NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 14, 2023

Steve Lutz

Jalen Jackson

Ross Williams

UD Arena

Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders

Media Conference

Texas A&M-CC 75, SE Missouri State 71

THE MODERATOR: Coach, we'll start with your thoughts on the contest and your team's victory here tonight.

STEVE LUTZ: I thought it was a great opening game for the NCAA Tournament. You had a lot of energy, a lot of effort. You had two teams that played extremely, extremely hard and gave it everything they had.

At the end of the day, we made a few more free throws, we got a couple more rebounds, and obviously we were able to come out on the victorious side.

I couldn't be more excited for these guys and I couldn't be more excited for our basketball program. Brad Korn is a great person, he's a really good basketball coach, and I would have to think that the people of Cape Girardeau have to be extremely happy with him and what he's done with his team this year. So hats off to those guys.

Q. Jalen, you guys were in a situation where in the second half, you guys led by as much as 10 points. They caught you guys. What was the biggest key down the stretch to find a way to pull it out tonight?

JALEN JACKSON: Just staying together. Basketball is a game of runs, so we knew at some point, they were going to make a run. We just had to stay together. We rebounded, we made free throws, and yeah, we stuck together to finish the game out.

Q. For both guys, what does it mean to be a part of the first team to win an NCAA Tournament game?

ROSS WILLIAMS: It means everything. This being my last year, coming here, just talking to Coach Lutz during the recruiting process, he said if you come here, you're going to get a chance to win. And being able to do this with my brothers, it means the world. And unfortunately, we lost Terrion, but being able to use that as a motivational factor and to turn around and do this for him and for him to be here with us, it means the world.

JALEN JACKSON: It's a surreal moment. We were in this position last year, but we were on the other side.

We had a great group of guys come back. We lost three players last year, but we had a good group of guys come back. And we all set out to make history, first by winning conference, then winning the conference tournament, and winning some games in the March Madness tournament. To be in this moment right now, it's amazing.

Q. Ross, in the first half you provided a little bit of a lift offensively. They were doing everything they could to shut down Trey Tennyson. Can you talk about hitting that first shot and what it did for your confidence.

ROSS WILLIAMS: Yeah, you know, we've got a lot of talented guys on this team, and one of the things that Coach preaches all the time is that we're all equal in value, and everybody has to step up. When they're trying to lock down on one guy, I know that it's my job to come in there and just give us an energy spark, and I was able to do that tonight.

Q. Jalen, you were able to get to the line quite a bit tonight. Your driving, was a big part of it. When you guys were able to get them in foul trouble early in the first half, did you think you were going to be able to get to the line? That's something you guys have been successful at this year.

JALEN JACKSON: We were in the double bonus early in the first half, but we stopped applying pressure. During our halftime talk, Coach was just like, keep putting pressure on them, get to the rim, and make the refs call a foul, or finish. That's what the second half plan was, so that's what we came out and did and executed.

Q. Ross, you touched on it, but what it did mean to win this for Terrion, and did you have a chance to visit with him after the game.

ROSS WILLIAMS: Yeah, like I said, it means everything being able to com here. Like Jalen touched on earlier, this is a team that returned a lot of guys, a lot of talent, so it's a blessing to be able to come in and join a great group of guys, a great coaching staff. And then Terrion, he's my roommate. I'm with him all the time, so it's like, when he goes down, it's super emotional. But once we got our bearings back, it was a consistent theme, like let's do this for T. T is an unselfish person, he'd give you the shirt off his back. When you lose a guy like that, it brings the group closer together, and we know that we're not done yet; this is March.

Q. Jalen, you were 14 of 18 from the line, SEMO as a team was 9 of 20. Have you ever taken that many free throw attempts in your life and have you ever made more free throws than an entire team in your life?

JALEN JACKSON: That's probably a first. I can't think of any high school or middle school or game where I've done that, so yeah, that's a first. I mean, I'm glad I was able to do it because it helped us get the win.

Q. Steve, just wondering, were you curious at all how your team would kind of respond without Terrion, or did you have a sense of how they would bounce back from that unfortunate situation?

STEVE LUTZ: Well, Terrion blew his knee within three minutes of the championship game, so we had to play 37 minutes without him. So they responded well.

I knew that we would have energy. I knew that we would have effort. I knew that we would play well defensively. But Terrion is able to create easy baskets for us a lot of times, so I didn't know how we would score, to be very honest with you.

We scored differently against Northwestern State than we did against SEMO here tonight.

When you lose a player of his magnitude, your offense is just going to continue to evolve. And the good thing for us is we do have other good players on the team, but we're still finding ourselves a little bit offensively, and that's to be expected when you lose a guy like that.

