Steve Alford held an end-of-the season press conference Wednesday at the Pit. Here is a transcript of most of that press conference (the rest can be heard on the video link below):

STEVE ALFORD

“What do we got?”

Q: Were you surprised that Tony decided to test the NBA Draft?

“No. That’s what players do. Student athletes do that a lot this time of the year. (We’re) gathering as much information as we can for him and supporting him. He’s been terrific for three years and gotten better every year. I think if he stays his senior year he gets even better. But kids got to make those decisions – families make those decisions. From a staff standpoint, there’s a lot of hearsay. You know, we laugh at the tweets and the things we hear of people talking about his stock and what would happen if he stays or don’t stay from people who have no idea. My associate coach, coach (Craig) Neal did this for 10 years in the NBA. I’ve been in basketball since I was in kindergarten. So we’ve got a pretty good idea how all this works and our guys know how supportive we are of them. He’s going to look at it and see. We don’t go hearsay. We actually talk to general managers within the NBA. Those guys will give the honest impression of wherever they think Tony or whatever other player in the country (would get drafted). We’re doing that for Tony now and gathering information. It will be a family decision from there.”

Q: Would you have him talk to Darington Hobson?

“If he wants to. That’s all up to Tony and the family of who he wants to talk to.”

Q: Is there a chance he could still come back?

“He has not given us any indication. He knows the rule. He has until April 16 to make that final decision. He’s got to make a decision by then one way or the other. As of April 16, that’s his deadline.”

Q: (inaudible)

“If he comes in and tells us today that he’s staying in (the NBA Draft), then he’s staying in. We move on and deal with it. If it’s something that he’s going to take all the information to heart and look at it, then we’ll find out, hopefully, got to know by April 16. Whether it happens before that or not, I have no idea.”

Q: Are you guys recruiting based on …

“We recruit every day. We recruit every day regardless of how many scholarships we have. We recruit every single day. So whether Tony stays or doesn’t, or comes back, is not going to impact what our day to day operations are.”

Q: That includes the 2013 class? You’re still recruiting for that class?

“We recruit everyday. Sometimes for the 13, sometimes for the 14, sometimes for the 15.”

Q: Would you say he’s ready for the NBA?

“That’s not up to me. I’m not in the NBA. We’ve given our two cents to him and the family – the importance of making a rational, good decision. I think it’s always best to stay in school unless you’re an automatic first round pick. If you’re an automatic first round pick, you’re guaranteed money and that’s hard to pass up on when you look at all the other variables. If you’re not a sure lock, guaranteed first round pick, I think that is a really tremendous gamble, especially in Tony’s case where you’re going to be a part of an outstanding team.”

Q: Thoughts on the season.

“We picked the worst day of the year to play our worst game. That was by far the worst game we played all year long. It was unfortunate that it was in the NCAA Tournament, in the second round, and Harvard took advantage of it. They shot the ball well. We had a lot of defensive breakdowns. … didn’t play anything near what we were playing over the last month. So that’s frustrating because we had high hopes and high goals just like all other Lobo fans. That said, we had a year that hadn’t happened around here, including our 30-5 season that was the winningest season three years ago. To win 29 games, to win three championships (Paradise Jam, Mountain West regular season and Mountain West Tournament) … We’ve won the last four league championships (regular season and tournament titles each of past two seasons). This isn’t a league that is ranked 20th. We’ve done that where the league has been ranked anywhere from 1 to 5. To win the last four championships, these young men have done incredible work. Does it taste bad right now because the way the season (ended)? Yeah, of course. We wanted to advance. It’s not so much a Sweet 16 thing, though. I will say that. I haven’t lived here for 40-50 years. I’ve just been here six years and we’re building a program here and I think we’re building it the right way. We’ve got high hopes. Just like when we came here, we were last in the league. We’ve won six league championships now total in six years.”

Q: What isn’t translating with the Mountain West and the NCAA Tournament success?

“That’s hard. If you want to look out of league, our out of league, what we did out of league was phenomenal. We beat the BCS schools. The NCAA Tournament, I’ve been there. I’ve been there now as a coach. I’ve been in the NCAA Tournament or a part of NCAA basketball now for 22 years. I took a Sweet 16 team from Missouri State, we beat Wisconsin and Tennessee. We weren’t favored in any of those games. We were a 12 seed. We didn’t win our league. Then I’ve had teams like this year where you’re a 3 seed and you get upset. Georgetown is a 2 seed, Gonzaga is a No. 1 seed. That’s why it’s March Madness. It is what it is. … I said going into the tournament. You’ve got to play well. We didn’t play well. You’re not going to be able to play poorly in the NCAA Tournament and win.”

Q: How much does the NCAA Tournament devalue the regular season?

“It doesn’t devalue us as a staff. It doesn’t devalue us as a program. If that’s the case, then we should bag the first four months and open it up for everybody to be in. It’s the body of work that gets you into the NCAA Tournament. And the body of work that we’ve had not just this year but through six years has been an incredible body of work. I think you can be upset. You can be frustrated. You can be down that we didn’t win an NCAA Tournament game or we didn’t get to this level or that level, but it has absolutely no impact on what we did the four months prior to that.”

Q: Will this NCAA Tournament performance will lead to second guessing around the nation about how good the Mountain West is next season?

“If that is, you’re discriminating because we’re not a power conference. What about the Pac two years ago? They were awful. Now the darling of the NCAA Tournament this year is the Pac. They’re playing well. … If you want to go with that logic, that’s fine. It doesn’t happen to the BCS leagues. The SEC is awful. The SEC has been a bad league all year and I don’t think you’ll go into next year and say they don’t deserve to be a top five or six league because they didn’t perform well in the NCAA Tournament. If you do that to our league, that’s fine, but you should probably do that to all the other leagues as well.”

