NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MONTANA ST. VS TEXAS TECH

March 18, 2022

Mike Adams

Terrence Shannon Jr.

Bryson Williams

Viejas Arena

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Media Conference

Texas Tech - 97, Montana State - 62

COACH ADAMS: I want to change the mood a little bit. We're elated we get to this first game. So excited for this bunch of guys that they get to advance. They survived and advanced. Getting ready for our next opponent on Sunday, whoever that might be.

Couldn't be more thrilled the way we played. One of the best games we've played all year. Excited that our guys are showing some improvement. And that's the thing we want to do is continue to grow as a team. And I thought our guys did that. With that said, again, we did a great job preparing. We took Montana State very seriously, a very good program, well-coached. Like I told Coach Sprinkle after the game It's the best, if not the best game we've played all year. We can build on that.

Q. Coach, how nice is it for a young man like Buzo Agbo to come back home?

COACH ADAMS: So excited, hometown player, got in the game, played so well. But that's not surprising at all to our team. He's made shots all year for us, one of our best 3-point shooters. He took a charge and just played well on both ends of the floor. Extremely happy for him. He's such an unbelievably nice young man. He's a gym rat and glad to see him get a chance to play and play so well.

Q. Bryson, you're not too far from home. Your first March Madness experience. Did it add up to your expectations?

BRYSON WILLIAMS: Definitely. I mean March Madness is unbelievable. It's a great stage. And a lot of good teams up here and a lot of good basketball. So this is a great, it was great. My whole family was here to be able to watch. They drove down and it was awesome. It was a blessing for sure.

Q. TJ, got off to a hot start, three 3s in the first five minutes. What was working for you and how does it feel to start the tournament out on this note?

TERRENCE SHANNON JR.: My teammates, they found me when I was open. We all moved the ball pretty well today. We had a lot of assists. And I just wanted to bring energy to the game. And I was just playing off that. When I have energy and coming we play pretty well. And Coach Darby (phonetic), he reminded me that before the game. I tried to do my best, play with energy, play with defense, finding myself into the offense.

Q. You two and the rest of the starting five, all both in double digit figures today offensively. What do you think made it so easy for you guys to complement each other offensively?

TERRENCE SHANNON JR.: I feel like everyone was unselfish. Nobody was hurrying shots. We did a good job moving the ball, and when we play unselfish and selfless we're a pretty good team.

BRYSON WILLIAMS: Reiteration what TJ said, when we share the ball and have the number of assists we had today, it's just going to flow for us. And everybody played well tonight and we moved that ball and it really helped us at the end.

Q. Bryson, going back to your family being here, I guess, how many people were here? And what was it like just to kind of see them in the stands because I know you were pointing to them. When was the last time they saw you in California?

BRYSON WILLIAMS: Last time my family saw me in California was probably about two, maybe two years ago. I haven't been back home in a minute. And I mean it was good to see them actually in the stands especially in a NCAA Tournament. This is my first time being here. Just the magnitude of it all was just unbelievable.

Q. You guys shattered the school's tournament record today with 97, breaking the record that was set in '96. I know you guys are great at defense. Did you think you had this kind of offensive game in you?

COACH ADAMS: You guys be careful how you say that.

BRYSON WILLIAMS: Definitely. We try to feed offense off of our defense. And I mean when you get easy opportunities and things like that, you're able to get turnovers and deflections and get the ball back and get extra possessions, I mean that's definitely going to help on you the offensive side. That's what we tried to bank on tonight was our defense leading it into offense.

Q. You guys hit 10 of your first 11 shots. Was there something Montana State was doing defensively you guys thought you could exploit?

TERRENCE SHANNON JR.: I feel like our guys were just moving the ball pretty well, like I said earlier. We just found an open man. Whether the shot went in or didn't it was a good shot.

Q. When Mylik went up for that dunk, TJ, I saw you run on the baseline so excited for him. You guys were like that the entire time, the amount of energy you guys support each other. Comment on today's energy.

BRYSON WILLIAMS: This is a family unit. Anybody that did well, anybody that succeeded on the court we'll be happy for that player any time. We knew Mylik got crazy bounce, I ain't ever seen him pull that out of the bag ever. For him to do that in a NCAA Tournament game was crazy. I wasn't mad at TJ for running all the way over there. I had to hold myself from doing the same thing.

TERRENCE SHANNON JR.: I won't do that again.

Q. Bryson, obviously the tournament for teams that make runs, it's about playing your best ball at the end of the season. After a game like this, what your coach said one of the best you've had, how much confidence does this give you guys moving forward?

BRYSON WILLIAMS: This gives us a lot of confidence. We played one of our best defensive games we played all year, and we just need to improve and build on that. We know we are capable of much more. And we just are going to keep harping on that, watch a lot of film get back to the drawing board and pull that out of us. We have a lot of potential. We want to capitalize on all of that that we have.

