NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - VIRGINIA TECH VS TEXAS

March 18, 2022

Chris Beard

Marcus Carr

Courtney Ramey

Andrew Jones

Fiserv Forum

Texas Longhorns

Media Conference

Texas - 81, Virginia Tech - 73

MODERATOR: Coach Chris Beard is joining us. He is now 5-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in his career.

Coach Beard, do you have an opening statement for us?

COACH CHRIS BEARD: It's definitely not about me. It's Josh Hague, Keenan Evans, Andrew Jones, Courtney Ramey. These are the guys who've had some success in the tournament.

So, first of all, from everybody in our organization, we'll congratulate Virginia Tech on a great season, a great run, their accomplished tournament. We have so much respect for them. We basically set it up for our guys as we've got to go beat one of the best teams in the country in the first round. So this will be a confidence builder as the tournament goes on because I do think we just beat one of the best teams in the tournament. We'll have to go through several teams like this.

Today was about us. I thought to hold that team to four made 3-point shots was really where our defense was on point. And then offensively, when we can get the five guys to double figures scoring, I think we can play with anybody in the country. Super proud of our players. We had some guys that had never played in a tournament, never won a game in a tournament, so definitely a happy locker room. We'll enjoy this for a few hours and get back to work.

Q. Marcus, Coach always talks about finishing the first half strong and I don't know if there's a better way to finish it. But what did that shot do and what kind of momentum do you think that give you guys psychologically, if nothing else?

MARCUS CARR: It was kind of a momentum play being able to hit that shot going into the half. Me and Coach kind of locked eyes, he told me two dribbles. We always count the dribbles whenever there's a certain amount of time left and I let it go with confidence. That's a shot, I'm not going to lie, I do practice a lot. Anybody who knows me knows I do practice that shot a lot. I wasn't really surprised when it went it. I'm happy it did. It gave us the lead going into the half and we were able to build off that.

Q. For Marcus, how often do you practice that shot and just what was the attitude like in the locker room coming in after that?

MARCUS CARR: You know, most days I don't leave the gym until I hit a half court shot. Sometimes it takes me one rep, sometimes it takes me eleven, however many it takes. The guys were just happy that I hit that shot. Like I said, we just use it as momentum going into the second half.

Co: Courtney is the fifth player.

Q. Whoever wants to answer, you guys shot over 60 percent from the field in the second half. What got that offense clicking, especially when you made that big run to go from a 1-point lead to go to a 16-point lead?

COURTNEY RAMEY: I think the biggest thing that we did in the second half was move the ball and create shots for everyone. I think Marcus and Timmy had great chemistry in the second half. I think Andrew was aggressive the whole game and it kind of triggered to me being more aggressive in the second half.

ANDREW JONES: We did a good job of taking care of the ball. That's the best way we want to survive and advance and get shots. So as long as we move the ball, the ball has energy. So long as the ball pops around and everybody gets touches, it's a good offense for us.

MARCUS CARR: I think we did a better job of locking in and guarding in the second half as well. We always know whenever we're able to have to turn the other team over or get rebounds in the run. That's to our advantage and we really tried to do that. Like these guys were saying, we were just moving the ball, popping it around and when we play like that we're hard to guard.

TIMMY ALLEN: Like Marcus said, when we get stops, it creates great offense for us, and then just moving the ball and finding each other for open shots. Drew carried us in the first half, so big shout out to him for that He was lining it up, so that's what got us through.

Q. Courtney, all the talk leading in was Virginia Tech shooting a lot of threes and making a lot of threes lights out. You guys not only held them to four made but only 12 attempts. What did that say about your close-out defense and the intensity that you showed on that end?

COURTNEY RAMEY: I think it showed that we were locked in on the game plan and then when we're locked in, we can be hard to beat. Those were one of our biggest keys was to limit their threes. And they're a great team, they had some good looks. We're fortunate to win.

Q. Andrew, you had a couple opportunities there on the press break late in the second half to get a run-out dunk and you finally got one. How bad did you want it right there? And to go back to the first half, what were you seeing, how were you feeling there? Because it looked like you were keeping your team in the game making some big shots in the first half.

ANDREW JONES: The dunk felt great, but that's not why I was leaking out. I know I was drawing a lot of attention in the second half and I wanted to give Courtney and Marcus and Timmy space so I didn't crowd their playmaking ability. I just took open shots that they gave me and my preparation finally showed. My guys were hitting me in my spots. We understood the game plan, and credit goes to them for finding me in my open spots.

Q. Marcus, I know Andrew just touched on this, but nine assists, one turnover tonight and the turnover was super late. Can you just touch on how important and critical that was? And also, were the shoes new or have you worn those this year? Where did you get them?

MARCUS CARR: Yeah, I've always tried to pride myself on being a guy who can take care of the ball. These guys definitely made it easy on me tonight, drew, Courtney and Tim, me, C.B., Dylan just rolling through the basket, finding the open spaces for shots. The coaches did a great job of the scout and game planning for us, so we knew where our offense would be able to come. I just had to listen to them and let the game come to me. These guys did a great job knocking down the shots.

And these shoes, I believe I wore them before, one game before.

Q. Timmy, Brock got two big offensive boards to get it going at least to Jase three, that gets your scoring going. What about Brock today and what about Dylan, a guy who gave you pretty solid minutes? Neither of these guys have are big stat lines. They were out there doing their thing and helping you guys.

TIMMY ALLEN: Yeah, they're big for us. Brock comes in every game and he just impacts. What he's able to do, not a lot of people in the country can do or are willing to do. He does a lot of things that go over people's heads on the stat sheet. Dylan comes in with great energy and he changes shots at the rim, and he finishes down there for us. So those two are a big spark off the bench for us. So I know when Brock comes in not much is getting left out on the floor because he's in there doing his thing. So those two are big for us.

