BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2005

Jason Conley

Quin Snyder

Kevin Young

COACH QUIN SNYDER: Well, I just thought Oklahoma particularly at the beginning of the game was really hot. And for us to come back from that early deficit, I just -- that showed really how far this group of guys has come. Courageous effort and obviously a difficult -- when it is a single-possession game and you don't win the game because I thought we played well enough to win but Oklahoma made some great plays to win the game. They made some great plays you have got to give them credit.

JASON CONLEY: The game wasn't over yet. That's how I saw it. I know a lot of people said that might have been the play but that wasn't the play to us. We have seen Thomas handle the ball in that situation all year and he just lost the ball but that wasn't it. That wasn't it. So I think we have learned a lot from this experience and in the post-season we can change things.

JASON CONLEY: We're going to get ready now, I guess. We have a feeling we will be playing. We will just do whatever it takes. We have no idea who we're going to play yet, but it's not over. It's just like coach said, there's two teams in the country that can finish with a win and we could be one of them.

KEVIN YOUNG: We're going to keep practicing and getting better, that's all we have got to do, getting better.

KEVIN YOUNG: Yeah, in November we weren't a good team and you can look at the last couple of games, you know, we beat KU at home then we played Nebraska which was a tough team, it's tough to beat three teams in a row. Today we are down by 16 points just to stay together and be relentless and come back, keep fighting and we were fighting and having fun. That was the best part about it. I looked at all my teammates and everybody was like we're really intense and we were just relentless. We just wanted to keep fighting and have a chance to win. We had a chance.

COACH QUIN SNYDER: Well, I think any time, it's like Kevin said, I think these guys over the course of the season, you know, found an identity and that's their identity, particularly you know, defensively and being tough, you know, just gotten a lot tougher and being physical. When we play that way, I think we're just a whole lot more relaxed offensively. We have really learned how to share the ball. That's something that obviously I believe in. It's the only way to play. Our guys I think are seeing the game more through our staff's eyes. This has been a season for us about teaching a bunch of young guys how to have higher standards and you don't know those things until you experience them. I think even today, unfortunate as it is, it is useful in that regard. We really executed -- we didn't execute on that, that one play when we turned the ball over, but prior to that, I mean, four, five trips in a row down the court, we were executing. Jimmy got to the hoop. Linas got knocking down shots, running plays and getting good looks. At the other end they were making free throws. I was pleased with our execution.

COACH QUIN SNYDER: I don't think it's appropriate for me to respond about officiating. I don't think it was the T's as much as it was our kids kind of remembering what the game plan was. I thought when we started the game, we were a little wide-eyed. We weren't as focused on doing our job. Early on we had the wrong guy taken out of bounds one time. It's possible that, you know, that woke us up too.

COACH QUIN SNYDER: He's a fun kid to coach right now because he's really listening. He had to open up -- he's playing with so much more poise that there's a lot of things you can get through to him. Tonight, for instance, people have been playing him for the drive. And he started the game just flooring the ball and trying to drive it. He's going to go through you. And there was one point I said, kind of slow down, Linas, and read, you got your jump shot, knock it down. There's been times this year when you have told him that it's kind of (whistling) because he has just been fighting everything. And he's really matured emotionally and I think that has been the most important thing for him that's allowed him to make a lot of plays. He seems he's not putting as much pressure on himself to score. It's kind of coming in the flow of the offense. Those are the things that I noticed most about him. The other thing he's doing, he's guarding. There were times during the year where I sat him down because no one gets the right not to defend and I think he's just more engaged in every aspect of the game. He's playing more with his head.

COACH QUIN SNYDER: The baseball pass?

COACH QUIN SNYDER: It wasn't his guy. You are trying to deny the ball and obviously you don't want to get beat Longar and Jason Conley was up pressuring and, you know, Kevin was just a half step late trying to give him help. He reacted. They made a great play. That was one of the many plays that Everett made. I mean, if there's anybody playing better in our league than him right now, I don't know who it is. He was really good tonight.

COACH QUIN SNYDER: We want to. I think this team has gotten a lot better. That's true of a lot of teams during the course of the season. I think that the thing in my mind that differentiates this is some of the things that have changed internally inside our players, which I think are manifesting themselves in some of the stuff we're talking about, sharing the ball and really growing up as people as well as a team. I think every chance we get to go out and play again and hopefully try to reinforce that, it's an important thing, not just for this year's group, but for our guys down the road.