PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 12, 2021

McKinley Wright

Colorado Buffaloes

Postgame Press Conference

Colorado - 72, USC - 70

Q. McKinley, can you let us in on how hurt you were when you get that elbow knock and if you thought -- I know you're a tough guy but did you think you were legitimately going to come back into that game right away?

MCKINLEY WRIGHT: To be honest with you, I didn't know at that very second. It hurt. He's a big strong dude. Luckily I have a big head or else I would have been out for probably longer. But it hurt, man, I got a little knot back here, but it's a part of basketball. I ain't mad at him. He got an offensive rebound and was swinging through trying to create space to get a shot up but he caught me. It hurt, but I'll be all right.

Q. You may not have seen it all personally because I think you were in the locker room for a little bit but when you went out Keeshawn came in and gave some good minutes, hit a couple threes back-to-back, and really just seemed to kind of fire the guys up when you were out. What's that just say about him and just what he's able to do stepping in like that in your absence?

MCKINLEY WRIGHT: I'm so proud of Keeshawn and so excited for his future. It's hard for him being a freshman and being behind me and not playing a lot of minutes every game. And he stayed strong throughout the whole season and I always remind him that, Next year is your time to take over, it is your team next year, I'm going to be out of here. And I just keep constantly reminding him, he doesn't get frustrated, he don't get mad about it, he stays with me, he calls me his vet every day, he knows how much I appreciate him and love him. I'm excited for him, man, he's going to be real special. I told you this two years ago when I first seen him and he's getting stronger, jump stop's getting fluid. He's young still, he's learning, I'm so excited for him and his future.

Q. Could you maybe take us into the locker room a little bit after obviously a thrilling finish to this one and now this opportunity at hand to play for a championship.

MCKINLEY WRIGHT: One more. That's all we keep screaming in the locker room. We were excited, Rick Joyce came in and hyped us up, Coach is hyped. Everybody's hyped. That's what we came here to do. We know we have the pieces to do it, the tools to do it, but it ain't going to be easy. Oregon State's playing really good right now. They won today against a good Oregon team. It ain't going to be easy, but we got the pieces to do it so it's going to be exciting and fun and we got to do what we got to do to get a ring.

Q. D'Shawn. You talk about this team being more than just you. How about D'Shawn's bucket there in the end. He just comes up with those moments in big games for you guys?

MCKINLEY WRIGHT: And he's done it. You're right. Big moments and big games for us. Seen him do it at Utah and a couple other times and he did it tonight. Before the, before we went out for tip-off Coach always draws stuff up on the board and the last thing on the board was, Do your offensive rebounding job, do your job, and he did his job and he crashed and I got a good look, about one second on the shot clock. It felt good, but left it a little short, and he crashed and got us a big-time tip dunk that won us the game. So that's big-time, that's a big-time play by 5.

Q. We keep talking about Jeriah more and more as the season goes along. Leading rebounder tonight, hit some huge shots for you rather efficient too. Just the way he was playing, I know he didn't really get them from the 2-point range, but from three-point range. The way he plays off of you, could you envision a more perfect wing to play with, just the way he hustles and hits his shots?

MCKINLEY WRIGHT: He's been such a huge piece for us on our team and it's crazy because we were supposed to have been teammates four years ago, I been knowing him for awhile. When he committed to Nebraska I was a senior in high school, and Tim Miles was coming up to see me a lot in Minnesota, and Jeriah was recruiting me there. Obviously I didn't go to Nebraska, but we been, I've been knowing Jeriah for some years now. And then when he was transferring from Tulsa, he called me after we offered him a scholarship, I talked to him on the phone for about an hour, hour and a half just about life, about the chance to finally play together, about us winning PAC-12 championship. That's what he came here to do is to win at a high level and in a power 5 conference versus really good opponents every night. So we compliment each other very well and I'm excited for him and he came up huge for us. When they cut it close he hit two back-to-back big threes and that was huge.

Q. It was a tough shooting night for you personally last night, but tonight much different. You were, that one that went in and out on three, for you, if that goes you have a career high on threes tonight. But you matched it. What was the difference for you tonight getting those shots to go down?

MCKINLEY WRIGHT: I struggled last night. I missed a lot of easy bunnies last night, a couple wide open layups I missed last night, and after the game, we won, and I told my coach, I said, I promise you I ain't going to be that bad tomorrow. I told my teammates that. They all believed in me, they all rocked with me, so I continue to say this almost every media interview, when I got my coaches and teammates believing in me the way they do, it just makes my job so much easier. They're confident in me taking shots so I'm going to get them up when it's time to win.

Q. Andy Enfield just said in his post-gam press conference that you pushed Tahj Eaddy in the back on the final possession. Any thoughts on that, a well-defended play maybe from you?

MCKINLEY WRIGHT: No comment. I got a steal. That's it. No comment. I'm not even going to get into that. We won the basketball game. I'm happy we won. They can do what they got to do now. We won. We're staying. We got a chance to play for a championship. I got a steal. That was it.

Q. Here's a goofier one for you, a very Denver question. Assuming they win tonight, and they're still going right now, down the road from you, how is it going to feel to have CSU fans rooting for you hard tomorrow so that Oregon doesn't steal a bid from the Rams or anybody else? Because that's the math.

MCKINLEY WRIGHT: Oh, so that's big time. My bro, my brother, David Roddy, he's a Minneapolis kid, he plays for CSU. I'm hoping they get in the tournament. I see it all the time that they're one of the last four in. They're playing really good ball. Coach Thorson over there coached us back in Minnesota and then they have another coach who coached at the University of Minnesota that I know really well. So, no, as much as it's a rivalry and I hate them when we play against them, but when we don't play against them I'm rooting for them, I watched a lot of their games this year, I'm a fan, I got a good relationships with some of those guys on that team so I'm hoping they get in.