NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - COLORADO STATE VS TEXAS

March 21, 2024

Rodney Terry

Dylan Disu

Max Abmas

Chendall Weaver

Spectrum Center

Texas Longhorns

Media Conference

Texas - 56, Colorado State - 44

THE MODERATOR: We're about ready to start with Texas. Coach Terry will be joined by Dylan Disu, Max Abmas, and Chendall Weaver.

RODNEY TERRY: Good evening. I always start the day by saying it's a great day to be alive, and thank God for every single day and every opportunity that we have every single day.

I'd like to start out by just congratulating Colorado State on a great year. Niko and his team were excellent all year long. Got a chance to watch them play as we were preparing for them, but saw them play throughout the whole season in the Mountain West.

Stellar year for the Mountain West Conference, six teams in. A lot of respect for him and his program. Isaiah Stevens, incredible career that he had there.

Really proud of these guys here today as well, in terms of their effort, how they play, how they carried themselves. We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game tonight. We knew we were going to get a really good run in the second half from a team that had a great season. I thought our guys answered the bell. I'm really excited for them and what they were able to do tonight.

Q. Dylan, it was a bit of a struggle tonight, but over the last seven minutes, it seemed like things really came together for you. You put together some buckets. What changed there over the last seven minutes?

DYLAN DISU: I just stayed aggressive. It's hard, especially when nothing seems like it's falling, to stay aggressive, but I thought I was getting some solid looks. They just weren't falling. So I just kept with it, and they started falling towards the end of the game.

I got a couple of rebounds, got to the free-throw line. So just trying to stay with it.

Q. Dylan and Max, coming off of Kansas City, we talked about the need to play a really consistent 40 minutes of basketball. Just talk about that second half, what was kind of the message from R.T. and the group as far as just closing out the game?

MAX ABMAS: Just understanding we were kind of in the same position last week in Kansas City, where we had a great first half on the defensive end. Then second half, we kind of let up the intensity and energy we needed.

The talk was we learned from that, and going into the second half with the right intensity and energy. We knew they would go on a run. So just being resilient, sticking with it, and being able to come out with a victory.

DYLAN DISU: Yeah, Max touched on it all for the most part. We knew they were going to make a run. Whenever a team scores a low number of points like that, 11 points in the first half, the basket is going to open up for them in the second half, and we knew that was going to happen. We had to continue to stick to our defensive principles and continue to play intensely on defense and continue to get stops, and that's what we did tonight.

Q. Chendall, you, Brock, and Kadin came in with five minutes left in the game. How would you describe the impact you guys had, specifically on defense?

CHENDALL WEAVER: We just came in knowing we had to get stops and just playing together, talking, switching, all that stuff. We just came in with our mindset to get stops.

Q. I'm just wondering if you could describe that first half, holding the team to 11 points. In particular, what was the strategy for stopping Stevens, who didn't score in the first half?

MAX ABMAS: I think we came out with the right intensity. We know they're a really good offensive team. We know they've got Stevens, really good, elite point guard in the country.

So just come out with the right intensity, playing together, kind of having each other's backs. We were able to get some stops in that first half.

DYLAN DISU: The question was just about how we stopped Stevens in the first half? Yeah, we went back on Saturday and Sunday after the Big 12 tournament, we got Friday off. We needed it for what was happening Saturday and Sunday back in the facility. We had two really intense practices, actually, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Some really intense practices, which was exactly what we needed, and a lot of it was defense oriented. Getting stops and competing against each other, ones-on-ones, twos-on-twos, it didn't matter.

So we though brought that tonight, that intensity that we had to on defense, attention to detail within every possession, talking together, working together and covering up for each other when we needed to.

CHENDALL WEAVER: I would just piggy-back off both of them. We had intense practices. So I think that really just set the tone for us.

Q. R.T., it's no secret that you prioritized everything with defense. Just wanted to ask you, with that under 16 timeout when you subbed in those three guys and started to get those kills that you talked about, those back-to-back stops. How much of defense is contagious, where one stop rolls into two, and the guys feed off each other?

RODNEY TERRY: I thought they got off to a pretty good start offensively. We had some really good looks offensively and shots we would take any day of the week as well. But tonight we didn't let it affect our defense.

We came back down and started off getting some stops. Again, our staff did a great job with the one-day prep, getting our guys to really buy into understanding this team here is a team that really attacks the paint. Colorado State wants to play inside-out, and they're elite at it. They're an elite passing team, elite cutting team.

I thought our guys did a really good job of trying to take Isaiah out. He's really important to those guys. Last ten seconds of the shot clock, we wanted somebody else to have to make a play. We didn't want their post guys to get deep post. As a result of that, we wanted to get stops and try to push it and play faster ourselves, and see if we could get paint touches. It was a big paint touch game for us as well, playing inside-out and trying to score that way as well. I thought we were able to do that at a pretty high clip.

Brock came in and brought a lot of energy. You know what Chendall is going to bring defensively coming in here. Everyone is going to look at the box score and see Tyrese with eight points. He did an incredible job on Stevens all night. He took that challenge on, and we challenged him, hey, you're guarding one of the best players in the country. We need you to bring your "A" game intensively. He took that challenge and did that for the better part of the game with a smile on his face. Again, Tyrese is all about winning this time of year.

Q. Whatever struggles Dylan had tonight offensively, Colorado State's within five, they're within seven, there's 5:30 left, 6 minutes left, was there any doubt you would keep going to him? He's done that for you all year?

RODNEY TERRY: He's a big-time player. He's had an incredible year for us this year. When a guy is struggling a little bit like that, you just continue to pick him up and say, hey, you're going to shoot the next one. You're a big-time player. This is your time. This is your stage right now. You and Max, you guys go to work right now. Let's go.

He did. He stayed the course, kept working it. Made a couple of big field goals down the stretch, got to the foul line, and just kept working the game. He had some great looks throughout the whole game and shots he's made all year.

When you have guys like that, you're going to ride those guys all the way through.