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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: TULSAMarch 21, 2019Chris BeardNorense OdiaseMatt MooneyTariq OwensBrandone FrancisTulsa, Oklahoma THE MODERATOR: We are ready for questions for the student-athletes representing Texas Tech, Brandone Francis, Tariq Owens, Matt Mooney, and Norense Odiase. Q. Norense, back in the NCAA Tournament, just what are you looking for about the experience and being here with these guys and the rest of your teammates? NORENSE ODIASE: Another chance at achieving its ultimate goal. Last year we had a good run with those guys. We achieved heights that the school never reached before, and this year we're just ready to create our own story. We have two seniors that's never been on this stage before and very happy to get them there. We just want to build off this year, off what we did in the regular season, and continue to finish strong. Q. This for both Matt and Tariq. Does it feel real now for you guys? Because you heard the hype probably from your teammates, but now to be here and see this, how real does it make it? TARIQ OWENS: Definitely feels real. Since we got here, we've been enjoying our time working, you know, and just feels great. This is great. Just feels great to achieve this goal. MATT MOONEY: Yeah, something we wanted to be here all year, this was our goal from day one. But not just be here, to win the whole thing and take it one game at a time. But no, feels real. Coach wants us to soak it in, but at the same time get ready to play a game. We're starting to lock in now. Q. Can you describe maybe the way some of the methodology that Coach has used to get Texas Tech away from kind of a dry period and have sustainable success? Question for Matt and also for Tariq. MATT MOONEY: Yeah, I'd say that's probably why I chose Texas Tech because I saw something in Coach Beard. He's established the culture here of winning, holding everybody accountable. He just -- when he was recruiting me, I knew this guy is going to win, he's going to get it done. He surrounds himself with great people. The staff is amazing. He recruits great guys that are good team guys. Other than, he's a tough dude, demands toughness in defense, and he's a brilliant coach as well. TARIQ OWENS: What I would describe it, one of his methods is the process. You know, everybody from top to bottom, first guy to last guy, everybody is in the gym. Constant work everyday. You know, that's just the culture of our team. Everybody enjoys the work. Nobody gets tired of it. This is the main thing that brought me here. I enjoy the work. These guys up here with me enjoy the work. That's what we've been doing all year. Q. Talk about the experience of this year, maybe as opposed to last year and just a little bit of the ride here coming into this week's tournament. BRANDONE FRANCIS: Feel pretty good to be back, especially with the new guys, Matt and Tariq and especially Norense. Trying to stay composed. We know what's expected of us. Just try to go out there and play together. Q. Matt, how important is being disciplined from stopping them from shooting tomorrow 3s. MATT MOONEY: We know a lot of times in this tournament upsets happen from 3s. In this tournament anything can happen, teams get hot. They're a really good shooting team. We're going to have to defend the 3-point line as part of our game plan to defend the 3-point line. Q. Norense rents and in particular, what kind of role as far as rebounding is this going to play for you guys having to face a team that does primarily live and die with the 3 ball, and how important has it been for you guys as far as your preparation for this game? NORENSE ODIASE: Huge. Post-season play, even regular season play usually comes down to key in rebounding. It's a factor in every game. It can win you games or lose you games. We know on this stage we got to secure all the boards. It just helps us achieve our goal of winning this game. It's been an emphasis all year. We don't change what we do all year now so just rebounding. We talk about it every day, and it's an emphasis for sure. TARIQ OWENS: Pretty much, we got to secure the boards. We got to box out. Can't give them any second chance opportunities. Just important something we've been focusing on all year. A team that shoots primarily 3s, there's going to be some long boards. It will take a group effort. All five guys will have to get on the glass. Guards rebounding down, things like that. Q. For Norense, can you talk about Jarrett and the evolution you've seen in him as a player and person since he first showed up on campus? NORENSE ODIASE: Lot of growth. He sticks to the process. Him and Zhaire did that last year. They came in and followed our leaders that we have. They still follow leaders, from the DAs to the coaches to the staff. He's a great listener. He's a team guy. That's really helped him develop as a player. He's in the gym every day working. That's just a testament to how he is as a player now. Q. When did you have the feeling that he could have that kind of special season? NORENSE ODIASE: Honestly we knew last year. We knew last year he's that type of player. He puts in the work. He's obviously talented. He just had it last year, a different role. We knew last year he was the type of player that he is now. