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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DENVERMarch 17, 2016Chris BeardJosh HaginsRoger WoodsDenver, Colorado Little Rock - 85, Purdue - 83, 2OT THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Little Rock. Coach, just some thoughts on today's game. COACH BEARD: Well, we have a lot of respect for Purdue's program. I've known Matt Painter since I was a young coach. He's gone out of his way to be good, not only to me, but just coaches in general. Purdue has the kind of program we're trying to grow at Little Rock, and today was a great step in that direction. But I'm really proud of our guys. These two guys next to me and the other 11 in the locker room are taking us on a special ride. We're not done yet. I've always thought there's different kinds of teams that go to tournaments. Teams that are happy to be in the tournament and teams that go to try to win the tournament. That's kind of our objective right now. We think we have a team that can advance in this tournament. THE MODERATOR: We'll now take questions for our student-athletes. Q. Josh, in the first half you were I believe 1-5, in the second half you went off. What were you and your team able to do that got you so many good looks? JOSH HAGINS: The bottom line is, like coach said, we're not one of those teams that came here to give Purdue a good run or anything like that. We believe in ourselves and have enough confidence to win game. I'm a senior. I've waited 22 years, to be honest, to get to this point, this one game. I wasn't going to go out like that. I wasn't going to go without a fight. I made shots, missed them. I was going to go out swinging. My teammates are fantastic. Roger Woods is a tough matchup for anybody in the country, in my opinion. We got a really good team, really experienced. We just kept fighting, that's the bottom line. Q. Josh, what do you do to work on footwork? JOSH HAGINS: We don't really just work on footwork per se. It's something we do in our own time. We got a lot of guys that get in the gym. We're a good shooting team. That's no coincidence. We get in the gym every day. It's not just one of us. Everybody does the 300 club, it's part of our process, something we believe in. It works out for us over the course of the year. Q. Late in the game it looked like you knew you was taking those shots when it came down the stretch. My first thought was you must never have been scared in your life. JOSH HAGINS: I try not to. I'm a pretty dramatic guy. Coach talked about me being more consistent. I've been really emotional, really passionate. I live for those situations, man. My teammates have a lot of belief in me. I just want to come through for my team, man. That's the bottom line. Q. Can you talk about the last three and a half minutes of regulation. ROGER WOODS: You know, we just wanted to keep fighting. Josh got hot, got it going. We tried to screen him, get him open so he could make plays, our team win. COACH BEARD: Great coaching. Give Josh the ball. Q. Were you pointing at Derek Fisher when you were hitting those shots? JOSH HAGINS: Yeah. Q. What is your relationship like with him? JOSH HAGINS: I mean, the bottom line is I grew up in Arkansas, central Arkansas area. So guys that have made it from where I'm from, I really look up to them. I really admire them. Derek Fisher is one of those guys. Obviously I want to follow in his footsteps. Whether it happens or not, we'll see. But, you know, Derek Fisher, man, he means everything to Arkansas-Little Rock. I'm not the first one to tell you that. Q. Did you talk to Derek at all before this game or recently? JOSH HAGINS: I mean, he was in our locker room. I gave him a handshake. Wasn't too much talking. I was just trying to get ready for this game, man. We waiting our whole life for this game. Q. I just saw a video of your guys' locker room celebration after the game. Is it safe to say it's lit right? JOSH HAGINS: Yeah, yeah, we can say that. Q. Josh, with 17 seconds left, down by three, were you surprised they didn't foul you? JOSH HAGINS: I mean, that's a philosophy thing. Some teams would, some teams wouldn't. Wouldn't surprise me if they would, wouldn't surprise me if they wouldn't. Bottom line, that's not really a kind of shot you really want. I happened too make that one, you know what I mean? So it is what it is. Q. That wasn't what you were looking for, the top of the key fade-away three there? JOSH HAGINS: No, no. I was looking for that. I'm not going to lie to you (smiling). Like I say, I really like hitting those kind of shots. We're a fantastic team. We're a bunch of guys that like to fight. That's the bottom line, man. We didn't come here to kind of show up and be happy to be here. We're here to win. We really believe in ourselves and we're here to win. We got a really good team coming up Saturday and we got to be ready to go. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes at this time. Questions for Coach Beard. Q. Yesterday you talked about how you liked boxing. Was there a match you could compare this game to? COACH BEARD: That's a good question. That's a great question. I don't know a match, but I do think it had a lot of characteristics. Because I thought most people in the building probably thought we were about knocked out. And they got to about eight, nine, and our guys got up there in the end. We got into our press. The players believed in it. We hit some big shots. So, you know, we've been in that situation before. We play a really tough non-conference schedule that challenged us in all sorts of ways. In those moments, even though it looked bleak, there was still a belief in our team. The guys that have been here before, you remember that game. I was proud of those guys. I thought we had a lot of composure down the stretch. Q. I remember we talked on Tuesday and I asked you what did you want people to remember about Little Rock when you left. Is this a good chance to say this is the type of performance you want them to remember? COACH BEARD: I think so. But we're not done yet. We came to this tournament here to win two games in Denver and try to advance to