MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 15, 2024

Richard Pitino

Jaelen House

Jemarl Baker, Jr.

Thomas & Mack Center

New Mexico Lobos

Postgame Press Conference

New Mexico 76, Boise State 66.

THE MODERATOR: Student-athletes Jemarl Baker, Jr., Jaelen House. Coach Rick Pitino, start with you, some thoughts on tonight's game.

RICHARD PITINO: We defended our butts off. We rebounded extremely well. They came back, but for the most part we just battled our butts off. It was a high-level of toughness. You can't beat Boise unless you scratch, claw, and our guys fought and got a huge, huge win.

So very, very proud of them. They deserved it.

Our fans were amazing. It felt like a home game. Is a great win. We beat a great team.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Coach just mentioned it, but you guys -- they outrebound -- or I guess they averaged ten more rebounds than you guys do, and you led in that category for most of the way. Just what contributed to that tonight, and how did it help you out?

JAELEN HOUSE: Just not wanting to go home. We had to play with a level of toughness, like he said, and I think that's what we did tonight.

JEMARL BAKER JR: Yeah, just wanted to be physical really. The first couple of games they out-toughed us, and we just didn't want that to happen today. We executed the game plan and came out with the win.

Q. Jaelen, earlier in the season when you guys had that five-game win streak and beating teams by double digits, it was all points off turnovers. Last night you got back to points off turnovers. Why is it so much -- or why is it that you in particular feed so much off of turning steals into points at the other end?

JAELEN HOUSE: I mean, I like to play defense, so I think when I'm locked in defensively, it helps me offensively. I mean, I just try to do that as much as I can.

Q. Then in an atmosphere like this with that many people and with the stakes being what they are, you guys needed to win this game. I'm curious how much that played into you playing it up with the fans. There was a Boise State fan in particular at mid-court --

JAELEN HOUSE: With the hat on.

Q. -- with the hat on. What was the...

JEMARL BAKER JR: Don't do it. Don't do it.

Q. I will ask anyway. What was the exchange?

JAELEN HOUSE: He started before the game even started just on me. I was, like, all right, I got something for you, and that was it. That was it.

Q. Great answer. Leave it at that. I will spin it forward tomorrow night. Colorado State, it's another great point guard battle. You guys have had some great ones with Isaiah, and you split the season series, all that kind of stuff. What tomorrow can we expect under your guy's third night of all of this for both of you guys?

JAELEN HOUSE: A battle. I'm going to go out there and play as hard as I can. I know he's going to go out there and play as hard as he can, but it's not about us. It's about our team. The better team is going to win tomorrow.

Q. Jaelen, I know what defense means to you, and you heard about their guards and they were so big. What was the effort about today? Was it something to prove? Was it just to win a game? This was a tremendous defensive effort by this team.

JAELEN HOUSE: Like I just said, we just don't want to go home. We're playing for more right now.

Q. What does that win mean? The emotions were real to you. What did this win mean?

JAELEN HOUSE: A lot. I mean, I've never been to the tournament before, so we just clinched our first tournament berth in a while, so I'm excited right now.

Q. First for you, Jemarl, as a seven-year senior, your fourth school, having three big threes to help your team essentially clinch a spot in the NCAA Tournament, what does that mean to you?

JEMARL BAKER JR: It means a lot. I know how much it means to everybody here, everybody that's been here for three years. I just try to go out there and play confidence and do anything I can to impact winning.

Q. Jaelen, obviously an incredible performance tonight. 29 points. I know you said the fan had some impact on that performance, but what did you see on the court that really opened things up for you to explode like this today?

JAELEN HOUSE: I was just confident today. I think lately I haven't been in the best head space confident-wise, and tonight I just went out and laid it on the line and played how I play usually.

Q. Jaelen, a number of times in last night's postgame press conference, whether it was your coach or fellow players, they said you guys felt like you were bullied by Boise State the first couple of games. How much did that give you an edge tonight? For you personally Boise State did a pretty good job on you the first two games; tonight was a different story obviously.

JAELEN HOUSE: Like I said, we don't want to go home. I felt like I owed them one. I shot terrible and I didn't play well against them the first two games, so I just felt like I owed them one.

Q. You just mentioned the shooting, and I want to ask you about the shooting, because it's been four or five games the shooting hasn't been great. A lot of those outside shots and certainly the threes, 1 for 5, the shooting still doesn't seem to have come back, but you found a way to get 26 points. Are you doing something to adjust in the shooting slump? Are you just kind of staying with what you do?

JAELEN HOUSE: Trust my shot. I got this far with the same jump shot, so I just have to trust my mechanics.

Q. This is for Jemarl. You played home games and the center and now the pit. How does tonight compare to some of those atmosphere that are known as some of the cathedrals of college basketball?

JEMARL BAKER JR: It was incredible, man. I honestly didn't expect this coming into the tournament, but it's incredible. We need this going forward for sure. It's only going to help, and like Coach said, it felt like a home game out there.

So, man, it's exciting. It's really exciting.

Q. Then the steal or the deflection there towards the end of the game, how electric was that play, to get the take-away and seal the win there?

JEMARL BAKER JR: Man, it's fun. I'm just trying to do anything to impact winning, and it's definitely exciting to make plays for sure to do that when that's my goal going into the games.

THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes at this time. Questions for Coach.

