SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 14, 2021

Trendon Watford

LSU Tigers

Postgame Press Conference

Alabama 80, LSU 79

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Trendon.

Q. Trendon, take us through the final play, if you can. What did you see in the follow-up? I know you crashed the boards, tried to get it in. Did you and Darius run into each other?

TRENDON WATFORD: Yeah. I mean, we was trying to run an inbound play, Javonte threw the ball to the halfcourt. I just tried to get one up. I knew it was short. I just went and tried to get the rebound. Yeah, I think me and Darius just sort of ran into each other. Yeah, that's what happened.

Q. You probably played the best game of your career. Did you feel in the second half nobody was going to stop you?

TRENDON WATFORD: Yeah, I just wanted to win. That was my biggest thing. I just wanted to do what I needed to do to win, whether it was scoring, rebounding, whatever it was.

I didn't do enough.

Q. Coach often talks about a heavyweight fight. This was a real championship game. What was it like playing in that kind of game?

TRENDON WATFORD: It was fun. I had fun. We had fun. Didn't come out with the result we wanted. I'm proud of every one of my guys, every guy on the bench, every coach, I'm proud of all of them.

Just to make it to this championship is a blessing. We made history with that. Although we didn't get the win, proud of my guys. I'm excited for the future going into March Madness.

Q. You got booed almost every time you touched the ball. Did that add a little bit of flavor to your game today, motivation?

TRENDON WATFORD: I'm used to it. Every time I play against them, I've gotten booed. I'm used to it. Yeah, I'm used to that. That's fine.

Q. You're obviously a veteran leader on this team. What is the message to your guys about keeping everybody up now that you're off to Indianapolis? What is your message as a veteran leader to your team?

TRENDON WATFORD: To keep our head up, me especially. I take this loss very serious. My guys can get me through it, my family will get me through it.

We played great. We played great in three days, three days straight. I think that's the best we've looked all season. We're just trying to keep this momentum rolling going into March Madness. I truly feel like we're a Final Four team. When everybody is clicking, everybody is clicking.

I'm excited for what the future holds. I'm just proud of all my guys, proud of the coaching staff. I love LSU.

Q. Early in the ball game what did you see or maybe even feel that made you go ahead and be as dominant as you were today?

TRENDON WATFORD: I was just patient. When I got in the lane, I didn't try to throw a crazy shot up or I didn't try to force. I just tried to take my time in there, get to whatever move I wanted to get to. My shots were falling.

I'm just proud of my guys. I'm just excited for what March Madness holds.

Q. How hard was it to keep that pace with Alabama? What kind of gave you all confidence once you started knocking down a couple of threes?

TRENDON WATFORD: We knew they're one of the fastest teams in the SEC. This is the third time we played them. They're a great team. Hats off to them, they're a great team.

We just wanted to get back in transition. That was one of our keys. We knew that we didn't do a good job of that in the past two games. Yeah, I mean, that was it.

Q. What do you think the key is over the next several days to replicate this effort in the NCAA tournament?

TRENDON WATFORD: I think we need to recover. We need to recover, just learn from what we did, learn from the mistake we made this game. I know I made mistakes personally. Other guys did, too. I think we clean up some of that stuff, I think we can make a run in March Madness.

I'm excited. I'm ready for next week.

Q. You guys are hurting right now, but do you feel you made a statement considering how badly they beat you in the two games before this?

TRENDON WATFORD: Yeah, I think we put the world on notice, not just the SEC, I think we put the world on notice. Coming into this tournament, nobody even expected us to make it out of the first round. LSU has never made it out of the first round since Coach Wade has been here.

I think we woke the world up. We got more to prove. I got more to prove, all my guys got more to prove. Everybody come together, learn from this loss, just continue to improve.

Tonight we'll see who we play, start getting ready for whoever we got.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.