a pretty good luxury to have. Man, they're one of the best defenses I've ever played. Big shout-out to what they got going on.

THE MODERATOR: That will do it for the student-athletes. Thank you, gentlemen. We'll continue with Coach.

Q. Niko, I know your goal as a coach every year is to get whatever team you have to be playing at its best at the end. Do you feel like this team, through everything you went through, reached that point?

NIKO MEDVED: Pretty close. I mean, I think we've been fighting to get continuity all year, and whoever we had, you know, in practice out there did. I thought towards the end of the season, we started to get better and better.

You know, I asked them today -- I said today is the day we're going to put our best out there. You know what, I don't have any beef with that. I thought we did. We needed -- this is a terrific team.

I've had two of these with this team that have gone right down to the wire, were just a couple of plays away. Maybe that changes the trajectory of things, but I'll say this about this group, like you said, the only people who really know are the guys that are there every day and fighting through it.

And I think to answer your question, Mike, when I really reflect on that, I think they did do that. I think they came out and they played their best here down the stretch. It would have been hard for me to ask more.

Q. I asked Brian. It seemed like you had a fun, joking moment right before the second half. In a 27-25 game, he said you both kind of agreed players are the ones that make the difference in March. Is that what this game really was in the end?

NIKO MEDVED: Dutch and I go way back when we were both assistants in the league. We're good friends. I have a lot of respect for them.

I said, Dutch, listen, both of us could just walk out of here right now, and it won't change what's about to happen here in the second half of this game because the guys of both teams were prepared. They knew what they had to do. It was just going to come down to one team making more plays than the other.

So I believe in that. We do a lot as coaches. We try to help. We build the culture. We prepare them. But, ultimately, I this I coaches get way too much credit when their teams do well, and sometimes maybe they get too much blame too.

Both teams I thought have great cultures. They really compete well, and it's about the players this time of year. I thought both teams showed up at a high level.

Q. Niko, having played yesterday, you guys didn't get that under 16 time-out. It drained to the almost to the under-12 before you had to call a time-out. How quickly does a physical style like what San Diego State brings, how quick can that fatigue a team?

NIKO MEDVED: I called one there. It's rare to have that long without the media. We hit a three. We were up four. I was, like, all right, we just need to catch our breath. I called one.

Then we get another time-out at the under-12. I thought just kind of catching our breath in that situation is what I want.

Yeah, I mean, our guys were ready to play. I felt that coming out this morning. We were going to be ready to play, and we were. We came out really, really aggressive.

Yeah, it's a hard thing to sustain against a team like that as athletic, as physical, and really as deep as they are, but we did that here today. I thought we left it all out on the floor.

Q. Just how challenging was this season start to finish with everything that this roster went through?

NIKO MEDVED: I don't have all day, right, to do that, but life is about challenges. I mean, that's what this is, and that's not -- you don't go through life and have everything go your way and all that.

I think my job as a leader and our coaches to teach these guys and you learn a lot about yourself of how you handle those situations. It's not life is 90 percent -- 10 percent of what happens to you, it's 90 percent of how you deal with it.

I kept telling the guys that you are going to learn a lot about yourself and about each other through this, and I think they did. There were a lot of challenges. You know. You were around. It's so difficult to develop any kind of continuity. We dealt with a lot of injuries and things not go our way, but we're not the only team that's had to do that.

We've been fortunate. We've had a lot of things go our way too the last several years. We've stayed healthy. This was just one of those years, but they battled. They kept battling and kept fighting, and that's really all I can ask.

Q. You touched on it in your open, but obviously, a decision coming with those guys, but regardless, what do those two mean to you and this program and what they've done?

NIKO MEDVED: Man, it's hard for me to kind of quantify that or put into words. I mean, they're day-one guys, believed in us, have been absolutely exemplary in the kind of culture we want here of work and togetherness. They're unbelievable young men in the community. They represent us in a first-class manner, and they play at a high, high level.

What more could you ask as a coach? And they're the ones who really helped set the foundation and the tone for our program. You know, both of them have been like that.

Isaiah Stevens is just a born leader, and I have said it from day one. I don't know that I could have asked somebody to lead better in this kind of a season than he did. He broke his foot too. He missed the first month, and he has had to deal with a lot this year, and he has just absolutely been a warrior on and off the floor.

They mean everything. I don't want to think about tomorrow yet. I don't want to think about what might be, come back. We're just going to stay here in this moment today, and then we'll focus on tomorrow .

Q. You joked that coaches get too much credit. Playing San Diego State two weeks ago, this is a third time this season. Just how difficult is it to make adjustments over the course of the game when the teams have so much familiarity with one another?