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the student-athletes of Texas Tech? Q. Norense and Brandone, how is last year's experience in the tournament helping prepare you for what you're facing this year? BRANDONE FRANCIS: Help us big time so we can guide some of the new guys, especially the freshmen and me and Tariq being new to it. They're going to be just fine. They played a lot of games. And I think it will be fine, especially if we stick together as a group. I think it's going to help us big time. NORENSE ODIASE: Helps a lot. One thing we got to tell them, don't let the bright lights get you from who you are. What you did day one in November the first game, do it again because it got us to this point. Don't change because the scenery changed, the time changes, the excitement. Don't change the process that you've done to get to this point, and that's what we really got to harp on. Last year we didn't change, had a great run. This year we want to take it even further, but game by game, day by day, stay with the process and stay level throughout. Q. Talk about the development of Davide Moretti this year. BRANDONE FRANCIS: He played with a lot of confidence. He's a great defender now. He's tough. He plays tough. He's one of our leaders even though he's a sophomore. He's playing amazing for us. He plays. He pays the price every single day. We're excited. Norense's roles changed. He's able to step into his role with confidence knowing he wasn't going to get out of the game. He had some strength to play confidence and strong with this team. He's having fun. It worked out for us, his development, and we're excited to watch him on the stage. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the Red Raiders? All right, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Best of luck tomorrow. Chris, please. CHRIS BEARD: Just like every other in this tournament, we're just excited to be here. We never take this for granted. It's so hard to win games at our level and make the NCAA Tournament. It's something we just cherish, and our team this year was led by four seniors. Just proud of those guys. Had a lot of respect for Northern Kentucky. We feel like I'm a fan at this point, I've watch so many games. I love the way they play. I don't know their coach personally but just had an exchange in the hallway here and just so happy for them to be a championship team. Having coached at the mid major level, I understand how hard it is to win your conference tournament after you had a championship great season. We were able to do that at Little Rock. This is a tough team that's really, really good. We expect them to play great tomorrow. We know we'll have to play our best game of the year to advance in this tournament. Q. I wonder if you could describe maybe the process -- that's a word that one of guys actually used is "process" -- of not just building a program but sustaining it and some of the lessons you got along the ways as assistant coach whether it was Tom Penders or Bob Knight, and how you applied that to your time here at Texas Tech? CHRIS BEARD: I think among many goals that we had when we got the Tech job, our third years, we're trying to build a program, not just to have a good team. And there's a big difference. And so last year we had a great run in this tournament. We didn't want that to define who we are in our program. I'm so proud to be back up here on this stage this year. Again, don't ever take this for granted but we start talking about programs versus team talking about consistency. Each team and coach has a different way to go about it. Our plan is our process. We've got a day-to-day process that went in from strength conditioning to individual work, to practice, to embracing academics, to an unselfish culture. Many things go into our day-to-day process. Makes me happy that those guys use the same word. You know, so we just -- we don't really have a week plan, month plan. I've always been the guy that had a day-to-day plan. Our plan is to execute the process. This team has done that about as well as any team I've ever coached. Q. Coach, you talked about building a program. How much more of a challenge is it to do that when you're in a place like Lubbock that's a little bit off the beaten path, maybe you don't have the quite the tradition of Kansas or somebody like that? What does that add to the challenge of what you're trying to do? CHRIS BEARD: In terms of Lubbock, it's a huge advantage. Those of you who have been to Tech, you understand that. We have some of the best fans in college basketball. We sell out games in the 15,000-seat arena. We have a great college town, so that's an advantage. But I do respect the question in terms of tradition. We have great basketball tradition at Texas Tech. My lifetime, Coach Myers is a coach and athletic director, certainly James Dickey, Bob Knight, most recently Tubby Smith, and we're trying to take it to the next level. In recent history that's one thing