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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 15, 2019

Kansas City, Missouri

Iowa State 63, Kansas State 59

THE MODERATOR: We have the Cyclones of Iowa State. Our head coach, Steve Prohm, and student-athletes are Marial Shayok and Michael Jacobson. Coach, congratulations on your victory.

STEVE PROHM: Thank you. First of all, it was a great game, great atmosphere and I knew playing Kansas State here and the way our fans travel the game would be great. Congratulations to Kansas State and Coach Weber for the regular season championship. That's hard to do, extremely hard to do. Great job in the second half. Really making it tough for us offensively. We got stagnant. The ball didn't move as well. They were able to get out of transition, off turnovers. Turned it over 17 times. I was most proud of the guys today. We were down 5 late, flipped the script back in Ames. We were up 5 or 7 late and they came back on us. Nick got two free throws. We chased down a couple of lose balls. Mike had 16 rebounds, Marial's three rimmed it, and Marial made a shot that a lot of fans here will remember if we're fortunate to go on and complete this deal tomorrow night. Congrats to K-State. They've had an unbelievable year up to this point.

Q. Mike, talk about the 16 rebounds, you guys owned a 14 rebound advantage for the game.
MICHAEL JACOBSON: It's something that we have focused on as a team, one of our goals as a team is to be plus in the margin, so playing a team like K-State you're going to have to do that. You're going to have to control glass, especially when shots weren't falling like they normally do. So controlling the defense glass and getting offensive boards that can get us extra possessions is a big deal in a close game like this.

Q. Marial, talk about the 3-pointer that you made with less than a minute left that gave y'all the lead. What kind of spacing did you have over there in the corner and how did the fall feel when it left your hand?
MARIAL SHAYOK: The ball felt good when it left my hands. I had my space, but I had all the confidence in the world. I was missing a bunch of shots in the second half and that's -- Coach Prohm and my teammates they give me the confidence all year down the stretch to shoot those shots.

Q. Could you scout the upcoming game. If it's KU, give us a scouting report, if it's West Virginia as well.
MARIAL SHAYOK: I mean, our coaches are going to handle that part. We just got to execute whatever scout they provide us later tonight, and I'm sure we're going to be ready. It's going to be an exciting game, exciting atmosphere. So we're all looking forward to it.

Q. Michael, considering the way this team is playing down the stretch what was the discussion among the team heading into this tournament about the state of this team?
MICHAEL JACOBSON: I mean, we were just fighting to get back right I think was the biggest thing. We just got back to competing in practice and working hard and going at each other and I think, you know, to be honest sometimes you've got to hit rock bottom to start building it back up and I think that's kinda what happened to an extent and we came out of the Texas Tech game and didn't win. But they are a good team and we felt like we played better than we had in a while and we knew if we could keep building on that and the get our mentality to where it needed to be in early January and February we would have a chance at this.

Q. Marial, you had gone without a field goal from 5-17 in the first half until those back-to-back threes in the corner. Were you aware of that? Frustrated? What was your thought process being held down without a make there for a period of time?
MARIAL SHAYOK: I wasn't really thinking about it, just doing what I can to get the win and despite all that I kept my confidence and like I said earlier, the team has my back and the coaching staff has my back to shoot those shots. So credit to them.

THE MODERATOR: Guys, we will let you go back to the locker room. Congratulations. Thank you. Questions for Coach?

Q. Coach, congratulations on the win. You have a unique perspective of you played K-State once with Dean Wade and once without him today. How different of a team are they without him?
STEVE PROHM: They're really good. That class has been coming together for three years. This is a three-year run for them, really, and I've been here for all four years. I got here when Dean Wade was a freshman and Stokes and Brown were freshmen and then they added Sneed. They went to the tournament. Without Wade last year they make the Elite 8 run. I think they're a good team the way they play with Wade and without Wade because Coach Weber is so good defensively. Their teams are resilient. They have championship DNA that we talked at halftime. Those guys were going to respond. Barry Brown is a winner. He leads the way from a toughness standpoint for them and I got a lot of respect for those guys. To win the regular season in this league isn't easy. I don't know to talk X's and O's what makes 'em different. What makes that team good is their character and their toughness on the defense end.

Q. Coach, if it's KU tomorrow this place is going to be absolutely nuts. Can you talk about the atmosphere for the championship game if it's KU? And then I have a follow-up.
STEVE PROHM: That's what you want to be a part of. You're playing the elite program in our league, Hall of Fame coach, bunch of McDonald's All-Americans. We got a ton of respect for Kansas, I know a couple of years ago, I think it may have been Coach Hoiberg's last year, they played Kansas and beat them in the championship. I heard those stories and my second year here when we thought we may play each other in the Sweet 16. We thought that may happen, but we got beat by Purdue. Iowa State and Kansas, ESPN, that should be fun.

Q. Iowa State has never lost in a championship of the Bog 12. Talk about the pressure that puts on your guys?
STEVE PROHM: There is no pressure. There is no pressure. We're going to prepare tonight and prepare in the morning. There is no pressure in that. Our guys don't know it, and unless you tell them, I'm not going to tell them. I'm proud of where these guys are at over the last week of trying to change their habits, but you can see we got stagnant tonight and we can't do that. It may not be Kansas. West Virginia drilled us a couple of weeks ago up there. That was a tough moment for us and our team. So if it's Coach Huggins and their team we're going to have to play really well too. But obviously I know your message was about Kansas with the atmosphere. But we will be excited either way. There is definitely no pressure and if there is any pressure it needs to go on me not the kids.

Q. Coach, I know this is a semifinal win, but with what your team has been through, would you say that the mojo is back and the corner has been turned now?
STEVE PROHM: I don't know. We've always been a good basketball team. We just haven't been very good for the first three weeks. Three weeks prior we were 13th in the NCAA seeding polls when that came out, so that's pretty good.

We got into a bad rut, and we weren't playing the right way. We struggled defensively, and we had to make changes. It's more about not basketball changes just us doing the right thing. I think once the regular season ended and we got a little bit better against Texas Tech, coming down here gives you a new state of mind, peace of mind and obviously our fan base helps down here as well.

Q. And playing the best basketball of the season again at a very important time?
STEVE PROHM: Well, this is when you want to be playing your best. I thought yesterday against Baylor was a really complete game. I thought we had a good half tonight. We struggled in the second half, but Kansas State had a lot to do with that. They're so good defensively in the half-court and we've got to do a better job tomorrow night of moving the basketball.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Congratulations.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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