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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: OKLAHOMA

March 20, 2016

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Texas A&M-92, UNI-88 (2OT)

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the UNI Panthers, Coach Ben Jacobson, our three student-athletes, Paul Jesperson, Matt Bohannon and Wes Washpun. Coach, your thoughts?

COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, just tell you first how proud I am of these three guys. They asked for Klint and for Jeremy, and I told them no, we're going to go and do this. It's not going to be easy for these three young guys, but I'm telling you, they can handle it. Man, we played our tails off, and unfortunately we were on the wrong side of just a crazy 30 seconds. You know, 30 seconds that we aren't going to be able to ever have an answer for, nor do we need one, it just happened to go that way. But everything that happened to get to that point, these are three of the finest young men and three of the best guys we've ever had come through our program, and I'm extremely proud of them.

Before you go to questions, I'd congratulate Texas A&M on just staying in there long enough. If they made just one small mistake in that last 30 seconds, anything, we would have still got out of there. So congratulations to Texas A&M.

Q. Wes, I guess, if you could break down what went wrong in those last few seconds there, getting the ball inbounds, stuff like that?
WES WASHPUN: Yeah, they just turned up the pressure a little bit. Started denying in the passing lanes. Bo was out of the game. He's usually the one that inbounds the ball for us.

But credit to Texas A&M for turning up the pressure and making some plays when they had to.

Q. Matt, you had to go out of the game with about a minute left. Could you take us through what happened to force you to go out and how tough was it coming back when you weren't 100%?
MATT BOHANNON: It wasn't easy. It wasn't what we wanted. Just kind of a freak thing, came down, didn't feel right when I got up, but tried to get back in as soon as I can, but just wasn't feeling right.

I tried that overtime and double overtime, but I just didn't have much. I wish I could have been out there with my guys and taken care of it when it was in regulation.

Q. Wes, was it a matter of one thing leading to another, sort of cascading on each other in that final minute?
WES WASHPUN: No, I don't think it was that. I think they just made a bunch of great individual plays. Turned the ball over, we made some mistakes and they capitalized on it, and that's credit to them.

Q. Paul, how close did it feel in the final minute? Could you taste it at that point?
PAUL JESPERSON: Yeah, it felt like we were a minute away from dancing. Texas A&M made some great -- they had some great individual plays. Yeah, they made some great individual plays, and we weren't able to make a few that we needed to make. So credit them.

Q. Paul, Wes, can you contrast the emotions of being on both sides of two incredible finishes Friday and then Sunday?
WES WASHPUN: Yeah, two totally different feelings for sure. One knowing you're moving on, and one knowing you're going home. It sucks. I mean, I love these guys to death and wish we could keep going.

MATT BOHANNON: It's just tough. It's the NCAA Tournament, though, that's what happens. Paul's shot doesn't go in a couple days ago, we go to overtime, we don't know what happens. So it just is a wide range of emotions. And just couldn't have been prouder to be with Paul and Wes here and understand what we did this season and what we showed the country and how we understand that we should be moving on.

But credit them for making some plays, but we were 30 seconds away from getting one step closer to our goals.

PAUL JESPERSON: Yeah, like these guys said, two completely different ends of the spectrum. Two nights ago it was great to know that we were playing today. I'm sure it's going to hurt a little bit more in the morning even, knowing that we're not playing next week. But I couldn't have asked for two better guys to go out with. I'm going to miss these guys. These guys are my brothers. I'm going to be real close to them for the rest of my life.

Q. Bo, is there anybody you can lean on the most in this situation to try and help you through it?
MATT BOHANNON: These guys here and the rest of the guys in the locker room, and the coaches because no one else saw what we did this season and no one was with us every day, getting up early, shooting shots, dogfighting through practice, trying to turn this thing around from 10-11. I hope people understand just how much we came together and how much if you believe you can do something special. Man, I'm just going to lean on these guys. I mean, we'll eventually get over it, but we're just going to need our time for now.

Q. Paul, you guys played all but one possession of both overtimes without Wes, and you still stuck in and took it to the very end. Can you talk about how tough it was to play those nine minutes without Wes, especially as emotionally drained as you had to be after what happened in regulation?
PAUL JESPERSON: Yeah, Wes is a guy we've been leaning on all year, so any time that he goes out like that it presents a challenge. But that's been our deal this whole year, different situations have popped up and we've had to figure out ways around them. Tonight was another one.

