NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT: XAVIER VS TEXAS A&M

March 31, 2022

Buzz Williams

Henry Coleman

Quenton Jackson

Madison Square Garden

Texas A&M Aggies

Finals Postgame Press Conference

Xavier 73, Texas A&M 72

BUZZ WILLIAMS: This is my 28th year in college coaching and I've never experienced anything like what has transpired within our team over the last six weeks.

The belief, the work, the trust, the love, player to player, coach to coach, player to coach, could coach to player has scarred my heart in a way that I'll never, ever forget and I'm thankful for over the last six weeks, how I believed that it's changed our program forever. In my 28 years as a college coach, every head coach at Xavier has been ultra successful. I worked at camp at Xavier when Pete Gillen was the head coach and I had just finished my freshman year in college.

And what has happened in their program over the last two weeks is historical and any AD that has a job opening should hire the undefeated head coach at Xavier, Coach Hayes, because what they have been able to do in a very unique postseason run with an interim coach, I don't think has ever happened in the history of college basketball except for what happened with Steve Fisher and Coach -- I'll think of it in a minute, Coach Sprier (ph). That's the only instance that I know of, so congratulations to them on their win.

Q. Quenton, how much in that last 12 minutes or so was the game plan to get the ball in your hands and see what you can make of it?

QUENTON JACKSON: That was never the game plan. We're a team. It's not just me. Got a bunch of guys, four other guys out there and a bench that can make things happen. The game plan was never to get the ball in my hands. Just be smart with the ball, take care of the ball, no turnovers, and try and get stops on the defensive finish with a rebound.

Q. Not the way you would want it to end but just the experience that you guys had here in New York and this whole postseason run and just leading up to this game, a game that you guys probably didn't think you would be playing in at some point this season, what has that been like?

QUENTON JACKSON: It's been great. One of the better experiences I've had playing basketball. We've been through a lot this year, a lot of ups, a lot of downs but through it all I think we've all learned just how to persevere and remain resilient through everything that has went on. We all have learned something from this year. I think everybody in this room should have learned something from this year.

But like I said, it's probably one of the greater experiences I've had playing basketball.

Q. You said learn, everyone learns someone. Henry, do you mind sharing, what have you learned about this team and this year?

HENRY COLEMAN: I learned that this team never gave up. They never gave up on me. They never gave up on Q. They never gave up on each other. The staff never gave up on, you know, each other within that room.

I just think, you know, we never gave up through the whole process, throughout the first part of the year, throughout the little slump that we had and then to this unbelievable stretch that we've had at the end of the year. I think, you know, collectively, we trusted each other. We trusted our habits. We trusted our work that we worked all year for and we never gave up.

Q. What was your vantage point of that game-winning shot? Halfway down and popped back out. Your emotions when you saw it come back out?

QUENTON JACKSON: I just ran the play as we drew it up. When I didn't get it, I just kind of ran down the floor. I think I was at the three-point line when he shot it, went in and out, and when it didn't go in, I don't know, just tried to stay positive, not let my emotions get best of me in a time like that. Not hang my head. Just try to be a leader for the guys around me. Stay strong.

Of course I would have wanted it to fall but it didn't go that way so that's just where we're at right now.

Q. The last play when they scored, were y'all anticipating them trying to go to him, and was it just one of those things where you did what y'all are supposed to do and he just made a good play?

HENRY COLEMAN: Yeah, credit to him. He has an unbelievable story. He's an unbelievable person.

But we were playing our regular defense, and like you said, toward the end, it was an unbelievable play. But credit to Coach Dev on having great defensive scheme all year and even in that last possession, that was a very hard shot, very difficult shot he hit. So credit to him.

Q. Did you see something in the defense that made you feel that you could attack the rim at ease?

QUENTON JACKSON: I just tried to put pressure on the rim as much as I can, because I know that not only will it help my team, but it will open up lanes and shots for my team. I just tried to drive. I just try to keep my head down and just tried to stay aggressive, and that's really all it was.

Q. As now the season has closed, how would you describe it and its completion with how it ended and the ups and the downs?

QUENTON JACKSON: I think historical. It's something I'll probably remember for a long time, probably until I pass away, because I've never been through or seen anything happen like this in my life. I've been through a lot of ups and downs but none like this with a group of guys who are just completely engulfed in everything that is going on around them from our coaches to our players.

I love everybody and that's just where I'll leave it.

HENRY COLEMAN: Yeah, what this team has meant to me, what it's meant to Q, I know it's been unbelievable. The run that we've had has been unbelievable. Just credit to every single one of the players from the walk-ons to, you know, somebody who has won 30. Everybody in between, the staff, just credit to them and thank them.

Q. (How much can you take from this going forward to next season? )

HENRY COLEMAN: I don't think right now at the moment I really kind of have come down off this, I would say high that our team has been on, this unbelievable stretch.

I know we'll get back with Coach. We'll take a couple days off and let our bodies rest and we'll get back to being A&M students. We'll get back to being a true, true Aggy and enjoying being what an Aggy is. But the experience I've had this year and the time I've spent with these guys, it's just been unbelievable.

It's not a miracle stat and it's not something that you can write down. It's in your heart, man. Guys mean a lot, man.

Q. He said it wasn't the game plan but how much did you rely on Quenton's leadership and veteran ability in the last 12 minutes to try to turn the tide on that?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, I thought he was phenomenal. Not even, and I know you've seen all of them, but not just the last 12 minutes. He has been the leader in the change in our program, and I don't know that those two guys you could find two better people to represent what we want our program to be about.

