NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - TEXAS VS PURDUE

March 20, 2022

Chris Beard

Andrew Jones

Marcus Carr

Fiserv Forum

Texas Longhorns

Media Conference

Purdue - 81, Texas - 71

MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from Texas Coach Chris Beard, please.

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Well, I think three things. One, with the basketball game, I'm sure there will be some questions here in a minute, so we'll talk about the game.

Two, I want to congratulate Purdue and Coach Painter. We pull for those guys in the tournament from here on out, a team we have a lot of respect for. I thought they played great tonight in a lot of ways, so congratulate them on a great season. A win tonight against our guys and we'll pull for them next weekend. A lot of respect for Purdue, Coach Painter. I think it's well documented this week and the last couple days how I feel about Matt and their program, so I want to congratulate them on a good within.

And thirdly, with our guys, every season ends like this, I guess, unless you win the final Monday night game. We've been in that game, we just didn't win it. I'm just super proud of our guys. It's not all the normal coaching cliches, I really mean it. This group overcame a lot. Most of these guys recruited by Texas and us during the COVID. They didn't take official visits. Four guys chose to stay. Other guys made the decision on Zoom calls and phone calls. They all came together and I thought really had a good season. We came down here to win this tournament and came up a little bit short tonight, but never been more proud of a group. I've been fortunate, I've coached a lot of other great teams, but this team is right there because I think they gave everything. They played for each other, they represented our university, our city, our school. We established a lot in the first year building the program, but I think the story overall is just these players. Super proud of our guys. I thought they gave great effort all season long.

Q. For both you guys, just what does this say about the fight of this team to miss 16 straight shots, have a huge free throw disparity against you guys and it's still a one-possession game in the last two minutes?

ANDREW JONES: Basketball's a game of runs. One team makes a run, you've got to respond. We responded a little bit too late, but we were still in the fight. It just showed how tough we are, how determined we were to stay in this game, and a few more things go our way, you never know, the decision might have been different.

MARCUS CARR: Yeah, like Drew said, it's a game of runs. Sometimes the ball doesn't always fall in the net, so we try to do our best on the defensive end to hold that up so we could still crawl our way back. We had a chance in the end, just didn't pull it out.

Q. To either of you, just looking back, reflecting on the season, what y'all were able to accomplish this year getting the first NCAA Tournament win for this program in several years.

ANDREW JONES: Being one of the older guys on this team, I witnessed a coaching change and I know how difficult it is to get a group of guys to buy in to a culture of winning and buying into a new philosophy. So for me, my first year was awful with a new coaching staff and just to see how directed, see how strong the culture is, like we overachieve in a lot of ways that many people didn't think we were going to do. This culture's strong, the coaching staff is strong and players just got to come along with it and trust it.

Q. What's your timetable? You have big decisions to make on whether or not you're going to come back next year after such a great run this season.

ANDREW JONES: Day at a time.

MARCUS CARR: Not even thinking about that right now. I haven't even wrapped my head around what just happened.

Q. Obviously Jaden's an NBA player, gets the big shot at the end. What did you all think of the defense you were able to play run for most of the game and especially the way Courtney was able to prevent him from getting a lot of shots up, especially in the first half?

MARCUS CARR: Yeah, Courtney did a good job as always. He takes those things personal and we trust him in these matchups, and he did another great job tonight. Pretty much just completely took him out of it. And second half, obviously Jaden's a pretty talented player, so he decided to get aggressive and try to take the game over. Him as well as their whole team got to the free-throw line and that's where they did a lot of damage. So credit to him and credit to them for making that adjustment. But like I said, Courtney did a great job on him all night, as he usually does.

Q. Just wondering, what did you guys think about how Christian, Timmy, Brock, Dylan, all those guys were handling the big guy and Trevion, and what was going to be the guards' role in either help or back side defense against their front court?

ANDREW JONES: He did a great job, they fought unbelievably hardest despite the size advantage, which doesn't mean anything. The guard's job and responsibility is to limit on the threes, hold the team to the 3-point line and make sure we don't give up twos and threes, and they fought and just the whistle didn't go our way, you know. The whistle just didn't go our way.

MODERATOR: We'll release the student-athletes. Thank you very much, guys.

Questions for Coach Beard, please.

Q. Coach, how do you kind of find the balance of when to send an extra body at a player like Trevion Williams knowing that he can be a force when he's played one on one but he has the passing ability to kind of pass out of the double team and find the extra player?

COACH CHRIS BEARD: He's a really good player. He obviously can score, he can pass, he can also play in facing the basket. So in tonight's game plan, we obviously had some different layers. We wanted to try to take away the 3-point shot and we did that. We were successful. Got loose on us a little bit late we were in rotations and trapping, but it was basically about a four, maybe 3-point game for Purdue. We wanted to get a little bit more done with post defense. We missed some assignments. A couple of the ISO baskets we were fine with. Really, the differential in the game, you guys know this, the free throws. Be careful what I say, 46-12, there hasn't been a lot of games in the NCAA Tournament like that.

