BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2022

Mark Adams

Adonis Arms

Davion Warren

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Postgame Press Conference

Oklahoma 55, Texas Tech 56

THE MODERATOR: We are joined now by the Texas Tech Red raiders, Coach Mark Adams; student-athletes are Davion Warren and Adonis Arms. Coach?

MARK ADAMS: Make it short. Wanted to, again, first pay our respects. I thought they played extremely hard, and a lot of respect for the way those guys fought back.

It was war down at the very end, but, again, our guys made some big plays, made some free throws, and had a big stop there at the end.

Again, proud of our guys for being resilient and finding a way to win. A lot of respect for Oklahoma.

Q. Guys, when the time is winding down like that, how are you trying to stay composed when games get close?

ADONIS ARMS: I think we stand together as stand as a brotherhood. We preach all year about just being a family and staying together when times get like that. For us, it was staying to what we have been working on all year, staying together and trusting each other.

DAVION WARREN: Pretty much what Adonis said, staying close and staying together.

Q. Coach, are you telling them anything in particular when it gets close like that?

MARK ADAMS: I can't take any credit for that. No. We have a great group of guys. We're family. It was an ugly game and OU had a lot to do with it, but end of the day our guys pulled it out. They believed in each other and fought hard.

Things were going so bad there in the middle of that second half that I think a lot of teams would have thrown in the towel. A lot of admiration for this team and the way they fought back.

Q. Adonis, you guys had to keep battling. I think it was a seven-minute stretch of not scoring, and you pull it out. I hear you guys coming off the court, "one more, one more." What does it mean to be in the championship game?

ADONIS ARMS: Is means everything. We preach and Coach Adams to my left, he preaches to be great. To be great you've got to win. You've got to win ugly games. You've got to win great games.

For us, it goes back to what I said before, just being a family and one more is just summer workouts that we been going to, and just working and just one more, one more, it just takes one more.

Q. Davion, Adonis, when you guys weren't scoring in that seven-minute stretch did you harken back to what happened at Oklahoma State, and what did y'all change? Davion had that run out after a missed three-ponter. Did that help you all? Were you just trying to get the ball, be aggressive, and that's what really kind of started it all?

ADONIS ARMS: I think it goes back to our defense. What Coach Adams tells us every single day, get stops, run out, and score that way.

I mean, Davion is a fantastic scorer, so for him to get hot like that at the end was great for all of us. But we stand on our defense and locking people up and just playing great team defense.

Q. For both of you, Coach mentioned he was wanting you all to take this like a NCAA Tournament practice round. How does this help you in the NCAA tournament where you kind of learn if you don't execute you're not going to win, and you were able to execute down the stretch and got this victory.

DAVION WARREN: It helps us out a lot. Just getting us prepared for March Madness. Couple guys like me and Bryson Williams, we haven't been to March Madness, so it will help us prepare and get ready for that.

Q. Mark, your defense bottled them up most of the game. During the second half they put their heads down and went to the basket. How instrumental was that, and them staying in the game but then you sorta clogged it up at the end?

MARK ADAMS: I wanted to go home and my guys talked me out of it. You know, man, it's frustrating. At the same time you look at the stats and I guess they're somewhat deceiving. They shoot 38% and we -- I guess they had 18 turnovers, so on paper looks like we played well defensively.

But at the same time, you're right, they were driving past us. You know, we were focusing so much on the three-point shooting and trying not to let some of these guys get open looks. When you do that, you give up some of those drives.

I thought they did a great job, great game plan of slipping in and spacing the floor and kept moving the ball.

And then for us, we hit that drought, that seven minutes. Sometimes you talk about it, but you get in these situations, you play not to lose instead of play to win.

But there is a lot of truth to that. Our guys all wanted to win and knew how important this game was, and I think we went through a spell there where guys were trying to do a little bit too much themselves.

But, again, their heart was in the right place. We were trying to win.

Q. Coach, I know it's a quick turnaround. You get KU right away tomorrow. You had two really good games with them this year. What are your expectations going in?

MARK ADAMS: I don't know. We have a lot of respect for KU. I started to try to say something humorous but there is not much to talk about. Those guys are going to be tough. We battled them. We beat them at our house and took them to an overtime game.

They're one of the best coached teams in the country. I have so much respect for Bill Self, and they're playing the best they played all year, at peak performance.

We will have a little bit of time to get ready, but I promise you we will be ready to go tomorrow.

Q. What would a Big XII title mean to this team? You already know you're going dancing, but what would it mean to end the Big XII this way?

MARK ADAMS: Be another milestone for this team. I hope that happens for these guys. They worked so hard, a bunch of no-name guys that came here to play on this level, and they're really, really good players and they earned it and deserve all the recognition that they can possibly get.

I would certainly be happy for these guys if they could cut down the nets tomorrow.

Q. Just 19 second half points. What were the struggles there? What does that say about your defense being able to --

MARK ADAMS: Poor coaching on my part. We couldn't find something that works, so I take the blame for that.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, we will let you get out of here. Thank you. Congratulations, guys.