NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ABILENE CHRISTIAN VS TEXAS

March 20, 2021

Shaka Smart

Lucas Oil Stadium - Unity Court (South)

Texas Longhorns

Postgame Media Conference

Abilene Christian - 53, Texas - 52

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach.

SHAKA SMART: First of all, congratulations to Abilene Christian. They played terrific. Made some huge plays, phenomenal on the defensive end all night long, and certainly my hat's off to their whole program. Just really feel for our guys right now because up until tonight we had a phenomenal season and this obviously isn't the way that any of us envisioned it ending, but this is one of the facts of the NCAA tournament, one team gets to stay and one team goes home. I thought their aggressiveness really had our guards on our heels for much of the night, but at the end of the game Matt made a heck of a play, created a great shot for Andrew. Andrew made a terrific shot, put us up 1, we just needed a stop. We blocked a shot, didn't get the rebound. So, again, all the credit to Abilene Christian.

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions.

Q. Your team had 23 turnovers tonight. Was that a result of Abilene Christian's defense or your team being careless with the ball?

SHAKA SMART: I think a lot of it was their defense. They lead the country in forcing turnovers. They force over 20 a game. We certainly could have done a much better job being sound with the ball, particularly our guards. Between our three guards we had 15. But they deserve a ton of credit for the way they force turnovers.

Q. The guys looked uncharacteristically nervous in the first four minutes. Were you surprised by that? What did you say to them and just were you just shocked at how kind of out of sorts they looked in some of these turnovers?

SHAKA SMART: Yeah, I wasn't surprised by our guys being nervous early in the game. It's typical, typically, the case in your first NCAA tournament game, particularly after us really being in the bubble here for a week. But I really felt like we would settle in. We were able to start the second half well, took a lead by nine in the first minute of the second half, but we weren't able to sustain it. And, yeah, I was surprised by it -- normally we have been able to play with very good poise, and tonight, again, Abilene Christian deserves a lot of credit for the way they got their hand on the basketball. Matt, obviously it wasn't his night, but he's our guy, that we want the ball in his hands along with Courtney and Andrew. Just one too many turnovers tonight.

Q. What are the emotions after a loss like this? Just what are the emotions after a loss like this, so close, so heartbreaking and especially with what the expectations were for y'all in this tournament?

SHAKA SMART: A lot of tears in the locker room right now. A lot of guys extremely upset about the way the game ended, the fact that we have to go home now. Really disappointed. Everybody is. I told our guys, I thought coming into this tournament the way that they handled all the things that were thrown our way all year long was just phenomenal. A lot of stuff that could have made people crack or quit or separate and they really stayed together. But tonight obviously we didn't play our best and Abilene Christian deserves a lot of credit for that, the way they defended.

Q. What did you say to them after the game and did any of the guys have anything to say or was it just a bunch of crying? And do you think they overlooked ACU at all? I know that was one of the things that you stressed coming in, not to overlook any opponent.

SHAKA SMART: I don't think so. I don't think our guys overlooked ACU. I do think that, we got into the game, again, there were some nerves early, it felt like we were settling in, but then when they made a run early in the second half after we had been up nine, we didn't respond with the poise that we typically need to respond with. They made some really, really tough shots, they banked in a few shots late in the clock and the best teams find a way to get beyond that and I kind of feel like a couple times that had taken the wind out of our sails. But that being said the guys kept fighting and there we are with a one-point lead there in the last possession of the game. Big, big key to this game was they got 18 offensive rebounds, including that big one late in the game. That was a huge difference.

Q. I know I'm sure you're the not happy about the 18 offensive rebounds that they came up with, what do you attribute that to and did you consider maybe trying to play Greg a little bit more, just to see if he could give you a boost on the boards or what was the thought process and plan there tonight?

SHAKA SMART: We just were trying to play to win. Same thing that we do in any game. Yeah, 18 offensive rebounds was a huge, huge difference maker throughout the game and obviously in that last play. If they don't get the rebound, the foul doesn't get called, and we wrap up that possession and now we probably win the game. I think they played with an aggressiveness on the offensive glass that we didn't do a good enough job counteracting. There were quite a few that went out of bounds off us so even though they didn't grab the ball, they still had possession of the ball and they made us pay on some of those. 12 second-chance points and we did not offensive rebound well. Now they got way more shots than us because of our turnovers and because of their offensive rebounds.

Q. Your guys passed a lot of tests this year on and off the court and you put yourself s in great position to make a deep tournament run. How disappointing, after passing all those tests, you finally get where you want to go and you can't get it done?

SHAKA SMART: Extremely, extremely disappointing. Because we come into this seed, we earn a 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, I told the guys the other day, like you guys don't understand how hard that is to do. And we have earned that. Now we want to make the most of it and we weren't able to do that. Again, ACU deserves a ton of credit for winning the game tonight. But it's really disappointing because I really felt like before this game and even during this game and at the end when we grabbed the one-point lead sometimes it's games like this you just have to find a way to come away with a win and guys kind of settle in and start to find their legs more. This has been a unique few weeks for us, it's been a unique couple, several days I think for everybody here and obviously we didn't play our best tonight. So it's extremely disappointing.

Q. You started out strong with Jericho in the post like he always does at the start of a game and I think he just took one shot in the second half. Why was it so hard to get him involved and integrated in the offense in the second half do you think?

SHAKA SMART: Well, a few of the times he did get it, he got fouled. But he wasn't able to get shots off and it was tough to get it in there. Usually the best way to get it in to him is off a pick-and-roll and him running down to the rim and guys finding him. The shots he got were from that, but we, they did a really good job with their hands, we turned it over quite a bit in those situations where one more pass and then it goes in to him. Certainly it was a point of emphasis, but you're absolutely right, I mean with our guards struggling the way that they were, we want to get it in to him. I thought the times we did it was good for us, he just, he didn't get a lot of shot attempts and they deserve a lot of credit for that for giving him a lot of attention.

Q. It looked like in the second half you guys tried to move the ball screen around a little bit in different parts of the half court. What were some things that you guys tried to do offensively that were different just to try to get those guards going and get them into better spaces on the floor?

SHAKA SMART: Well, I thought the few times that we were able to attack from the middle with a little bit of movement it was good for us. Now all year long we have been really good playing on the sides and kind of taking advantage of our quickness, using the baselines, but when we had the ball in the middle, moved a guy, cut him through, Matt was able to get down hill a couple times, a couple times he lost it, he was able to get in there and get all the way to the basket once early in the half. He found Andrew late in the game on that action. I'm sure when we look at the tape that's probably something that we'll look back and say we wanted to do more. But, man, I mean some of the things we have been so good at and even against teams in the Big-12 we weren't as good at tonight.