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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2016

Kansas City, Missouri

TCU-67, Texas Tech-62

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by head coach Trent Johnson of the TCU Horned Frogs and his two student-athletes, Chauncey Collins and Brandon Parrish. Coach, we'll come to you first and say congratulations on your victory. And an opening statement from you.

COACH JOHNSON: First of all, thank you very much. It's been a long time coming. This last month we've been coming close verse goods teams, and Texas Tech is a very good basketball team. And I thought this probably had been our best game in terms of offensively execution.

There were some times, in the first half, I felt we were careless with the ball, but guys kept fighting. They were fighting all year long and we kept our poise and these two boys to my right played really well offensively. It's a nice win for us, and our reward for this one is we get to play West Virginia tomorrow, so it should be fun.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Going to Chauncey and Brandon.

Q. You get to the end, some big free throws there, you know, in the closing seconds. What were you thinking? It looks like it was just pretty easy for you.
CHAUNCEY COLLINS: Just step up and shoot the ball. Coach preaches to us about shooting the ball with confidence, just get up and shoot the ball with confidence and they fell.

Q. Brandon, when Chauncey gets going like that, when he starts a game like that, what does that do for you, the other guys mentally, physically in the game?
BRANDON PARRISH: Chauncey is a quick spark guy, because he can go off and hit a lot of shots in a short period of time. Once he starts to hit, we just continue to find him, look for him each and every way. We're going to feel that as well, because once they start playing him tight, that's going to open up other guys. So we use it to our advantage.

Q. For both Chauncey and Brandon, as Coach said you'd come so close during the Big 12 season to breaking through. How'd you keep your heads up, how'd you keep motivated to pull off this upset?
BRANDON PARRISH: I mean, we knew, like I said, going into the last four minutes, it was tied up and it was going to take our strongest four minutes of the season. We tried our hardest to stay poised and thought about all the times we did make it and used it to our advantage and we came out victorious.

Q. For either one of you guys, what can you say about Vladimir? The corner three and just the big play inside. I am sure not a lot of people outside of Texas know about the Slovakian star you've got there.
CHAUNCEY COLLINS: Vlad played really well. He stepped up, he hit a couple of big shots. You know, he rebounded the ball well tonight, and that's what we expect from him every night. We know what he's capable of, so it just kept us going.

Q. Chauncey, just describe the dunk you had in the first half and where does that rank on your personal highlight reel?
CHAUNCEY COLLINS: Number one. Number one definitely.

Q. I know Chauncey had a good first half scoring-wise, but you need some points from other guys in the second half. How did you find those points and how did you find your points?
BRANDON PARRISH: We knew Chauncey had the first half, so we knew they were going to key in him, start to deny him higher and higher on the floor. And we knew Malique Trent, in the first half, he took only three shots, so we knew he was eventually going to get going. And a guy like Vlad and myself, we were going to get going. Like I said, we were going to feed off them, guard Chauncey tight and driving lanes opened up and we found each other. Malique drove and kicked to me for a few times, J.D. found me and we found Vlad in the corner when he was wide open. We made the most of it.

Q. Chauncey, you won the game in the tournament for the second year in a row. Does it take a little bit of the sting out of the season for you, for the guys?
CHAUNCEY COLLINS: Definitely. A lot of games we came close. Like Brandon said, the last four minutes, during the time-out, it was a tie ball game and we just said we've got to give it our all, we're not coming close anymore, and just put our backs to the wall and live with the results.

THE MODERATOR: Guys, congratulations on the victory tonight and we'll see you tomorrow. Questions for Coach Johnson.

Q. Trent, pretty solid perimeter defense all night long. What did you think of that? And then, also too, you touched on it initially, but how good do you feel for these guys to feel good and get this?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, obviously I feel really good for them, because they stayed the course. Obviously we've had our share of struggle, whether it's been what we do on the floor or what we don't do in terms of not taking care of the ball and not being able to defend or rebound. And to stay the course against a very, very good team, I thought they had some confidence going into this. Because our first game versus Tech, we didn't play well. We played extremely well up in Lubbock and we got beat. So I thought the kids had a little confidence.

What was the second question?

Q. About perimeter D.
COACH JOHNSON: I don't know how good of perimeter D, but a good job of spacing and bouncing and getting in the lane. So without looking at the tape, I thought we were efficient at crucial times. But I did think we had to go to the zone late just because Chauncey got in foul trouble and Malique had three early.

And Tech is a good team, a really good team. They are a team that, in my opinion, is capable of going deep in the tournament because they play within themselves and really cause problems because they can stretch you on the perimeter. And the big fella, when he's healthy, Odiase can really hurt you in the post. So we're as good as we've been, so it's nice to win.

Q. Trent, I don't want to take your attention away from the victory right now, but less than 24 hours you'll have already played another game. This challenge against West Virginia, what can you recall about the two games you played them in the regular season.
COACH JOHNSON: I only recall the first game, I thought we were pretty competitive. I don't know what happened in Morgantown, that thing was over in like the first five minutes. You know, the kids want to play. We've had basically two 40-minute practices prior to playing this game, so they should be fresh. It's just a matter of us being able to operate, execute. I do want to say operate and execute our press breakers, because they are going to come at us three-quarter court, full court. Keep our poise and shoot the ball with confidence and play.

This time of year, kids would rather play than practice. I think in terms of fatigue, that's overrated, I really do.

Q. Coach, how much freedom does Chauncey have in the offense to put up those shots that he puts up? And is it affected when they are starting to go?
COACH JOHNSON: Chauncey, like any other a player, whether it is Malique or Vlad, they have a lot of freedom when they execute within the frame of what we are doing. I am a firm believer, you take shots within the framework, your offense gets a rhythm. If you get two in a row, you are entitled to take a bad one or two. You know, this game is hard for kids in general, but I like giving guys freedom so they can enjoy, as long as they are guarding and taking care of and rebounding -- and we hadn't done a good job of that all year, but tonight is one of those nights that I thought we did a decent job. Once a kid like that gets it going, he is hard to handle because he really stretches it from the perimeter. So he has freedom when he is making good decisions.

Q. Trent, I was just wondering at the beginning of the second half they came out, hit a couple of shots, they're up six points and your guys responded at that point, they maybe looked like they were getting a little separation.
COACH JOHNSON: Yeah, it was like deja vu. We were up 12, in two plays they came out boom, boom, boom, boom. For them, you need to credit them, because during the time-out I said we have been here before numerous times. You need to make a decision. Are you going to wilt or keep your poise and play and get some stops? And give the kids credit, they did a good job of that. And without looking at the tape, I think it was J.D. made a pretty good play going to the basket and finished with some aggressiveness.

So I like it from the standpoint of, yeah, we won, but we were confident, we were poised in this setting, which we haven't been in like a month maybe.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, see you tomorrow, Congratulations.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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