NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - TEXAS TECH VS ARKANSAS

March 21, 2021

Chris Beard

Hinkle Fieldhouse

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Postgame Media Conference

Arkansas Razorbacks 68, Texas Tech Raiders 66

CHRIS BEARD: First just want to congratulate Arkansas, Coach Muss and those guys, kind of a classic NCAA Tournament game.

Could have gone either way. I was hoping it's going to be one of those games that the team that had the ball last would win it. That's kind of what it felt like. Our guys did a great job coming back in the game. We've done that before. There's no quit in these guys.

Proud of our team and our players, and really enjoyed coaching this year's group. The kind of fight in that comeback, that's who we are. But certainly Arkansas did a lot of great things tonight. I thought their defense was outstanding and then we got to try it come-from-behind to get a little bit out of our offensive identity, but our guys did a great job giving us a chance.

But I want to congratulate Arkansas and wish them the best of luck in the Sweet 16.

Q. You always talk about putting yourselves in the fight to give yourselves a chance. How did you feel about the big threes and then Terrence with those big free throws down the stretch to get you within that one point and Tyler being able to have the chance to tie it up late in that contest?

CHRIS BEARD: That's a lot of questions. Can you give me one?

Q. Just how did you feel about the way your guys closed in terms of getting it within one possession late?

CHRIS BEARD: Well, I thought they had a lot of fight. We've been doing that all year. We call it play it to the bone. It's a 40-minute game. We really competed down the stretch and gave ourselves a chance.

Just proud of our players. It's a hurt locker room right now. To me, this is one of the great things about athletics. You get to feel the highs of the high, and the lows hurt.

But just the teamwork is -- there's a lot of tears in that locker room right now, and just shows that these guys are elite people. There will be some really good professional men coming out of that locker room, rich men, winners. These guys have passion for what they do.

Tonight we didn't play as well as we wanted to in segments of the game. But we played it to the bone. Another great Texas Tech effort out there, just a gutsy effort.

Things just didn't go our way. We miss a free throw the last couple minutes. We get a really good look around the basket. T.J. played great tonight. And the play late, I've always tried to put the game in players' hands, and those are situations that we practice. We call it chaos.

We knew the objective. I thought Tyler made the right play, and we were going to try to take the two in those situations to get the inside out three. I thought he got a good, clean look. He made the right play.

I'm proud of our players. I wish from a coaching standpoint there was something I could do to just help them. You know, back-to-back years that, Virginia locker room, and now this Arkansas game locker room, but this is part of it. There's only one team that finishes with a good mood. I guess if you win the NIT, you're in a good mood, too.

But I love my players. I'm really proud of them. I thought we played it to the bone tonight, and I thought we had a lot of courage to make that kind of comeback.

Q. In that second half, once Arkansas went up 13 and you guys fought back to get in a possession, what did you do really well in that six- to seven-minute period?

CHRIS BEARD: These are tough press conferences, guys. You're trying to talk about basketball, and our journey just ended. This team came together during a worldwide epidemic called COVID. Guys chose Texas Tech over Zoom visits. Guys got there and worked really hard. Got racial, just ridiculous stuff going on in our country. We attacked that head on.

I have so much respect for these players. This is a season unlike any other season, ever, hopefully, unless there's a COVID-20 one day, and I hope I'm not around to see it.

These guys, they made our city so proud, our university, and I don't know, man. You guys are asking about basketball. You have to understand, we just went through a journey. So excuse me if I don't remember the exact plays of the game. I love those guys in that locker room. They gave us everything they could this year, four straight NCAA tournaments, Texas Tech, first Texas Tech team ever to be rated in the top 25 from the first poll to the last.

Just a great effort. Played a really good team today. Arguably one of the top two or three teams in the SEC, and they played well.

But to me, I don't know, I always thought two press conferences, right. Tell us about your team, Coach, and come back a day later and tell us about the game.

Q. Going off that a little bit, to look at the whole season, how would you describe this season looking back on it and how would you describe this whole year that you had to deal with?

