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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2006Chris CopelandMarcus HallRicardo PattonRichard RobyDALLAS, TEXAS MODERATOR: Your thoughts on this afternoon's game. COACH RICARDO PATTON: First giving credit to Texas A&M. I thought they came in and really played a fabulous basketball game. They were making shots all over the floor. Certainly the outcome is not what we expected or desired, but I am proud of our guys for where we're at at this point being 20-9. Q. Chris, with so much to play for today, where do you think things went wrong and how do you think you guys let it become such a disaster? CHRIS COPELAND: A disaster. Guys weren't hitting. I think early on we came out pretty hot and we got really cold, finished the game. Our defense could have been a little bit more solid, a lot more solid, try to slow them down. They got really hot from 3-point line. That really hurt us. Q. What are these next few days going to be like waiting for the NCAA tournament bid to come out? I am assuming you will be on needles waiting for that. RICHARD ROBY: Yeah, whoever goes to the tournament isn't determined in our locker room, it is somebody else. So you just wait, you know, crazy things could happen like a couple of years ago Colorado fourth in the Big 12, you know, had 10 wins and didn't go to the tournament. So you never know what could happen. We just got to sit back and wait and see what happens. MODERATOR: We'll let you return to the locker room. Questions now for Coach. Q. Do you still feel like your team has a legitimate shot to go to the NCAA tournament? COACH RICARDO PATTON: Certainly. I think I doubt virtually if one game will be the cause if we don't go. I don't know that it will be because of this one loss here today. But I still think that we're still a viable candidate to be in the field of 64, yes. Q. What were your thoughts on the bench as you see your 10 seniors go out with a performance like today? COACH RICARDO PATTON: Well, you hurt for all the guys not just the seniors but guys like Richard Roby, Calvin Williams who I thought came in and gave you as little energy late in the game. You feel for all the guys, certainly that wasn't our plan as a staff. It wasn't the plans as players. It was just one of those days where you have to believe that you are never as bad as you look after a loss and sometimes you are never as good as you look after a win. So we just have to regroup. I think things are very positive for the program. It's moving in the right direction, and I think there's still some basketball left for this team. Q. A couple of guys in the locker room said that you were going to leave it up to the seniors if the NCAA doesn't work out leave it up to the seniors whether or not they wanted to play in the NIT. Is that an option? COACH RICARDO PATTON: No, we're going to play in whatever tournament is available to us. I think to still be playing basketball in March regardless of what tournament it's in, is an honor. Q. Can you talk about A&M and how different of a team that team seemed than the team you have played few weeks ago? COACH RICARDO PATTON: The thing you learn from winning is how to win and they are a very disciplined basketball team. I think if you look at the guys that make big plays for them, they are guys that have been pretty consistent all season long. We had one of those poor shooting nights tonight, if you think about we were 5 -- two of our better shooters from 5 from 29 from the field. It is very difficult. That affects everything else that you do. When guys who normally shoot the basketball well are struggling then it affects them on defense, affects your rebounding. It has a negative effect on the entire team sometimes because they are teammates, sometimes look to them to carry the scoring load, and we just had an off day shooting the basketball. Q. How much did that early flurry of 3s when Carter came in affect your team? COACH RICARDO PATTON: Well, not just the early flurry but just the continuation of making shots. I thought they made big shots all game long. That's what good players do. They step up and make plays when they have to make plays. Q. Shooting percentage was down, but did you feel like you were getting good looks? Because it looked like to me like you were getting the shots that you really wanted to take, a lot of the times? COACH RICARDO PATTON: I thought so. I thought we got good looks. I thought we did a nice job of attacking the paint and I know some of the shots that Richard missed were right there at the basket and yeah we got good looks. There were a couple of shots early on; particularly I remember a 3 that Roby took that was in and out. It went down and came back out. So I thought we got good looks most of the time. But also give credit to Texas A&M. They do a really nice job of pressuring the ball and they are a solid defensive team.
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