Dec. 29, 2009
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SAN DIEGO -
UC Riverside-San Diego State Postgame Quotes in PDF Format
San Diego State head coach Steve Fisher
On the victory:
"We'll take it. I told our team that if we hold Pomona-Pitzer on New Year's Eve and New Mexico on January 5 to 53 points, then we are going to win those games. What you can't do is be tentative offensively and I think we got that way at times tonight. Part of it was created in no small part by 17-of-34 from the free-throw line. You can't win if you make 50 percent of your free-throws, but we won because we shot 34 of them. I thought that we guarded well, we guarded hard and did well in most areas with the exception of free-throw shooting. Then it was very obvious that we were holding the lead rather than playing our basketball. When we missed a couple of shots, we got reluctant to shoot."
On if the days off for the holidays had anything to do with the tentative play:
"I don't think that had anything to do with the tentativeness of our play. I think that you get a little bit guarded when you are playing with a lead and see that lead start to shrink on you. That wears on your psyche a little bit. You can't play that way. I think this will be a good learning experience for us. I watched the end of the North Carolina-Rutgers game in (North) Carolina and the same thing happened there. North Carolina had a big lead and next thing you know Rutgers cuts it to two or three points. You need to have someone step up and make a play. Kawhi (Leonard) stepped up and made four free-throws down the stretch and Malcolm (Thomas) had some big blocks. Rather than me talk about all the things that didn't happen right, I told the team, "I'm proud of what you did and if you can guard like this we'll win."
On the play of Tyrone Shelley and Malcolm Thomas:
"I'm pleased with both of them. I think Tyrone has done a real good job of adapting to me and (the coaching staff). He's always been a volume shooter, but now he knows you can't always shoot 20 times a game. He's just got to work his way through and relax, and not get made when he misses a shot.
"I thought Malcolm and Billy White had a good stretch tonight where they played well together. Malcolm found Billy under the basket a few times and finished with four assists."
On the fan support in the next few games:
"We need people to come and support their team, and be part of a really good Aztec basketball club. We're a fun group to watch. We appreciate them and I know that they have enjoyed what they have seen out of us."
San Diego State Junior Billy White
On the game:
"I think we started off slow, but the last three minutes before halftime we picked it up, found our mojo and kept going with it. We came into the second half kind of sluggish, but we picked it up. In the end, (UC Riverside) is a great team. Coach (Fisher) told us they weren't going to go down easy, they were going to fight and that's what they did. They fought back and at the last minute they came down, cut it to one, but we put the ball inside and started making some shots again.
"They fouled Kawhi (Leonard) and he made four big for us and it gave us the victory. Tonight, our free throws were bad, we couldn't hit threes, but our inside game was working for us."
On his offensive play:
"I think I got the first bucket of the game and after that I didn't score until the last three minutes (of the first half). They're a great defending team. I think the plan was to double team me and Malcolm to try to put more pressure so I really couldn't do anything. I was trying to kick it out to my teammates so we could get some outside shots. But I found a way to get going and that's what I did."
On the team's turnovers:
"We turned the ball over a couple times tonight; some bad turnovers, some bad passes. Everyone makes mistakes. We're going to work on that. That's our biggest thing right now. Turnovers are kind of killing us right now."
San Diego State Freshman Kawhi Leonard
On making his last four free throws down the stretch:
"When I missed my two free throws, I ran back on defense to try to get it back. Once I got fouled, I stepped to the line and was just thinking about the team and how much we needed this victory as we go into conference (play)."
On the game:
"Tonight we weren't clicking on offense. Our offense wasn't there so we tried to use our defense to get our offense going. Coach Fisher told us we were 1-for-11 from three (in the first half) so we tried to get some inside touches and get Billy (White) the ball. They were double teaming so we were trying to cut hard to get some one-on-one isolation (plays) and the offense started to pick up from there."