March 26, 2011
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ANAHEIM, Calif. -
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COACH FISHER: When your season comes to a screeching halt like it will for every team with one exception, it hurts. It should hurt, regardless of when, where and how. For our team this year, for what they've accomplished, it hurts exponentially more. I could not be more proud of how we competed, how hard we played, and unfortunately we came up a bit short. Wasn't for lack of effort, wasn't for lack of trying, but we came up short. That's the nature of this game. We'll pack our gym shoes up as Connecticut moves on to the round of 8, and the last thing I will say that I said to our team is give one another a hard hug and tell them how much you love them, and don't be ashamed to cry. Don't be ashamed to shed a tear. You've done so much for San Diego State, the community, and for yourselves that when we reflect back on it, all of us will know that, the legacy that you've established. When it ends, it's hard and it ends for us today. And we're very, very disappointed.
Q. D.J., you got off to a cold start and then made some key 3-pointers to get your team back in the game. Talk about your mindset at that point. Did you think you were going to ride the hot hand and try to overcome them at that point?
D.J. Gay: Starting the second half we were down and I felt like there was a need for me to get more aggressive offensively. There was nothing to lose, you know, but a lot to gain. We tried to speed the tempo up, get guys open shots and stuff, but just didn't go our way.
Q. Billy, could you talk about the frustration or the difficulty of staying in front of Kemba and how he either got the 3 pointer or got to the basket almost at will?
Billy White: He's just an amazing player. Our goal was to try to contain him, you know, he's almost impossible to stop. Our goal was just to try to make him make tough shots and shoot over us and he did a real good job today penetrating the lane and shooting wide-open three's.
Q. D.J., you heard what Coach Fisher had to say and I'm sure in a couple of days or maybe even in a couple of hours that all is great, but right now you had such a great career at San Diego State. To end like this, how does it make you feel?
D.J. Gay: It hurts. These two guys by my side know, we all became a family and for this to be our last game, you know, it really does hurt. You never want it to come to an end. We had a lot of success this year, a lot of accomplishments, but at the end of the day, we wanted it all.
Q. D.J. and Billy, it seemed like you guys were trying to be very physical with Connecticut, particularly Kemba, was that part of the game plan coming in?
Billy White: Not at all. We knew that they were trying to be physical, we were just trying to match their physicality. That wasn't our game plan to be physical.
D.J. Gay: I just think that both teams just fed off each other. When one team threw a punch, the other team threw a punch. So it was going back and forth. As the game went on, both teams got more physical. But that was just us adjusting and them adjusting, us not backing down and them not backing down.
Q. Malcolm, can you comment on practically playing in front of a home crowd? Clearly you had fans outnumbering the UCONN crowd, did it feel like you were playing in your home gym?
Malcolm Thomas: It definitely felt like a home game, we have to thank our fans and give them all the credit for the type of season we had all year, and without them I don't think we would have made it this far. So we're just thankful for everybody who supported San Diego State this year.
Q. D.J., now that you've seen these guys and you played 'em, you haven't played everybody left in the tournament, but what are your thoughts about how far UCONN can go?
D.J. Gay: I don't know. It's the NCAA Tournament. Anything is possible. They're a very good team, have a great leader with great role players.
I think they're going to have a chance to go as far as, you know, they want, if they keep playing the way they're playing. They play as a team and they're very good.
Q. D.J., how difficult was it to overcome those technicals, and the momentum switch that each of 'em brought with you? How did you digest that, and how big of a factor was it?
D.J. Gay: It hurt. The first one put Kawhi Leonard on the bench and we need him out there, so that was our first adversity we had to face in the game.
The second one with the momentum we did have, that one hurt as well. But we knew no matter what the outcome was of the call we had to go out there and continue playing hard.
Q. The incident about midway through the second half when Jamaal got called for the technical, what happened and do you think that was the turning point?
