MOUNTAIN WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 12, 2026

Colby Garland

Tim Miles

Jermaine Washington

Thomas & Mack Center

San Jose State Spartans

Postgame Press Conference

New Mexico 93, San Jose State 77

THE MODERATOR: For San Jose State we have student-athletes Colby Garland, Jermaine Washington, Coach Tim Miles. Coach, let's start with you for thoughts on tonight's game?

TIM MILES: Well, I thought that it was a good first half. I mean, 12 lead changes, four ties. I thought our guys really battled. We had kind of an awkward thing toward the four-minute mark where we gave up a basket and then committed an offensive foul on the inbound and it ended up being like a four- or five-point possession.

Then we were down at halftime by seven, and I thought that hurt us.

We had been right there, and I didn't want them to separate because that puts a lot of pressure to start the second half. We started the second half with a turnover. That's really the thing we've been over ten games I think averaged maybe six turnovers a game, and we turned it over 13 tonight.

Credit New Mexico. I thought their defensive pressure got us, but I kind of felt like some of that was self-inflicted tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Colby, you guys were competitive the first half. Maybe did fatigue play a role in the second half?

COLBY GARLAND: It's tough, man. It's tough coming out and competing every night. Can't blame it on the fatigue, man. We got to get it done. We didn't get it done. It's March. We don't have as many bodies. We can't make excuses for ours. We just didn't get it done. Fatigue or not, it's been a long season for us, obviously, but fatigue or not, we just lost the match-up. It's not an excuse for us.

Q. Jermaine, you guys obviously stayed just competitive against a top Mountain West team like New Mexico. What was the mindset in staying in the whole game?

JERMAINE WASHINGTON: Yeah, like you said, they're a great team. We just rebound, dig in, start from the jump, just not get down in the beginning. Try to stay as close as we can.

Q. Colby, you started tonight looking for your shot early versus last night. What was that thought process or knowing that the game was going to be a little bit harder?

COLBY GARLAND: I wouldn't say necessarily -- you're right in that instance. I was just trying to do whatever I can just to help us win. I thought I had some early open looks, so I just took them. Other games I felt like their defense was kind of focused in, which they was too, but I mean, just obviously just how the game went.

I ended up shooting a couple of shots early and missed a couple, made a couple, but I mean, I wouldn't say I was just intentionally looking for the shot. Just trying to play the game the way it's going. I just happened to shoot a lot in the first half.

Q. Jermaine, when you first started, you were this mad spinner defense and you've really evolved your game in a sense. Where do you see your game at this point, especially the last two games and kind of progressing maybe into the next season where do you see yourself?

JERMAINE WASHINGTON: I see myself as a leader. Trying to get my teammates better. Trying to get back to that intense defensive player like you said I was my first year. Trying to get back to that and creating for my teammates. Be a spark for the team.

Q. For either one of you, I want to ask about two of their guards. I'll start with Jake Hall. He wasn't a surprise, but I'm curious if you guys felt like you did what you wanted to for the most part. Some of his shots, it's not like they were uncontested. You guys were on him. Was there anything more that you guys could have done on some of the shots with Jake Hall?

COLBY GARLAND: Yeah, run him off the 3-point line. We didn't do it. We got there, but it wasn't good enough. He banged them. He's a great player. Freshman of the Year, First Team. He's a great player. Shooting 44% from the three.

So we got to run him off the line and we didn't do it. There was no excuse. Got there late, and he banged them in the three. He's a great player. Didn't get there; should have ran him off the line. Should have been more physical with him; we didn't do it.

Q. Then Uriyah got the start tonight. They've got 19 straight games with him coming off the bench in a different starting lineup. I have two questions about Uriyah. Colby you're listed as 6'0".

COLBY GARLAND: 6', yes, sir.

Q. Is he one inch shorter is Uriyah? Is he one inch shorter? He's listed at 5'11". I don't know if that's true. It doesn't seem that way. Is that a fair statement?

COLBY GARLAND: It don't really seem that way, but I mean, whatever they say he is, that's what he is, man. I can't -- it's not my judgment.

Q. I got you. He had nine assists, no turnovers. He's a guy that three steals. He's a guy that's shorter than everybody else on the court. We know that much. He's very athletic. Had an alley-oop. What does Uriyah Tenette do that kind of makes what the Lobos do different when he's on the court?

COLBY GARLAND: He's big-time. He's big-time with the energy. He's a quick guard. He plays with a lot of heart. He's quick. He can knock down a three. He do whatever his team need him to do. You said nine assists, that's high-level point guard play by him.

I mean, he's a great player. I'm not sure what year he is, but -- he's a freshman? Oh, wow. He's going to be good then. He's big-time for them. I like his game a lot, man.

Q. For you, Colby, this season had its ups and downs. What was your biggest season takeaway?

COLBY GARLAND: Just fight through adversity, man. Just life. Not even just basketball. Just in life. You'll have up and downs in your life. You're going to have challenges you got to face. We faced a lot of challenges with injuries, being banged up, losing a lot of games, man.

We just kept persevering. I just learned how to persevere, how to be there for guys, how to pick guys up when they're down, how to be a leader and just how to get guys together, man. I think I learned a lot here.

THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the athletes. Questions for Coach.

Q. Fouling trouble was an issue today. With Adrian picking up four fouls, how did that impact your defensive game plan overall?

TIM MILES: Losing Adrian hurt us. I thought he really had been playing well, and he's a tough match-up for people. We've been in foul trouble a whole bunch. We played six guys. I think we added a seventh right at the end to get Sad out as a senior tribute.

