BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2022

Chris Beard

Timmy Allen

Marcus Carr

Texas Longhorns

Postgame Press Conference

TCU 65, Texas 60

Q. As many shots as went in before halftime, I know you probably felt good about how things were going but there was still 20 minutes left. What was the tone and the message and especially the way TCU got going with a quick little 8-2 run after the break?

TIMMY ALLEN: We knew it was a two-half game and we just had to keep playing the right way, and we did not do that.

MARCUS CARR: Yeah, the message from Coach was the game is not over, we still have 20 minutes left. We knew that they're not a team that was going to lay down. Credit to them, they came out and fought their way back. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we just didn't execute the things that we had to.

Q. 10 assists in the first half and only two in the second half. Were they doing anything to make moving the ball and getting better looks harder in the second half? What adjustments did you see that they made defensively to make life a little bit harder on you offensively?

MARCUS CARR: For one we weren't getting as many stops. We weren't turning them over, so we weren't able to rebound and run and get out in transition and get easy baskets. I feel like a lot of our assists came that way.

Further on into the half we just didn't do as good of a job of playing inside out and just getting good looks for each other.

TIMMY ALLEN: We knew they were going to come out aggressive out of the half. Like Marcus said, our stops were leading to our offense, so that didn't produce as many open looks as we wanted.

Q. Timmy, Marcus, how do you regroup from here? What's the mindset of the team now as you head to the NCAA Tournament?

TIMMY ALLEN: You learn from it. You grow, reflect for a couple days and forget about it. We've got another tournament here real quick, so we've got to get up for the next one.

MARCUS CARR: The same way that we've been doing all year. This isn't our first loss. Hoping it's our last one. Just watch film, learn from what we did wrong and get better from it.

Q. Chris, I'm curious what you thought about Eddie Lampkin's defense in the second half, the way he kind of walled off Christian and kept him from getting going and getting points down low early.

CHRIS BEARD: I think first of all, he won his individual battle. He outplayed our guys. He was active, big, seemed to me like he didn't want to lose today.

Q. Unrelated to this game here, Bruce Weber resigned today at Kansas State. I wondered if you could give your thoughts on competing against him here in the league.

CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, I absolutely can. Probably not in the best mindset to do that right now as accurate as I want, but I'll try. I think Coach Weber is a Hall of Famer: Southern Illinois; took a team to the Final Four at Illinois; and what he did at Kansas State has never been done before. He won the league twice, he made an Elite 8, did it the right way.

He's a Hall of Famer in my mind. I'm on the record with Bruce Weber. You guys can go back the very first game we played against him, he's a coach's coach. The game is better because Coach Weber was a part of it.

I think he'll coach again. I hope he coaches again. College basketball is better with Coach Weber in the game.

Q. From where you were watching, what were you not getting in the second half that you were in the first?

CHRIS BEARD: Gritty competitiveness from our guys. Everybody wants to win. Guys that know how to win hate to lose. I hate to lose more than I like to win, and I've got some guys that I'm trying to teach that to. Winning is an art. It shouldn't just be your points per game and your rebounds. It ought to be your wins.

You know, we're close. We're knocking on the door. Today is another great example. It gets down to winning time, we can talk about the tale of two different halves. Y'all saw that. But when it gets down to winning time, four or five minutes left in the game, it's tied up. I thought one team today hated to lose more. Our guys are out there trying to win the game, they don't really understand how you get here. Hopefully the question you guys asked Timmy and Marcus, I hope their answer eventually will be, well, let me go follow some guys that know how to do this, let me follow guys that have been in the NCAA Tournament and see what that's all about.

I think we've got a bunch of guys that think they have the answers, but they really don't.

Today it's about -- when it comes down to winning time, you've got to make winning plays, and a part of winning mentality is you've got to hate to lose.

Q. Chris, obviously these last three games you guys are right there in the closing minutes. Can you sense there's a tightness in terms of shot taking and making the right way when the game is on the line with these guys at this point?

CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, I just don't buy into that with veteran players. With younger guys, sure, fair question. These are veteran guys. These are guys trying to play professional basketball after college.

You're in the first round of the Big 12 tournament. They're handing out a trophy this weekend. We're here to win it. So to say guys get tight, I think that's an excuse. I've never bought into that with veteran players. Guys got to play better. It can't go 5 for 20, 2 for 12. We can't get out-rebounded by the opponent, turn the ball over 12 times. We can't get outscored in the paint 30-10. When it gets down to winning time, we can't miss a block-out, take a bad shot off of one foot, get back cut. You've got to play better.

Q. Going back to what you're talking about, I think an example of that from Timmy was the one possession where he got the deflection and then there was a block and then he got the steal in the corner and went the other way. Is there just not enough of that do you think? The will to just, I'm getting this ball and you're not going to stop me type of thing?

CHRIS BEARD: You've got to go and win the game.

Q. Are you surprised, Chris, after 32 games that it just hasn't come together better, more consistently than it has?

CHRIS BEARD: I don't know if surprised is the word. We feel like we've got a team that can play with anybody in the country. We've proven that.

But we also have to face the reality that we've just got to learn how to win when it comes to winning time. You look at our league, TCU is a really good team. I think they're a second-weekend type team, about like ourselves if everything kind of goes right. Certainly Kansas and Baylor are projected 1 seeds, Texas Tech has got a special team that can make it to New Orleans. We've been in games with teams like this all year long.

It's just that when it comes to winning time, we've got to make some plays, and so get a couple days back in Austin -- we've got tough guys. The guys to my right are tough people. They're not going to fold. This hurts right now. We'll get back to work. I'm sure these guys will be back in the gym later tonight.

We've just got to try to play our best basketball next weekend when we get to the NCAA Tournament.