Steve McClain Quotations

We struggled shooting the ball but our defense kept us where we had a chance to win the game. That's kind of been our trademark.

We've never been afraid to change our lineup for the Air Force game. When practice is over after two days, I'll go, 'These eight guys have the best grasp of what we have to do.' It'll be hard not to (change) because Ross and Ike have played well, but I don't know. I can't answer that right now.

Maybe I even take some of the blame. By the time we go back to Vegas, (Wyoming is) going to be really good again.

Give Vegas credit. They spread us out and executed.

I was emotional after a difficult game, and I certainly shouldn't have said the things I said. I have always taken great pride in how our team handles itself following losses, as well as wins. My comments were out of character for what Cowboy basketball is all about.

People always ask you 'Have you lost your confidence?' We were struggling and (something) clicks at some point that makes a team go 'Now wait a minute. We're going to fight and we're going to work to try to win this game.' Something clicked.

Our kids got a little excited during that stretch of the game and didn't really take care of the ball. But I have a lot of faith in my guards and I think they settled down after that.

Our world's a little different because we can get so many tapes on people compared to high-school and junior-college. Every one of the teams, you might have about 14-15 tapes you've got to watch and know everything about them.

I think everybody will start (tonight) feeling like you got through the preseason, hopefully you learned some things, hopefully you learned some things. Now, it's the start of another 16-game season, and I think everybody's excited about it.

I think Justin was tired. I think he's frustrated right now.

I thought he had a clean look. I knew where Brad (Jones) was going there (with the pass) because Freddy Robinson, I think, was standing in front of him ready to take a charge.

Were we as good defensively as we needed to be? No. But tonight should have been a night where our offense was good enough to carry us. We didn't get enough from our big guys to carry us.

You look at the places they've played ... and not a lot of people would have done anything different than they've done.

We'll see if I can fire him up on Wednesday, how about that? Are you calling him a kinder, gentler Ritchie?

We had 30 fouls to give tonight. We were going to make them work hard for everything.

We gave him 10 points early in the game and after that we did a good job on him. He's a good player. You can't discredit what he did.

We have enough fight in us. There's only one choice -- keep fighting. Maybe a ball will bounce our way one time.

Even though we lost our lead, I thought that CSU lost a lot of energy and that hurt them in the end. I'm proud of our kids for playing well in this environment. Brandon (Ewing) handled himself well, he just doesn't ware down.

I've always enjoyed the challenge of playing them. I've been lucky. My assistant John Adams has (been) the scout for them since Day 1, and we don't fear playing them.

Sometimes you have to get a little lucky, and we can't seem to get a little lucky right now.

Offensive rebounding. They get 20 of them and really, that's what hurt us in the first half. We guarded their stuff well enough. We had some trouble with transition defense and we had trouble with rebounding the basketball.

The big thing holding us back is the lack of rigs and the lack of people to work on them,

They played well, and they earned their time.

They fought to the end. We had some breakdowns, but they also shot the ball about as well as they could shoot it. We were trapping, we were going with the idea that if they rely on shooting 3s we're all right, and they knocked them down. Give them credit for that.

They're just out there competing. They're challenging each other. This group isn't afraid to get in each other's faces and if you can't take that, you can't play. Justin's a senior. He's trying to win games on his way out. He makes that point to a lot of people.

I know that in this business, as head coach I am measured, ultimately, by wins and losses. I was very proud of our players and what we accomplished last week. I have never doubted my ability to coach and lead the Cowboys successfully. I know how hard our coaches and players have worked for this program.

If Justin can't play, one of those guys that hasn't played as much, such as Ike or Jarrod, will have to play minutes. Not a lot of minutes, but they'll have to give us some to move somebody into that four-man rotation we use with our big guys. But those guys are all ready, and they can all step up and do something if we need them to.

In the end we didn't make our free throws. If we make our free throws, the game unfolds all right for us. Those are the little things you have to do at the end to win a game like that.

I hope he kicks his butt all night. That's a challenge -- he's going to have to come up to it.