D.J. Gay: I have no idea what happened. From what I hear Jamaal was walking back to the bench, and I guess there was a bump exchange or something. Somehow, I think it was Kemba ended up on the floor. I don't know how hard he was hit, but I guess that's what happened. But I don't know -- that was, again, an adversity that we had to fight through in the game, it gave them the ball, two free-throws, and we just had to try and play on from it.
Q. D.J., can you talk about what was said when Kawhi Leonard got the technical? Do you know what happened when he got his?
D.J. Gay: I have no idea. I have no clue.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Now open the floor up to Coach Fisher.
Q. Coach, can you talk about the technical fouls, exactly how you saw them and how it affected your team?
COACH FISHER: I'll go the last one first. I didn't see what happened on the last -- on the technical on Jamaal. He said they walked and bumped into each other. The official said that Jamaal bumped him. I didn't see that. I saw the first one. Both players were talking to one another, and Kawhi Leonard got hit with a technical foul and my comment was at this level, at this stage could you not say something to them about -- to me both guys were talking, and unfortunately for us, obviously, we get the technical and it's Kawhi's second foul early and he came out. But I was watching both of them as they were going and it was not one man talking, it was two.
Q. Steve, on the second technical you guys had a 4-point lead then there is the time-out and the review, free-throws, seemed like you guys came out flat. Do you think that was a big turning point?
COACH FISHER: I don't remember the sequence after that, maybe you can look and help me with what happened after that. Obviously, it cost us the free-throws. This was a game of runs, the whole game. We had one, they had one, they had one, we had one, and unfortunately right at the end we couldn't make one more shot. Kawhi had an open 3. We were down with a couple minutes to go, and we couldn't get one to go down. They get the ball back. We do a good job defensively. They get the ball back and Jeremy Lamb hit a 3 after that. So many factors, especially when you don't move on -- especially when it's a relatively close game, and today's game was close.
Q. Kawhi and D.J. seemed to have off first halves. Was that their game being off or something that Connecticut did, combination, how did you see it?
COACH FISHER: Connecticut is good. They guard hard. I think Kawhi missed some good shots early, but we're a team when one guy struggles, a little bit, somebody else gets going and both Kawhi and D.J. have been players that they can get spurts and make two or three in a row and they can have periods where they go oh for four or five and that happened also.
Q. Coach, the free-throws, I know you're looking at that number and you got to scratch your head, it kinda came back to bite you. On Kemba, you said those quick guys are quick on film and you see them then they're quicker. Was that the case as well?
COACH FISHER: Obviously, we didn't shoot free-throws well enough today and free-throws can advance you or send you home. We missed enough of them to say if we'd have made this one and this one, maybe. Walker is very good, he's a hard guard, he's a hard guard to keep off the bounce and when he shoots it from the perimeter as well as he did today you're going to get 35 points, like he did, against us.
Q. Coach, this has been an outstanding year for your conference and an interesting one in terms of the business aspect of college sports. Where do you see -- how do you feel your conference represented itself in the tournament and where do you see the league going as a basketball conference from here on out?
COACH FISHER: We have a really, really good basketball league. We as coaches and players know that and I think the people who follow and cover this league and the fans know and appreciate that. You build representations on a national level on what you do against the marquis teams, nonconference, but more importantly what you do in post-season play, and we had two teams advance to the Sweet 16. I have not heard what BYU did --
Q. They lost.
COACH FISHER: Which was a first. All the ratings that are out there, and I don't know how you have 'em, our league was very, very highly regarded from top to bottom. It's nice to have success in postseason play. Our goal when we lose a couple, we gain a couple is to continue to maintain the quality of the league. I know that there will be teams in our league that will be fighting not only to get to the NCAA Tournament but to get to the Sweet 16 and beyond like BYU and ourselves did this year.
Q. Coach, getting back to Kemba just for a minute, you started out with Chase Tapley on him, did you want to switch men, did you think Billy was a better match-up? What was your thought process?