That hurt us, but you know, it's a physical game. We're trying to play a physical team that's got more size and strength than we do.

You're going to be behind the plays a little bit. We're undersized with Sadra and Adrian at the 5 and 4. Behind that certainly hurt a little bit. I thought our turnovers hurt us worse.

Q. There's been a lot of roster turnover over the past couple of years. Do you anticipate similar changes this offseason, or are you expecting a core group of players to return?

TIM MILES: You know, a friend of mine coaches in the NFL, and he said, can you imagine the NFL unrestricted free agency at every position every year? He goes, what kind of chaos would that be? He's, like, that's what you have.

I'm sure we're going to have some free agents out there. I have no idea what's going to happen. It probably depends on how much NIL and rev share we can generate here in the next few weeks. I think that will determine who comes and who goes.

I don't have every answer I need yet, but I know I will shortly.

Q. You played against a guy who had 25 and 14, shot 10 of 11. A 23-year-old Croatian pro. I know no rules were broken to get him, but you've been in this game a long time. Do you think there's a place for that, or would you like to see that -- not just him, but the professionals --

TIM MILES: European pros have come over for a long time. He's not a freshman. He might have one year of eligibility or two, and you can list him in his first year. I can't imagine how that's going to all turn out, but it's not changing.

The hard part is, you know, until we get, what, collective bargaining and anti-trust or whatever it is in line, it's just going to be like this.

I don't love it. As a guy, a purist, the thing I want to talk about tonight is Jake Hall. He changes your defensive game plan as a shooter. He reminds me of Marshall Henderson from Utah. Remember him? A guy that you -- like, no, we're not in help. Jake Hall is standing over there.

Unfortunately, we have to talk about how many guys we're going to turn over and how many pros are coming into our league and stuff like that.

It's just the way it is, and I hope that we get some semblance of organization where we know what's going on so we can have -- I think it's bad for our fans to lose all these kids every year. I'm glad to see Dutch was able to keep guys, and hopefully New Mexico can keep a good core of these guys, because they just had to rebuild. It's very difficult to do unless you have the payroll.

Q. With the reality of what I think everybody talked about here with the game today, about undersized, a lot of minutes back-to-back, et cetera, et cetera, what strategy or scheme can actually maybe --

TIM MILES: First of all, I want to say just I'm really -- our guys battled. Like, they battled. That's hard, and they could have -- they've been -- now, this has been from day one. JaVaughn Hannah, he picks up all the garbage I say. Every mistake somebody else makes, he's there covering for a guy. Played two games.

Rosenborough has been out the whole time.

Pasha Goodarzi has been out early and then again late.

Japhet Moupadele has had five double-doubles in ten games. Don't tell me he wouldn't be a physical guy that would have been fun to have against our 23-year-old freshman? Would have been great. Would have been awesome basketball to watch. Those guys knew.

Adrian Myers is, like, I got to guard this big -- this dude and Sadra, who has to take on these guys, and it frustrates them, but they just kept bringing it, and kept bringing it. I appreciate that, first of all.

Obviously whatever scheme I had wasn't good enough, especially in the second half. I thought we battled early even though we didn't get off to a very good start at the very beginning of the game. I think an 8-0 run to start the game. We got it back level and took the lead a few times.

You knew you were going to eventually have to manage some tiredness and fatigue. We didn't really get a chance to do that because of our turnovers. I thought they got us early in the offensive glass.

Q. The bigger picture with keeping the players and what not, from an administrative sense, off-court sense, the energy here, the excitement that we come here, and it does affect the players. We had a huge turnout for the New Mexico game. What kind of tangible things, event center remodel --

TIM MILES: Yeah, no doubt. We have with our administration and other folks have really spent time on a strategic plan for game experience to be better, to raise more money for NIL. I think that we've got some things in place. We haven't announced anything, but hopefully that we're making progress on all that.

I think we are. I've been working hard at it myself, because if you can't compete -- like we're 10th out of 11 in payroll. Let's just face it, right? We're right there. Then a whole bunch of that is sitting on the sidelines, right?

So then you see the frustration. It's hard to compete unless we can get up with the top one-third of the league, and hopefully that's where we can get to at some point soon.

Q. Just talk about the recent stretch. You had obviously the three conference tournament wins, postseason tournament, on hosting the NIT for the first time. How do you feel about the progress of the program?

TIM MILES: It's been a bit of an EKG. We came in. We're terrible. Then we had a great year. Then we were terrible. Then we had a good year. Now we're terrible. Next year I think we're going to be pretty good. So the every other year thing seems to be working for the Spartans.

I want to see some consistency, but we're going to have to fund that consistency. We have to fund it.

Q. I just wanted to ask you about Uriyah and his game.

TIM MILES: He's 5'8".

Q. Is that what you're going with?

TIM MILES: That's what I think. First of all, Haupt I thought was super disruptive tonight. I want to recognize him. Buljan was tough inside. Haupt only had one steal on the stats, but he was in the middle of a whole bunch of problems for us. I thought he was really good.

I thought he was much better against us this time on both ends than he was -- I thought he was fine at our place, but he was better tonight. You could see he was playing with, like, this matters. I thought he was super disruptive.

Uriyah, one, his speed -- speed changes the game. It's like anything. It's like when -- and I think he makes pretty good -- a lot of times a guy that goes really fast plays really faster up here so it he doesn't see plays. He misses, but that kid doesn't miss. He sees plays.

Those two freshmen are great guards in any league, right? They're really impressive players. I think Coach has deny a nice job with them.