Q. Courtney, over the last three games coming into this, Coach Beard has talked a lot about winning time, playing with toughness, making the right plays on the stretch. I know it got a little bit dicey there, but you all closed the game out. What was different?

COURTNEY RAMEY: I think we wanted to win bad, 11 guys wanted to win so bad and I think it finally showed today. Our preparation kicked in and then our experience. We're all older and I think it kicked in today. We knew it was an important time today and we wanted to finish the game.

MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Beard.

Q. Chris, you just got here, but this is a humungous win for the program itself. How big can it be moving forward? Because getting that first win, there's only one time you can get that and now things can maybe settle down and get rolling.

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, I understand the question. But today was all about the players. Just so happy for our guys that never won a game in a tournament, never been in the tournament. This whole deal's about our players. I think after the season it will be a chance to reflect, but we're in this tournament to win six games. We've always thought the toughest game's the first one, so obviously we got a day to prepare and we've got to play against another one of the best teams in the country.

Q. Chris, just wondering how important the end of the first half is and how much you stress it? Because it's been back and forth, he hits a big shot and you guys seem to make more control in the second half.

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, we did a good job of coming out of the timeout and getting the last shot, but there's a differential between the shot clock and the game clock. So we talked this is the shot we need and then we've got to get a stop. I don't know if we made a bad play or if their guard made a great play kind of backing up into our guy, so we basically just traded baskets there. So we were a little frustrated with that. We look up there, we got the one dribble first second rule.

Shout out to coach Fran. So that's the deal. So Marcus and I, we had a plan. Whoever through the ball in, probably Timmy, led him real well. He was able to two dribbles and get a pretty high percentage shot. It's not a 50 percent shot, but for Marcus that might be a 20 percent shot. He can make one out of five from that area. I thought the end of the first half is always a critical time for any team.

Q. In the first half, Andrew had six field goals and the rest of the team had five. How important was it in the second half to get a lot of those other guys going and just on Marcus with the nine assists and one turnover? How critical was that too?

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, I wish Andrew would have gotten 12 shots in the first half. It's kind of balance. You guys know how our team's set up today. You get the five guys in double-figure scoring and got some production off our bench. But certainly early, Drew was carrying us. Marcus had an outstanding with nine assists, one turnover game. That's how these NCAA Tournament games work. Very rarely are you going to see something like Timmy's brother did last night. Those are far and few between. You've got to have some balance in this tournament to win.

Coach Young does a great job. He obviously made a couple of adjustments on Andrew, and our guys did a great job feeding off of that. Some of our shots we got in the second half were because they were so focused on Jones.

Q. Courtney mentioned how important the big key running tech off the 3-point line was. Doing that, how much did that affect and help the rest of your defense limiting them and making them kind of drive inside and then you guys kind of stuffed them in there?

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Virginia Tech's set up so well offensively, they can definitely beat you inside with their forwards. Then they've got obviously great 3-point shooting. Our game plan was about three-layered today, and the first was to try to have a good day against the three and fortunate for us, that's where the game was played by us. There will also come a time where you've got to take away that inside scoring. I think typically NCAA Tournament game, both teams got some key guys with two fouls early and then both teams were playing a little bit off of rhythm early, so we felt fortunate at halftime to be where we are, no doubt about it.

Q. In a lot of ways in our days like today, why you grind on these guys in November and December and January and February, even all the way up to the Big 12 tournament about competitiveness, it's to get to moments like this and close out in March.

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, absolutely. Definition of a coach, simply stated, is to put his guys in a position to win and when you're coaching and playing at this level you've got to be really disciplined and tough and you've got to pay the price to win. Today's game was not won just by the 40 minutes we played. We had a great week of preparation. We've been playing pretty good basketball. Big 12 speaks for itself this year. Everybody kind of wanted to talk about how we kind of limped into the tournament, but I did not consider it that way. Allen Fieldhouse on senior night where they haven't lost ever, it seems like, we were right there.

Baylor's a pretty good team, if you guys haven't noticed. So we played some good basketball down the stretch. We never define the way we're playing by the scoreboard, so we felt like we come in playing pretty good and I know Virginia Tech was. I thought it was two good teams today. We were fortunate, we got that balance, offensive scoring, low turnover game, out-rebounded them, forced a few more turnovers than they like to have, not as much as we like to force. We wanted to try to get it to the 15, 16 mark, but they're so good at taking care of the ball. There were some different ways that we won the game today, no doubt.

Q. First ever NCAA win was against Purdue when you were coaching for Arkansas Little Rock. You mentioned in the post-game or after the game that Matt Painter is your friend. Do you just want to expand on one of those topics?

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, the Little Rock-Purdue was obviously a game that we, us and that group, those players, we still connected, team techs, we see those guys. Josh Hagen's still a pro and Mo Eisen lives in Austin now, so never get tired talking about that team. It was special.

In terms of my friendship with Coach Painter, so much stories, but one time when I was in between jobs, I got a call from Coach Painter and he kind of led me the way to coaching in the ABA. I don't know if that was a blessing or a curse, but that's what I did. So people ask me all the time how I ended up in South Carolina coaching the ABA Warriors, Matt Painter can tell you that story. So Matt's a guy I've always looked up to. He's known for how hard his teams place. He's a first class guy. He's a coach's guy, and so we will have to play our best game of the year to beat a Purdue team that I think is picked by many to make the final four. But I believe we can play with them and I believe we can beat them in a 40-minute game. We're just going to go out to play our best game of the season to beat Purdue, and so that will be our objective.