Q. Just what does it mean to you for in year three to finally get to the Mountain West semis, and what is it about this group and this performance tonight that makes you think you can go further?

RICHARD PITINO: Boise is an extremely tough team. I think we've been really good at times this year, but I don't know how physically tough we have been. Tonight we were physically tough.

We knew. We had scouting and a game plan and all those things, but before the game I just said, you've got hit bodies. You've got to out-tough them because they're big, they're strong, and we did that.

As I've said from day one when we got here, I love the progress of the program, and we're continuing to move in the right direction. It was an amazing night, and we'll enjoy it for a little bit longer, but then we'll move on here shortly.

Q. Obviously we've talked about the effectiveness of these two tonight, but Donovan Dent, he had 22 points on 8 of 9 shooting and five steals.

RICHARD PITINO: The five steals was great. He was great in ball screen defense. He missed some free-throws at the end there where he should have had 24, 25 points. He was great, and he was defending very, very well.

We did a great job on Max Rice, who you hold your breath when he shoots.

Both of those guys were really in a great rhythm.

Q. 76 points, but it seemed like an up-tempo game most of the night. The kind that your team thrives off of. Did you get that feel too?

RICHARD PITINO: It was moderately chaotic in the second half. I think you knew both teams were playing for a lot. Our guys, I mean, they shot 58% versus one of the best defensive teams in the country. Always in the Mountain West. We were taking good shots. We were getting to the free-throw line.

I just thought we played a smart, smart game and a tough game.

Q. Jaelen kind of alluded to it. In his mind this gets you guys in the NCAA Tournament. Is that the message, or how do you go forward in that regard in what you are still playing for if not a Mountain West Championship?

RICHARD PITINO: I would be stunned if we're not in the NCAA Tournament after getting that win right there, but now let's go see if we can get Colorado State.

We've got amazing metrics. We have, what, 24 wins. That's a Quad 1 win right there most likely, I would assume.

Amazing win. I think that's going to put us on the right side. That pressure should be off us a little bit, but we want to go win a championship. It's Friday night in Las Vegas. We should be fired up see if we can go beat Colorado State.

Q. Then as far as Jaelen goes, I am not going to ask you at this point of a three-year UNM career and a five-year college career if you are going to get him to change in any way, but he was -- he almost seems to be stepping it up a little bit, his interaction with fans.

RICHARD PITINO: You ask all the time. I don't care. I don't do it, but that's him. The guy had 29 points. What would I ever do to get in the way of that?

It doesn't affect him. Utah State, they're screaming at him, swearing at him. It doesn't affect him. So what do I care? He's a great kid. He competes his butt off. There's an old expression, you would rather tone down a bronco than warm up a corpse. I don't want to tone him down too much. He's damn good.

Fans, it doesn't bother him. You're seeing that a little bit more with some players. They're kind of going back. It's not my cup of tea, but have at it. Keep playing great, I'll let you do it for sure.

Q. I'll ask you a basketball question.

RICHARD PITINO: That would be great.

Q. You seemed to send a double-down on Tyson and O'Mar when they were down in the block and sending that guard down. I don't remember you doing that a whole lot in Boise. Maybe you did, and I just forgot, but is that --

RICHARD PITINO: You were too busy tweeting.

Q. I tweet a lot.

RICHARD PITINO: We adjusted. We were trying to go off the bounce at Boise. It didn't work obviously. Those two kids played great so, we went on the pass right away, so a little bit different trap scheme. Went right away on them. Should have done it at Boise.

Q. In the first half Tyson Degenhart and O'Mar Stanley combined to shoot more threes than they did twos, and those two guys are so good around the rim. Was that part of your game plan, and did it work early on?

RICHARD PITINO: They shot 29%, so I think we did a great job. We wanted to make a mess of the paint, and we wanted to get them to throw the ball out because they really hurt us at their place. We didn't do a good job there.

Great job of adjusting by our guys. Tyson is so good. Even Stanley is so good. We did a great job on them.

Q. Just kind of curious, follow-up to what Jaelen said earlier. He said it wasn't the best head space recently when it came to his confidence. How were you guys able to fix him or whatever, but give him the confidence to come out and do what he did tonight?

RICHARD PITINO: He can bring value in a lot of other ways besides making shots. The biggest thing I tell all those guys is to stay confident. You can impact a game in other ways besides shooting the basketball. Especially a guy like Jaelen who is a terrific defender.

If you just get out of your own head and pour yourself into the team, it can help you get out of it, but guys go through it. And take good shots. Sometimes you take some tough shots. Sometimes it makes the game difficult, but he can also make some amazing plays.

Q. You have Colorado State coming up tomorrow night. Another team that, like you guys, looks like they may be playing their best basketball of the year right now. On the defensive side how would you try to go about slowing down a Colorado State offense that has really seemed to have found its stride in the last two days?

RICHARD PITINO: Yeah, they run great stuff. Stevens one of the best players to play in this conference for a long time, so it won't be easy.

We won't get a lot of sleep tonight, and we'll work our butt off to put the best game plan together that we can.

Q. I wanted to ask you about J.T. He gets two points, but every other column in the stat sheet is just busting up. What can you say about what he does when he doesn't score the ball?

RICHARD PITINO: He rebounded the ball extremely well. We wanted to see if we can get some blocked shots. He had three shot blocks there. He was a little bit beat up in the first half. Came back and was terrific. I thought our front core guys, we challenged them, and they certainly answered that challenge.