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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: TULSAMarch 22, 2019Chris BeardDavide MorrettiJarrett CulverTulsa, Oklahoma Texas Tech - 72 Northern Kentucky - 57 THE MODERATOR: Jarrett Culver and Davide Moretti will represent the student body for Texas Tech. Coach Beard is the head coach. We'll ask him to make a statement on the game and have questions for all three members of Texas Tech up here for 12 minutes. Chris, please. CHRIS BEARD: I want to congratulate Northern Kentucky on a great championship season. So much respect for their program. In preparation I always like to watch a couple games and get my own kind of views, then start calling people and getting people's opinions. The first; time I saw them, they played really hard and they have an identity. They guard at a high level and play really hard on offense and cut and move. And sure enough, when I started talking to people around the country about Northern Kentucky, those things came up. Any team that has an identity like they do, a championship program, so much respect for mid majors that have championship seasons, didn't have to win that one game to get into the tournament. We were fortunate enough to do it at Little Rock. I've always had a huge respect for them. For our guys, we came here, it's a four team tournament. We're trying to win two games in three days. The first game of the tournament is always the toughest. Just really proud of our guys tonight and our team effort. I thought we won this game as a team. THE MODERATOR: Questions for any of the Red Raiders. Q. Coach, you were able to hold Drew McDonald to five points. That was obviously a big key for you today. CHRIS BEARD: He's a fantastic player. I think he can play in any league in the country. He was definitely one of the main focal points of our game plan. He has the ability to score inside and out, and he's a great passer. So, I would think from their point of view, he had some good looks today that he didn't make. That's basketball. So we were fortunate, but I think you give our guys credit. We were dialed in. We knew how special he was, and I just congratulations to him, too, on a fantastic season. Let's do this like the Lone Star rush. Have you got any questions? Q. Davide, do you want to talk about what y'all do to keep him from doing as much for NKU? THE MODERATOR: For who? Q. Coach or players, either one. JARRETT CULVER: I mean, he's a great player. We just focused in on him. We watched a lot of film on him. Tried to keep him from being in the lane a lot tonight. We focus on defense and we focus on personnel a lot, so I just felt like we did a great job on there tonight. Q. For you, Coach, seemed like they had a pretty good defensive scheme for your guards, especially in the first half. Did you say anything or make any adjustments in the locker room that enabled your guards to get freed up a little more in the second half? CHRIS BEARD: Yeah. First give them a lot of credit. He can really coach. I saw him make adjustments all year in games, so you don't win that many games and championships without knowing what you're doing. In these tournament games with this much time to prepare, you kind expect the unexpected. Takes both teams a little bit of time to get their feet under them. I think in the second half, more than any big adjustment, we just want to stay aggressive. We thought in the first half we played well offensively, we couldn't make a free throw and we had to many turnovers. Really kind of staying consistent with our original game plan with just an emphasis of getting a little bit more aggressive. Q. Jarrett, after the one game stay in Kansas City for the Big 12, what was the point of emphasis with this team leading into the NCAA Tournament? JARRETT CULVER: We just wanted to focus on us. Put that behind us, learned and burned. We just focused on us, details, how we got so far and how we made a run in the Big 12 and how we got to the March Madness tournament. So I felt like we focused on this all weekend. We did a great job on that. Q. I have a question for Morretti. I noticed you back there and got a glass of water and didn't get ice. I've always wondered, I went to Europe and what's the whole idea of no ice? DAVIDE MORETTI: Well, the water is already cold, so I don't need any other ice to get it colder (laughter). THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Texas Tech? Q. Coach, after your fireside chat yesterday, the world wants to know, did anybody take you up on your offer to stay in Coach Adams' room last night? CHRIS BEARD: I can't confirm or deny that. I really try to stay away from Mark Adams on the days of games. He's kind of intense, borderline moody. We're fortunate to win a game in the NCAA Tournament. These are so hard to win, so that we'll celebrate for 30 minutes and within 30 minutes, I'll ask Coach Adams that and get back to you guys the next time we're all together. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? All right. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Q. Davide, overall impressions of the game, you know, taking the experience from last year, you guys are sophomores, second year here at the NCAA Tournament. What are some of your thoughts about today's win? DAVIDE MORETTI: Me and Jarrett and all the guys were here last year, give advice to the new guys and try to lead the team since the first minute. And you know, I think we did a pretty good job, even if we had too many turnovers in the first minutes. But overall I think we kind of lead the way pretty good. CHRIS BEARD: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Good luck on Sunday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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