BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2023

Jamie Dixon

Micah Peavy

Mike Miles, Jr.

T-Mobile Center

TCU Horned Frogs

Postgame Press Conference

Texas 66, TCU 60

THE MODERATOR: We've got Coach Jamie Dixon here along with Micah Peavy and Mike Miles, Jr.

Coach?

COACH DIXON: I'm just really proud of our guys, how hard they played and battled. It wasn't our best game. I thought we played better, but the effort was there, the desire was there, the focus was there. Just didn't go our way.

Maybe Texas had something to do with it. They're a physical team. We knew it would be that kind of game. I'm proud of our guys. We got better that last couple of days, and we just didn't get it done.

But I like where we're going forward here and I'm excited about 'em. And as I said, we got better in March and we're going to get better in the next couple of days before we play in the NCAA Tournament.

So I'm proud of them, and Mike and Micah, these two guys here, we battled and we played and just didn't get it done. But it wasn't lack of effort. I think this game will make us better, I really do. I think it will make us better going forward.

Q. Mike this is specifically for you. You didn't shoot a free throw tonight; Texas has been very physical with you all year. What would you attribute the lack of free throw attempts to tonight?

MIKE MILES, JR.: Honestly, I don't know. I attack them the same way every game. I try not to blame the refs but it's hard. I didn't get calls tonight. Sometimes I get 'em, sometimes I don't, but for some reason every time we play Texas I never get them.

But it was the same thing tonight, and I'm not blaming the refs, but it's frustrating for sure.

Q. Micah, you guys came in and got a win in the Big XII Conference. Now it's time for the NCAA Tournament. What's going to be the goals for y'all to get ready for the Big Dance?

MICAH PEAVY: I think we're just going to take this one to the chin and just come together. We're all going to come together and be ready for Sunday and see who we play in March Madness.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Questions for Coach?

Q. Jamie, you kinda touched on you say you thought the team has gotten better in March. You guys shot it better up here. I think Rondel gave you guys some really good minutes. Did you learn anything new about your team here in Kansas City?

COACH DIXON: As you point out, the shooting, that was good to see. We did a lot of shooting today. We have done a lot of shooting. I thought our offense was better. We're playing a really good defensive team. We had a lot of good looks.

When you shoot 8 of 19 from three that's a good indicator, and even the ones I think we missed were good looks for the most part and we're right there. It's a 4-point game, we got a one and one and we don't hit it, then we got a three, wide-open three from our best scorer.

So we had our opportunities. It just wasn't clean for us tonight. That's kind of how I felt. It never was. We dug our hole in the first half because of the defense, interior defense specifically. I didn't see that coming.

But we didn't get it done. We got more aggressive down the stretch in the second half, but our execution wasn't good enough to come back from an 8-point deficit.

We've got to learn from it. They're a good team. They're old, and they made us -- we didn't finish around the rim. Even in transition we didn't finish. I thought we took some off-balance, guarded shots around the basket, which was -- led to inefficiency on offense. That's another thing.

We had to outrebound them and we didn't. We put the numbers up there. We had to outrebound them and we didn't. So we can sit here and -- they didn't shoot it great, we didn't shoot it great, but at the end of the day they had more points because of the rebounds. And really I guess they beat us from the free throw line; 6-point differential right there.

Q. Jamie, you touched on it, but defensively you guys held Texas to 30% shooting in the second half. What was your assessment of the defense you played in the second half?

COACH DIXON: We went small at the end and they had trouble scoring there. I liked their aggressiveness and I hadn't envisioned that, but it didn't make us better offensively. We don't play it a lot, but there were opportunities, and in transition we didn't make the right decisions.

Again, I thought we were trying to make up a 6-point lead and a deficit in one possession, but we -- one of the strengths I thought we have is that we can play a lot of different lineups and play a lot of different ways.

Defensively it was good for us; offensively it wasn't down the stretch. We had so many opportunities. We cut it down, it was 8. First time I lost the point in halftime, went from 7 to 8, but we had -- we were getting great shots and we didn't convert on some of them early, and that was, I think, our opportunity.

Q. I saw you dominate them on the glass in Ft. Worth and you were talking about you had to win that battle.

COACH DIXON: Right.

Q. What was different tonight? Was it something they did? Y'all did?

COACH DIXON: They hurt us inside early. I mean, you know, I'm -- I thought 18 was -- you weren't going to do 18 again. Let's put it that way. So that was the difference last time.

They had outrebounded us in the first game. It was very even the first game. We were down 8 at halftime. That was the difference. It was 8 points, 8 rebounds.

Again, I just -- they were better than us. They were better than us by a couple of possessions.

The loose balls, the long rebounds, and we missed so many baskets around -- the finishing around the basket led to them getting rebounds, where they were finishing on us and we were not getting that rebound. That's the simplest way to put it.

Q. Coach, you guys never really got the fast break going. Two fast break points. That's been something this team has used to get the offense going. Looked like maybe it was something Texas was doing? Something you guys were doing? Combination there?

COACH DIXON: We didn't convert. As I talked about earlier, we didn't finish a lot of things and I didn't like how we finished, and that was part of it. So that was it.

And their defense. In a game like this you're not going to get the 21 that we average against an opponent unless everything goes our way. It was a low-scoring game, so that had something to do with it. They had 8 fast break points, I guess, and we didn't finish around the rim. We had our opportunities and we didn't convert. I think that's the simple way to put it. We had enough opportunities in the game. We didn't convert.

That's the simplest way to put that.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.