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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 12, 2016Bob HugginsDevin WilliamsJaysean PaigeKansas City, Missouri Kansas-81, West Virginia-71 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with West Virginia's news conference, head Coach Huggins. His two student-athletes are Jaysean Paige and Devin Williams. Questions for our two student-athletes. Q. Devin, can you talk about your game? You almost single handedly kept your team in the game. DEVIN WILLIAMS: I mean, first, to be honest, I just want to give thanks to God because, you know, he just gave me a lot of strength and empowered me. You know, I just focused in and I just wanted it so bad for my guys and for us, for this program. I was just trying to do whatever it took to get, you know, get the win. Q. This is for both you guys. Can you talk a little bit about K.U. has become different since the first couple of times you played them and what position you think they are in heading into the tournament? DEVIN WILLIAMS: To be honest, you know, K.U., they're a great team. They have a great coaching staff. But at the end of the day, it wasn't nothing that K.U. did, to be honest, it wasn't anything that K.U. did, it was more of us. We missed a lot of free throws, you know, and so many shots we were hitting earlier in the tournament, we didn't make, and that was pretty much it. It was more on our hands more than what K.U. did. Q. I asked how has K.U. become different since the first couple of times you played them, and what position do you think they're in heading into the tournament? JAYSEAN PAIGE: They are good team. I talked to them, the coaching staff and the players. And the ball went in for them tonight. They hit some shots and they were fortunate enough to knock some shots down. And we missed a lot of free throws and got some good open looks and you know they just didn't fall. And like I say, they did a good job. Q. For both players. I want to know about your guys' readiness for the NCAA tournament. You've got to put this one behind you quickly. How ready is this team to go have some success in the NCAA tournament? DEVIN WILLIAMS: We're just going to take it one game at a time. First, you know, we got to see where we're going to fall tomorrow, Selection Sunday, and that's the most important part. Pretty much, you know, we just want it bad, man. We got 240 minutes, that was most of the talk in the locker room, 240 minutes. So you know, we just going to take it one game at a time and bounce back. Because at the end of the day, we fell short, but, you know, this guy to the left of me and the other guy to the side of me, you know, he coached as great as he could, he played his heart out, so we just going to take it one game at a time. Q. Jaysean, what do you take from this tournament to go forward into the NCAA? JAYSEAN PAIGE: We came here to win a championship, and we fell short of that. But we still had a great season, still got a lot ahead of us. So we're going to get back to work and get ready for the NCAA tournament. Q. This question is for both Devin and Jaysean. Devin, did it feel like a road game out there? How difficult was it in such a hostile environment with so many fans against you guys? DEVIN WILLIAMS: I mean, we the underdogs wherever we go. Constantly nobody expects us to win ever. You know, we've just been carving ourselves up since the beginning of the season. But just to answer your question, yeah, it was plain as sight. We just see, you know, pieces of gold out there, but we had -- you know, the willing fans we had, I am appreciative of them. They went an hour away from home, so, you know, it was a homecoming for them more than it was for us. But that ain't have nothing to do with the loss. JAYSEAN PAIGE: What he said, it's a close place for those guys and more of a home game. But it's not an excuse. You know, we beat ourselves. THE MODERATOR: Guys, we'll let you return to your locker room. Congratulations on a great tournament and good luck next week. Questions for Coach Huggins. Q. Coach, can you talk about Devin's game? Every time you guys would fall behind, it seemed like he did something to pick you back up. COACH HUGGINS: That's the best he's finished all year, and Devin is a really good player. I mean, he works extremely hard, he puts in extra time, and he's the guy that we go to when things aren't going the way we would like for them to go. You know, today, we couldn't make a shot. We shoot 13% from three, they shoot 60%. We just couldn't make one. We couldn't make a free throw, when we had to make a free throw. We got the game to 4 and missed a follow shot and a free throw. And then we get it to 5, I think it was, and we missed two free throws. We just didn't make shots when you need to make shots and they did. You have to give them credit, they've made them. Hopefully one day there will be a day when they don't make them and we do, you know. It's kind of the way it goes. Q. Just following up on that, Coach, you feel like from a scoring standpoint more guys are going to have to step up for this team to have a chance to go into the tournament? Or do you feel like Devin is going to be able to give performances like he did today? COACH HUGGINS: I feel pretty safe we're going to go to the tournament. You know, we had all year -- if Jevon Carter didn't make shots, Daxter Miles did. And when those two didn't make shots, Jaysean and Paige did. But nobody made them today. There wasn't one guy that we could run things for or get away to when they were trying to help so much on our inside guys. But, I mean, for the majority of the year, we've had somebody make some, we just didn't have anybody today. Q. Bob, you have a sense of the seed you might be getting tomorrow? COACH HUGGINS: No, I wait till Calipari calls me. Cal usually calls me and tells me what seed we're going to be and what game we'll play them. I think the theory is they can't have both of us at the Final Four, you know, it would be too much. So they make us play before we get there. Q. How about the success you had last year in the tournament, is that a good thing going in? COACH HUGGINS: I just told those guys in there it's a two-game tournament, you know. And we're certainly probably better equipped than in the second game. The first game everybody's got a week to prepare for, and the second game they've got 24 hours. And what we do is different, and you can throw eight or nine guys out there and it doesn't simulate our foot speed and our guys' anticipation. So we've just -- you know, we've got to play with energy and we still have to make some shots. We make some shots -- I mean, you think we just -- Kansas is the best team in the country, we lose by 10, they shoot 60% from three, we shoot 13%. And we turned it over 20 times. We're not going to win, you know, that's just an impossibility. We've got to get a lot more shots than what our opponents do. We only got nine more shots, but that's because we threw it to them, so we're a very charitable bunch. Q. Coach, can you talk a little bit about how K.U. has improved from the first two times you played them? COACH HUGGINS: You really want an answer for that, don't you? Why the hell don't you ask Bill, because he probably knows more about it than I do. I think Landen Lucas has been really good for them. The hardest thing I think today is sometimes to get guys to do what they can do. You know, a lot of people have a guy like Landen that wants to run out there and shoot threes and dribble the ball and lose it and all that, and he just does what he's really good at doing, which I think fits in very good with what they do. And he gives them an inside presence that's -- the guy that was sitting here is a pretty big, strong guy and Landen has done as good a job on him as anybody has. Does that help you? When you write that, would you credit me? Because Bill is going to come in and tell you some other stuff, and Bill Self said this and that and I won't get any credit, will I? Q. I will be certain. COACH HUGGINS: Thank you, it makes me feel a lot better. THE MODERATOR: Coach, good luck and all the best next week. COACH HUGGINS: Yes, sir, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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