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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2007

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by TCU head coach Neil Dougherty and student-athletes Kevin Langford and Neil P. Dougherty.
Coach, go ahead and open with some general comments on the game.
COACH DOUGHERTY: First of all, I just want to congratulate BYU because they are a very, very sound basketball team. They do a lot of things well. They created a lot of problems for us today, main one being rebounding the basketball.
I felt that if we could have rebounded the ball better that we may have had a lot better chance to come out with a win today. But they were just too good on the backboards for us. Probably the biggest factor in why they come up with a win, a 13-point win.
THE MODERATOR: Questions now directed to the student-athletes.

Q. Brent was held without a field goal from the floor. Can you talk about their effectiveness on the perimeter defensively.
NEIL P. DOUGHERTY: They did a good job guarding us on the perimeter. Obviously, Brent had a pretty hot game a couple nights back. They tried to key on him and tried to limit his touches.
I mean, you just have to give it to him, congratulate him. They did their job defensively, on the boards.

Q. Kevin, knowing that you were struggling from the floor, did you feel any extra pressure or sense of duty to carry the offense?
KEVIN LANGFORD: No. It was just about going out here and doing what we got to do to try and get the win. There was no pressure on us. I mean, nobody was -- a lot of people weren't expecting us to even put up a challenge.
We were pleased that we were just going out there and trying to do what we do and get a W.
THE MODERATOR: Guys, we'll let you two go. Thank you.
Questions for Coach Dougherty.

Q. Can you talk about the job they did on Brent, specifically Lee, his length?
COACH DOUGHERTY: You're going to get me up here bragging about Lee (smiling). You know, for a coach who's trying to beat a team, Lee Cummard has probably become one of my favorite players that I shouldn't like a whole lot. He just does an awful lot of things for their basketball team. He rebounds it. He handles it. He can shoot it. Then he just guards whoever they tell him to guard, regardless of size, athleticism, position, and he can do it.
He did a good job on Brent. We were trying several different things to see if we could get him off of him. We used Brent as a screener today. We used him as a lot of different things just to see. Lee just never budged.
He's a very good defender. Obviously he's a key reason why their team has done so well.

Q. You really limited Keena Young, but Plaisted, he wasn't in foul trouble like the last two games. He really hurt you guys. Can you talk about what your plan was against Young and Plaisted?
COACH DOUGHERTY: I think when you play them, and this is tough for us and it's tough for probably just about everyone else in this conference right now, you have to be able to defend them inside one-on-one because you have four or five guys who are shooting mid 40s from the three-point line that they can surround him with. To get help down there, and from where, is a very difficult question to answer.
I thought for the most part we did actually a decent job of contesting threes in the halfcourt. They got a couple in transition on us. But this is probably the best job we did at guarding the perimeter and getting down in there, too.
But Plaisted had a real effective game, was just too big inside for us. It was difficult for us to play in a game that's going to have a high number of possessions in it with the foul situation that we have in our three big guys, and Alvarado not being at a hundred percent.
I think we chose not to come down there, and Plaisted had a big game and hurt us. He took advantage of it and hurt us.

Q. Can you talk about the season as a whole, the way you were able to close things out, to get these guys to play good basketball towards the end.
COACH DOUGHERTY: Well, it's like what I told them. This wasn't a miracle. Miracles are things that happen without maybe explanation. This team has learned how to fight through an awful lot of things that most people would quit on.
There weren't a whole lot of good moments during an 11-game losing streak. But what you could see on film is that we were not real far away from being able to win a lot of games. We weren't real far away from playing some good basketball.
Understanding our physical situation, it was difficult at times to really hammer 'em, particularly in practice, to create an atmosphere that I thought would allow us to win those games for fear of having nobody left on the roster come this time.
As the season became a shorter season for us, it was a lot easier to do that. You know, I wish we could have been a little bit luck ier and got a healthy Parker to Las Vegas. We almost did. He hurts his knee in San Diego.
I think the biggest turnaround is the character that was already in these kids gained confidence with just one win. As soon as they won one game, a lot of things that they had been told or they'd been saying to each other began to make more sense to 'em.
As we all know, this age group, confidence can be a sensitive thing. As it started to grow, it was amazing. I wasn't sure whose locker room I was in at times. I'm trying to get them to play against a team that, in my opinion, had so many other areas in their advantage.
My guys are telling me, That's not true. We're way better than them. That was the kind of the feedback that was going.
I just enjoyed these last couple weeks probably more than I have in a long time in coaching 'cause it's frustrating when you can't get your guys to the finish line. Seeing them finish some things this last couple weeks was real good. It was good for me. It was good for them. The change came from work.
Like I said, wasn't a miracle. It was some kids who hung in there, didn't quit, made some things happen for theirselves down the stretch.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.

End of FastScripts

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