NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - NEW MEXICO ST. VS ARKANSAS

March 19, 2022

Chris Jans

Johnny McCants

Teddy Allen

Jabari Rice

KeyBank Center

New Mexico St. Aggies

Media Conference

Arkansas 53, New Mexico 48

CHRIS JANS: Proud of our kids' effort. Wasn't a lack of effort. They played their tails off. They competed. I wish I could have helped them more in the first half when we struggled offensively. We looked like a poorly-coached team. I have to figure that out.

We made a heck of a run the second half. Got the lead eventually, and then they went on a pretty good run, and we could never quite get over top of them after that. Congrats to Arkansas. They obviously did a good job against us especially on the defensive end.

Q. Question for Johnny. After six seasons, you come out. Obviously, all the buzz was about Teddy after what he did against UConn. You came out. You ended up being the team's leading scorer. Just seemed like you were really energized the entire game, and you look really exhausted now. Do you feel like you absolutely left everything that you had out on the court?

JOHNNY McCANTS: Honestly, I really do. I played my heart out every possession. There's going to be possessions where I mess up, where I have bad possessions, but I played my heart out. I played my heart out for the team, my family, the fans. I mean, I just love basketball. I love my team. They make me play a lot harder.

Q. Teddy, I guess just what were they doing in terms of guarding you that maybe made it tougher for you to get shots off throughout the game?

TEDDY ALLEN: Well, they just doubled basically. Pretty much whenever I had a ball and any type of attacking position, you know, credit to them. They had a good game plan. We just -- we still could have executed, but sometimes it doesn't work out.

Q. Johnny, back to you. Coming out of the tunnel there, I saw you kind of keel over as you walked in and took you a couple of minutes to catch your breath before you finished the walk to the locker room. What was going through your mind at that moment?

JOHNNY McCANTS: I knew it was the ending of my college career. I just want to give thanks to Coach Jans for taking me in, give thanks to the fans, my family, the teammates. Soak in the last moment I had. It was just a blessing to be here.

Q. I guess, Jabari, what would you -- what are you going to remember most about this season that you guys had? Obviously, you were in the NCAA Tournament first time in a long time. What are you going to remember most about this year?

JABARI RICE: Just the different days that we had. Just the practices we had, struggles we went through, the injuries, the battles every day. Just the hard work, the behind the scenes things. That's what I appreciate. I appreciate the win, obviously, because we made history, but just the guys that we had for this year, I wouldn't trade them for the world. I love these guys. We fought every day. We had our times.

You know, like Coach said, we lost games by 30, and we lost a game to a team that wasn't even supposed to beat us, and we all rallied together and came together and made a run, and we just really just did it. I can only be appreciative of what we did do and blessed for every guy and every coach on this team, especially Coach Jans, and he made it happen. He made us fall in line and do what we needed to do. We came up short, but I'm appreciative of just everything, just the guys being here. That's what I'm most appreciative of.

Q. Another question for Johnny. With Teddy being limited offensively by the stuff that they were doing to defend him, was there a moment where you just really felt like you were going to have to be a little bit of the aggressor offensively and really have to be the scorer? You did end up being the team's leading scorer tonight, and that's not necessarily something that you have always been known for on a game-to-game basis.

JOHNNY McCANTS: You know, they sent the trap to Teddy and doubled him. My teammates, they looked for me inside, and I just felt like they just kept on pushing me and pushing me to start scoring the ball a lot more and shooting my shots and just taking shots with confidence and just not getting down on myself, and I think that's something I did today. Airballed twice, but kept shooting. Could have done a lot more around the basket to help the team, but they just gave me the confidence to shoot the ball more and to score more down low.

Q. This is for Johnny. Johnny, I think everybody in here knows what type of player you are, the phenomenal player that you have been in the tournament. I just want to know, you talked about your collegiate career being over with, but I just want to know what's next for you, especially being the great player that you are.

JOHNNY McCANTS: Hopefully just continue to play basketball. Try to become financially stable so I can take care of my family and my future family, and wherever I go, just continue to play my heart out.

Q. Coach, describe the locker room a little bit for us, just what it was like. A fantastic end of the season. Not the way you wanted it to end, but can you describe the mood and kind of the tone in the locker room post-game?

CHRIS JANS: As you would expect, very somber. A lot of disappointed people in the locker room. It's pretty normal when your season is over. Most people's season ends, you know, it's hard. It's really, really hard. I just told them how proud I was of them and how much I appreciated their effort, and I told them that we didn't lose the game because of lack of effort.

We struggled in the first half offensively. We had way too many turnovers, and then the second half, you know, we just had a bad run there once we took the lead. They made their free-throws. I mean, they made their free-throws. 22 of 25. They stepped up and made them when they really had to. The locker room is what you would expect, a lot of sadness, a lot of embraces, you know, what you would expect.

Q. Coach, you've never been shy about talking about Johnny McCants and the warrior that he is and the person that he is. Now that his New Mexico State career has kind of come to an end, what can you say about the mark that he has left on this program?

CHRIS JANS: He will be an Aggie Legend for the rest of his life. It's like a movie. You know, local kid ends up playing for his hometown college, one of the leaders on the team that won a game in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 29 years. And he is so well-liked in the community, such a nice kid. I mean, I love coaching him. He is the epitome of what you would want in your student athlete. Just his approach, his work ethic, his passion, but he enjoys it too.

