BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2023

Scott Drew

Adam Flagler

Jalen Bridges

T-Mobile Center

Baylor Bears

Postgame Press Conference

Iowa State - 78, Baylor - 72

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined in the interview room by Baylor head coach Scott Drew. His student athletes will be here in just a bit. We will go to coach for an opening statement and questions until the players get here.

COACH DREW: First I want to thank God we had no injuries. Thoughts and prayers go to Coach Self and praying for a speedy recovery for him. I want to thank the Commissioner. I thought the ideas at the tournament were tremendous. I wish we could stay around and enjoy them longer. Really appreciate what he's done. As far as the game, really liked our togetherness, liked our energy, our execution offensively. 11 turnovers, shooting 45% and 48 from three. I might need reading glasses. I think that's accurate. 92 from the free throw line. You win with all that. Game came down to the rebounding. And I think you have to credit Iowa State. The coaches did a better job preparing their guys for the physicality and toughness. And credit their players for kicking our butt on the glass, and that's something we pride ourselves at Baylor. And it's frustrating for our team. The good thing is we have a couple days to fix that and get ready for the NCAA tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Let's go to questions for our student athletes.

Q. Jalen, you guys have been a good rebounding team most of the year. Second straight game you have had trouble against these guys. What do you feel like has happened there?

JALEN BRDIGES: I would say that we have to have a better sense of urgency, more pride. It's just -- rebounding is just about toughness and want to. And right now we don't have that.

Q. Jalen, how did that feel when you got rolling and obviously 28 points, career game for you. What was kind of working for you other than just, you know, other than shots falling?

JALEN BRDIGES: I was just trying to try with energy, affect the game, and credit to my teammates for finding me when I was open, getting me easy looks. And I just knocked them down today.

Q. Adam, you talked about before this game how it can't just be one or two players that carry the scoring load for this team if you want to win, you have to share the ball. How come that didn't get done today and what do you need to do differently heading into the tournament?

ADAM FLAGLER: I felt like we shared the ball pretty well. Jalen at the end of the day was hot and we were trying to feed the hot hand. We didn't take enough pride on the defensive end, getting a full stop. The first shot, you know, we were able to lock in and lock them up. At the end of the day, if we can't get the rebound and they get second chance opportunities and daggers and they hurt us. We have an opportunity this week to go back and practice and lock in on the things that we didn't execute on today.

Q. Jalen, you hit your first nine shots. I think only had two shots over the last 10 or 11 minutes. What did they do to take that away from you?

JALEN BRDIGES: I don't want to say that they did anything in particular. I don't know. I feel like I don't try to force shots. Even if I am making shots, I'm going to play within myself. If I only took two shots, then I thought I only had two good ones.

Q. Adam, you talked about how you were looking forward to playing them again coming off that loss after Senior Night. How frustrating is this loss for you?

ADAM FLAGLER: It's very frustrating. I'm thankful the Lord gave us this opportunity to go up and play against them. Credit them. Amazing team, great coaching staff, but we have the opportunity with the tournament to get some momentum and get back on the right track, because it's terrible losing. At the end of the day losing hurts more than winning.

THE MODERATOR: We'll let you go back to the locker room, Adam and Jalen. We'll keep Coach on stage for a few more minutes for questions. Thank you for coming. Questions now for Coach Drew.

Q. Scott, you only played them a few days ago. What did you try to do different and what do you think went wrong?

COACH DREW: We tried to get Jalen going on that match-up and that worked. And then 12 assists, 11 turnovers, that worked. Offensively 72 points against the number one defense in the conference, that worked. Came down to rebounding. Period. That's it. Simple thing. Football it's turnovers. Basketball you have to rebound. And 22-11, normally we always win second chance points. Even if we break even we win the game. It was that simple. Want to, determination, effort, whatever you want to put in there, we have to do a better job. And as coaches we'll do a good job this week prepping to make sure we spend enough time on rebounding.

Q. Are they just, Scott, a bad match-up for you guys? Does that play into this? They have great length, great size. How much does that play in?

COACH DREW: There's always, I mean, Superman has kryptonite. There are bad match-ups, yes. You have to credit Iowa State. T.J. is a great coach, they have a great program, guys competed and played hard. They made some shots. I mean, Lipsey was 5/10 and normally he's been struggling making jumpers. He made a couple big jumpers. Gabe, you couldn't give him any 3's. He went 6/11. At the end of the day the second shots, heart, toughness, want to, put all you want in there. We have to do a better job as coaches making sure that we prep our guys to win the 50-50 battles.

Q. How do you coach effort? How do you turn that around when you feel like effort --

COACH DREW: Come to practice in the next couple days. We'll get rebounding rims up for most of the days.

Q. Scott, another big game, but maybe the biggest game of Jalen Bridges' career today. But the guards went 9/31 from the field. Seems like they have been super hot this season but they have lost it towards the end of the season. What do you guys need to do to get that back?

COACH DREW: I think this is that time of the year, Big 12 is the toughest conference. It does wear on you. NCAA Tournament is new life, new excitement. You know, only perks of losing, we get an extra day off. Fresh legs always do help. But at the end of the day if we're getting the right shots we're going to make shots. Normally you play teams two and three teams, everything is scouted so shots become more difficult. And contested shots don't go in as much as uncontested shots. It would be nice playing people who don't have everything scouted. Hopefully we can get better looks. Jalen, we got good looks for today, and we have to get better looks for everybody else. Against good teams, I mean, Lipsey and Gabe, you could put Lipsey there too. He set the freshman steal record. He's a tremendous on ball defender The bigs small screen defenders in the conference. So they do a lot of things well defensively.

Q. Coach, I know you always have a really positive outlook moving forward. And you play a defense like of course back to back, it's got to be tough. Third time is a charm type of deal when you potentially see someone in the tournament in the first or second round with a similar defense like Iowa State. Do you think you will be prepared if you see a team like that in first/second round?

COACH DREW: I loved everything we did except for the rebounding. That should be the easiest thing to control. We'll work on that and I'm positive we'll work on that.

Q. Scott, a lot of injuries from I understand. Don't need to run through the list for you. How has that been challenging to get rotations down and figuring out who will get what minutes? How has that been tough for the team?

COACH DREW: I think everyone has injuries and everyone has to overcome, next man up. We've had guys step up. Hopefully get Langston back. I know Jonathan was feeling sore. He needed rest to help him feel better. Get him some of his pop back.

Q. Scott, you have known Bill for so long. Your job come with so many stressors. How did that news strike you this morning?

COACH DREW: We are all prayerful. At the end of the day, we're blessed to play a game and God let's us do what we're passionate about. Life is short and winning the game of life is the most important thing. I love our Big 12 officials. There are no bad calls. I'm excited about that. One day I'm excited for that. But in the meantime just brings the reality how short life is. And hopefully we get him out soon.

THE MODERATOR: All right, Coach, thank you. Good luck next week.