COACH FISHER: That was our thought all game, we were go going to vary who guarded him, go with Chase to start with and either fatigue or success by Walker, we had it planned all along that Billy was going to guard him for a good portion of the game. And it didn't matter who was guarding him, he was pretty effective today.
Q. Coach, with D.J. having such a big second half, did you focus on getting him the ball more in the second half?
COACH FISHER: We tried a couple of times, we have an out-of-bounds play. We tried to get him when he made the one three, and after a time-out we ran a side three to get him an open three.
For us, I think he made both of those to -- one he got an "and 1" and I think he missed the free-throw. When he made a couple we tried to get him a couple more shots. Obviously, they knew he had made a couple, so they tried a little harder to guard him, too.
Q. Coach, we know about the 34-3 and winning the conference titles and stuff. What was the biggest accomplishment you guys did this year, big picture? What's this going to mean moving forward for the program and for what San Diego State means basketballwise?
COACH FISHER: 34-3, winning the conference, winning the conference tournament for the second straight year, winning first-ever game in NCAA history for San Diego State and following that up with another victory, gaining a national acclaim with a 2 seed. We'll have a lot to reflect back on with pride, and this will be a team that 10, 20 years from now when we're bringing teams in, they'll talk about San Diego State of 2010 and '11 with a lot of positive pride for what they've accomplished. They up'd the bar for the program, and they know that we've got a program and they're proud of the fact that they have had a huge, huge role in taking it to unprecedented heights for San Diego and San Diego State.
Q. Steve, other than the final score, was there anything uncharacteristic or particularly disappointing about the way the game went for your team? Was there something that you saw that you hadn't seen down the stretch?
COACH FISHER: No, I don't think so, Tim. I don't believe we've had very many technical fouls. We had two player technical fouls and I'm sure that will be a story line when folks write about the game. We played hard. We played very hard. We have been a team of spurts, Connecticut is a team of spurts and unfortunately they had a spurt that we weren't able to quite climb the hill enough to get that last basket, you know, I watched -- I watched Kawhi measure that three when we're down a point with a couple of minutes to go, and I thought when he shot it it was going to go in. He's a money player, a big money player and unafraid to take a shot and when we missed it, I thought we did a great job defending, but couldn't secure the rebound to give ourselves another chance and Jeremy Lamb, who is a terrific player, comes right back with three huge plays.
I don't think anything uncharacteristic about how we competed and played. We played a very good team who is on a big-time run with how they're playing, and they're led by a superstar in Walker.
COACH CALHOUN: Well, you know, obviously it was a great basketball game. In the first half I thought we were able to eventually take away their post-up game reasonably well, and rebound very well, and kinda settle into the fact that they were switching all the high screen and rolls and doubling Kemba and Jeremy, so I felt good at halftime.
When we came out the second half one of my fears has been that somewhere along the line that psychic energy, this is now our 8th game in 16 days, or something, but not physically, but mentally, and we had a let-up, and we got up 7, 8 or 9, and they came back.
Last time our team faced a crowd, was up in Oakland against UCLA, and it was reminiscent of that. That crowd, as I said yesterday, someone said, "Will the crowd affect you?" And I said "No, but it will affect the "home" team." And that crowd jumped on them and gave them energy and I was worried about our energy.
But then we made some terrific, terrific plays and, you know, we were able to get a good win. They're obviously a very talented basketball team. We've faced other teams like them this year, not necessarily how they're built, but from a talent level, they could certainly play in all the major conferences in the country and there is a reason they won 34 games. They have good players, and Steve does a great job with them. Our biggest problem tonight was the post-up game which we had a tough time with in the second half when they made their run at us, but it was a great game and we're forty minutes away from where we want to be, and whether we face Duke or Arizona, they will want to be there badly. So it will be a heck of a fight over forty minutes to get to Houston.
Q. Kemba, Coach was talking about a little bit of a not physical let down but maybe mental, tiredness? You play in less than 48 hours again coming up for the championship. What are your thoughts about that, and how do you overcome that kind of thing?
