Here’s what the Rebels said after beating Utah State
What the UNLV basketball team said following its 66-59 victory over Utah State on Wednesday at the Thomas & Mack Center:
COACH MARVIN MENZIES
“Obviously a great feeling to get the monkey off your back, so to speak. They’re a good team, Utah State, the way they execute offensively with the big double screens. They’re just a very good, well-coached team, got some talent, good young talent. So it’s a good win, not just because we won and we needed a win, but also because the competition that we beat is a solid team in the middle of the pack. It gives you a little bit of confidence and sparks your memory banks a little bit as to what it feels like. It’s been a while. But I never stopped believing in the guys, and I’m cautiously optimistic that we can continue this and bottle it and get these seniors to play the way they did tonight going forward.”
“We rode the wave of the man defense. We were flipping back and forth (with zone), and we got some stops out of both. … I asked them once in a timeout, ‘You guys want to go man or zone?’ They said, ‘Man.’ I said, ‘OK, if we’re going to go man, then you better own it. You need to sit down and get in a stance and get in your shell principles and talk and jump to the ball and get in your gaps and early stunt. I don’t want you to tell me that’s what you want to play just because you happened to get some stops out of it. You have to want to play it the way it’s supposed to be played.’ And they did a great job. … They did a good job of anticipating. They got some steals on the (out-of-bounds plays). They forced some tough twos. So it was good.”
On the extra energy from Senior Night: “Young adults are driven by a lot of different things. I think back to that. You’re so moved by your mom being in the crowd or your grandma being in the crowd, wanting to play for family. … So I think it played a huge role. We’re going to have a request into the NCAA to fly out the families to Fresno State (joking). I don’t think that will fly, but who knows? It can’t hurt to ask.”
On Jovan Mooring making the key 3-pointer after struggling throughout: “You know, that’s JoJo, man. JoJo’s feast or famine. That’s who we’re rolling with right now. He’s got some good film to learn off that game because he wasn’t very good offensively at times, defensively either, but when you need him to make a big one, he made it, and that’s the key.”
FORWARD TYRELL GREEN
On a key timeout in the second half: “We said, ‘We have to keep fighting.’ That was the message. Just keep fighting, just keep playing hard, and the results will take care of themselves, and they did.”
FORWARD CHRISTIAN JONES
“(The victory) means a lot, especially for the seniors. This whole team was stressing we need to get this win for the seniors, and that’s what we did. We played for that whole 40 minutes instead of just one half.”
Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.
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