we had to kind of overcome. Now having Zhaire, Keenan, and Zach in the NBA, so right now certainly we have NBA players on this year's team, we're starting to get into the world of building a tradition. We're in the early stages of it, but recruiting is not hard at Texas Tech. We have a great academic institution. As we have success, we're building tradition and this helps. Q. Coach, you've had a chance to see Iowa State a couple times this season and both of you are here in. What are your thoughts about the Cyclones? Is there anything about them that you think they can make a run? CHRIS BEARD: Coach Prohm is a friend of mine. My mind is on Northern Kentucky right now. Q. Coach, I followed your history and from Marietta to McCullough High School in the Woodlands to where you're at today, what has been one or two of the driving force that's have gotten you to where you're at today? Because you've won every place you've been right now: Fill us in a little bit. CHRIS BEARD: That's impressive. I haven't heard Marietta in awhile. Ever been to The Varsity? Great. Best hot dog in America. Chili and cheese, no onions. People ask that all the time. I used to kind of shy away from it, but now I kind of embrace it. The reason we win, we have good players. It's a player's game whether it be Jamal Brown or Omar "Cuco" at Seminole, whether the vet, Jacoby Jackson with "D'Maury," Josh "Haygains" with Little Rock or Kenan Evans at Texas Tech, we've had good players. Try to get guys that want to be coached. Try to get guys that want to play for the team and the program and not themselves and this year's team is a great example of that. We've got guys that are playing for Texas Tech not what's on the back of their jersey, their name. So, I appreciate that question. It's always a compliment, but it's really simple answer. We've had good players everywhere we've coached. We take care of them, coach them hard, love them. We help them graduate. That's really the key to our success is our players. Q. There's going to be a lot of people seeing one of the best players in college basketball. What can folks expect to see when they see him? CHRIS BEARD: The secret it out. For the longest time we were kind of under the radar, but simply stated, I think Jarrett is one of the best players in college basketball. How do you go from being a non-top recruit and two years later you're a lottery pick, in my opinion. I did tell him the other day, even if the lottery works out, if he wants to come back to Tech, we have a spot for him. If we run out of scholarships when he goes through the NBA process, we can still get him to walk on. He looked at me like I was crazy. The whole world sees his talent tomorrow night. You'll see his length and athleticism and ability to play on both ends. What the world doesn't know is the work ethic, the character, great teammate. But above all, when I think of Culver, I think of love of the game. I was never a great player myself, but no one loves this game more than me, nobody. I just grew up loving it, play it, just love basketball. Culver loves it as much as I do, and I've only said that about a few players in my career. Jarrett is a guy we just had a local practice at a high school before we came over here and Culver trying to get him to the bus, let's go. He wants to get off five more shots, wants to play the manage one-on-one. Wants to watch two more clips on his laptop. He's a student of the game. That why he's going to be a great pro. He'll be an NBA All Star one day. When you love something this much, when talent intersects with love of the game, special things happen. That's what happened in Lubbock. Last year Zhaire Smith, Keenan Evans. Culver is a guy that loves basketball, loves it. Q. As a man who has coached at various different levels, you said you've been a fan of what Northern Kentucky has been able to do. Obviously the first several years in, Division I. Having coached at different levels, does that impress you more with what they've been able to accomplish more quickly? CHRIS BEARD: One hundred percent. One of the best untold stories in college basketball. I pride myself in watching games and knowing everything that's going on. I didn't understand how quickly Coach has built a program. If I'm not mistaken, NCAA Tournament, NIT, NCAA Tournament, players have changed. They have an identity. Yeah, it's been special. In our state my former player and good friend Joe Golding has done something similar at Abilene Christian. He haven't gotten into the consistency yet. Northern Kentucky has. I'm a fan at this point, watching their games. Definitely be a guy that I reach out to this spring and summer and try to get with him and talk some basketball because I love a lot of things they're doing. Q. Apologies for asking a stupid question, but The Varsity you mentioned piqued my curiosity. Were you born in Marietta? How long did you live in the Atlanta area? CHRIS BEARD: Both my parents are from Atlanta. My grandparents, I was born in Marietta originally, moved to Texas, young life, I don't know, first or second grade. Always at that time trip back every summer. My dad got two weeks off