	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT

March 19, 2017

Jamie Dixon

Iowa City, Iowa

TCU - 94, Iowa - 92 (OT)

JAMIE DIXON: Well, I think you saw two very good teams, that both programs, both schools are excited about the future. Obviously they have so many good young players, Iowa, and so do we, and just a shootout, a shootout.

I thought we guarded them pretty good, and they shot 54 percent. Jok, I'm not giving you any news, he's really good. You guys knew that. I wish you had told me beforehand. Bohannon is terrific. Baer is really good.

We found a way, and we've been doing that lately, and that's called growing up. That's what we did.

Liked what we did offensively. We shot 51 percent. We had 26 assists. We said let's get 20 tonight, and it was just two good offensive teams going at it. I don't know that our defense was that bad. They made shots. It was a great game all the way down through. Two really good programs that have great futures ahead of them.

Q. Every time Iowa seemed to take a big advantage in the first half, you guys came back with an 8-0 run or something like that. What does that say for the growth of the your program?
JAMIE DIXON: I thought Alex was terrific. Obviously the 11 assists, constantly in the lane. We played him 44 minutes. We rode him, rode him and rode him, put him in ball screen situations, and let him get in the lane.

That was where we were going, but I thought Kenrich did some great things and Brandon was huge for us. Offensively we just responded, like you said. I thought we had some good defensive possessions, and I mean, I really just thought they were making shots. I mean, tough shots, and our defense was pretty good on times when they made shots.

Just two teams going at it and fighting and battling and playing for their lives but playing for their futures because I think both are very good.

Q. 52 points in the paint. What were you able to exploit inside?
JAMIE DIXON: You know, Brodz, he's an all-eight guy, and we spread the floor. I think we made shots early so that meant they had to guard the three. I think Brandon making some shots spread the floor for us, Parrish. So when he does that, it kind of opens it up a bit, and then obviously Alex's penetration, he gets to the lane, Brodz finishes. I thought that was huge, and we want to get some put-backs, too, as well. We didn't get a lot of those, but we didn't miss a lot of shots, either.

But yeah, it's something we emphasize because we want to get there and we want to drive it, and we got some good minutes out of a lot of guys.

Q. Why didn't you use -- you had a foul to give right at the end --
JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, we used one, but I don't think we could have fouled at the end, on the missed shot at the very end? In overtime, the rule has changed. It's three in overtime, so we weren't, and we could have possibly used it in the regulation, and we used one, and the second one we left it up to our players and probably didn't do a good job of that. Maybe I should have used it. I thought it was where we wanted to be. We didn't want Bohannon beating us, we didn't want Jok beating us, and we've just got to play better defense. But they're hard to guard, and they can really get it going, and they got it going tonight.

Q. With Jaylen out, obviously you needed Alex to step up, and he did. What about Desmond?
JAMIE DIXON: Desmond was terrific. I thought he was passing up some threes early and driving, and we told him to shoot the ball. He had a big three in the second half. But obviously the free throws are huge. He was steady. I've been saying we've got to get him more minutes, but with Alex, Jaylen and Kenrich, it leaves us some, but obviously you knew he was going to make the free throws because he just did on national TV and made three in a row against Kansas. He's a grown-up freshman, as we say. I thought he played pretty good defense, too, and that's something we've been striving to get out of him, but a really good guy to pick up in April, that's for sure.

Q. Was this one of Alex's best all-around games?
JAMIE DIXON: I think so. I think he played pretty good defense, too. We put him on Bohannon. I say that, and the guy had 25, but a lot of them were in transition, and we switched on that play at the end and it wasn't him guarding him when he hit the three in the deep corner, and the one he hit at the end. He had six in the last minute or so.

Those deep threes -- I thought he played really well, and we'd like to continue using him and get him rested for Tuesday, just getting everybody shots, but 11 assists speaks volumes.

This is an unbelievable environment, an unbelievable place. I've always heard it is. And Fran is a great coach. I thought it was a great game, obviously. Thank you for the opportunity.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297