NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL: ORAL ROBERTS VS ARKANSAS

March 27, 2021

Max Abmas

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

Arkansas - 72, Oral Roberts - 70

Q. Max, if you could, please, run us through the last play from your experience and vantage point on the floor.

MAX ABMAS: The play was get me on a run and then make the right read. We got a good look, just I didn't hit it.

Q. Coach was pretty emotional right now obviously, and he said by far this is his favorite team he's ever been a part of. For you, where does it rank as just guys, friends, teammates, as any team from high school until now that you've been a part of?

MAX ABMAS: Yeah, this is up there for sure, just a group of guys. All the work we put in all season, all the adversity we faced. I mean, at the end of the day, nobody thought we would be here. So just to see all the guys and see everything we accomplished, it's definitely up there. Something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Q. From your perspective, how close did you come to hitting that shot? If you had it over again, is there anything you would have done different?

MAX ABMAS: Nothing I would have done different. I guess shoot it up a little bit more. When it left my hands, it felt good, and it ended up coming up short. It ended up we didn't get the job done.

Q. Max, when you've been holed up in the bubble over these last couple weeks, do you have a sense of what this run has meant to your fellow students back home? Do you know what this means to them and how much they've been able to celebrate you guys?

MAX ABMAS: Yeah, I know it means everything to them. I know that tare all proud of us. Just what we've been able to accomplish. Even coming into the tournament, we all knew that it was bigger than us, and we wanted to represent the university to the best of our abilities. So just the mindset we had every night coming out, just fighting with each other and just loving each other and trying to get wins and put ORU on the map.

We know that all the alums and everybody is proud of us. So I think we did our job.

Q. Your game is getting recognized all over social media, guys like Kenny Smith and Trae Young calling you a pro. What does it mean to get all that recognition from those guys?

MAX ABMAS: It means a lot, especially guys that are high up like them, guys that are pros or former pros. It means a lot, but that don't change anything now. Just continue to work, get back in the gym, and just keep improving.

Q. My question is is it more disappointment from today's loss, or has it settled in yet that, wow, we really did that and made it to the Sweet 16?

MAX ABMAS: A little bit of both. The job wasn't to get to the Sweet 16. The job was to get to the National Championship and win it, and we came up short. But all the stuff we accomplished this season is definitely something all the guys will celebrate and remember for the rest of their lives.

Q. How was it preparing for Arkansas this time around, having faced them earlier this season?

MAX ABMAS: The coaches, they looked at the film from what we played back in December, and they watched the film and put together a good game plan. So we just go out there trying to execute it, just improving and trying to fix the areas that needed to be fixed from that first meeting.

Q. Can you just kind of talk about how much Coach Mills has meant to your program this season.

MAX ABMAS: Yeah, Coach has meant everything, all the hard work he's put in. Everybody talks about the players, but from Coach Mills all the way down, all the assistants, they've put in a bunch of work this season.

You can never thank them enough, all the sacrifices they made for all of us. It doesn't go unappreciated. We appreciate Coach Mills as well as all the other coaches and all that they've done for us this year.