Q. How do you feel about -- obviously teams have tried to take Trey Tennyson out of the game, averaged 18 points during conference play. His shot wasn't falling tonight and they did a good job trying to guard him. What's the biggest key to finding someone to pick up that scoring slack?

STEVE LUTZ: Yeah, we've got to do a better job of moving the basketball and getting other people involved in the offense. And when they key on Trey like that, obviously Trey has got to become a screener, and they're not going to help off of Trey. So if he sets a screen for his man, his man has got to have a good chance to get open.

As I said, we're still kind of evolving. But the good thing about having a group of players that are all good players is that when they take Trey away, that opens up the floor for Jalen Jackson to drive the ball to the basket. That opens up the floor for Jalen to drive and kick to Ross Williams.

Or again, if they're going to stay attached to Trey, you're just spreading the floor out and you're able to throw the ball inside. You have to adjust to the game, and when people do that, it's a good tactic, obviously. But you've got to then try to take advantage of it, as well.

Q. Last year obviously you were in the same position, but this year they tie the game at 64. Curious what's going through your mind at that point, and what is your message to the team?

STEVE LUTZ: Oh, man, I'm sitting there saying to myself, man, like you can't let this happen. You've done a good job. You were up 10 points. You were winning at the half. Get your team back together and get them all on the same page and finish out the game. That's what I'm thinking.

You're on the biggest stage of college basketball, you're the first game of the NCAA Tournament. So a little bit of it is you also want to make sure that your guys embrace the moment, but don't think the moment is too big. It's still another basketball game, and we're playing a team that's a good team.

As long as we can get back on track, I felt like we would be fine.

What was the second part of your question? Yeah, my message to those guys is we don't need to hit home runs. Let's keep hitting singles and doubles. Obviously Owen Dease with however many seconds throws a behind-the-back pass that's not in the game plan. But it worked out for us, and we got Isaac to the line and got some free throws.

My message was for Jalen Jackson and Ross Williams and Trevian Tennyson and Simeon Fryer, take care of the ball against the press. If they give us an opportunity to go score a quick basket in transition, go take your lay-up, go take your wide open three. Otherwise run offense and take care of the ball and let them foul you.

Q. Your thoughts on looking forward to your next game facing a No. 1 seed.

STEVE LUTZ: Man, they're fantastic. They're a No. 1 seed for a reason. They've got really good players. They're well-coached. They shoot the ball. They rebound the ball, and they are awfully fast. Like if we don't get back in transition, it could be a long night.

With that being said, we played Arizona, we played Mississippi State at Mississippi State, and both those games there were times during the game, especially in the first half, where we were leading the game.

Our guys are battle tested. They're not scared of the moment. You've got to go play. You've got to embrace it.

But history tells you that not many 1 seeds beat 16 seeds. So that's why we have the NCAA Tournament, to have situations like this where you get a chance to go shock the world. Nobody thought Saint Peters was going to get as far as they did last year, either. That's what makes this tournament special, guys.

Q. What do you think that atmosphere is going to be like in Birmingham on Thursday?

STEVE LUTZ: Oh, I'm sure we'll have a good crowd there, so we'll be okay. No, I mean, they're going to have a 95, 99 percent sellout for Alabama. It's going to be unbelievable. Obviously it's going to be in their favor. It is what it is.

But those fans don't make threes or free throws or lay-ups, right? So you still have to go into the game and play the way you know how to play.

Q. Earlier this season when you guys were struggling in the middle of Southland play, they couldn't close out games. That was the big issue, giving up big leads. How proud were you down the stretch that they were able to withstand that big run?

STEVE LUTZ: Well, I disagree with you on struggling. We only lost four games in league play. But we did have a bad week where we lost those two.

No, I'm extremely proud of them. If you look at the defensive numbers in the second half, though, we weren't great defensively. I think we allowed them to shoot almost 60 percent from the floor. So that's not great. We've got to be better against Alabama.

But with that being said, to answer your question, to find a way to win. I couldn't be more excited and more proud for those guys, obviously for the city, for the university, and all of the Islander fans that are across the country watching this game. They've got to be pretty excited tonight I would think.

Q. You were hired in April of 2021. I know the goal is to build a winning, successful program, but did you think a night like tonight was possible in just year number two?

STEVE LUTZ: Of course. Yeah. When we got the job, I told the guys in the summer -- so in Division I basketball you get to bring them in in June, and we had a few practices, and I've been around enough programs and been around enough winning to know what winning looks like.

I told those guys from probably June all the way through that we have enough in this room to be successful. We have enough in this room to win the league, to win the tournament and go to the NCAA Tournament and win games.

Yeah, to be honest with you, I did think that. I would hope you don't take that as arrogance by any means. That just means we did a good job. Our staff and I did a good job in recruiting coming out of COVID in that I felt like we had good enough players to be relevant within our league and then obviously once we got to the NCAA Tournament.