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NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT

April 4, 2019

Casey Alexander

New York, New York

Texas 81, Lipscomb 66

COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: Obvious, credit to Texas. They were the better team tonight. Better team usually wins. Felt like they missed some good looks early in the game that allowed us to get some momentum and then they made some tougher shots for the last 35 minutes or so, and they executed really well. They had 23 assists from 28 makes. Highly efficient offense that executed what they wanted to do. So we never really put the stops together to get enough momentum back in the second half. We had a couple of spurts, but not enough of it.

Then, really, the game was decided on our offensive end. They did an excellent job guarding us. Garrison, for a large part, took him out of the game, especially until he got to the free throw line the second half, and that's what they do the best. They showed that against TCU, and so we just really struggled getting any offensive rhythm and not getting stops, bad formula, so they win the game.

Disappointed for our team, obviously.

Q. Seems like the approach was a lot different from Tuesday it, the three-pointers, more of an effort to get the ball --
COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: Not at all -- they took our threes away. They let us make those -- we had a lot of success being close early on if we were -- gosh, if we were seven or eight feet and about 14 points maxed out to start the game, and a little dry after that.

But even in the end, the results we got inside were good. That's really our best option. They did a great job of just running screens and being there on the catch and taking shots away. So we had to take what they would give us. We're not the kind of team that can create the offense ourselves. We have to take what they give us, and that's what they gave us.

Q. Seemed like you are together -- had a little different --
COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: Well, first of all, thanks, Channel 5, for being here.

You know, every game's different, you know, but obviously our message was the same. We were down 14, I guess, at that last media time-out -- the momentum in the game, there wasn't anything different about that, but you just have to go out and play pretty well. You have a 14-point deficit at the eight-minute timeout, you don't have a very large margin for error and that's really where Texas deserves a lot of credit.

I thought we had some good possessions and they made seemingly every three. We just didn't put enough together to make it close or get them on their heels to really get ourselves into the game and that's just the way it goes.

But I give them a lot more credit than I do our players.

Q. You've got a lot of questions this week, obvious ones -- how much do you think this group of seniors did in this two-year stretch to answer the questions --
COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: The results speak for themselves. We can't really do anything about them, anything that's happened in the first 125-year history of our school. But the last three years we've played in the NCAA Tournament and the Finals of the NIT. The more often we do that, the less people will ask, and that's about all we can control.

Q. Is it harder losing tonight, or harder knowing that you don't have a practice?
COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: I told them, my real message to them was the absolute only thing to be sad about is that it's over. That's it.

We had an expectation to win the game. We thought we could win the game. We're disappointed we didn't win the game. We're disappointed we didn't play better but the only thing to be sad about is this team doesn't have any more days together, and you know, but we have to finish it up -- because we maxed out pretty well.

Q. The accomplishments for Gary and Robert, how do you encapsulate their careers?
COACH CASEY ALEXANDER: Yeah, those two guys, those are all offensive numbers and that's typically the strength of our team. Garrison leaves our program on the way to the all-time leading Division I era scorer, and Rob, two-time all-conference player that scored well over a thousand points in his three seasons with us, and a really nice one-, two-punch. We're not going to be as good without those two guys on that end of the floor.

What they did is they elevated the rest of them. It wasn't a two-man show. Our team collectively did a lot of really nice things. That was the strength of our team, even though we had some real highlight players as far as numbers goes, the strengths of our team was the quality of depth and a lot of guys that played their role great, and that's what makes teams -- ultimately that's what makes teams the most successful. We couldn't have been as we were and our bodies would not look like it does if it wasn't for Garrison and Rob; it took a lot of guys doing a lot of things real well.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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