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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2015Trent JohnsonChris WashburnTrey ZeiglerKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Kansas – 64 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by TCU head coach, Trent Johnson, and his two student‑athletes will be Chris Washburn and Trey Zeigler. Coach, opening comments? COACH JOHNSON: Obviously we weren't good enough this afternoon. I thought we competed really hard and had opportunities to make plays down the stretch and didn't make them. It's tough for us to beat anybody when we don't have one of our best players on the floor. The bottom line is Kansas was the better team this afternoon and I would like to go ahead and let these guys answer questions so they can get off their feet. Q. Trey, what was it like for you personally without Kyan, missing your right hand there? TREY ZEIGLER: Well, Kyan is a big part of what we do and me and him share the responsibilities for the team, and it kinda got put in my hands the whole second half. And we just tried to battle and keep ourselves in the game. Q. Chris, how much of a scoring load did you think you had to take on? CHRIS WASHBURN: I felt like I had to take on a little bit once Kyan got in foul trouble and be more aggressive. Kyan has a huge responsibility getting us into the offense and making everybody better, including himself. So once he goes out, you gotta try to find somebody else who can step up and I was just trying to be that person. Q. Trey, just talk about the confidence of your team, you're down three when Kyan goes out, 16 minutes to go, four fouls, you guys hung tough, gained a point before he came back in. TREY ZEIGLER: Yesterday I said we felt like we matched up well with Kansas. We play the same style of basketball. We knew coming into this game we had a great chance of winning and we just wanted to compete. Not having Kyan out there, it hurt a lot and I think guys stepped up and tried to help out in place of Kyan. Q. Trey and Chris you can answer, do you feel like you earned an NIT bid this week with what you did? TREY ZEIGLER: I hope so. We felt like we competed at the highest level, playing the toughest league in the country. So every night we play an NCAA Tournament team. Probably going to get seven teams in, so we feel like we're the next team. So we definitely feel like we should get the NIT bid. CHRIS WASHBURN: I feel the same way. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Q. Coach, same question I asked the kids. Your level of confidence losing Kyan with 16 minutes ago in the second half? COACH JOHNSON: Well, we played well without him at certain times during the course of the year, going back to Mississippi State. 'Ole Miss he was in foul trouble. The bottom line for us is we didn't do a good enough job at the defensive end and we're strong with Trey guarding at the point of attack, but it hurts, it hurts. One thing I want to say about Kyan, in all my years as being a head coach, let alone as an assistant coach, I never seen a kid handle the ball 90% of the time in the three years in this league, which is a really, really physical and a mentally tough league. And for him to play like he's played and played through things is unbelievable, speaks volumes for him. We need to understand, in three years, this is the first year he has had a full complement of players. Last year his back‑up 4 man was a 6'1" walk‑on and his starting 4 man was a 6'2" guard pushed back to the 4. So what he has been able to do in terms of his durability and be out there and reliable on a consistent basis is pretty impressive. Versus some really, really good players and being the focal part of everybody's defense. Q. Coach, what did you tell Kyan on the bench, were you trying to be encouraging to him? COACH JOHNSON: I don't need to encourage Kyan, he's fine. There are a lot of things you have to play through and we talk about it all the time as a group, as a team. Keep your poise, play through whatever else is going on out there. He ws down because obviously he knows how important he is to us. But I don't need to pick him back up. He was real positive with his teammates and moved forward. This group has been really, really resilient. Going back to Oklahoma when we had travel issues, we go to Oklahoma compete our tail off, have an opportunity to win that game and then we play a really, really good Oklahoma State team on the road and find out that Chris Hall lost his father, have to tell the kids that after the game, they stayed the course, never batted an eye. Then we go play an Iowa State team and we find out Dalton Dry's, a walk‑on kind, a helluva kid, his dad, Mike Dry, had a heart attack going to the game. So the kids find that out, they never once started feeling sorry for themselves, they kept moving on and moving on. Then to come here and compete and beat a very, very good Kansas State team and play at 6:00 and turn around and play these guys at 1:00 and have an opportunity to win it speaks volumes to the resilience of these guys. Because last time I checked, we all get called up in rankings, there is not a bunch of guys on this team that are McDonald's All‑Americans players and all that other stuff, but this is a pretty good basketball team that stayed their course in a very, very good league. Q. Given the resiliency and perseverance of this team down the stretch and what you accomplished this week, do you think this team deserves an NIT bid right now? COACH JOHNSON: Well, I don't get caught up in that, Chuck, you know me, that's not my responsibility. I just know there have been three games, the Baylor game in overtime, the Oklahoma game on the road and the West Virginia game in overtime, that some way, some how it was my responsibility to get them over the hump and give them an opportunity to win and I didn't get that done. I will say this, my last year at LSU, we were 17‑14, we won a game and went to the NIT and it was a no‑brainer and that league was nowhere near as strong from top to bottom as this league. But we lost three out of four, four out of five, so that's no my decision. And I trust the people at the NIT Selection Committee that they will do what's good and do what's best by college basketball. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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