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

March 16, 2018

Nashville, Tennessee

Nevada - 87, Texas - 83 (OT)

THE MODERATOR: Texas Longhorns are now with us. Head coach Shaka Smart, also with Matt Coleman, Mohamed Bamba, Kerwin Roach II.

Going to ask Coach Smart to open up with a statement, then we'll go to questions for all four gentlemen from Texas. Shaka, please.

SHAKA SMART: It's a devastating loss. It's a terrible feeling right now. Nevada deserves a ton of credit. They made some huge, huge plays, huge shots. In the second half, in overtime. They're a really, really good team. Obviously, we put ourselves in position early in the second half to take the game. We didn't play with enough aggressiveness down the stretch. I thought they were the more aggressive team and that gave them an edge.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Snoop, the way that final part of regulation unfolded, the back and forth and the missed free throw, what did you all want to do when Dylan got the ball with 3.6 left? Did you have something drawn up? What was supposed to happen there?
KERWIN ROACH II: We had a play drawn up where we threw it to Jericho. He was supposed to throw it back to me. We didn't complete the pass. But we just didn't execute that play, turned it over.

Q. Shaka, you guys got up, I think it was 40-25. A lot free flowing, just a lot of driving, kicking, moving the ball around. Did they do anything to change, get you guys out of rhythm offensively? It seemed like from that point on, you kind of struggled to generate good looks.
SHAKA SMART: They did a good job taking away some drives at that point, but I did think we got a little hesitant for a stretch there. You know, we talked about it many times before. When you have a lead, you've got to stay aggressive and keep attacking. They did a really nice job trying to take away some of the driving angles. We were trying to look to throw the ball inside. They doubled. They doubled before the ball even went in.

And we missed some shots. We had some possessions where at the end of the clock, we didn't get anything going that we wanted to. So that was a big difference in the game.

Q. Shaka, what were the conversations like at halftime? You're up 9, but you knew a 3-point shooting team was going to continue to shoot and they were 3 out of 12 from distance. What were those conversations like?
SHAKA SMART: We just talked about the fact that the two biggest keys on defense were transition defense and then taking away the 3-point shot from them. So we talked about that. We reinforced what we needed to do.

Being up 9, you know, in an NCAA tournament game, you know the other team's going to really do everything they can to make a run. Our guys started the half really, really well. But, again, I thought the crucial part of that second half was when they took control in terms of being the more aggressive team.

Obviously, at that point, they had nothing to lose. They were behind, they were attacking, and we just didn't do enough to match them.

Q. Obviously, you foul out late, you're stuck watching them through the sideline. What's going through your head? You looked almost sick that you couldn't be out there in overtime. What's going through your head while you're watching that?
MOHAMED BAMBA: During that, I was just trying to impact, you know, rub some energy off my teammates, try and impact the game as much as possible even from the sideline.

Q. Matt, when overtime began, did you feel like you had to take over, needed to take over? What was your kind of mindset there?
MATT COLEMAN: Find a way to win. But that didn't happen. Came up short.

Q. Shaka, kind of a loaded question, but just overall, what does the program need to add to get to that next step, to get to that NCAA tournament win? What do you think needs to be fixed or added?
SHAKA SMART: We obviously are minutes removed from a devastating loss. So right now, our mind is on that game. And what we'll do as coaches and players is focus on what's next. But now is obviously a time where we're extremely upset about the game.

But off the top of my head, a simple answer to your question is, in a game like today, we need to add, you know, one or two more winning plays. That's the difference. One more stop, one more rebound. It's a cruel, you know, hard assessment. But, you know, in games like this that go in overtime, and we've been in as many as anyone in the country, one play does make the difference.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Best of luck in the future, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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