a year. That's where some of the work ethic comes from that I get. One week those five days will be my sporting events whether, it be football, baseball or basketball. The other we're loading up the car on Saturday morning, 5 am driving straight to Atlanta. Staying two days with grandparents and going to Panama City Beach. Staying at the same motel, eat at the same restaurants. Routine. Another thing with our process. Got this from my dad. We're going to go to The Varsity twice even though we'll be there three days. He's going to relive all the stories about how he went there as a kid. He's going to show me where he scored the game-winning touchdown, where he went on his first date. Q. Where did he play? CHRIS BEARD: Sprayberry High School. My mom and my dad at Marietta High. I'm getting two hot dogs, mustard, chili, cheese, no onions. Fries with a side of chili on the fries, and I'm doing the chocolate milk on ice. The next person I saw do that was Bob Knight. Coach Knight used to have Dr. Pepper and chocolate milk on ice. Think about that one. It's a special place. When I was recruited to Atlanta. A little bit over the year we always go back, Al Pinkins who is now at Florida, Al is from the South, too. So we went to The Varsity. I think we spent $32 between the two of us last time went to The Varsity. Do the math on that. Q. You're going to have what appears to be a decent following in the stands tomorrow. Iowa State gets a lot of publicity for the passion that fan base brings. Out of the box reaction to the draw here, it's several thousand Cyclone fans. I get the sense your base has really latched on to what you guys have done the last few years. I was wondering if you could speak to that and what kind of crowd you expect to have behind you tomorrow? CHRIS BEARD: First of all, we've always had great fans, tradition of Tech basketball. We're not rebuilding it, just awakening it again, trying to get it to the next level. Last year we had some great support not only in Dallas but in Boston. I expect the same. I'll call it. We'll have a great showing of Red Raider nation here. We have a lot of respect for Iowa State. We talk about their program a lot. We're trying to get in the same neighborhood they're in. We're getting very close to doing it. We have great fans. You work really hard to have a season like we had with this seed. It's what you're working for. You want the people that supported you all year long to have a chance to watch you in the NCAA Tournament. We're proud to be in Tulsa. I used to coach at Seminole State College. I'm an Oklahoma guy. I have a lot of fans and friends that live here. We're glad to be at the Embassy Suites. We used to stay there back in JUCO, put eight guys to a bed, two to a bed, two to the bed, two on a couch, freshmen on the floor. Free beer at Happy Hour, always good for the SIDs and assistant coaches. Not me during the season, after the season, yes. Went to Jamil's Steakhouse last night. Top ten steakhouse in this part of the country. We're glad to be in Tulsa. Anybody been to Jamil's? THE MODERATOR: I have. CHRIS BEARD: Big time. Get the prime rib. Q. More than the 32-dollar bill? CHRIS BEARD: Yes. Especially at this level. when we're at Seminole, went to see Cici's Pizza off of 44. 4.99 without a drink. Can't do it. What do you want, Coach? 4.99? Free drink? Can our bus drivers eat for free? How many bus drivers do you have? Four. Same guy running that Cici's off 44, thank you. Q. Talking about the hot dogs, been to coney I-lander? CHRIS BEARD: Is that a chain? Q. It's a Tulsa chain. CHRIS BEARD: Place here that's a root beer place. Q. Weber's. CHRIS BEARD: That's the spot. Any basketball questions? Q. Coach, with you playing on Friday this year, how much are you actually paying attention to what's going on around in the tournament if at all, or is it just completely focused on Northern Kentucky? CHRIS BEARD: Yeah. One hundred percent Northern Kentucky. When we have team meals, we'll have the games going on for the environment of the tournament. Again, it's like dreaming the life. Never take it for granted getting here. I love the Friday draw because you can experience Thursday, too. I'd like every year to play the Friday last game so you get to enjoy the whole deal. Special time of the year, but really haven't looked at the bracket. Kind of know my friends are in the tournament. Know the Big 12 teams because we're exchanging texts. I we've always set this up as a four-team tournament. There's four teams in ours. We got to win two games to try to advance. Easy to talk about, really difficult to do. That's always been our mindset. The bracket comes out, we just enjoy it for 30 seconds, we get our guys in the room, close the door. Say it's a four-team tournament. Most important game in any tournament is the first game. If you're fortunate to win that, which is really hard to do, then you got a chance to win one more to try to advance to the regional. THE COURT: Anything else for the head coach? All right. Chris, thank you very much. Best of luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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