NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - TEXAS A&M-CC VS ALABAMA

March 16, 2023

Steve Lutz

Isaac Mushila

Trey Tennyson

Legacy Arena

Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders

Media Conference

Alabama - 96, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi - 75

THE MODERATOR: Okay. We are ready to begin. We'll take an opening statement from Coach will you tell us and then we'll take questions for the players.

COACH LUTZ: Thanks for everyone for being here. Obviously, it's never fun to end your season, especially with a great group of guys like this. I've said it over and over. What these guys have accomplished in the two years here and the way they have gone about it and the way they have dedicated themselves to being good people and good basketball players and sticking with our program and not transferring when everybody else is transferring, you just don't see it very often these days. They should be commended. Today is about them. They need to hold their heads up high. They lost to a very good basketball team. And have accomplished so many things and made our city so proud. They should feel really, really good about themselves.

THE MODERATOR: Okay. We'll now take questions for Trevian and Isaac.

Q. I don't think any team has held Brandon Miller to under 8 points this season. You guys held him scoreless. What was the plan coming in, and what did you do to frustrate him a little bit?

TREY TENNYSON: We stick to our defensive principles and played how we always play defense the whole year. I don't know. I was scoreless the first half too, and I'm the leading scorer on this team. It's about flow and rhythm. We just didn't let him find his rhythm.

Q. Just talk about what this year has been like for you guys, considering to go back to back tournaments obviously first team in history to win a tournament game.

ISAAC MUSHILA: It's been a great year for us. Coming into the season we're just focused on what we could do. And we believe that we could do this and make history. So we made it, and we're happy and proud for that.

TREY TENNYSON: It just mean a lot. Since I have been at Corpus, this has been my second home. It just mean a lot to Corpus. It means a lot to us, too. We wanted to do it for them.

Q. Trevian, beginning of the second half I think you scored I think it was 8 in a row. And you pull within 13. How were you feeling there? They answered after that. Was it just a matter of they have a lot of firepower. But did that sort of catch out there, not being able to push that -- maybe close the gap a little bit more?

TREY TENNYSON: Say that again.

Q. Just talk about -- maybe catch up and, you know, what happened after in terms of how they answered?

TREY TENNYSON: They are a great team so they replied, they just answered back. Same way we came out in the second half and the way they played in the first half. We had to come out and answer that. And they just answered back. They have a chance to win the National Title, so they are a good team.

Q. Isaac, obviously, you guys had a little bit of a size disadvantage. Can you talk about some of the successes you were able to have inside. I think you finished with a double-double tonight, even though you were undersized. Does that come out to positioning, or how were you able to have some success underneath?

ISAAC MUSHILA: We just play with heart. And we just believed that we could do it. Any time you see the ball go up, you jump and go get it. It's all like coming from here. From the heart.

THE MODERATOR: Last question right here.

Q. This is for Trey and Isaac. What has it meant to be to be part of a historic team? You have never won an NCAA Tournament before. What it does for the program moving forward that you were able to set these new bars?

TREY TENNYSON: These are the best two years of my life. I have one goal, and that's going to March Madness. This is my dream. Coming up as a kid I always watch March Madness and always wanted to play in it. Play three games in two years at March Madness. So it's a dream come true.

THE MODERATOR: You are dismissed. We'll now take questions from Coach Lutz.

Q. Coach, I know you got a chance earlier in the year to play Arizona. You got to look at Alabama. I know it's a quick turn around. But kind of compare and contrast what Alabama did and how they can compare to a team like Arizona that you know is a very good basketball team?

COACH LUTZ: You are splitting hairs. They are both two very good basketball teams that can win a National Title. They are both very well-coached. They are both fast in transition. They are both long and athletic. They probably have a little bit more of a post presence, but that's also part of the way Coach Oats plays. With that being said, Pringle, didn't he have 16, 19 points and 10 rebounds in the second half? Arizona probably has a little more emphasis to throw the ball inside. Yeah, that's two really good basketball teams.

Q. Steve, yesterday you joked that Brandon might need to catch the floor or something for you to stop them. You did a good job anyway. What went into that game plan, and how do you think you did on him overall?

COACH LUTZ: He was scoreless, you know. I don't know that you can give our defense all of the credit. You know, maybe he had an off night. I really don't know. I don't know the young man. I know that I watched him on tape and he's really, really good. So for us to have, you know, collectively done the job that we did on him defensively is a feather in our cap. But, you know, I wouldn't expect that to happen very many more tournament games, to be very honest with you.