KEMBA WALKER: We won five games in five days in the Big East tournament, and everybody said we were going to be tired. After that, everybody said it was going to affect us in the second and third round of the tournament and it hasn't yet. We're playing great basketball as a team. We have something huge in front of us. We have a huge goal as a team, and we're not going to let fatigue beat us. We're going to overcome it. We have a team that is extremely mentally tough, and that's going to get us over the hump.
Q. Kemba, it seemed like they were trying to be very, very physical with you. Did you feel they were trying to make a point in addition to trying to win a game?
KEMBA WALKER: Definitely. I felt that they were trying to frustrate me, but I didn't fall into it. I just played basketball, and I was able to make a couple of shots.
Q. Kemba, how big of a swing were the two technicals called on them, and can you walk us through on what happened when you were hit?
KEMBA WALKER: I was walking on my way to the huddle and one of their players ran into me. That was it. But the two free-throws was definitely big. I think we were down 4 at that point, and I made the free-throws, put us down 2, and from there we just built.
Q. Kemba, I think you know Jamaal a little bit from the a visit at UCONN. That's what he said. Was the contact enough to go down? Does it matter at that point, because you got what you wanted out of it? You got the free-throws.
KEMBA WALKER: The contact was definitely enough to go down. That's why I was able to get the free-throws.
Q. Kemba, your a pretty good shooter, first time I've seen you out here.
KEMBA WALKER: Thanks.
Q. How much did you want that ball when it comes down to crunch time? And Jeremy, talk about playing in front of that "home" crowd in front of San Diego State.
KEMBA WALKER: As far as big shots my teammates want me to take those shots, everybody on the team, coaching staff they want me to take those shots. So as long as they have the confidence in me to take it I'm going to take it with confidence.
Q. Jeremy, the defense that you did on D.J. and Kawhi, you guys in the first half played them well. Can you talk about that and how you were able to accomplish that?
JEREMY LAMB: We went over the scouting report and our coaches went over what they like to do and their tendencies, and they got us prepared for them. We just tried to listen and be in position, you know, do as well as we can to stop what they like to do and just contest all shots. Once it leaves their hands nobody can control it. So we just tried to disrupt it, and we were able to do that.
Q. Kemba, you've been watching the arc for Jeremy all season. Do you feel like career high of 24, 9 out of 11, this is a high water mark for him? And Jeremy, do you feel like you have arrived in the place where you exported to get to by the end of the season?
KEMBA WALKER: As far as that, no, Jeremy has been playing some great basketball for us, you know, for a long time how. I know it's a big stage but he's had 24 before. Jeremy had one stretch in the beginning of the season where he was unstoppable. So as far as that, no. I'm happy he had a big game, though, because we definitely needed it from him.
JEREMY LAMB: I don't know where I expected myself to be, but right now I'm just trying to play hard and I get easy shots playing off Kemba because if they don't throw two or three people at him he's going to make 'em pay and teams know that. So I get open shots and all I can do is try to knock 'em down and today I was able to do that.
Q. Kemba, Kawhi's first technical he said he was talking back and forth with a UCONN player. Did you see what happened on that play?
KEMBA WALKER: Wasn't me.
Q. Jeremy, did you see what happened?
JEREMY LAMB: No, I didn't see.
Q. I want to know your feelings about being 3,000 miles away from home and coming out here and facing basically a home team, to overcome that.
KEMBA WALKER: We play in the Big East, best league in the country, hands down, and we had some pretty tough road games during the season. We went to Texas, got a "W" out there. We're used to it.
But the fans didn't affect us as much as people think. We had a great fan base, also, so it wasn't as much of a problem as people think.
Q. Kemba, the resilience of San Diego State, you went on a run, put 'em down by 9, they came back, you went on another run, they came back, can you talk about that?
