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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DALLASMarch 17, 2018Chris BeardNorense OdiaseKeenan EvansZach SmithJustin GrayDallas, Texas Texas Tech - 69, Florida - 66 CHRIS BEARD: I want to congratulate Florida on another great season. A lot of respect for their team. Their coach at Louisiana Tech when I was at Little Rock, I kind of looked up to guys like that who have won wherever they've been and always got an opportunity. So he's been somebody I've always respected. And then to compete against him tonight, it was as good as advertised. Definitely one of the toughest offensive teams we played against all year. They had us so spread out. We were forced to kind of go small ball. Two of our better players, Norense and Tommy, just kind of made a coaching decision. And when you make those decisions, you hope and pray it works out because regret is pretty tough to handle. It went our way tonight, a little bit of destiny out there. And Florida got three great looks. We were just really, really fortunate. I think you've got to give our guys a lot of credit. We held them under 70 points. We had three guys in double figures. We had a lot of balance. Our two young guys, Culver and Z, were big-time tonight, especially rebounding the ball when we were forced to go small ball. So just really pleased to coach these guys and to advance. We look at this kind of like a four-team tournament. We knew we had to win two games to get to the regional, so now we've got a chance at another four-team tournament to ultimately get to the biggest stage. But again, a lot of respect to Florida, congratulations to them on a great season. And I'm really proud of our guys for advancing. Q. I want to ask I guess Keenan, the fact that y'all have made this journey together, y'all came in at the same time, new coaching staff, just your feeling to be going to the Sweet 16 now. KEENAN EVANS: It's amazing. I feel like words can't really describe this journey with these guys. And Coach Beard came in and said he was going to win. And after last season, it was a disappointment, he told us we were going to get to this tournament next year. We were going to make a run, and he kept his word, and here we are. Q. Keenan, you've talked before about how every night is senior night. How does that motivate you late in games? KEENAN EVANS: It's everything. As that clock runs down, kind of look at it like, man, I don't want my season to be over. And these guys are the same way, so we're just taking it into account that it's senior night. Q. Zach, late in the game you got matched up with one of your guards who kind of had you on the perimeter, but you were able to get that block. Can you take us through that play? ZACH SMITH: We were switching the whole game trying to stay in front, and I knew I couldn't give up a three. And when he drove, just tried to make a play on the ball, and I was able to make the play. Q. Keenan, I wonder if you can explain what happened on the alley-oop in the last minute, how it got set up. KEENAN EVANS: Coach drew up a pick-and-roll play for me. Zach came out. The guy kind of came out too hard, and I saw an opening, so I kind of split it. And Zhaire, Coach told him to be waiting right there. I was hoping he would make a 360 dunk again, but that didn't work out. I saw him right there, and I threw it up, and he went up and finished it. Q. Keenan, besides yourself, Zhaire really seemed to take over the game at times. What in the heck is this guy's upside as just a freshman? KEENAN EVANS: Man, it's -- he has no ceiling. Even after the season when he works and he works even this week, he's going to be putting in more work, and he's one of the most hardworking guys, and it's just shown all season. Q. Justin, Florida comes out and scores 23 in the first ten minutes, and then in the second ten minutes, you hold them to only ten points. What changed there? JUSTIN GRAY: Just being the more aggressive and disciplined team. That's what Coach Beard preaches to us. Just making plays on defense and making them make tough shots. If they make tough shots, then we'll live with it. But trying to take away those easy shots, open threes, transition threes. I feel like we did a great job with that. Q. Keenan and Justin, on a scale of 1 to 10, where was Coach Beard's intensity tonight? KEENAN EVANS: Like any other game, he's one of the most energized people in life. He told us y'all do y'all thing, and I'll get the crowd ready. And that's exactly what he did. Every time we scored, you saw him on the sideline going like this and getting the crowd into the game. So definitely thank you to all of our fans for being there and supporting us because they were a big help. JUSTIN GRAY: Yeah, just like Keenan said, his intensity is always great at every game. He gets us going, and I think the most impressive thing he's doing all that on still a torn ACL. I don't know how he does that, but it's impressive to me. Q. Norense, y'all come out and go on an 8 and 2 run, and I think that was the most excited I've ever seen Coach Beard. How was that feeling to get the lead coming into the second half? NORENSE ODIASE: You always want to start off fast. When we took the lead like that, it was special. They got it back, but we know it's a game of runs, so we just stayed the course, and it ended up working out for us. Q. Keenan, your knack for hitting big shots in big moments, how has that developed over time? KEENAN EVANS: Just my teammates and coaching instilling confidence in me to take and make those big shots. Just putting in the work and staying confident in it and knowing my team needs me to do that. Q. Justin, there were so many fouls in the second half. It was a very clean first half. Then it seemed like there was a foul every possession. Did that upset anybody's rhythm or getting in and out of your offense? It just seemed like there were so many whistles? JUSTIN GRAY: Not really. You're talking about on the offensive end for us? We were trying to be aggressive. We knew we were in double bonus early, so we tried to make that statement in the time-outs to tell everybody get aggressive, drive. We made a lot of great drives. And once they collapsed, we pitched it to an open cutter or an open person on the perimeter. There was a lot of things that went into it, but it didn't really disrupt us at all. Q. Keenan, Coach described getting to coach y'all seniors in the day like getting the best enchiladas is the best feeling in the world. How does it feel like getting another few practices with Coach? KEENAN EVANS: These four years flown by. Once you get to this point, it's just like, man, I'm not ready for it to end. And here we are getting another week to prepare and play the game we love. Q. Keenan, I know Texas Tech as a three seed is hardly a Cinderella, but first Sweet 16 in 13 years. So what do you think the impact is on this program moving forward? KEENAN EVANS: I think it's a great impact. It sets the path for many, many more years. And with Coach Beard being here and his staff, just that sets up success in the near future. Q. Can you talk a