the Sweet 16, just like everybody else did. But I thought tonight's game, even though it wasn't pretty, it was courageous. Our guys fight. You got to give them a lot of credit for that. We got a bunch of guys that come from different backgrounds that come together. We're all doing this in our first season together. I think all the players deserve the credit. Tonight was a great example of that. We have four guys in double figures. Obviously Josh had a special night. We had three other guys get to double figures. We had two other players on the seven, eight mark. That's the balance we're looking for offensively. I've been telling them all week, To beat a team like Purdue, you're going to have to get something done in an uncharacteristic way, a hidden way, a special gem to this game. Tonight I thought it was our offensive rebounds. We're not a team that's known for that. But we just had a lot of fight. I think we came up with 15 offensive rebounds. That gave us extra possessions. That was huge. We got a lot of steals tonight. Obviously we're at a disadvantage in the post defense because we're not as big as them, but I thought our guys really fought. I thought the offensive rebounds and the steals were two things that really helped us win the game. Q. When you were down by 12, you're an animated coach, but you were sitting there very calmly. That was the most calm you were in the game. What in the world were you thinking at that point? COACH BEARD: I was trying to help our players. I think the bottom line definition of a coach in the simplest terms is you try to do everything you can to help your players. So I've always kind of expected the unexpected and prepared for moments like this. I had something in my card if we were down double-digits late. I tried to sit down, gain my composure, get the assistant coaches' opinions and try to bring our players something. After we calmed down for a minute, we thought we would go for our press. Luckily tonight it kind of worked out for us. That is a strength of mine, I'm pretty intense. It can be a disadvantage at times. I was proud of myself tonight that I sat down and gave our players a chance. Q. That was totally by design? COACH BEARD: I've worked for good coaches, studied good coaches. Always expect the unexpected. We have something on our card if we're up big or down big to give our players a chance, yes, sir. Q. Coach, they have three really good bigs. By the end of the game, two of them weren't even in the game and the other one was neutralized for the most part. What was the game plan going against the size of Purdue? COACH BEARD: That was a special moment for us. I think it stems from how much respect I have for Matt Painter and his team and them. We thought all week early in our game preparation with our coaching staff over a couple of pizzas, Gatorade, POWERade, excuse me, we talked about, Do you think Purdue would match up with us or do you think it's going to be a deal where we're going to have to match up with them all game long? We never in our wildest dreams imagined they would match up with us. Late in the game when they did that, it brought us confidence. Looking around the huddle, This is real, this is our moment. They just matched up with us. Let's go play Little Rock basketball. That was a defining moment in our game with our guys from a confidence standpoint. We were getting tired doubling those big guys. We have guys in our locker room that are bruised, cut, sore. It was a lot of work today to keep those three big guys contained. Q. Any initial impressions on Iowa State? COACH BEARD: No. Just happy to advance. I used to coach in the Big 12 at Texas Tech. I'm familiar with the Big 12. Kind of just a fan of college basketball. So I probably watched Iowa State play three or four times. We have two coaches on our staff that have been preparing for Iowa State the last week. Personally I'll get that information today. I do know they're very, very well-coached. The coaching job there with the pressure, with Fred leaving, coming in, I think it's one of the best stories in college basketball, the job they've done this year. Really underappreciated job, I think. They're a tough team. We're going to have to play perfect to have a chance. Q. Did you have a message for Josh Hagins at halftime going into the second half? COACH BEARD: Yeah, I did have a message. I'm okay with him missing shots and all that. A couple times his body language and his fight, I challenged him a little bit at halftime. I thought about using my left hand this time, but I stayed away from it (smiling). We got into him pretty good. It's an extended timeout, so we got into him pretty good. We came back and tried to instill some confidence. Great thing about coaching is relationships and trust. I mean, Josh gave me an incredible hug I'll never forget coming off the floor, in the locker room. He thanked me. Thank you, coach, for getting on me at halftime. That's really rewarding. Different players respond to different things. Coaching isn't just black and white. You motivate kids in different ways. Josh has been a kid that's always handled the truth. He's a tough kid and he takes tough coaching. We did try to help him at halftime by shaking the tree a little bit. Q. When you were preparing for Purdue, were there any particular games you looked at and thought you saw something that you could be effective in implementing? COACH BEARD: Oh, yes. Certainly there are some teams in the Big Ten that play motion offense similar to us, whether it's Michigan or Indiana. There's some undersized teams like Indiana. We studied different games. We also took a hard look at their non-conference schedule where they played some mid-major schools. More than anything, we just knew we had to at least contain the post game. We had to hope they missed shots. We had to have some kind of idea how to score baskets. Josh Hagins has taken over, like Superman, about 14th on the list. I'm glad No. 14 worked tonight. THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, coach. COACH BEARD: Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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