NIKO MEDVED: It's really hard. I don't want to say they're overrated, but at times adjustments can be overrated too.

Sometimes it's just this time of year keeping it simple and doing -- when fatigue sets in and emotions are high and it's competitive, you have to rely on the things you've practiced every day. When you try to get a little too tricky -- we did throw out a triangle in two late that we had in our bag. We did get a steal, a stop, or whatever. So we had a couple of little adjustments.

For the most part this time of the year you have to do what you are comfortable with so you can play fast and play aggressive. There were a few adjustments tonight, but for the most part it's just teams doing what they do well.

Q. Niko, you've compared Isaiah Stevens to Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, great quarterbacks. If you are looking at the stat sheet, he went 5 for 20. It might be easy to knit-pick that, but it seemed like the decision-making was right on. It's the type of shots he always takes. As a coach, can you kind of live with that result? I mean, they're all good looks. If your quarterback throws a pick, sometimes that happens.

NIKO MEDVED: I just told those guys back there when we were waiting. I said, you know, guys, I don't know that we could have done anything different. I have no beef. I don't think we would have done anything different.

Zai said, you know, Coach, you're right. Just a couple more shots. You know what I mean? That's just what it is. We had some good looks that didn't. They probably might say the same thing. I don't know.

But I don't know that I would have done anything different for those guys. It was another plain shot. Listen, Isaiah, I'm going to let him -- he is going to take the shots that he needs to take, and he got a couple of good looks. There was the layup in transition late. Again, they're long, so sometimes that length can really bother you.

Then I agree with him. We don't want to call a time-out in that situation because if I do, they're going to try to take the ball out of his hands. He got it. Got up the floor and got to his spot.

I was literally right behind it. When he let it go, I'm, like, that's down. I thought it was kind of down. Tonight it didn't. He has made a lot of those in his career, so exactly right. You just live with the result, and that's what it was.

Q. Lamont Butler is known primarily for his defense, but he led the Aztecs in scoring tonight, took 14 shots. How did his aggressiveness impact your defense tonight?

NIKO MEDVED: It always does. I don't think -- he is probably the one guy I thought early in the game we didn't do a good enough job on. He is an athletic, downhill, aggressive guy, and the game plan on him is you have got to try to contain him and keep him out of the lane.

When he gets a shoulder on you, he is really difficult. I thought we didn't do a very good job of that early. He made a big three late for them when they needed it. But, I mean, he has been in a lot of games, Lamont Butler. He is a terrific defender. He has been in these moments throughout his whole career, so he knows what to do.

Q. I've asked these before, Niko, but it's another year heading to the NCAA tournament for this conference. What does this conference need to do to win some games? Are you more confident that this year's crop, whoever it may be, has a better chance, or is this something that the conference needs to really examine and maybe change whatever it is?

NIKO MEDVED: You asked me what they need to do. They just need to win, right? We need to win a game in the tournament. I know what you are asking. Do we need to change the format of the conference tournament? I don't know. You know what I mean?

I do think, like everything, just like our season, the league everything, once it ends, you have to take time to reflect and ask the questions. Are you doing the right things? When you don't get the result you want in whatever it is, you never want to -- sometimes we are doing the right things, but we've got to ask the question. Are we doing the right things? Are we helping ourselves? Do we need to change the format of the conference tournament? You know, maybe.

Sometimes, you know what, I just think we're ready to break through. I think matchups can be tough. I know us last year against Michigan, we get a 6 seed. We led for a lot of the game, and that game was right there for us too, and we just didn't get over the hump.

Maybe this is the year. Let's hope we get three, maybe four teams in the tournament, and let's go make some noise. That's what I told Dutch. I don't care if San Diego State wins tomorrow or not. Go win in the NCAA tournament.

Q. Can you talk about the defense today, just how competitive they were in the first half, forcing turnovers, getting points, getting steals?

NIKO MEDVED: Yeah, we were awesome on that end. We came ready to play. We competed. We had an edge to us. We were aggressive. If you would have told me before the game that we would have been even in the paint, 30-30 in the paint -- we had 14 points off turnovers. They had one. I mean, those are pretty good numbers. I thought we held our own on the glass.

I don't know what the rebounding percentages are, but heck, what did they shoot? 38% for the game. There are going to be a lot of missed shots, but I thought we battled. I thought we did more than enough on that end to give us a chance.

Q. You mentioned the points in the paint. After struggling yesterday was that an emphasis for you today?

NIKO MEDVED: That's that we do well. We're one of the top teams in the nation in two-point field goal percentage. That's what we do, and I thought we did a good job of being aggressive that way.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.