KEMBA WALKER: Yeah, they're a team that stays with their things and they play extremely hard the whole game and that was able to keep those guys in the game.
Q. Jeremy, at the end of the game it looked like you had your arm around the trainer and he was helping you off, was that dehydration or from the shot you took after the dunk?
JEREMY LAMB: I was running down the court and got hit by a screen. I was walking and he just came and put my arm around him, it wasn't anything serious. He's our trainer, so he was like "Are you okay? Are you okay?" But I was all right.
Q. Kemba, yesterday you said during the news conference that you were going to have a big game whether it be off scoring or assists if they threw the kitchen sink at you, which they did, when did you know it was going to be putting the ball in the hole?
KEMBA WALKER: I don't know. I struggled early in the first half, but all my shots felt good. I was just missing them. In the second half I was able to get composure, calm down and my teammates did a great job of getting me open, and I was able to make shots.
Q. Jeremy can you talk about playing with Kemba and does anything he ever does surprise you?
JEREMY LAMB: Early in the season it surprised me, but I'm still amazed by stuff he does, but I'm not surprised. Every game he makes big shots, amazing shots. So I'm not surprised, but I'm still amazed.
Q. Jeremy, great game. Talk to us about the play where you made the steal near the end and then Shabazz was nice enough to give you that dunk?
JEREMY LAMB: I knew somebody was open behind me and he telegraphed the pass and I was able to steal it. When I passed it up, I thought he was going to finish the layup, but he passed it back, and I was able to finish it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen.
Q. Coach, can you talk about your concerns on the match-ups in your next game for either side?
COACH CALHOUN: Well, I was concerned about our match-ups today. A lot of times we play Jeremy at the 3, Shabazz at 5-10 at the point and Kemba at 6, although he's 185 pounds he can usually play anybody. So we were concerned about the match-ups today. If you play Duke, they have two kids that are an integral part of the team last year, they have the finest coach in the country, and Arizona reminds me of San Diego State, in the sense that they have a terrific, terrific group of athletes. So we will get mismatched a little bit and our idea is to take advantage of our quickness, and if you had that lull, and you don't win 34 games without having resiliency, but we had a lull by throwing the ball in bounds, giving up two three's late. It's hard to beat a team that has that many good players, but for right now for me to start worrying about the match-up when I don't know who we're playing is difficult.
I know Duke very well. We've met them a lot of times in the Final Four, late shot against us, not that I remember, in 1990, so we've had a lot of runs with Mike, when I was in Northeastern and Mike was at Army we had a lot of runs. Sean Miller was a player at Pittsburgh when I was coaching against them, and he's developed into a terrific coach and they have terrific players and, you know what, we would be happy to play anybody for forty minutes to get to Houston.
Q. Jim, a comment on this unprecedented, incredible run you've been on in the postseason, 8 straight, where you were, and how you've gotten to where you are now?
COACH CALHOUN: By the way, one thing about Jeremy, I appreciate you not talking to him. How many guys get 24 points in a Sweet 16 and give all the credit to somebody else, we would like to keep him for a couple more years, so cool it. He's humble. Let's keep him that way. I keep telling Jeremy, you have so many more things that you can do. You can get strength and maybe a couple of years down the road you might be able to play at the next level. So we're going to chill with all those comments.
By the way, that reach is 7-4, so when he says he just got the pass, when you're 7-4 reach allows you to do a little bit better. This run has been sensational in many, many ways. I haven't been able to yet put it in perspective. I will tell you this: That I've mention this, and I don't want to keep going back to it, but I've had two tough personal situations with my sister-in-law, who I loved like a sister, and I have five of those, and my college roommate who I was like a brother with, and a lot of things that happened along the way, and I couldn't have asked for a better gift than this team. And then we get this, the Big East championship, and coaching these kids and the pledge of resiliency that they have, we had one of our best practices of the year when we lost to Notre Dame, we lost three out of four before getting to the Big East tournament. I don't remember being through anything quite like this, and I've had a team with 5 pros on it, and we went to the Final Four and all of that. But this is a team that truly plays together, and I hate to say this but they're an old-fashioned team, when you talk to Kemba and Jeremy, they're old-fashioned kids, which gives you pleasure, because you aren't coaching egos. I've had great kids at UCONN, and by no means do I mean to disparage any of the kids I've had, but this team with the youth and the 7 freshmen, it's so great. Could I imagine this? Yeah, because we had talent. There were a couple of times we looked like it and then a couple we didn't, and then we came together in the tournament; and as you said, we're on an eight-game streak of playing good basketball because San Diego State can really play.