Saw Bo go down, got hurt. We had to call in somebody else, and they were ready. Wes went out, we had to call in somebody else. I went out, they had to call on somebody else. That's this program's deal. That's what this program is built on. Everybody's going to step up to the challenge. Nobody's going to fear any situation. I'm just thankful that Coach gave me a chance to be a part of it.

Q. Matt, what will be the words you give to the underclassmen? What sort of advice will you give them in dealing with this and going forward to prepare for next season?
MATT BOHANNON: Just remember that feeling in the locker room like we have right now and understand that Paul, Wes, and myself just gave it our all, and we really wanted to make it to the Final Four. We said the train stops in Houston. To know how close we were, it's just tough. So I'd just say just believe. We did a lot of things that no one else in the country thought we could. We just kept listening to Coach Jake and just said believe in ourselves.

It's just something that the guys know. The guys know what we did this season, and they know how special it was. And you get that feeling around a group of guys and it's something that you'll never forget. So the program's in great hands and we'll be happy over the course of my -- whatever I do next, I'll certainly be cheering for those guys and doing whatever I can to help out.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, similar to what I asked before, was it a matter of things cascading upon themselves for the guys, not being able to get the ball inbounds and things like that in that final 30 seconds?
COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, it changed things when Bo got hurt, because he is the one that's taken the ball out in that situation the entire year. So that immediately made things different. At that time in a game, let alone this game, really the last thing you want to have is your inbounder not be there. So that changed things.

You know, and then after that, Jeremy had that pass toward half court that he had a hand on that I think he could have held on to, and he dribbles it over, gets fouled, it's probably over. We talked about because we didn't have any timeouts, we talked about throwing the ball long if you were in any trouble. And unfortunately, in that situation you don't think about throwing it long, even after you've talked about it.

So had we maybe done that once or twice and gotten some seconds off the clock, then we're fine. There will be 100 different ways to slice that up. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, these three guys should be playing next week.

Q. I wonder if you could take us through what you were able to do to slow down House for almost the entire game. He was scoreless until 5:14 left and finished with 22. What changed?
COACH JACOBSON: Wes is a tremendous defender, absolutely tremendous, and we felt like his quickness would bother House, that that would take away a lot of his opportunities to drive the basketball, which was going to leave him with that jumpshot. He's good at both. But when he's able to do both at the same time, he's really hard to guard. So we felt like Wes' quickness, he'd be able to stay in front of him.

Then Wes has the ability to get back and still can test that jumpshot. He gets there quick and he's shown that all year against good players. So I just think Wes did a tremendous job. And obviously, with Wes getting in foul trouble and then didn't play in the overtimes, that allowed him to get some more space. Our lineups just weren't the same.

Give him credit for making a couple big ones. That three he hit that was contested by Jeremy on the right wing, that was -- if that doesn't go in, we win again in overtime. I think that was an overtime three that he made. So give him credit, he made plays. But that shot was an important shot because the group we had left was going to win in overtime if he doesn't make that, I think.

Q. What do you feel your role is or what do you feel like you have to do to help the guys get past this moving into next year?
COACH JACOBSON: Hey, look, my role is to lead, plain and simple. That's my role. I learned a lot from these three seniors about how to do that, so I'm better at it now than I was when this season started.

So I, with the help of my staff and our administration, we will lead just like we're supposed to. And we will make sure our guys understand that things happen. We'll crank it and we'll get ready, and we'll be upbeat and be ready to go as soon as we need to be come November. I don't know any other way. We're going to lead.

Q. Along those lines, is this the toughest loss you've ever experienced coaching anywhere else?
COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, no question. No question. What this team was able to accomplish, I've told these guys this for a few weeks now, what they've been able to accomplish this year I think is the greatest thing that's happened in our program. With what we lost to graduation, with the way we went into the season, with our roster of nine guys, and not overly experienced, not overly deep to rattle off what we did from mid-January until now is the greatest thing that's happened considering the team that we had. And when I say that, Wes is a tremendous player and Bo and Paul are really good players and Jeremy's a really good player, and Klint's a really good player, and Wyatt's a really good player, and Bennett had his moments. But for them to do what they did, man, that's what makes it hard. It shouldn't have ended tonight, but maybe it ends next Thursday. Maybe it ends on Saturday. Unless you play that final game, there is an end. Because of the way these guys handled themselves and the leadership that these three guys showed, the way this one went down, there is no question this is the hardest one that I've been a part of.

But the last thing I would tell you is the reason it's that for me is because of these three guys, what they did. They should be playing next week, and I take responsibility for that not happening. But those three seniors were absolutely awesome.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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