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NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 18, 2016J'Den CoxNew York, New York THE MODERATOR: Entering the room we have finalist at 197 pounds J'Den Cox of Missouri, 35-1 after his victory tonight. If you want to make a brief statement about your match tonight and we'll open it up for questions. J'DEN COX: Proud of the way I performed. I think I kinda lagged a little bit and that's not all right by me, so we're going to pick it up a little bit more tomorrow hopefully and all depends on what my lungs decide, if they want to work with me or not. But we'll figure it out, going to push, not satisfied yet, more to get done. Q. J'Den, obviously we have to ask you about last year. What did that do to you coming up short after winning two years ago? J'DEN COX: It just made me have to soul search, made me have to search myself, my mind, you know, I found out, you know, it's real interesting some of the guys that have been here before. I like to stress about the mind but as much as the mind affects the mind the body will affect the mind as well and how you go through life will affect that as well, your confidence, your drive. I wasn't treating my body right last year, with my diet, so in practice I would get tired and then I would find myself out here on the mat, you know, and plus, you know, it's never fun to lose on the biggest stage, you know, it's never fun! It's not something that you look forward to, just to get here, nobody comes here just to get here, they may be say they're proud of it, but in the back of their minds they want what everybody else wants and that's to be on the top of the podium at the end of the day. Q. J'Den, it looked like you jumped levels, looked like you're a different human being all together, would you say that's a fair assessment, and how do you do it? J'DEN COX: I think it is a fair assessment. I think it was changing my heart and having my teammates around me to see -- to help me with that change and the big change comes from confidence, comes from training and believing in myself, I'm not -- there is a lot of talk about me for the last couple of weeks being trash talked and saying I'm spitting out words and spitting out nothing, but it's not that. I truly believe in what I'm saying. Whether it happens or not, I truly believe in what I'm saying so I'm going to go out there and do my best to go out there and show that it does happen. I think it has shown out there. My intensity is higher. My want for more is higher, I'm not sitting back fifteen seconds left in the match and say. I'm going to ride this dude out. No, I'm trying to try and turn him. I'm not waiting, not just accepting things. I'm trying to grasp things. Trying to reach new heights and trying to do that for myself, not for everybody else but for me. I love what I do. Q. J'Den, you talked last week about not only wanting to come here but to dominate here. To get a pin in the semifinals do you feel like you sent a message and how important was that to you to get those bonus points? J'DEN COX: It's important to me. It's important to the team. It's awesome. It's great. It's great to have that backing me going into tomorrow, but tomorrow is a new day, you know? It's awesome and it was awesome those couple seconds afterwards, yeah, I expressed that, and it was awesome. But I gotta get ready for tomorrow, so that's in the past. Q. Could you tell us about the challenge of Morgan McIntosh and what it will take for you to continue to wrestle against him as you have against other opponents? J'DEN COX: Honestly, for me, myself, when it comes to wrestling and continuing to wrestle that's something on me, it's not on him. It's on me and my mind-set to continue to go out there and do what I do, that's on me. As for Morgan being a challenge, he is a very intelligent wrestler, has a high wrestling IQ, high scrambling IQ. He knows how to wrestle through positions. He knows what he wants and he goes out there to get it. He's very keen on what he wants and he is not afraid to adjust. I think that makes him just as dangerous as a wrestler and I think he's shown a very good outing here at the NCAAs as well. Tomorrow we're going to strap 'em up and we're gonna go at it. We are both going to be a challenge to each other. We have had battles the last two years, and it's been fun. I don't think he will disagree, granted he will say probably he wanted to beat me three times, every time, and 3-1, but he's not going to deny and it's not fun and we challenge each other and it makes us have to get better and become better wrestlers and prepare better and that's going to help us out. I think we're both going to be excited for it. I know I am, and I know he definitely will be. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, J'Den Cox. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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