NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - TEXAS TECH VS DUKE

March 24, 2022

Mark Adams

Bryson Williams

Adonis Arms

Chase Center

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

Duke 78, Texas Tech 73

MARK ADAMS: First of all, we want to congratulate Duke on a great game, great second half. A very, very good team, and, obviously, very well-coached. This is a tough time for us. Your season ends. I think there's a Bible verse that says you mourn with those who mourn and celebrate those who celebrate, and we're going to have a lot of time to celebrate. This has been an unbelievable year, but I have a lot of guys tearing up in that locker room. So this is a time that we'll mourn a little bit.

I love these guys. So blessed to have the opportunity to coach them, and I wish I could coach them another game, but I just can't express how much I appreciate the work habits and how coachable these guys are, how much they love each other, the family atmosphere that we had. It was just so enjoyable for me, and this will be a team that I'll always remember. They had a great year. We broke a lot of records, and some of these guys who are up here with me are largely responsible for that. Anyway, we'll get through tonight.

Q. Bryson, they made all of their last eight field goals. I guess just how hard was it to stop that kind of train defensively when it was going like that?

BRYSON WILLIAMS: When you're playing a team like Duke that has so much firepower on their offensive end and a lot of guys that can do a lot of great things on the floor one-on-one, it's always going to be hard to stop. Those guys had momentum going into it the end of the game, and they took fully advantage of it, so just hats off to them. They played great on the offensive end towards the end of the game.

Q. This is for Coach: I'm curious what your impressions are of what you saw from Banchero tonight and how much he hurt you guys in some of those spurts?

MARK ADAMS: He is a great player, and our scouting report, our preparation was all about not giving him as many touches. He is not a great three-point shooter on paper, but he proved he can really shoot it tonight and made a lot of big plays for them. We were trying to not let him catch the ball. He talked about it during time-outs. Great players find a way to get the ball and make the big plays, and he certainly did that.

Q. Adonis, obviously you guys were able to make it close later on. Can you just speak to the fight this team has had throughout the year and what the message is or just kind of what the story is of this team? I know it's right after, but what can you kind of put into words as to what the story is of this team that got put together so quickly and made a special run?

ADONIS ARMS: In my opinion we got the best coach in college basketball to my right. So when we follow his lead and listen to everything he has to say when it comes to fighting and never wanting to lose, like hating to lose and stuff like that, and you get a full team like myself and Bryson that's a bunch of veterans coming in to actually buy into that and believe in each other and love each other and just want to win every single possession, every single game and hate losing, all credit goes to Coach Adams.

His mindset, his every day of watching film, breaking it down to the smallest thing, and we actually buy into it, there's no cliques or anything. There's none of that on this team. Hat goes off to Coach Adams, for him to lay down the table and for us to buy into it and love him as a coach and a person at the same time. In my opinion, this is the greatest team I've ever been on. I love these guys. I'll never forget them, especially Coach Adams. He is probably my favorite coach I've ever played for. That's how I feel about it.

Q. For both of you guys, kind of to bounce off of that with how quickly this team was assembled and how you guys came from all different walks of life, what made it so easy for you guys to latch on to each other and the rest of your teammates and create a culture?

BRYSON WILLIAMS: I'd just reiterate what Adonis said. Coach Adams, he is the greatest coach in the country. For him to be able to pull a group of guys together who were all the man at their previous institutions and just get us to buy in and believe in team and make us love playing defense, I mean, that's special.

Also, I would like to say that Texas Tech, this is the institution to love and the support and just the way the fans and everybody was just behind us and everybody that's involved with Texas Tech, I mean, it's just amazing. I mean, it was a blessing to be here. It was a blessing for all of us to play here. I'll remember these guys for the rest of my life. I'll remember Coach Adams for the rest of my life, and everybody on that coaching staff, every manager, every GA, even the janitors that work at Texas Tech, I'm going to remember them.

It was just a blessing to be here and we fought hard. That's all we're going to do always is fight hard.

Q. Coach, hearing that from your players, you're clearly very, very loved. How does it feel to hear that, and can you just sum up how special your first year as a head coach at Texas Tech has been?

MARK ADAMS: Y'all get a small taste of what I get to enjoy every day with these guys. I've been doing this a long time, and this is a team that really loves the game and plays with a lot of emotion and they love each other, and they laugh a lot, and that same emotion is -- they're so competitive when they need to be, and it was just a joy to coach, and our coaching staff is so thankful, and I'm so blessed that God has put me in this situation and put these guys in my life. I don't think I'm deserving to have these guys, but I'm so thankful that I was able to coach these guys and the rest of them on this team. Just very special. I'm just so sad that we have to see this season come to an end because we want to keep -- we want to keep playing. We just love competing together, and we love being in the same foxhole and going out and fighting together.

Q. This is for Adonis: When they switched to zone, were you surprised by it? It seemed like you guys hit it really hard early, and then they adjusted a little bit. Could you sense the adjustment, and is that what caused you guys the problems on a couple of possessions that changed the game there?

ADONIS ARMS: They have a Hall-of-Fame coach in Coach K over there, he was trying to find a way to slow us down because we were scoring, giving the ball to Bryson and attacking the gaps and their zone. I think the hat goes off to Kevin McCullar for that call noticing they were switching from man to zone and man to zone quickly, and me recognizing it and getting us in our sets. I just think if we would have just recognized it a little quicker, it would have been fine.

But it was a great adjustment from Coach K. I have all the faith in my team and my guys to figure out what play we need to run and stuff like that, but just that was basically it.

Q. Coach, just kind of looking back at the beginning of the year and where the team was in last spring and where they obviously end the season now, can you just reiterate how proud you are of how they were able to fight through adversity and even make it back to this position when a lot of people maybe have counted out the Red Raiders early on?

MARK ADAMS: You start looking at some of the critics and the polls. We weren't expected to do very well, but I think simply put, we just had a team that exceeded all expectations, and the credit goes to these guys and our coaching staff for putting together the right guys that would fit here and that wanted to play defense and wanted to play for each other and sacrifice a lot of individual maybe goals for the betterment of the team.

Yeah, I thought it was an unbelievable year. It's just a team that just reached all kinds of heights no one ever thought was possible.

Q. Adonis, Bryson, this is for both of you: What do you feel y'all have left as a legacy for this team because I know certainly they've been on the uptick getting to the Elite 8, National Championship game, but you have obviously made your own path here. What do you feel each of you, if you can answer personally for yourself, that you have left as either this team or just as an individual.

ADONIS ARMS: I would say we left that the culture works. That if you believe in what Coach Adams says every single day and you take it to heart and you fight every single game, you're going to be in every single game.

I think the legacy that I left for myself is it's what I started with when I started to play basketball is never quit, never give up, and believe in God first. That's always going to be my legacy. I think that's what I left here at Texas Tech.

Again, I just want to credit Coach Adams for giving me the opportunity to do that.

BRYSON WILLIAMS: I would say that this team left the legacy of hard work, hard work and just coming in every game and knowing that you could lose to anybody. Preparation is key. I mean, I feel like this team, I mean, we prepared for everybody that we played against just to a T and spent multiple hours in the hotel rooms and at the gyms, in our practice facility just preparing for people that we play. So how important preparation is and being ready to fight.

I would say individually the legacy I was trying to leave here is that if you want -- if there's anything you want to do, you got to work for it, and you got to go get it, and that's what I love so much about Coach Adams. He is the same way. He wants something, he is going to go get it or he is going to go take it, and I feel like that's the legacy I want to leave is leave it all on the floor, go take it, and having a strong faith in God, of course.

MARK ADAMS: Thank you. God bless you.