SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 14, 2021

Herbert Jones

Alabama Crimson Tide

Postgame Press Conference

Alabama 80, LSU 79

THE MODERATOR: We have Herbert Jones. I'm going to have you make an opening statement about winning the championship and then we'll take some questions.

HERBERT JONES: I feel like we came out more prepared this game. We didn't sustain the same type of energy we started out the game with. We had a couple of defensive lapses. I'm just so proud of the guys for continuing to fight the entire game, no matter what happened. I know LSU went on a run, we just didn't go away. We kept responding. We came out with the win.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Take me through the final seven seconds, going one-on-one with Trendon at the end. Looks like you had a fingertip on it.

HERBERT JONES: That's what I dream of, getting a stop to win the championship. I mean, I didn't know they were going to throw the ball. They threw the ball to him, it was almost like an Iso. I take pride in my defense. I loved it. Came up with the stop and won the game.

Q. We talked about what it would mean for your class to cap off your season with the SEC championship. You got two this season. Now that's it finally happened, what are your emotions?

HERBERT JONES: Like J.P. said, it's kind of undescribable. Just all the work that we put in, the bad days we had, the adversity we went through, personally like my injuries throughout my entire career, Alex Reese kind of struggled shooting the ball this year, he came up and hit some big shots for us today. He played very aggressive on the offensive end. John Petty doing what he does on both sides of the ball.

Just a credit to our work. We stay with it. I don't think many guys could go through what we went through and come out on top like we did this year.

I'm just so proud and happy for Reese and John. Not just me, I'm more happy for those guys than I am for myself.

Q. Your layup that was the game-winning play, did Coach Oats tell you guys to push the ball? What was his message? Take me through the sequence when you saw the opening to get to the rim.

HERBERT JONES: When I got the ball, coach didn't tell me anything. When I got the ball, I seen it was a one-on-one, I mean, I just feel like I could take advantage of the matchup. That's what I did. I just went on attack. I feel like coach has a lot of trust in me to make the right plays down the stretch, and it paid off.

Q. Right before that you had a foul called on you. Seemed like on the next possession, you were determined to make something happen. You had a big dunk. What was your mindset right there?

HERBERT JONES: After they called a foul, I was a little frustrated. I didn't think I fouled him. I mean, that's out of my control. So I just tried to move on to the next play, do what was best for my team, try to get the win.

Q. SEC champions, what do you think you guys deserve in terms of an NCAA seeding?

HERBERT JONES: I mean, to be honest with you, I'm just happy that we don't have to worry about watching the selection show, to be honest. My three years here we had to watch the selection show. Now that we won the SEC championship, I mean, we don't even have to watch. I really don't care what seeding we get. I'm glad we get to play in the tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

HERBERT JONES: Thank y'all.