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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: ST. LOUIS

March 18, 2016

St. Louis, Missouri

Wisconsin - 47, Pittsburgh - 43

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Pitt Panthers, coach Jamie Dixon and student-athletes James Robinson and Jamel Artis. Coach, an opening statement.

JAMIE DIXON: Well, I'm proud of our people and our players and how hard they played, how hard they worked this week in preparing and getting ready and our effort was remarkable. I'm proud of what we did. I'm disappointed in the loss. But we battled. We played. We defended. Just came down to making some shots or not making some shots and getting to the free-throw line. But we played hard. We played together. We played smart, and we give Wisconsin credit. But I'm proud of these guys. I'm proud of James, the seniors, three graduate seniors as well, that came here and got an opportunity to play in the tournament. But we came up short. And I think the rebounding got away from us in the second half, and I thought that was a big part of it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. James, can you kind of walk us through the last play where it looked like maybe you ran into Mike a little bit coming down the lane?
JAMES ROBINSON: Yeah, that's pretty much it. Got the rebound. It was about 2 seconds on the clock. Just tried to get a good shot. And I just ran into my own teammate.

Q. In that situation do you have like a set, a go-to thing that you're looking for there?
JAMES ROBINSON: Just get the best shot. I didn't mean to run into him. He didn't mean to run into me. It just happened. That's what it came down to.

Q. Jamie and Jamel, the start to the second half, 16 fouls in the first minute and a half of the half. Jamel, first for you and then Coach, what did you see out there and the change for the six fouls? And did that kind of change the game plan because you guys controlled the tempo pretty well in the first half but it slipped in the second?
JAMIE DIXON: Obviously, it was a drastic change and you just have to play through it. But we had the lead plenty of times later after that. So we had opportunities and situations. You've got to play through some adversity and that certainly was some adversity. And we did and we put ourselves in a position to win a number of times, but we didn't get it done. So our goal was to get to the foul line more than they did but they got to the foul line more.

JAMEL ARTIS: The fouls were very key in the second half. But that didn't lose us the game. Like we said we had a lot of opportunities to win the game. Like he said, we have to fight through adversity and I think we did that and we got ourselves back in the game. It was little rebounds and stuff like that. We have to hit free throws at the end, basically.

Q. Jamie, what about the way the game went, or what you thought about the matchup, a guy like Ryan Luther who might be able to make some shots when the points are hard to come by?
JAMIE DIXON: We were concerned about holding Hayes in check and that's really what we wanted to look at. Thought we did a pretty good job at that. Happ got going a little bit. So we went with guys that were playing good defense, and we really felt we had to hold them down and hold those two guys down specifically. So 32 percent from the field. We did a good job of that. But we certainly could have done some other things better.

Q. Jamie, when you guys had a couple of opportunities in the second half where you took like a five-point lead and it seemed like it was a five-point lead for five minutes. How frustrating is it when you have the lead, you kind of have control and you can't add to it?
JAMIE DIXON: Couple open looks. Shots you want to get, want to take and they didn't go down. And you recognize that, where we could have broke it open a little bit and another one from our bench that Cameron had. And another open 3 that we had, another mid-range shot. Obviously those were big. Kept them around. We wanted to increase that lead. But the execution was good. I mean, you hope you're going to shoot it a little bit better. And we didn't shoot well enough to do it. We out-shot them from the field. They got the rebounds going in the second half, and that's really probably what got away from us.

Q. Coach, you guys hold Koenig and Hayes in check but Ethan Happ had 15 points, 12 in the second half. What did you think of his play especially in the second half?
JAMIE DIXON: I think obviously early, the fouls put them in a situation and they were in bonus a minute into the half. So it was really an interesting situation to deal with. But he's a very good player. We wanted to limit his touches. We did a pretty good job, especially in the first half. But in the second half he seemed to get a lot more isolations in the post and hurt us around the basket with some tough finishes.

