CUSA Men's Tournament Post Game Press Conference: New Mexico State Falls to Western Kentucky, 89-69

New Mexico State/WKU Postgame Raw Videos

New Mexico State Press Conference

NMSU’s Head Coach Jason Hooten opens with an opening statement, complimenting Western Kentucky, saying, “(WKU) is one of the most talented teams in our league… If they play hard and…play defense… and play together like they did tonight, then they can win this tournament.”

Coach Hooten felt like his team played great defense and just couldn’t win the free throw battle in the first half.

Very interestingly, he talks about how difficult this year was for NMSU. For those that don’t know, their season ended in controversy last year and Coach Hooten was brought in to completely rebuild the program, having to recruit all of the players on the roster in one offseason.

Interestingly, Hooten was at Sam Houston last season, making comment that his team and players that he recruited are possibly in line to win a championship. He talked about how difficult it was to make that move.

Western Kentucky Press Conference

Western Kentucky Head Coach Steve Lutz opens:

“Rodney, who did you play off to call you a forward?”

“The first one is the hardest one.”

“Our guys played extremely hard…when play that way, we play unselfishly, and we play for one another, we’re a pretty good basketball team.”

“Our defense was a lot better.”

“We weren’t nearly as effective in the second half, but give those guys credit.”

He said practices have been very good of late and that good things were being seen behind the scenes.

When Rodney Howard was asked of when he knew he might have a big night, he gave credit to his teammates and thanked them for giving the ball.

When asked if the NMSU loss stuck in their minds, Steve Lutz said he would be 75 years old on a beach and wouldn’t forget that game.

Brandon Newman on whether there was pressure because of the four game skid:

“No pressure.” Basically, they knew they had things to fix and came in confident and ready to go.

Lutz talked about how much of a luxury it is to have depth, and also how intentional he always is about spreading out minutes. WKU’s highest minute player was over 200 below the highest minutes played in CUSA (Tae Hardy, UTEP). “That’s five gamesthat Don McHenry’s body hasn’t had to endure…man, the dividends that pays are enormous!”

On Don McHenry’s struggles, Lutz said he wasn’t worried about Don. He said it’s all about the narrative. In other words, you can paint it how you want, but he’s not worried about Don, and went on to say, “We have a lot of good players on this team.”

On Middle Tennessee, Coach Lutz and Brandon mainly talk about how it’s tied 1-1. It’s a tiebreaker, and it’s a chance to play in a championship. On the loss at Middle, they felt like there were plenty of opportunities left on the court. They’re focused on “winning the series”.

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