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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2016

Kansas City, Missouri

West Virginia-69, Oklahoma-67

THE MODERATOR: We are joined now by the Mountaineers from West Virginia, head coach Bob Huggins. Three student-athletes tonight are Jevon Carter, Jaysean Paige, and Devin Williams.

Q. Jaysean, you and Jevon, can you talk about defensively tonight the job you did on Buddy Hield, what the claim plan was and how well you executed it?
JAYSEAN PAIGE: We just tried to make it a team effort and tried to limit his attempts and switch people on and off him, tried to wear him down. We felt like we did a good job doing it.

JEVON CARTER: To add to that, you know, playing him the first two times, we let him get away from us. He hit a lot of open shots. He really hurt us at our place. This game was revenge. We came here with a goal, that was to win the Big 12 championship, that's what we're here to do.

Q. You kind of struggled scoring the ball against them during the regular season. What was the difference for you tonight?
JEVON CARTER: Just staying confident, you know. I feel like the same looks I got tonight is the same looks I had the other games. Just tonight the shots just went in.

Q. Devin, can you talk about your emotions when Hield made that last shot, and then your emotions when you saw the replay?
DEVIN WILLIAMS: That was going to be the difference of the game. Buddy Hield, Player of the Year, candidate to be Player of the Year in the country, he's a great player. But that was just, you know, March Madness for you. That was just March play for you, you know, getting to the nitty-gritty. Both teams just did a good job going out there and competing. And it was a toss-up tonight and that shot was a toss-up, for real.

Q. Jaysean, can you talk about what you guys did well to sort of put them in a hole, and then what happened the last three or four minutes where they got back in front down the stretch, and then the last minute, when you guys made all the plays?
JAYSEAN PAIGE: You know, one of the keys of the game tonight was just rebounding the ball, limiting them in the second-chance shots. And towards the end of the game we kind of got away from that. They got a few rebounds and a few easy looks. We just had to, you know, finish up on that and finish blocking out and finish plays off.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on tonight's victory and good luck tomorrow. We look forward to that game. Questions for Coach Huggins.

Q. Bob, your press really hurt them in Norman, not so much in Morgantown, and then again tonight. What was the difference in the efficiency of your press?
COACH HUGGINS: We changed some things, obviously watched the film, both games. Just made a couple, you know, subtle changes.

I'm blessed, I've got a great staff that, you know, they're great basketball guys. So we sat there together last night and -- well, I guess it was this morning, and just talked about making just a few changes. And these guys are great. We don't do a lot of things well, but we really do compete. We just kind of challenged them to compete a little bit harder, do a better job guarding the ball.

Q. Bob, I think when you guys played Morgantown, Jevon was a little bit beat up. How much of a difference health-wise was he tonight?
COACH HUGGINS: Jaysean?

Q. I thought it was --
COACH HUGGINS: It wasn't Jevon. It was Jaysean was coming off a sprained ankle. Sprained it at Texas. Well he's been -- I mean, he's been, you know, this is an All-Conference player. When you're an All-Conference player in this conference, you're pretty good. So you take him out of the equation and it makes it tough.

But, you know, I'm going to tell you what, it's not about what we didn't have, it's about how good they are. They're good. They're really, really good. And Lon is an absolutely fantastic coach. He does things that puts people in places that are hard to guard. You look at -- we took 60 shots, they took 41. It's not supposed to be close. He does such a great job of getting people shots. They shoot 48%, 49%, we shoot 38%. He does a great job. They made adjustments defensively and we're just very fortunate.

Q. Did you happen to see the Connecticut-Cincinnati shot today, Bob?
COACH HUGGINS: No, I did not.

Q. Connecticut hit about a 55-footer that sent it into the fourth overtime. But Cincinnati didn't really guard the guy that shot it, they sort of just let him run. Were you pleased with your defense the last 1.8 seconds. It looked like Hield had to double pump just to get the shot off.
COACH HUGGINS: I think he did. It's kind of a blur. You don't want to turn him loose, but you sure don't want to foul him. And I think that's what our guys are thinking. They're trying to slow him down, but at the same time they are trying not to foul him because he is a 90% free throw shooter. So I guess we take our chances, the heave from half court rather than putting him to the line for two.

Q. Bob, what can you tell us, if you can, that you changed on Buddy this game? Because not only did he not shoot -- he rarely got shots off.
COACH HUGGINS: We just tried to keep the ball out of his hands. Everybody has been asking me how do you stop him? I don't know how to stop him. The only thing I know is it's hard to score if you don't have the ball. We just tried -- and those guys, they were honest. All we talked about was let's do everything we can possibly do to not let him get his hands on the ball. And we didn't leave him in pressure. You know, it was more of a four-man press and somebody staying close enough to him.

He turned him loose in Morgantown, and you know when you turn him loose, it's bad news for you.

Q. Coach, it seemed like early in the first half Jevon was stepping off a little bit from the point guard position because he was scoring a little bit more. Was that part of the game plan or just how the offense was running?
COACH HUGGINS: We kind of ham-and-egged it all year. Whoever is making shots, we try to get them shots. Jaysean has kind of been the most consistent guy for us, and we try to throw it close to Devin as much as we can.

Tarik shot it really well, was it last night? Last night. So we're going to try to get him more shots. It's just whoever's making shots. If you haven't noticed, we're not the most consistent shooters. Seemingly somebody generally makes 'em.

Q. Coach, I'm sure this is not what you are thinking about at all right now, but I might as well ask. Do you feel that your team deserves a 2-seed in the NCAA tournament with a win like this tonight?
COACH HUGGINS: You're right, I'm not. It's like I told those guys, okay, we won. It's a win against a great, great team. But we came to win. We didn't come to play tomorrow, we came to win tomorrow. And that's going to be my total focus, and hopefully it's going to be their total focus.

Q. Bob, it was in January whenever you faced top two teams in the nation back-to-back. Now you face those same teams. What do you tell them heading into tomorrow night's game?
COACH HUGGINS: You had to bring that up, didn't ya? We're just going to play to win. I mean, that's what we always do. I'm not into -- I think this group is as competitive as just about any group that I've ever had, and that takes in a whole bunch of people. I just want them to do what they do, just go compete and play as hard as we can possibly play, and hopefully play well.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. We'll let you go back and start preparing for tomorrow.

COACH HUGGINS: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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