Q. Jamie and Jamel, I know it's tough after a loss but Jamie, what has James meant to your program the last four years and Jamel, what's it been like playing with James the last three years?
JAMEL ARTIS: I've known James my whole life, seeing him progress every year and seeing him as a leader on the floor is crucial for me. I learn from him every day in practice. He's a great player. He's one of the more underrated guards in this league, so I hope for the best for him and my year with him here is great, awesome times with him.

JAMIE DIXON: Again, I talked to the team afterwards and really addressed James and his importance and just the thankfulness I have for having the ability to coach him for four years and what he's done. His character, his unselfishness, his dedication. Simply remarkable. And I think everybody knows it. We can't say enough. I think our players know it, and they feel it. I think they really wanted to win for him and the other three seniors more than anybody.

Q. James, you held them to, what, eight points, with about five minutes left in the first half. Then seemed like they got a bigger lead going into halftime. What happened those last few minutes?
JAMIE DIXON: They hit the three, we made a mistake defensively on that. That hurt us, that obviously got it to six. We didn't finish it at the end as well, and so that caught up to us. But they're going to make some shots and that three was big going into halftime. But it still gave us a six-point lead and that was simply a breakdown. We knew what we wanted to do, we just didn't do it.

Q. Jamie, you said you were going to use a lot of different guys on Hayes and I counted at least five. How did that go during the game with the switching off? And how do you think you guys did in shutting him down?
JAMIE DIXON: He went 3-for-17. So we thought that was what was going to be a key for us. And I thought we did a great job of that. We didn't allow him to get around the basket. He got his points really from the free-throw line. And, again, I thought we defended those well. And so that's what we wanted to do. We held him to 32 percent. So defensively we did the things we needed to do. I just think you have to shoot it better from the free-throw line. You've got to make a couple of open threes a little bit more and certainly that would have been a difference. But the rebounding, again, I mentioned a couple times, we're up six on the rebounds in the first half then end up getting out-rebounded by seven in the second half. They seemed to get the ones tipped out of bounds, the caroms, and that hurt us.

Q. James, the team only had six assists and you had four of them. But, one of the better teams in the ACC and country. What happened there? Was it just the pace, the tempo, the way that Wisconsin was playing defense? Why didn't you guys get more assists tonight?
JAMES ROBINSON: I don't think we were overly selfish as an offense. I think we were finding the open guy. It just came down to us missing some shots that we would normally make. I think that's pretty much what it came down to.

Q. Jamie, what needs to happen to get this program back to the point where it's a Sweet 16 team which had become sort of the norm?
JAMIE DIXON: We've got to win tonight's game and win the next game. I mean, we're in position and we didn't get it done. So we have to get better. And a lot of teams lost today. A lot of good teams had great seasons and they won't be in Sweet 16. You can be as good as you want but you've got to win two in the first weekend and you've got to make some plays. But certainly we were in position. We were good enough to win this but we didn't. I talked to our guys about the things we can learn with all the returning guys that we have, we've got to look at this as an opportunity to improve on some things going forward.

Q. Jamie, is that a fair starting-point standard for where this program, your expectations are for it to be a team that's playing on the second week every year?
JAMIE DIXON: Obviously there's Michigan State, now they didn't win today. So does that make them your standard? I mean, it comes down to a tournament, one game. We were in position to do it. We didn't get it done. We're never satisfied in any loss. So this was a loss. And standard or no standard, we're not satisfied.

Q. Coach, I see you sitting there, I think you're looking at the stat sheet and you're shaking your head. What are you looking at?
JAMIE DIXON: I mean I mentioned it three or four times, the rebounds. So we'll go back to that one. Rebounds. We were up six in the first half and then we ended up/down one. So we got out-rebounded by seven in the second half.

Q. How long do you let a game like this stick with you?
JAMIE DIXON: I mean, I don't know. I'll let you know. We'll see how it plays out. But I feel for James. I feel for the seniors. I mean, we really talked to those guys, the three seniors, the graduate seniors, and they didn't play a lot of minutes, but they were critical to our program and to giving us depth and giving us attitude and work ethic. So really that's the thing that sticks with me more than anything and will.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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