Q: Were you surprised by the MWC performance in the NCAA Tournament?

“Very surprised because I know how good this league was. … It’s something we have to do. I’m not saying it’s an excuse. If we want to compete with the big boys as far as leagues go, we’ve got to do better in the NCAA Tournament.”

Q: Was there too much pressure in the NCAA Tournament?

“You’ll have to talk to the guys. We didn’t sense it. … We just had some guys not play well. And I didn’t think we executed very well at both ends of the floor. I watched it on the tape. We had six losses all year and it was without question the worst game we played all year. Without question. That’s frustrating. To get to the NCAA Tournament and playing as well as we had been playing, it’s hard to explain why we played so poorly.”

Q: What has to improve for next season?

“I think just continue to make steps. I don’t know if there’s anything major. We weren’t a very good shooting team this year, but we were able to win 29 games and a lot of championships.”

Q: What is Demetrius Walker’s status?

“He’s no longer on the team.”

Q: Do you know his next step?

“No.”

Q: Have you been surprised at all by the national media or the fans reaction?

“What are you referring to?”

Q: It’s been coming pretty heavy that the season was a disappointment because of the loss to Harvard.

“I haven’t seen any of that. I haven’t seen anything about our season being a disappointment. The NCAA Tournament and being upset was a disappointment. I haven’t seen anything written – if you look at Georgetown was a 2 seed, Gonzaga was a 1 seed – I haven’t heard anything, especially nationally or anything here from what I’ve been able to see about our season being a disappointment. The NCAA Tournament being a disappointment and being a No. 3 seed and not advancing, that’s a disappointment. There’s a big difference in NCAA and you’re season. There’s no way if you’ve got any kind of basketball intellect at all where you would say we had a bad season.”

“Jim Rome? We’re going to go to Jim Rome? Wall Street Journal? Wall Street Journal is heavy into sports?”

“I think any reaction that makes any sense that we had a bad season, Geoff, is ludicrous. 29-6. Three championships. Things that have never been done in the history of the University of New Mexico, that’s not a bad season. You lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, that’s a disappointment. The NCAA Tournament was a disappointment. The season was a tremendous success – success like this school has never experienced. Give me another season that has been more successful at UNM.”

“There hasn’t.”

“Wall Street Journal, when I think of basketball and trying to … credibility … I don’t go to the Wall Street Journal and I’ve never watched Jim Rome. I don’t really have any comments to those particular entities. If you’re asking me the question season disappointment, NCAA disappointment, there’s a difference there.”

Q: Fans looking back on this season should feel what in your mind?

“They should feel disappointed in our NCAA run and feel very, very good about what our young men did for five months. … Just because we’re not in the Sweet 16 or we didn’t win a National Championship – the NCAA Tournament isn’t about can we get to the second round, the third round, the Sweet 16. The NCAA Tournament, there’s one champion that hasn’t been crowned yet. When we all of a sudden start putting all of our laurels on we have to get to Sweet 16 or we have to get to the Elite Eight or we have to get to the Final Four, what is that? ”

“Has UNLV, have they been disappointed – had disappointing seasons because they lost in first round of the tournament for four years in row? It’s crazy. They’ve had four really good years.”

“UNM is not Duke. Is not Indiana or Carolina or UCLA. That’s not who we are yet. If we develop into that, I’ll be the first to jump through hula hoops in great praise. But who we are is pretty dog gone good.”

Q: Was the timing of the contract news, the day before the NCAA Tournament …

“See Paul Krebs. The negotiations went very well through my agent. I don’t know where some of these numbers are coming. I put a buy out into my contract. My buyout was like $150,000. My buyout now for the next two years is $1 million. I gave a lot to stay here. I took away incentives that I’ve made for five consecutive years. Six consecutive years. I took those out of my contract. I think it was a pretty big commitment, not only on the school’s part, but it was a pretty big commitment on my part especially what’s out there and the opportunities that are out there to show my loyalty to UNM and how much I appreciate UNM and how much I want to continue to build this thing. SO when the contract was announced I don’t think has anything to do with it.”

Q: What expectations can Lobos fans have next season?

“We’re going to put a great product out and we’re going to try to win as many games as we possibly can. What do you want me to promise a national championship? I don’t know what you’re asking. We don’t make promises. I haven’t made promises. My only promise to fans, administration or anyone else is we will put a product out there that is very representative of our university. We will play hard. We’ll play unselfish and we will battle for championships. I don’t know of a year yet where that hadn’t taken place. If you just look at our league, there hasn’t been a league school more successful than we’ve been. We’ve won more championships than anybody. We’ve won two league tournaments now. (sigh) The expectations are the same in our locker room. We’re going to show up every day at work and try to get better and whoever our next opponent is, we’re going to try to beat. Our guys have done a pretty good job at those things.”

Q: With Chad and Jamal gone, and Demetrius now gone …

“Did you think Chad and Jamal would win 109 games when they got here four years ago? 109 games. Both are going to get their degree and they won 109 Lobo basketball games. That’s a pretty good career.”

Q: My question is what, as a staff, how do you replace them?

“… that’s part of college basketball. You’ve got to be able to replace and keep it moving forward.”

Q: Can you tell us more about your final decision on Demetrius, if you’re disappointed?

“You’re always disappointed. When things don’t work out for your student athletes, you’re always disappointed. It’s a program decision. We wish him well. We’ll help him in anything we can, but it just can’t be here at UNM.”

Q: Sean Miller said he’s interested in New Mexico and Arizona (series)…

“We’d be ecstatic. If that is true, we would be ecstatic about talking about a home and home with Arizona. I’ve been here six years and that’s the first I’ve heard of that. We would be ecstatic if they would be interested in a home and home with us. We would jump at that.”