Q. Coach, Coach Oats said that Brandon was dealing with a groin injury. So they were limited. Not to take anything away. I just wanted to ask you if not having him maybe perhaps, would that affect maybe how they went about offensively with the threes as many as they took? Did you feel like that was -- that they took, I'm sorry, did you feel like that changed things with him not as involved?

COACH LUTZ: Not really. They still shot 33 threes on the game, made 15 of them. Obviously, Brandon would have gotten up his share. To me their offense is fairly equal opportunity. And those other guys are not shy about shooting the basketball. I'm sure it altered their game. When you are going to -- your leading scorer has a groin injury and isn't up to 100%, you know, you are going to have to alter your offense, and to their credit, those other guys stepped up and made shots. So, you know, we have been battling the same thing. We lost our point guard, Terrion Murdix in the championship game of the Southland Tournament. So we had to figure out how to play the next two games without him. Trey Tennyson has plantar fasciitis in his heel. At this time of year, guys, you just got to play through it.

Q. Alabama defensively has frustrated a lot of different teams this year. Kind of guys in the locker room mentioning their length is a hard thing. What makes Alabama defense so hard to strategize against?

COACH LUTZ: Their length and athleticism is very, very good. I'm proud of our guys. I think we only turned the ball over six times the entire game, which is good for us, and we turned them over eight times. I'm proud of the way we took care of the basketball. They are able to switch ball screens, they are able to switch down screens, and they can cover you up in terms of taking away your threes. So you have to be able to either get the ball downhill to the rim, and you are faced with Bediako or Pringle. And those guys are really good shot blockers. So, you're kind of picking your poison a little bit. I think that with other teams that I've coached at other levels, I would certainly put them in a lot of ball screens with their post men, and I would try to get them into rotations and try to move the basketball against them once you got them with two people on the basketball, but they are well coached. So I mean, again, I say splitting hairs. But they are No. 1 in this tournament for a reason. So I think that they are going to fair well.

Q. You guys have accomplished things that have never been done in the program's history: Making it back to back to back NCAA Tournament, winning the first game. What can this been for the program going forward setting a new bar and what this team can accomplish in the Southland Conference?

COACH LUTZ: It's a good question and thank you for asking. This lets people know that Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is going to be a force in the Southland Conference to be reckoned with. We have raised the bar now, you know. We have to do the hardest thing and that's to keep it at a high level. Alabama has kept it at a high level. You know, that's your biggest task at this point. And, you know, we have the administration behind us, we have the city behind us, so there's no reason that we can't do it. And, you know, that's the exciting part about building programs is that, you know, you get to build it year upon year upon year. And that's where -- that's the mark of a good program.

Q. Steve, Alabama got 49 points off the bench. Have you competed against many teams with that kind of quality depth?

COACH LUTZ: I would have to think back. But no, probably not. You know, obviously, a reason for that bench to get in tonight and score so many points is because the guy who is arguably your best player didn't play well or has a groin injury, however you want to say it. That's the mark of a good program and a good team is that when one guy goes down another one comes up. For us Terrion Murdix went down and Jalen Jackson stepped up and was a man in the Conference Tournament Championship and against Simo. Tonight he goes, whatever, 1/11. And it wasn't his night, and that's largely part of, you know, Alabama's defense and their presence at the rim. But my point being is that you guys have a good program. You are No. 1 in this tournament for a reason, and he's got good players. So he doesn't lose a whole lot when he has somebody sub in.

Q. You talk about all the experience on this team, but one of the guys that kind of kept you in in the first half, Owen Dease, a red-shirt freshman, a guy that possibly could have a bright future. Can you talk about the impact he had in terms of tonight's game?

COACH LUTZ: Yeah. Owen was fantastic again tonight. We've talked about this, obviously, because you are with us a lot. We've talked about this many times. Owen has no fear, you know, he respects Alabama, but he also felt like he could come into this game and have an impact, and he did. And I think that, you know, De'Lazarus Keys, Simeon Fryer, Ross Williams, those three seniors they have done a great job mentoring him and bringing him along. And you know, that again, is kind of talking about Alabama and how great a program they have. That's a mark of a good program is that when your older guys bring your younger guys along. My hats are off to them. My hats are off to Owen, obviously. And we expect him to have a really bright future moving forward. But man, you know, I'm excited for that young man. I'm excited for our program. I'm excited to get Terrion Murdix back when he gets healthy and see what he has in store, because I think it's going to be fantastic.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.