Q. You were talking a little bit yesterday about reflecting and you have Jeremy Lamb who helps you in this game and have you thought about going back to Northeastern and his father helps beat you and knock you out and now his son helps you advance?
COACH CALHOUN: I called the house -- after seeing Jeremy play in something called the Peach Tournament in Georgetown, and he was the M.V.P. there, and he was so thin and this microphone could have scored 13 points against him, and I said, Hello, is Jeremy there? No, this is Orlando. Excuse me, who? Orlando, and I said Orlando Lamb. You owe me something. Your son and we started talk about that B.C. game when I was at Northeastern.
So, yeah, it's ironic, and there is something ironic about this whole situation, and I couldn't be more thrilled as a coach. The way things have happened having somebody like Jeremy whose mother and father are great people. He can't help it, but be a good kid and he is very talented, too.
Q. Given that you've had so many games in so many days, have you changed things, physically, to save them?
COACH CALHOUN: I've lied better to them. At times they think they're going just as hard, but they're going much shorter, and we make sure that there isn't a lot of clocks because we have -- you guys don't do this for a living without understanding that you can only push so hard. So we've done a lot of things. This morning what we do for our shootaround which is atypical for us. We ate breakfast, moved to the hall next door, went through the offense and the defense, and things we wanted to do; and I wouldn't have done that under normal situations, but we have to do that. It's a lot of basketball. I keep telling them, if you give in physically -- you can't. You play basketball every single day of your life so what's different about what we're doing now? But inside I worry about, can they draw their emotion like they had to tonight when San Diego State came back at us. So we're trying to do different things. We went bowling the other night -- I didn't! And we have some awful bowlers, I will report that. But we're trying to do different things. We always take 'em out to eat. We will do that tomorrow night and Friday night, bottom line is -- we try and change a few things up.
Q. You touched a little bit on Jeremy, the player, but the last -- I think it was a minute 40, it was after Kemba's game, it was like his last minute and 40, could you talk about Jeremy as the clutch player at the end? He did it twice in the Big East Tournament and tonight, the play at the end has been great.
COACH CALHOUN: It has been, and I'll be honest with you, Jeff, that I don't think he worries about that. One of the great things -- sometimes you get kids who all of the sudden have aspirations, these illusions, and I always thought Butler was a great player for us for two years because Caron was with us today. He didn't think about what was coming up. Jeremy has no idea, and I really mean this, just how good he is, and he can be really, really good, he could be great. I think that's allowed him to play as a freshman for the team and not worry about anything ulcer else and a shot to him is a shot to him, and he reminds me of Richard Hamilton, because they remind me of each other, there are players who take shots, they don't think about whether it's 30 seconds or 30 minutes, I don't think it changes the way he plays the game. It's not unusual. He's a bright kid, but I don't think he gets caught up in all of that.
Q. Coach, you mentioned that was like the UCLA game in Oakland, but you've had Elite Eights in D.C. against George Mason and in Greensboro against North Carolina, both times you didn't come out with a win. Where does this rank in terms of facing a road environment in the NCAA Tournament?
COACH CALHOUN: Probably -- I'm glad you reminded me. This crowd was as good as any, and San Diego State I'm sure will thank their fans. They were wonderful for their team. You're 100% right the George Mason crowd, and we played that on George Mason's campus, if I remember correctly, and they beat us in overtime and went to Final Four.
