BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2021

Deuce McBride

West Virginia Mountaineers

Postgame Press Conference

Oklahoma State, 72 - West Virginia 69

Q. Just explain the emotions coming down the stretch. You guys are trying to find a three at the end. You got it, but a half second late. What's the emotion of all that?

DEUCE McBRIDE: You know, games never come down to one play. Obviously if it's one second later, you know, we're looking at a different story. Games never come down one play. There are multiple plays that could have decided this game.

Q. Deuce, looked like Oklahoma State's defensive adjustments in the second half may have made a difference a little bit. Seems like you guys worked harder for shots in the second half than in the first, and obviously they out rebounded you guys a good bit in the second half. Talk about what they were doing defensively in the second half.

DEUCE McBRIDE: Yeah, we were forced into tough shots. They got out of the zone, started applying a little bit more pressure, and they -- I mean, rebounding probably was the story. They got rebounds and finished on their end; we didn't.

Something we got to clean up.

Q. Twice West Virginia had an 8-point leads in the second half and just seemed to collapse. Defensively, effort-wise you mentioned forcing shots. What happens mentally to this team? What causes those lapses?

DEUCE McBRIDE: I'm not even sure, honestly. I think it's just when you think about it sometimes it's just one play adds up, and I think that comes to me as a leader, noticing that one play after another, if we didn't get a good shot we got to come down the third time and get a good shot.

I think that's me as a leader and trying to step up and make sure we get good quality shots.

Q. You guys had a ton of steals in the first half, you especially. Walk me through the final sequence of the half where you had a couple steals, a couple of fast-break points there, buckets. What did you see there? What happened there?

DEUCE McBRIDE: First one I just made a play, wanted to keep applying pressure even though they were going to take the last shot, didn't want them to be comfortable.

Second one, our freshman Taj Thweatt came in and made a big play. He kept the guy over there and played really good defense and I was able to come around and read his eyes and made a play.

Q. Back to the rebounding real quick. They got a few of them in the last couple minutes. Was it a block-out assignment you guys were missing? Was it long shots leading to long rebounds? What did you see in particular?

DEUCE McBRIDE: Honestly, it was a combination of both. I think the last moments -- throughout the whole game we missed block-out assignments. Us as guards, if it's a long shots, going to be long rebounds, and we got to make sure we don't leak out and go help the bigs. It can't be one guy rebounding versus four other guys.

Q. Can you talk about what Derek went through today? I think he went and got an IV at halftime and playing with a pretty bad cold. He gutted some things out today. Just what did he go through today?

DEUCE McBRIDE: Yeah, he obviously was not feeling himself, but he's warrior, one of our toughest guys on the team, one the leaders. He's been around. We were thankful he was able to even step on the court today with some of the things he was going through off the court feeling sick-wise.

But he's going to keep battling through and battle with us always.

Q. Deuce, I know you just walked off the court. You're disappointed. The season is not over. What are your thoughts about the NCAA tournament? Have you even given it a thought yet? I'm sure you'll get to that here soon.

DEUCE McBRIDE: Haven't really thought about it. Obviously we know it's next game is it's one and done, but we're going to go home, try to piece things together, look at film, heal up a little bit, everybody is banged up, and go into the tournament trying to make a roll.