Q. You mentioned the free throws and the 46 free throws in 40 minutes. How difficult did that make your job as the head coach when you already have given up a lot of size and you're running out of fouls with 12 minutes to go in the game?

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Well, I think the difficulty and the frustrating part from our point of view is a lot of them, we weren't trying to foul. So obviously there was going to be a discrepancy because of their playing through the post and us trying to get 3-point shots. But a lot of them -- again, season's over, I think talk about this game as much as you guys want down the line, but the free throw discrepancy was tough. A lot of times on our end we were driving the ball, there's different ways to get fouled in the basketball game. Obviously when you get fouled right around the basket, everybody sees it. But I thought there was a lot of fouls out on the floor where the calls didn't go our way. So we know that's a big part of Purdue's identity, but again, guys, 46 to 12, that's a little frustrating.

Q. Coach, you've been at this for a while, so you've been through a lot of these moments, but for the players, this is their first trip to the tournament, first time seeing the season end like this. Just what was your message to them and just how difficult was it in the locker room with them after the game?

COACH CHRIS BEARD: It's always difficult at the end because there's emotion, you know. Like the last game of the year, the team that wins is going to be crying with emotion because they just won it and every game before that. The team that loses and gets eliminated in this March Madness, it's going to be emotional. So our guys really cared. We had a great season, we played for each other. Disappointed in the ending, but again, when this whole thing settles, there's only going to be one team that's not disappointed in their ending.

Always thought too like you're not really going to remember much about those moments, so when the seasons end, I try to talk less and just observe and listen more.

Got a lot of guys that care about each other in there. There was some grown men hugging each other that loved each other. Really proud of this year's team. There's a lot of love in that locker room, a lot of care factor. The message to me was simple, just really appreciate their buy-in. coaching changes are hard, seasons are hard. We played the best conference in college basketball this year In the Big 12 and it was a long grind of a season. I was really proud of the guys' effort. So my message was really just thank you, thank you for your sacrifice, your buy-in, and told the guys we would do everything we can to support them moving on from tonight.

Q. Just what you thought of the defense Courtney Ramey played on Jaden Ivey all night.

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Ramey's one of the best defenders in the country, Ivey's obviously a special player. We held him to four made field goals tonight. He gets nine free throws, we've already talked about that, but to hold him to four made field goal in the second round of an NCAA Tournament game I thought our defense did a lot of things obviously late. He got loose from us a few times. And give him all the credit. He's one of the quickest, fastest players that I've ever seen on tape and he was just as fast in person. His speed's an issue. He got downhill on us a little bit late in the second half. The free throws were a problem for a lot of reasons. They broke rhythm, too. We were getting in runs, we took the lead and every time Purdue's shooting free throws. It will be an interesting game to watch and study and look at, but we knew we were going to have to give up some things to take away some things.

You know, again, guys, 3-point game, a minute 15, thrown out of bounds in front of our bench. Could have been our ball. They had to go to the monitor to check it. If we get the stop there, we come down and win the game, probably the story is that we took away Purdue's 3-point shooting.

Game didn't go our way tonight, so I'm sure one narrative will be the dominance of them in the post and the free throw differential. But we played the game with the ball and we gave ourselves a chance to win tonight. Obviously some things that we would like to do better, but I thought the guys played with a lot of grit. Not a lot of teams would come down from the drought we were in earlier, the discrepancy, and we just kept fighting. Was really kind of a microcosm of our season. There's no quit in those guys. That's why I was so proud to be their coach this season.

Q. Big 12 has been in the spotlight all season long. It's arguably the best conference in college basketball. Talk about the depth of the league, especially going into the second weekend with Kansas, Texas Tech and possibly TCU (inaudible) going into the Sweet 16?

COACH CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, it's real. All the leagues are good. The toughest league is the league you're in, ask any coach or player that. But I think the numbers, the stats, the Big 12, it's an 18-round fight, so doesn't surprise any of us that teams are making nice runs, us included.

We beat a really good Virginia Tech team a couple days ago that had just won the ACC Championship, went through North Carolina, Duke to get it done. So our team was really good this year, too. I guess TCU's still playing right now, so we wish all those teams.

Certainly want to congratulate Coach Adams, one of my former assistant coaches, the job he's doing, and Coach Self's a friend. And T.J. did a great job at Iowa State, we watched that game. So we pull for those Big 12 teams. The Big 12 was real this year and I'll be pulling for those teams down the stretch. I think we've got a chance to get a couple teams in the Final Four this season, no doubt about it.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.