little bit about how important it is to get a game so close to campus, being in Dallas? NORENSE ODIASE: It's special. We all have family from out here. Most of us are from this area. It was special. It was like a home game for us, so that definitely helped us tonight, and we used it to our advantage. CHRIS BEARD: My middle daughter Ella is the one that did it, too. She knows I only have like two suits. It's one thing if it's like in the celebration, no problem, but literally she just came over to me and dumped it. I'll talk to her later about that. Q. Is this like a double patty, double cheese night? CHRIS BEARD: Man, are we going to keep going with this, guys? Q. How does this -- is this a program-altering win and what you're doing at Tech in your second year? CHRIS BEARD: I don't think so. I understand, I respect the question, but we've got a great University. And we've got big-time facilities. And we've got the best fans in college basketball in my opinion. We're playing in one of the best conferences. This is what we should be doing. A good season should be a good seed and making a run. Every year should be NCAA Tournament. A lot of work went into this, but we're just getting started. I told the guys before this ever started last Sunday, I guess it was, after the selection show, I was like, look, there's 68 teams in the tournament. A lot of the teams will just show up to be a part of it, and it'll overwhelm them. A select few, the Kansases, the Michigan States, the Dukes, the Carolinas, these type people will go to win the tournament. I was like, let's be one of those. Whether we're going to win it or not, a lot of things have to happen, but let's be a team that embraces trying to win it. We're not here just to have a good time. We're here to advance. So this was a four-team tournament for us, two games, played against two really good teams, so now we've got to get better and try to do the same thing next weekend. Q. When you guys played Koulechov when he was with Rice last year, he dropped 25 on you, he had just 12 tonight. Can you talk about how well you guys played with your perimeter defense tonight? CHRIS BEARD: Well, number one, we were really fortunate. Basketball in a lot of ways is a game of making shots. And all this stuff goes into it, the hours, the work, but at the end of the day, also sometimes you just get fortunate. I thought he played great, and he got some good looks on us. The ball just didn't go in for him. But I think you've got to give our guys credit because we challenged shots. I think we spun them up a little bit and got aggressive. That would be up to their coach to talk about, but we knew if this game got in the 80s, no chance, start the bus. I guess at this level, start the jet. So we wanted to control the game with our offense, tempo-wise. So with the game in the 60s and even at halftime, even though we were down one point, we felt comfortable with the pace. We weren't going to beat Florida in the 80s or 90s, but we could play with them at this tempo game. Q. I wonder if you can talk about the commitment you made to your players that you were going to get the crowd ready. And two, I just look at the tape of you tearing your ACL. What were you thinking and how has it impacted you since then? CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, I'm not good at these double questions, man. I've got like ADD. The last one was about the ACL. That's just embarrassing, set a flair screen in practice the night before Iowa State. Then I had it all wrapped up during the game and told myself I was just going to fake it, and then we had a play, me and Niem Stevenson disagreed on something that was going on on the court and I lost my mind. So it was really embarrassing. But I always want to thank the people from Iowa because they didn't make that deal about it, great basketball people in Iowa. What was the first part of the question? Q. Your players said you made a commitment to getting the crowd ready. What did you do to make that happen? CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, I mean, way out of my comfort zone, really I'd much prefer to sit there like a Coach Self or Coach Smith or Coach K, but ultimately I think the job of any coach, if it was just a one-sentence answer in the dictionary, you do everything you can to help your players win, win in life, win on the court and off. So tonight I felt like we worked so hard to get this seed and play in Dallas, so I got a little out of my comfort zone and kind of turned cheerleader a little bit. But I want to thank everybody for responding. I know I must have looked like an idiot a lot doing that, but anything to help our guys. I would do anything to help our team, so maybe tonight in some small way, I helped get the crowd going. I'll take it. Q. Midway through the second half when Chiozza picked up his fourth foul, putting you in the double bonus, how did you take advantage of that throughout the rest of the game? CHRIS BEARD: Well, that was a part of our game plan. We always try to attack the other team's best players. To me, he's the driver of their machine. He's a special point guard. His speed is unmatched. We've seen a couple guys in the Big 12 that parallel that, but nobody quicker. And he's a great passer, and he's unselfish, and he can hit big shots, too. We made an emphasis to try to attack him on offense. Shot selection is one of our core values and principles, but I told the guys tonight, you've got a chance to be aggressive on their best players and maybe kind of will a shot up there. I won't get on you like normal. But then I said, well, if I do, just remind me I said that. But no, we were fortunate tonight that we got him in foul trouble and was able to play five or six minutes without him on the floor. It just helped us because, simply stated, he's one of their best players. Q. Yesterday you said that you were approaching this game as you had to play your best game in order to get the win. Do you feel like mission accomplished in that regard? CHRIS BEARD: In some ways, yes. I think they were superior to this game. I just thought my naked eye 40-minute, we probably played 22-23 minutes as well as we can play. Offensively, especially in the second half, we got the motion going pretty good. We were getting back cuts and lay-ups. We were getting fouls. I was really proud of our guys executing our motion offense in the second half. And then defensively, we were just trying to hold on. It wasn't pretty, but to hold Florida to 66 points, we had to do something right. So yeah, I thought it was one of our better games. I just want to coach these guys another day. That's the bottom line, just having so much fun with this group. Just want to have one more practice and one more film session and one more travel, and then I'm sure when we get to the next destination, we'll get greedy and want to do it again. But this is all about just surviving and advance. It really is. And I'm proud to be these guys' coach. I'm just glad we get to live another day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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