And I think the guy's name was -- think about this -- Kent Beck. He was one of the guys that helped develop Facebook, and they were interviewing him, like how did this start and how did it become Facebook. They were talking about his role in the development of it. And he said, "I'm not a great programmer. I'm a good programmer that has great habits." And I think that's what Q has meant to our program.

Even I don't know that you could find a more raw version of emotion and how he handled that there, but his response to what has went on in our program over the last three years, his habits is what everybody follows. So there is no selfishness. There is no bad attitude. We're all pulling in the same direction regardless of minutes played and I think that's because he has great habits. And those habits are why he's been so successful.

This was our -- no team in the country has played 11 games in the month of March. This was our 11th game. It's only happened one other time in the history of college basketball and that was when UCONN went on a run with Coach Calhoun in 2011. So I think his habits is what has changed our program.

Q. You talked 11 games in March has only been done one other time. You've never coached this many games in a season before. How much did you enjoy -- I know it's probably exhausting but to be with this group of guys this late in March and be on this NIT run?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: I've said it a couple of times and maybe I mentioned it to the radio guys over the last month. You can almost say in all of those games in March that we were fighting just in hopes that we can have one more game. Can we get to 9-9 against Mississippi State on Senior Day, 20th win; can we beat Florida just so that we can fight to see another day. We did that ten times prior to tonight.

I've never coached 40 games and obviously a lot of things have to work out in your favor to even get to 40 games. But I think the fight that our guys demonstrated in those 11 games was a very unselfish fight because they were fighting for one another so that we could practice together the next day; so that we could watch film together the next day.

So to be able to play our 11th game on the last day of March with only six teams left playing, yeah, I think it's transformational but similar to what Henry said, you're so emotionally bankrupt, it's hard to articulate those things right now.

Q. Talking about those 11 games, how much better is your core group going to be moving forward for going through these battle scars this year?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, I don't know that you can quantify all of the things that have transpired and how it helped you grow. You can only attain wisdom through experience and the experience that we've had, I mean, Henry is a COVID freshman -- Drew (ph) is COVID senior. It's hard to know how many years are remaining for anybody anymore.

But man, all of the things that we went through can only help us and I think that through all of that work, you know, you kind of -- it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to win more games.

But you start at a different level in regards to the experience and their understanding. 290 I think was our experience, 290th in the country when the year started, and we were even lower than that in minutes played together. So as the 40 games have transpired, obviously there's a lot of minutes that they have worked and played together.

So I don't think it can do anything but help us.

Our players told me you were a really good football player at A&M, I mean this sincerely. I didn't know that. Is that true?

Q. No.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: They were joking with me?

Q. I was pretty good wide-out at high school.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: I thought they were being serious with me. They got me.

Q. You took Quenton out when he got his third foul, and trying to keep him out of foul trouble. How hard was it to not be tempted to put him in, and do you think that that move -- that's when they that move that he was out?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: A few things on that. It's either/or. I wanted to see if we could get to 13 minutes left to go in the game before I put him back. We need him on the floor, and I knew that it was going to be a one-ish, two-ish possession game and I knew we needed to try to buy as much time as we could to try and get him back so that he could finish the game.

And it's, do you play a guy with two fouls? Well, there's a lot of discussion on that. But his third foul that early, and you know, it had happened, at halftime he only had one, and that one that he got was early in the game. And he knows this because we've had this conversations multiple times this year: Q, I don't like feeling like you're not going to be on the floor at the end of the game.

He picked up foul two and foul three within whatever that was, two-and-a-half-minute, three-minute stretch, and so I wanted to try to see if we could get three more, four more minutes before we put him back in, because -- not saying I have all the answers at all -- but I anticipated it was going to be the type of game that it ended up being.

Q. You say all the time the difference between winning and losing is so razor thin and what better example than tonight, Radford's shot was halfway in and popped out. I assume that's what you called up, the execution of it, and the emotions when it was so close to going in?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: They have shown, even in tonight's game, they have showed a 2-2-1 and they have shown a 1-2-2; they have shown a full-court man, so you never know.

And I told our guys coming out of the huddle when Coach called the time-out prior to their last possession, "Guys, if there's more than five seconds, if they score, we are playing. If there's less than five seconds and they score, I'm going to call a time-out."

And you know, he hit the shot off the glass, hit the rim off the glass, whichever one happened first.

They executed the play perfectly. Q is the first choice as mentioned with the hammer screen by Boots, if they switch that, we are throwing it straight to Boots and here we go. Our guys are comfortable with that play and the execution of that play. I thought we did a really good job.

Quote shirt 7 -- Daisy (ph) was wearing it yesterday, from this season is, "There's a thin line between winning and losing." She mentioned that the other day when she was wearing it.

And I said, "It's really not thin; it's invisible." Even you can -- I don't want to ramble. You can look at any game throughout our season and see how many one- and two-possession games we played and how thin that line is.

Like I told our guys in that stretch, they are playing for the same championship we are playing for, too, right. We can't think because of what had transpired over the last eight games, the SEC Tournament or even on the way to here, that the game, we're going to play from ahead the whole time. This is the first time we've had a one- or two-possession game in a while, since Florida, I think. Yeah, it's an invisible one.

Thank you, guys.