BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 13, 2024

Rodney Terry

Max Ambas

Dylan Disu

T-Mobile Center

Texas Longhorns

Postgame Press Conference

Kansas State - 78, Texas 74

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Texas Head Coach Rodney Terry and student-athletes, Max Abmas and Dylan Disu.

RODNEY TERRY: First I would like to congratulate Kansas State on playing for 40 minutes. I thought they came out in the second half and really attacked us, attacked the paint. We knew at halftime they would come out and put their heads down and try to continue to get to the paint as well. We didn't respond very well to that. We give them a lot of credit in terms of getting things done in that regard.

Q. Rodney, the difference between the first half and the second half shooting-wise, was it more shots not falling or did you feel like they did something differently on the defensive end?

RODNEY TERRY: No, we got open looks. We just didn't make some open shots in the second half. I thought, again, we got good clean looks, I would have to look at it on tape a little bit more, but going off the game and what I feel like I saw we got wide-open looks. We just didn't convert those.

Q. When Dylan picked up his fourth foul at 11 minutes left, how much does it take out of you when your All-Conference guy isn't able to be on the court?

RODNEY TERRY: Anytime you lose a guy that you count on offensively, it's definitely going to affect the way you play and I thought Max did a great job of picking up the pace with Disu being out. He really stepped up and got some things done, but it definitely changed the game, for sure.

Q. Rodney and the players, you know what's coming next week and you're in the Tournament. How do you characterize a defeat like this? What does it mean?

RODNEY TERRY: We have been doing this a long time. We went to the Final Four. We lost the first round to Andre Emmett and those guys. Do we want to win this Tournament? Absolutely. We came here to win this game. But we have done enough work by now to put ourselves in position to be in the Tournament. And we are going to be excited about competing this year. Would it have been great to win the Tournament? Yes. But at the end of the day, we're trying to play for the whole thing. We gotta get back, be excited about continuing to compete and continue to work on our bodies and put ourselves in the best position to be ready to play at a high level. At the end of the day that's what you have to do this time of year.

DYLAN DISU: We're obviously excited to play in the NCAA Tournament, and like Coach said, we're disappointed we fell short of that, but we know -- I know personally being in the NCAA Tournament is a blessing. You're not promised to get in the NCAA Tournament. Luckily we have done enough this season to put ourselves in position to be be in the NCAA Tournament. We're not happy right now, because that game didn't go the way we wanted it to but we're excited for the opportunity to play. We don't know how many more times we have to put the jersey on so we're excited to play with our teammates at least one more time.

MAX ABMAS: Yeah, he said it. We don't know how many more times we're going to put on the jersey so we gotta approach every game, the right way, on the next game at hand. It's just taking care of our bodies, recovering and getting ready for the next one.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen.