Some extra thoughts following the Cougars' tough title-clincher over Air Force

In a game like the one against Air Force, there’s always plenty of leftover quotes and thoughts to add. Here are some quotes that I couldn’t fit into my story, but are worth getting out there.
With about six minutes left in the game coach Dave Rose took Jonathan Tavernari out, sat him on the bench and gave him a short pep talk after Tavernari had missed his first nine shots.
“What I wanted JT to know is that what’s happened is done,” Rose said. “Let’s play the next play . . . JT is a competitor and he takes it personal. He knows he was pressing and really struggling, and no one wants to make positive plays more than JT. I told him he was a really good player, and that we didn’t need to worry about what had happened. We needed to worry about what’s next, and he made some big offensive plays for us.”

Lee Cummard on BYU’s shooting woes: “We got good looks. All the shots we took in the first half were shots we normally get, and shots we normally make at a high percentage . . . I saw us hanging our heads a little bit. It’s not fun when you normally shoot well to go out there and not shoot well.”

Jackson Emery on BYU’s poor shooting: “We’re such a good shooting team that when this happens it stuns everyone.”

Rose on the poor shooting: “We missed a few and then we started pressing.”
Emery on Air Force’s effort: “They didn’t fade away. They kept playing and they do that . . . they are fighters . . . We knew they were going to battle the whole 40 minutes and they did . . . we battled with them, and it was a hard-fought battle, and fortunately we came out with a win.”

Emery on his defensive effort: “Tonight I wanted to win a championship. I wanted to help the team and contribute the best I could . . . something you can always do consistently is play defense.”

Rose on the play of Emery, Noah Hartsock, James Anderson and Lamont Morgan: “They helped their teammates win a championship, and they helped themselves get one too.”

An interesting sidenote to the MWC Tournament next week. If Air Force beats Colorado State on Wednesday, the first-round games on Thursday will be the exact four match-ups that the conference saw on Saturday, the final games of the regular season. BYU would play Air Force, Utah would meet TCU, New Mexico and Wyoming will meet, and so will UNLV and San Diego State.