Feb. 24, 2009
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SAN DIEGO -
San Diego State-Brigham Young Postgame Quotes in PDF Format
SDSU Head Coach Steve Fisher
On the game:
"(It's) no fun when you lose, no fun when you play as good as basketball as we've played all season for 28 minutes and then not be able to find a way to continue it. A lot of reasons in my opinion. BYU was a big part of those reasons. I told them after the game that if this doesn't hurt and sting a little more than any one we've had all year for all of us, then something is wrong. I said I know that it does with all of us. Be angry, be mad, be extremely disappointed and then be determined on Thursday when you walk in this door to take your anger out on TCU on Saturday.
"We have at least 120 minutes left in conference regular season basketball. It needs to be the best you're going to play. And that's our challenge. We don't have this one back. We did a great job in the first half and for about eight or nine minutes in the second half we had a flurry or turnovers, I believe some self-imposed, that led to what we didn't give them, breakout baskets, wide open looks. And you have a good team that is capable of what they did. They can make hard shots, but you can't let them make layups and open threes and turnovers, (those) lead to that and we gave them opportunities off of that. It was disappointing."
On Jimmer Fredette:
"He's a really good player. They have three guys that can do on any night what did. He did it tonight. He was obviously the answer. They ran that high ball screen seven times in the first half and scored five times on it. We talked about it and we need to do a better job defending it. He's clever and he's got strength about him. He never misses a free throw and he was a guy that came in with a big, big rep as a scorer. You look at the shots attempted by the big three and he's right there with them."
On having to win the MWC Tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament:
"You know, I haven't even thought that far. I really haven't and I would say that would be a valid statement at this stage. What we have to do is win the next one."
San Diego State Senior Forward Lorrenzo Wade
On what changed from the first half to the second half:
"We didn't make very many stops, we didn't rebound the ball as well as we did in the first half. There is no excuse to let Jimmer Fredette come in here and score 28 points. That's impossible. They kept running the same play over and over again. They were splitting our heads, he was getting to the basket and easy things were happening. That was basically the difference in the first half to the second half. We just weren't able to get stops."
On how disappointing this loss is:
"I don't get mad about too much. I am mad. We played 32 minutes of good basketball. We set ourselves in this conference to be at the top at the end of conference. There is no way that we should have lost two games in a row like this. Not to take anything away from my team, but I will go ahead and take the credit for this, especially with my five turnovers. We lost the turnover game at home 14-10 and nine in the second half. I'm sure that I had four of those nine in the second half. I think if we could have controlled the ball a little bit better and relaxed a little more in the zone we could have had a different outcome."
On what the message was at halftime:
"The message was to do exactly what we did in the first half; keep playing and know that you are going to take some punches from them and be able to bounce back from them. We started off the second half on, I guess, a sour note because we were trading baskets. Someone is going to eventually stop making baskets when you are trading baskets and unfortunately it was us. They changed their defensive scheme and they made it a lot more difficult for us to score baskets. They also made it hard for us to transition; we didn't rebound the ball very well in the second half. We let ourselves down in the last eight minutes of the game. We played 32 minutes of good basketball and in the last eight minutes of the game we were wishing that they would miss as opposed to making them miss."
Brigham Young Head Coach Dave Rose
On the second half:
"We came out in the second half determined. We didn't shoot the ball very well in the first half and it affected our whole body language and how we were playing. Our guys regrouped and we started making a few baskets. We went to a zone and it slowed the game down a little bit and allowed us to get back in it."
On San Diego State's play without Billy White:
"They really missed Billy White. White's a terrific player that gives them a lot of energy. I think we would've had a heck of a time guarding him. It was a hard fought game and I was really impressed with San Diego State; they're a really good team."