Q. Montana State, they've done a really good job in the Big Sky forcing charges, forcing offensive fouls. Was that something you guys were looking into? And just playing against your defense in practice, was that something you guys were just able to exploit because you knew what was coming?

BRYSON WILLIAMS: Definitely. I mean there's a lot of teams, we play a lot of teams in our conference in the Big 12 that tries to take a lot of charges and try to draw a lot of offensive fouls so they can be able to get the ball back. It's just something we've been facing all year. Something we always try to keep in the back of our heads and we were able to not fall into that tonight.

Q. I know the goal is to win, how important is it to know that nobody on the team played more than 29 minutes to stay fresh?

COACH ADAMS: We talked about on the bench as the game progressed, if we could, give our starters and guys to rest a little bit and not have them out there for too many minutes so they can be rested for Sunday. That was one of the real positives about the game. We played a lot of guys and they all played well and had a chance to contribute and had a chance to rest our starters.

Q. Defensive philosophy is a well-reported science at this point. From an offensive standpoint do you guys have daily metrics you guys want to hit and how close did you hit them today?

COACH ADAMS: I was a little concerned. I don't want our guys thinking too much offense. We start scoring too many points. I want them to stay with our identity on defense. But seriously it's one of the best offensive games we've had. We really shared the ball.

I think we had 23 or 24 assists, 22 assists; is that what it was? 23. It may have been the most all year. That's one of the emphasizes, if we wanted to grow offensively we've got to share the ball. We've got a lot of guys that can shoot 3s and make plays and drive.

Our biggest challenge is to spread the floor and get some space and get those guys to move the ball and just trust in our offense. So we did that. And I thought we really worked on that a lot this week on trying to do some things to get more ball movement. So it was great to see these guys do that.

Q. As you started this kind of new season, if you will, was there something that you wanted to see particularly in this game in terms of energy, effort, whatever it might be to see how this was going to go going forward?

COACH ADAMS: One of the great things about this team is they love basketball. And they want to be coached. Want to be coached hard. And so we do that. And because of that they really take preparation seriously.

But our theme or motto is just together we attack. So every game we're playing we're trying to attack on both ends of the floor. I thought that was something that was a big difference at the start of the game. We came out of the gate, both ends we were pushing the ball up the floor, got easy baskets. And we were able to turn them over and score off our defense. And the first five minutes set the stage for the rest of the game.

Q. I noticed Clarence didn't play today. He was a game-time decision. Would he have played if the game was closer?

COACH ADAMS: Yes, he would have. He's been wearing a boot around just to protect that ankle. So he could have played, wanted to play, but we thought it best just to rest him for Sunday.

Q. From your film study of Montana State beforehand to seeing them in person today, what translated the most that you thought you had to deal with in real time?

COACH ADAMS: They can really shoot the ball. And that was a huge concern for us. And they continue making some of those 3s. But they're a very balanced team. They have inside scoring, outside scoring, point guard that is really good off the bounce.

I thought we did a great job of containing him; and then on the inside, at least the first half, the inside game. The guys that scored were a lot of their perimeter players that maybe are not used to carrying that load. I thought that was really good.

But just we wanted to take advantage of our athleticism against them. And I thought we were able to do that.

Q. The scoring has been up and down throughout this season. How much confidence does it give you all throughout the rest of the tournament that this was your highest-scoring game all season?

COACH ADAMS: I think it's certainly easy to build on. Anytime we're shooting the ball well it's hard for me to take any credit for that. When they're shooting the ball, shooting 3s, easy, winning comes a lot easier, and you don't have to rely on that defense as much. So if we could shoot the ball Sunday and throughout the tournament, then we're going to be in great shape.

Q. You guys were rotating off the bench today. Daniel Batcho had some good minutes, KJ. How important is it to give those guys time in an environment like this?

COACH ADAMS: I think it's great. We wanted to give Daniel Batcho, both those guys, but especially Daniel Batcho, a guy 6'11" that we'll need. And so to get him some experience in the game, and he played quite a few minutes, is going to be good for him. I don't know if I could have scripted this any better. It was a great game for us.

Q. It's always tough to get that first win. What would be the message moving forward with the guys?

COACH ADAMS: It's a stressful time for any team because, like I told our guys before the game, you look around, you love these guys. We have such a great relationship. And it's been such a wonderful journey for us, but this is kind of a do-or-die situation. Every game is. And it's how you handle that pressure and believing in yourself and trusting in what you're doing.

But we got out of the gate -- it was a great win. We can build on that. I know this team's -- wants to play as long as we can, and we've talked about that. Let's forget about this first game. Let's get ready, because we did a great job preparing for Montana State. If we do the same we'll have a clans to win that one.