CHRIS BEARD: (Technical outage.)

I told the guys we were playing in an historic arena where Hoosiers was filmed. We knew it was an old arena, but I didn't think the Wi-Fi would be like this. Can you guys hear me now?

My thing with this season, I hope one of the big things when it's all over is the story is the players. I know the NCAA is going to get credit for the tournament and coaches, school, administration, CDC, but what about the players? What about these 18, 19, young, 20-year-old guys who basically just made so many sacrifices and played and went to college under such a disciplined set of rules. We have guys who have never (audio interruption) basically been in quarantine, masked up, all players in college basketball.

I think that's the thing. Got to be like a standing ovation from America, anybody that's enjoyed the tournament. The sacrifices and the discipline that these players have shown this season to get to the finish line. Hopefully, that's what I'll remember most about this season. And I just love this group of guys. We went through so much. I just remember those tough summer practices and fall practices where we're working at Texas Tech and intensity level and you walk off the practice floor and the lead story on ESPN.com is will we have a season.

These guys kept working. We worked on our craft and made it through these crazy non-conference games, getting cancelled and what-have-you, and they just kept plugging away. I have a lot of respect for the Big 12 and front office, and this tournament was, in my opinion, great. And I know some guys are griping about the food and stuff. Hey, man, where I come from, the food is great.

These guys have shown unbelievable discipline to get this far. I feel for them, man. I just wish we could have won another. You just want to win one more. You want to go back to the hotel and go through it again. Survive and advance. You want to have one more practice, one more game, one more pregame huddle. It just stings when it's over.

But in my opinion it always stings unless you're out there on that final Monday night with that confetti. I've been there, but the confetti wasn't coming down on us. That's the deal. I won't stop trying everything in my power to win that whole thing one day.

Q. What did you think of Chibuzo Agbo, a guy who hasn't played a lot, but just stepping up the last few minutes of the game, hitting some big shots to get you back in the game?

CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, Buzo is a big part of our play at Texas Tech. If he continues to run his own race, he's going to be a big-time player and a pro. He's got all the intangibles. You guys who follow know this is not the first time I have said these things. He did a great job, especially Big 12 play, breaking into the rotation and playing.

And tonight, from a coaching standpoint, we're just trying to do what we had to do to give ourselves a chance to win. We obviously had to go with small ball and five three-point shooters late to try to make the kind of comeback we did. He hit a couple of shots, got a couple other clean looks. Those are shots he can make, and so we all knew what we were doing.

I thought he played great. This will not be the last time the college basketball world hears about Buzo. He's going to be a special player.

Q. Riding the highs and lows of a season like this. What is your message? What do you tell the team in the locker room to keep their heads held high and all that stuff? What's your message?

CHRIS BEARD: Well, normally every year, it's been about the seniors. I've always -- I don't think any player really remembers what the coach says when the season ends, but I tried to make a strong point, like, hey, please, remember I said this, and I really tried to get the guys to look at me in the eyes, and there's a lot of tears, and give them as much time as they need to get their composure.

What I tell the seniors is thank you and I'll be there for them the rest of their lives or my life, hopefully the rest of my life. I want those guys to out-live me. I just thank them for everything. Those moments are always about that to me personally.

This year, Marcus has a year of basketball left if he chooses to, so I didn't go down that road. I did tell him again how much respect I have for him and everything we've been through this year with the COVID, the racial problems in our country, just everything that those guys have gone through, the utmost respect.

Everything I believe, this whole deal with competition at this level, when you dedicate your life to basketball like we do and the players do -- to me, it's that makes the athletes special. We get to experience the highs that maybe the next guy never tastes or feels, but we're also in the trenches with gut-wrenching pain. To me this what -- you're alive and you respond. I'm already ready to get things started for next season, what will hopefully be a championship season.

But I think the ability to learn through the highs and lows is what makes the college athlete special. If I was a businessowner, I would only hire guys that play college athletics.