So this momentum that swung to San Diego State late with us combined by making a few mistakes showed as much resiliency as probably any basketball team, and it's comparable, I don't mind saying this, we were down seven points to Duke and they had a ball with a minute 58 to go and we won the game in regulation, and in the semifinal we went on to beat Georgia Tech big in the national championship. This would be somewhat close to that, the numbers not as big, but the crowd made it seem that all of the sudden they went up 10 when they went up a couple, and I think the resiliency and the heart this team displayed has been phenomenal.
We talk as coaches about chemistry, right before your eyes you're seeing a bunch of young guys who truly believe in each other and that's a common myth, and I have them believing that no one gave them any respect early which is true and you have to earn respect all along the way, and they've done that.
Q. Coach, Kemba has proven virtually unflappable all season, so I'm sure you don't worry about him when he misses his first four shots, but do you worry about his teammates' mind-set when he misses a few in a row and what enabled him to reach that second gear tonight?
COACH CALHOUN: He always reaches the second gear and always had, the last time he didn't was in the Michigan State game when he was a freshman in the Final Four and he couldn't get anything going.
But I'll be honest with you, it's kind of funny, there is a little interplay up here. You asked both Kemba and Jeremy a question and all of the sudden I heard "I've got it first." You guys might have heard the same thing, and that's how they look at him. Without being -- he's a friend, they love him and they follow him, and if he misses they don't worry about that, they really don't. They believe in him as much as I do. How many times have I said to them, we're going to run this out-of-bounds, make sure you get the damn ball. They know how I feel about him. I don't think they're affected when he misses. I think they would be affected -- if all of the sudden he wasn't telling them things, you see him walking off the court, wasn't lively. That's when I think they would be affected the most, not missing shots.
From the San Diego State locker room
San Diego State Freshman Guard Jamaal Franklin
On UConn's Kemba Walker:
"He is a great player. Great scorer. He is a hard person to guard.
" On reaching the Sweet 16 and the experience:
"Everyone here that's an underclassman learned a lot this season. The seniors taught us a lot, like how to keep our heads in the game and stay focused."
On the technical foul:
"I really didn't do anything. Coach said that if I didn't push or anything, not to worry about it. I was really surprised to get a technical coming out of the time out, but I don't think it really played a part in the outcome of the game."
San Diego State Sophomore Forward Kawhi Leonard
On technical in the first half:
"I stayed in the game mentally, we were just talking and they called the Technical."
On what coach said after the game:
"Keep our heads up. We had a great season."
Opinion on success of the season:
"Not at all. No success in this loss at all. It will get better with time, but right now the loss is hard."
San Diego State Sophomore Guard Chase Tapley
On Connecticut's Kemba Walker:
"He's a great player, he put his team on his back and his teammates played good supporting roles. He's just a great player."
On the play of Aztec teammate D.J. Gay in the second half:
"D.J. stepped up as a captain. He put us on his back like Kemba did for UConn. He really showed the world that he's one of the best guards in the country. For him to go out like that is great and sad at the same time. He played hard, but we didn't get the win."
On what San Diego State showed the country:
"We showed that we're one of the top teams to be talked about in the country, and we definitely showed that today."
San Diego State Sophomore Guard James Rahon
On the Aztecs' final game of the season:
"We lost it and it's kind of tough but playing with all these guys this year... it's really been a pleasure playing with them. That's the thing I'm going to miss the most about this season."
On the San Diego State seniors playing their final game:
"I wish them the best, they all have great careers ahead of them and it's just been a pleasure playing with them. It's tough to see it come to an end."
On the San Diego State fans:
"The fans have been great all year and it really means a lot. Even though it's a loss they still show their appreciation, and we appreciate them just as much."
On the difference in the game tonight:
"I think basketball is just a game of runs and we've been great at it all year. They happened to have a little bit more today and I think that was the big difference."