Jan. 12, 2011
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No. 6/6 SDSU-UNLV Postgame Quotes in PDF Format
San Diego State Head Coach Steve Fisher
On the game: "I think that part of the shooting was the defense. Vegas is fourth or fifth in the nation with their field-goal percentage for their opponent. They're a hard team to score on. They're like us. They don't give you easy looks. They challenge every shot. They make it hard for you to get easy looks. We had the good fortune of that spurt in the second half where you look up and Billy (White) made a three and we take a four-point game to a 12-point game. We hung on to get ourselves up. It was a really tough, hard-fought game and a well-deserved victory."
On the atmosphere:
"It (the crowd) was amazing. I didn't walk out until about three minutes to go and I saw 12,400, maybe 14 of them weren't waving, but 12,400 waving those towels. It was impressive. I got goosebumps when I walked out."
On what was said in the locker room at halftime:
"We talked about a couple things. We talked about managing your emotions. We had one little scrum down here where there were four technical fouls given. Then we had another one in the second half where Kawhi (Leonard) and one of their players got technicals. We talked about that. You have to keep your poise and keep your focus. Don't lose your concentration and don't cost yourself. So we talked a little bit about that. We talked about staying true to who we are. You have to guard and you have to rebound. I left the keys to the game on the board. The first of them was turnovers. I believe we had six and they had five at halftime. I said we have to push them to about eight or nine in the second half and keep ourselves down. Our goal was to be 12 or under for turnovers for the game, then keep fighting. This is how this game is going to go and you have to have toughness and be able to make a play when we have to make a play. We were able to do that."
On playing against UNLV:
"The game we had today, we had time and time again against UNLV. We have games that are an arm wrestling match. Nothing comes easy. There is mutual respect for one another, but there is a competitiveness that shows. We must maintain that. This was a terrific win for us in a game that Vegas came in after a home loss and they were excited as we were. We were able to find a way to get a win and that's what you have to do to stay undefeated."
On having the longest winning streak in college basketball:
"It certainly does (have a nice ring to it) without a shadow of a doubt. I kind of like that. I'd like to add to that on Saturday (at New Mexico)."
On the SDSU fans:
"I can not say enough about our crowd and how they deliver for us time and time again. This is without reservation, we have good as an atmosphere in this building as there is in the United States of America. Our kids are proud of it and appreciate it. "
San Diego State Forward Kawhi Leonard
On the crowd:
"We played UNLV in a championship-like atmosphere tonight. We played real hard and we got a lot of energy from the crowd. The second we stepped on the floor and saw everyone waving the white towels, we knew it was on."
On the technical fouls:
"Both us and UNLV are really competitive and just trying to win a game. We like each other, and we apologized to each other on the court. It was just a heat of the moment incident."
San Diego State Forward Billy White
On playing UNLV:
"They play hard 24/7, no matter what, and they do not let down. They never give up. If we get a lead they stay with us and crawl right back in. Coach Fisher made some calls and we got some stops, and that was the difference. We're going to go right back to practice tomorrow and look at the tape to see how we're going to be better next time when we play them one month from now. We'll be ready."
On SDSU being respected by others:
"Some people think we are still a joke, but that is just going to motivate us more. We know we belong. We're going to be here all year and we are going to keep moving up."
San Diego State Forward Malcolm Thomas
On the rebounding battle:
"You know that Kawhi is going to get a double-double, regardless, so I had to up my energy this game. We won the rebound battle, and I am real proud of my team."
On saluting the crowd after the game:
"We have to show them respect because they show respect to us."
UNLV Head Coach Lon Kruger
General comments:
"It was a good battle, obviously disppointing when you don't quite get back over that hump and get into the right column. I thought our guys really, really fought defensively. We had some looks that we couldn't get down. San Diego State is very good defensively and I'll give them some credit for that."
On the struggles from the outside:
"You've got to make shots. Making shots changes the complexion of everything. We had some decent looks there that didn't go and we've got to work more to give ourselves a chance to make shots."
On keeping the game close after SDSU took a 12-point lead:
"There was a moment there that I thought our guys responded exactly like you'd want. Then we had it back down to four, back to five, and had some good looks, but we couldn't take the next step."
On SDSU owning a large rebound margin:
"It starts with the fact that they are very good rebounders - they're very long, very aggressive. It wasn't like that they killed us on their offensive boards. We had a lot of missed shots, which gives them more opportunities to do what they do very well. But they're very good rebounders."
On matching up SDSU's Kawhi Leonard:
"He's a tough matchup. He's big, strong, active, athletic, and does a lot of things very, very well. I'd imagine he's as tough as a perimeter matchup as there is in the conference with the combination of all the tools he has."