He does it with a smile on his face, and I just told him before he got up here that I can't wait to help him. I can't wait -- it's going to be easy to help him. I can't wait to help him for as long as he'll allow me to help him both on the court and off the court. He is a special kid.

Q. Coming into the second half, obviously, trailing by nine, I think it was at halftime, but talk about the locker rooms. What was really said in that halftime locker room because you guys came out and really got the crowd into it and really showed a lot of heart fighting back into the game, and if that -- how, if any, was that an indication of your entire season?

CHRIS JANS: It was very positive. Normally we meet as a staff, and I say, come on. We went in there as a staff, and I just told them that we're in great shape. We're good. We're going to play better. We're going to figure some stuff out. We have a lot of basketball left.

I said if I took the stat sheet -- and I went like this, and I just looked at their stats at halftime. I thought we would be up ten. I mean, we guarded them. They only scored 14 baskets all night long. Certainly they made some key shots and they made their free-throws like I already said, but halftime was as positive as it could be considering the situation that we were in.

I knew they would come back out and fight and punch and scratch, and they did, and then we took the lead with, I don't know, seven, eight left. It became a possession game, and we had some crucial mistakes down the stretch that allowed them to get a little separation.

Q. Your comfort level, though, does that go to show, I guess, the story of this team, the comfort level that you reached with those guys at halftime?

CHRIS JANS: I guess, yeah. I'm sure I'll have more perspective once I process kind of what just happened. None of us wanted it to end. It's been special. We've tried to soak it up. I tried to get them to understand how rare these runs are, and they've got to create memories. We were a pretty loose group outside of when we needed to be business-like, and hopefully that will make them feel good about their experience this week in Buffalo, and we weren't shy about talking about San Francisco and beyond, to be honest with you. I felt like this team had a chance to make one of those special runs, but, unfortunately, it didn't happen.

Q. You went more than 11 minutes at the start of the second half allowing a total of two baskets. On a night when baskets are hard to come by, that's pretty impressive. Do you think a couple more baskets here and there might have really set you guys off? It was just such a grind to get even that.

CHRIS JANS: I kept looking up at the scoreboard, and they had 30. I'm, like, guys, we held them to four points. Just stay with it. Regardless if the ball is going in the hole or not, you just got to stay with it. You got to keep doing it over and over, and they were.

Our biggest problem was just 12 turnovers in the first half. They converted on so many of those. They had a bunch of fastbreak points at halftime, and certainly talked about that a lot that our transition D, you know, on this shot was really good. They weren't getting any looks, but when you turn it over and they have the advantageous numbers, it's hard to guard, especially at the level of guys that they have in their program. That was the biggest thing that set us back, but, again, I really felt like we could come out and have a chance, and we did.

I think it just speaks volumes for the kind of guys, kind of competitors that we have in our program, and I know Aggie Nation would like a different result, as much as we do too, but hopefully they're as proud as I am of these kids and how they played.

Q. Talk about Johnny a little bit, but just was it a halftime adjustment to start feeding him the ball a little bit more because it felt like you went to that quite a bit more in the second half?

CHRIS JANS: Yeah, you know, I needed to help him more and the team in the first half. We fully expected them to run at Teddy from the scouting that we did and the talking that we did to teams in their league that know them better, and we weren't surprised by it at all. Probably should have went inside a little bit more in the first half. Certainly in the second half, we wanted to establish ourselves down there a little bit more with Johnny and Will. We got some easier baskets and kind of opened up the floor a little bit for us the rest of the half.

Q. Coach, there in the first half, we saw quite a few contested fall-away three-pointers. Saw a lot of shots just clank right off the backboard. Saw a few shot clock violations. Have you seen a team like that that has been that physical and that good at defending the perimeter this season?

CHRIS JANS: They did a good job. They did a good job. Like I said, I needed to help them more. I needed to help our team more in the first half especially to put them in better positions. We were out of rhythm. We weren't in a rhythm. Teddy struggled early obviously. We rely on him at times to get us out of funks sometimes, but, again, we stuck together. We were down nine. We took the lead.

We just put ourselves in a pretty deep hole, and I talked to them about it in the locker room after the game that, hey, regardless of where your career takes you, you've got to remember in these situations where it's tournament basketball, and it's survive and advance that every play is crucial. You just never know when the plays are going to come and try to guard against it the best you can.

The atomic bomb turnover, the missed screen that would have been a layup, they're just so crucial when you are playing the level of basketball that we were playing and level of competition that you are playing and what's riding on the game, and we had too many breakdowns throughout the game.

Q. Just kind of recapping the season, what can you say about this year's team that was maybe different from some of the other teams that you have had in the past?

CHRIS JANS: We won a game in March Madness. That's probably what I'm going to remember the most. Happy that we have given that to the fan base. I know they've been starving for it. I'm sure they're disappointed tonight like we all are, but certainly as the days get away and have a little more perspective, I think we'll look back pretty fondly on what we accomplished this year, and it will certainly sting for quite some time.

Thanks for being here. Appreciate it.