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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 8, 2017Jamie DixonKenrich WilliamsAlex RobinsonVladimir BrodzianskyKansas City, Missouri TCU - 82 Oklahoma - 63 JAMIE DIXON: Well, truly a great team effort for us, obviously a great response playing Oklahoma just three days ago. You know, during the stretch I felt food about this team even though we've had a long streak of losing some tight games I've felt good about it, and their attitude has been tremendous. Their work ethic has been great. I think they were rewarded today. Really unselfish. Alex was terrific, 9 assists, no turnovers. And Jaylen, they ran the team and both guys, team effort. Ten guys played big minutes for us and solid minutes and a great effort by our guys. Kenrich was terrific and has been doing that and people are starting to realize how good of a player he is, and Vladimir let things come to him and finished on the penetration from those guys. So a really great effort against a team that's very talented. THE MODERATOR: Our three student-athletes are Vladimir Brodziansky, Alex Robinson and Kenrich Williams. Q. Talk a little bit about the emotions, getting the monkey off the back, one of your best games of the year and just kinda making it come true tonight in a big setting like this. How does that feel for you? VLADIMIR BRODZIANSKY: I mean, it feels awesome, big game for us, because how Coach say we just have to come back and play hard and executed. ALEX ROBINSON: I feel like we stuck together as a team even though we did have that losing streak. We stayed together and we talked about it and we put our words into actions and we have to continue to do so as this tournament goes on. KENRICH WILLIAMS: I feel like we came out and we got stops early and we got stops the whole game and that's what Coach has been emphasizing at practice the last couple of days and we came out and executed and did that. Q. Kenrich, talk a little bit about that 15-2 run. You kinda got it started with a -- to close the first half is what I mean over the final three minutes. You had a couple baskets to start it, couple more to finish it. That's kind of where the game turned. What triggered that for you guys and how much impact do you feel like that had? KENRICH WILLIAMS: Started at the defensive end. We got multiple stops and my teammates did a good job of finding me and getting me open, in open positions for me to make plays. Q. Alex, did you get a sense that the zone was giving them problems and was that a big difference in change from Saturday? ALEX ROBINSON: We noticed when we switched defenses that there was confusion on the offensive end which took a lot of time off the shot clock and disrupted their offense. We figured we would stick with that and we just followed whatever Coach told us. Q. Vladimir, after the game in Norman, Coach Dixon mentioned you guys had wanted to get the ball inside more than you did there, and that one didn't happen. It happened in a big way tonight. How much of a focus was that? How much was that in your mind this time around? VLADIMIR BRODZIANSKY: I mean, my teammates were just finding me open and I had the easy job just to finish the plays and we played great offense. We executed and however to say, I was wide open. They did a great job on penetration. Q. You've earned a shot at Kansas for tomorrow, top-ranked team in the country, potential signature win, whatever all that could mean to you. What are your thoughts about that match-up and what does that opportunity mean to you to have that? ALEX ROBINSON: Well, I think it means a lot. We get to go on to the second round. Like Coach said, we can't get too high or too low so we've got to treat every game the same and come in and prepare for it like we did this last one. KENRICH WILLIAMS: Just like Alex said, we've got to come in and play the same way we played. Play with a lot of energy and get stops defensively and that's going to give us a good outcome. THE MODERATOR: Okay, guys we will let you go back to the locker room. Congratulations. Questions for Coach? Q. Speak just to your first Big 12 men's championship win, your first shot out? JAMIE DIXON: Tournaments are always great, obviously I've been in some really good ones and everybody told me how great this place was. I obviously had been in the facility. I coached here before and obviously state of the art, top of the line, nice facility as there is in the country, so it was great. I was impressed by the crowd in the game. I looked up at the end, and I said, well, it's a pretty good crowd at the end of the game there, subbing guys in, so had a second to relax. But a lot of people in the crowd and I had been told that they come to all the games and that's a great thing to see. I was excited about our -- I know this is the biggest demand we've ever had for Big 12 tickets from our fans. So we want to start a tradition of making runs in this Big 12 Tournament. That was something we did at the Big East and what we were known for, so we want to have a new tradition for this is the place to come for Horned Frog fans to make the trip from Forth Worth to Kansas City for the weekend. Obviously we're going to play Kansas tomorrow and obviously they will have a few people in the stands I think somebody told me. It will be an opportunity, but we've played good. The biggest things is we came in confident because I know this streak you've got to look at and wonder about you if you look at the scores of the games and when we were playing we felt good. We had two good days of practice, and I think they responded in a very good way. In no way did I think these guys had given up, so I think we saw that start to finish tonight. Q. Jamie, OU has a couple of young point guards they're playing. Fisher and Alex Robinson give you a lot of quality play. What does it mean when a trim has a fairly good advantage at point guard? JAMIE DIXON: We like our guys. This league is loaded with great point guards. They're generally older than ours and Coach Kruger's, so there's been some ups-and-downs with us, but certainly they were on today. They've been really good. We played two of them. We call 'em both the points and I thought they were tremendous with the ball, spaced it. They penetrated. Our shot selection was terrific. We shot 60%. It's gotta be pretty good. One of the things that we've had that's kept us from winning these close games down the stretch, we won a bunch of them early was some shot selections and missed free throw. I'm so excited about these two guys for obvious reasons, and I think y'all saw it tonight. Q. You've played Kansas pretty tough for three halves this year. Is that encouraging? JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, we've played everybody. I know if you look back at these seven losses you look at the games and watch and you would think they won a couple of 'em down the stretch. I feel good about our team. Obviously they're terrific, well coached. They've got obviously as good of a guard as there is in the country. We're a better team than we were. The record doesn't indicate it, but watching it on film we're a better team now than we were and I think it all came together today and we've got to have it come together tomorrow as well, but I think just handling their runs will be the biggest challenge and that's been a challenge for us. Sometimes we don't respond with that next possession. That's where we've got to handle them, because they're terrific, obviously, and getting a turnover, turning a bad shot into a basket. We just can't have that. We called a timeout on a one play after we had two questionable shots, and we got it fixed after that, but we've got to get it changed quicker or we'll be in trouble tomorrow. Q. KU is going to be without Josh Jackson tomorrow for a one-game suspension. How big of a game changer do you think that could be? JAMIE DIXON: We played them earlier and he was in foul trouble and Vick killed us, so it's funny how things work out. They have so many good players that it's not like they are putting in a guy that hasn't made some baskets in his career somewhere. They'll have a top-10 ranked guy in the country coming in, so you're not shuffling in a guy that's just picked up a basketball. So, you know, he does a lot of different things but Vick does a lot of different things, too. And then you've got Bragg who is playing better. So they've got good players across the board, and like I said the first game, Vick was the guy that beat us. Q. Can you expand on the timeout after the four-minute mark in the first half? You guys were tied at 29 and you came out and went on a 12-0 run, took over the game at that point. What happened at that timeout and when you guys got out on the court? JAMIE DIXON: The defense -- again, the rebounding was key. They were hurting us on some second shots and keeping them off the foul line, but I think our shot selection was good. We got a couple of steels out of Kenrich in the man-to-man, so the change in the defense at the timeout did something when we went back to man at that point and that helped up. I think our zone was effective because we kept changing it throughout the game and that helped us. We've done that a lot of times, but then we have had times where we got hurt with the zone and didn't use it enough. I think the defense -- our shot selection was good all the way through. The spacing on the floor was good, and I thought our guys penetrated and looked to pass a little bit better than we did the other day. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. Good luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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