BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2022

Bob Huggins

Malik Curry

Sean McNeil

West Virginia Mountaineers

Postgame Press Conference

Kansas - 87, West Virginia - 63

THE MODERATOR: We are ready to begin with West Virginia. Out two student-athletes are Malik Curry and Sean McNeil. We will start with questions for the two student-athletes and then bring Coach into it. Fire away. First question.

Q. Malik, with the fouls in the first half a lot of the ball creation was put on your shoulders there to start things off. You ended up with 19 points in the game. To be thrown into that rather quickly what was the reaction like to that? Obviously coming off a good game last night how did you feel coming into this one?

MALIK CURRY: I felt ready to play. Kedrian a good defender. I don't think he should have got those fouls called on him but he did. When my time is called I go into the game and try to contribute and help the team as best I can and as soon as I got in the game I played -- as soon as I went in, what was it, 18 minutes, 19, maybe? I was warmed up from warm-ups so I was ready to go.

Q. Sean, what was the reaction of the team to the technical string? Looked like that kinda sealed any chance that you had to climb back in it a little bit. Did you feel like Huggs was showing defense for the players? What was going on there?

SEAN MCNEIL: He was definitely trying to defend us. That's what he's done all year. It's not my place to say whether the calls were right or wrong. My job is to play.

The tech sequence was early. Even in the second half I know I wasn't -- we still cut the lead a little bit. Sequence was early. We had a lot of time left to play. Just couldn't get it done.

Q. Coach, this isn't about your game today. I know you talked last night about Coach Weber, you guys had a nice, longhand shake. We found out he resigned, any thoughts on his tenure at K-State and I don't know if you saw or heard any of the comments he made last night about his path and the state of college basketball right now.

COACH HUGGINS: Well, obviously I've known Bruce for a long time. He's always been a hard-working, good guy. I think the job he did at K-State is commendable. I was there for a year and so I have a little bit of an understanding about it. He's done a great job. He's had a great, great career. I mean, when you see -- some of us aren't blessed to have to walk into ready-made programs. And I think Bruce is one of those guys. I think when you start where he started and you just continue to move up the ladder and then you get on it a place like K-State, which is a great place with great people, you know, I think it's deserving that somebody who climbed and fought his way up through starting at a smaller place and then maybe a little bit bigger place and, you know, I know he has -- owes a lot to Gene.

Gene is a dear friend of mine as well. The time comes for all of us to lay it down. I just didn't get the feeling that he's ready to do that yet.

Q. Bob, can you take us through the technicals and what were you seeing that led up to that?

COACH HUGGINS: I'm going to stand up for my guys. I have never not stood up for my guys. It is what it is.

Q. What was it like then to watch the last 10 minutes of the first half and the rest of the game and what did you see from them afterward?

COACH HUGGINS: They need to put bigger TVs in there. We had a hard time getting the true picture of what was going on with those dinky TVs they had in there. They need to upgrade that system.

Q. Coach, with a quick turn around from last night do you think tired legs may have had something to do with the slow start?

COACH HUGGINS: No, I don't. I could tell you a lot but it wouldn't do me any good or West Virginia University any good so I will leave it at that.

Q. For Sean, you scored 3 points and were held to 1 of 9 from the field today. What about Kansas' defense that affected you on offense today.

SEAN MCNEIL: Coming off the way I played yesterday they were more dialed in. The looks I got were contested, I thought but half those I just didn't hit 'em today. It was one of those days.

Q. Coach, what was your message to your players after the game, after a hard-fought game like today?

COACH HUGGINS: We've got more games to play. We've got more games to play. We'll get home and have them rest for a day or so and we will get back at it and get ready to bring home a trophy. That's what we do. That's what we set our goals for every year. It's obviously not going to be the one that we wanted but it's going to be a trophy that is well worth bringing home.

Q. Coach, does it matter which event that's in? Do you want to play no matter what?

COACH HUGGINS: I think the question is do they want to play. I asked them that, and they want to play. I enjoy coaching them. I enjoy certainly representing West Virginia University and the great state of West Virginia. Anything we can do to represent that state and the people in that state, I'm all for.

Q. Bob, they hit you with that second technical really quickly, were you surprised?

COACH HUGGINS: I've done this for 45 years. I'm not surprised at much.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Guys, good luck next week.