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NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENTApril 2, 2019Jamie DixonJD MillerAlex RobinsonNew York, New York Texas 58, TCU 44 COACH JAMIE DIXON: As I told our guys afterwards, I wanted them to focus on our 23 wins this year and how they battled through a lot of adversity and played through most of the conference with seven guys, sometimes six guys, and came up with 23 wins. So I want them to remember that. This obviously was not our best performance. Disappointed in how we played and this one is going to hurt because of the loss to Texas and how we performed. It's going to be hard. I said that, I don't know how that's going to play as far as today, but I wanted to make sure they got that message. The game did not go our way. Give Texas credit. They were more physical than they were and more active, and they really good a good job guarding our penetration to keep us out of the paint. Simply put; I thought we played defensively pretty good and outrebounded them by a pretty good number, six, so that's a good sign you're playing hard and doing things on offense but we were never in a rhythm. We said that early in the game, tried some adjustments and tried some different things and never got into it. I told them during the game, I thought there was times where we passed up open shots and then took tough shots, and usually that's not -- those two things don't occur but that was how we were playing and just never got into our rhythm. Congratulations to Texas. Q. (No mic.) JD MILLER: (Indiscernible) just executed on our offensive end. ALEX ROBINSON: Yeah, the loss -- it really hurt, obviously. I'm just proud of our guys. We fought hard all season. I thought we fought hard this game. It's just one of those things, unfortunately -- we fought hard. Q. (No mic.) ALEX ROBINSON: Yeah, for sure. Washburn and Grant, they all said a little prayer for us, and for the sacrifice and hard work everybody put in and everybody just kind of followed. I remember before he got here, we were a really separated bunch and he made sure we came together and we played together. JD MILLER: You know, going back to my sophomore year when we first got in the NIT and we had great players like Alex said, we had Brandon Parrish, standout players, Washburn, those type deals, they held us together and coaches came in and good things happen leading up to now. Q. What memories will you cherish most from your time at TCU? JD MILLER: Just the memories, my teammates, how much fun we had, the conferences we made and the records we broke, playing in the staples centre, we had great opportunities and I'll cherish those moments or the rest of my life. ALEX ROBINSON: Getting to play at the Garden two out of my four years here and getting to the NCAA Tournament and being with a winning coach. Just told them to keep their heads up, stay positive, keep up what they are doing for next year. COACH JAMIE DIXON: I just wanted to add about the seniors, those two guys, that I was doing the radio on about them and different conversations and different interviews, but the thing that really stands out to me is just their toughness and their competitiveness. I don't think ear guy missed a practice this year and over the last three years. Just iron men, just out there every single day, and whether it be games, whether it be practices, I think that's the thing that they really brought to the team, and believe it. Obviously I don't have an exact number, but it's about 60, 68 wins, 69 wins in their three years, their last three years, which obviously is a significant enough number compared to where it happened. Every day they were out there, they practiced hard and they worked hard, and they brought energy. I just think of it as the iron men aspect they brought to our team. Q. (No mic.) COACH JAMIE DIXON: The last couple times -- I really don't talk about it. Done a great job -- -- the opportunity I was given at TCU. Doesn't feel good right now as far as this loss, and that's what's so disappointing because it's just that we've been playing so good, and we just never got in that rhythm offensively today. That's the only thing that fuels me now. Q. (No mic.) COACH JAMIE DIXON: We thought they were more physical today in how they played. We had one assist in the first half, so things were not going well as far as offensive execution. We ended up with seven for the game, so I thought we did a better job and in the second half, we seemed to have more open shots that we didn't make. First half, I think poor excuse and great defense by then, and patience -- I mean, we didn't reverse the ball. We didn't move the ball. We kept it on one side of the floor, and we've been so good offensively in the last, six, seven games, and so that's why it's troubling and hard to understand. It seemed that it was better in the second half but yet we didn't hit the open shots. You know, it's something that's -- and I was encouraged. I was encouraged in the second half. We came out, obviously made the run to get to five, and I think we did -- and then we missed some open shots and encouraging the guys, we're good, we're in good shape here, just keep doing what you're doing and then we got into a situation where we thought we had to score quicker and that's where it got away from us again. Q. (No mic.) COACH JAMIE DIXON: Well, I don't know how many times -- you do it in the tournament, the Big 12 Tournament. Kansas State was able to get us. I don't know, we really wanted to make it the focus about one game, this game, not about the last two, but I don't know if that was the right approach. I mean, we'd rather build off the confidence of beating them in the two games, but I really wanted to look at just this one. They were a different team and as far as watching them play, they had been shooting the ball better and more threes, and you know, one of their guys was out. Roach (ph) didn't play in the first game -- the second game against us. Obviously had 22, so that's a big dip. Offensively, I did not see this coming offensively. I just don't know why we just looked so out of rhythm, is the phrase I use, because at times we overpassed and then at times we didn't pass, and it just was a bad combination. If you pass up open shots, that's bad offense, too, and that's where I thought we found ourselves a lot of times. We got -- they were scrambling. They were rotating very well, so they had something to do with it but we just didn't have the ability to knock down the shots in rhythm or make the right pass in rhythm that we had been doing and been doing a pretty good job of it. Also got our stats in the last five games, six games, we're shooting a high percentage of three. We've cut down our turnovers, but tonight, we didn't. Q. (No mic.) COACH JAMIE DIXON: I mean, been aggressive all year long. Just talk to him about it. I don't know why we played like we did, but it's disappointing. Q. (No mic.) COACH JAMIE DIXON: Well, I mean, obviously you can look at the numbers, it's a significant improvement. Doesn't feel like it right now but as I told our players, you know, look at the 23 wins. Look what you did this year. Look what you've done over the last three years, especially those two guys, JD, Desmond, you can put in there, as well, and Alex. So they are big. Obviously the team's been a significant jump in wins and obviously playing in a league that was a much higher level than it had been the previous year, so there's been a significant -- I mean, the word I've heard used now, is we're relevant now as a program. People know that we're an NCAA-calibre team, and we proved that we were but tonight, we didn't. But obviously the progress has been substantial in a short period of time, but again, this game is sticking with me. Q. (No mic.) COACH JAMIE DIXON: The job -- just don't talk about that, no point, rumors out there. I'm just trying to get over this loss right now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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