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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2009

Alan Voskuil

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

Texas Tech Â– 88
Texas A&M - 83

CHARLIE FISS: Joined now by the Red Raiders of Texas Tech, Coach Pat Knight and his two student-athletes, Mike Singletary and Alan Voskuil.
Coach, congratulations on your victory tonight. Your thoughts?
COACH KNIGHT: Thank you. I don't believe in the coach's speak. I just open up for questions. But I have to say these guys have two things, they got heart and they got cohones and I think I can say that without getting in trouble. That's what this team has. I don't care what the record is, this team has those two things.
I'm proud of them. I can't say any more than that. To come back like they did against a good time like that just says everything about these guys.
Go ahead and open it up for questions.

Q. Mike, how do you explain something like tonight?
MIKE SINGLETARY: Man, I was just in the zone, I think. My teams were giving me the ball, and we didn't want to lose this game. We didn't want to go home. We kept fighting hard, kept getting stops. Luckily my shots just kept going in.

Q. Mike, you scored 29 straight points and 33 of 35. Did you feel like you were dominating like that as far as --
MIKE SINGLETARY: Yeah. Once I got going a little bit, you know, posting up and, you know, hitting the threes felt like, you know, I was going to have a good night. My teammates just kept getting me the ball and I just kept rolling.
They have had my back all year, so I decided to have their back for once.

Q. Mike and Pat, I guess, is he going to start against Missouri?
COACH KNIGHT: No, because I got 43 points off the bench and that's a great stat to have. So I don't want to ruin that stat. Usually most of the teams that win, they get bench production, I don't want to screw up the bench production (smiling).

Q. Alan, Mike was taking every shot during the stretch. What was it like to be on the floor with him? Were you trying to feed him every time you could?
ALAN VOSKUIL: It was obvious we kept giving him the ball. We were all on his back. As he said, he scored 29 straight points. Our offense was giving him the ball to go from there. Had no problem doing it and I don't think any of the teammates had a problem either.

Q. Coach, what do you think Voskuil against Kansas or Singletary tonight?
COACH KNIGHT: I will take them both. We don't have a lot, you know, great memories. But I will take those two. I think we deserve those two. These kids have been in every game, like I said, all year long and haven't given up.
Again, they are a great team. They respond when you call them out at halftime or time-outs. I think this team's a lot better than what the record shows. I love coaching them. I can't say anything more about them. They have just not given up on me.
There is a lot of first-year coaches I have talked to that can't believe how these guys keep on competing and competing. Normally, teams would have given up three, four weeks ago. These guys never give up, and I think this is a great indication of that.

Q. Alan and Mike, was there anything like early in the second half that gave you guys any particular hope that you could come back? I knew you kept playing hard the whole time. Was there any kind of feeling that this was going to happen? Did it just happen when Mike got hot?
MIKE SINGLETARY: You know, we have been fighting all year. That's been our motto all year. No matter how many points we're down, we will fight to the very end.
We started getting a few stops and started chipping into the lead. Once we got it down around 15 points, around 16 with about 14 minutes left, something like that, we felt like we could come back.
Our defensive pressure started increasing and we started getting stops and we started getting buckets. That really gave us hope.
COACH KNIGHT: He is being too politically correct. His last name is not Knight. I think I pissed him off at halftime, to be honest. They were not really thrilled with me when they came out on the court.
He can give you all the politically correct stuff. But to be honest, yeah, I think they wanted to prove me a little wrong. So ...
CHARLIE FISS: Questions for Coach Knight?

Q. Politically correct, what did you say at halftime? Have you ever seen a performance like Mike's had?
COACH KNIGHT: I can't talk about what I did at halftime. I think we got the best commissioner there is in the country, I have caused him enough grief. So I will just keep quiet.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH KNIGHT: I called them out pretty good, and I thought they responded. They had a good answer to me when we got back to the locker room after the game. It is the first time I have been speechless, so I will let them have the last word after this.
Mike's performance reminded me of Calbert Cheaney, the same type of position. Boy, Alan's game against Kansas kind of reminded me of Steve Alford; today compared to Calbert Cheaney, some good players I got to watch growing up. That's who I would compare them to today.

Q. There have been times this year where the team has gotten down and you said you knew it was too big a hole to get out of. Did you think there was still a chance, and what was different about them being able to push through this time?
COACH KNIGHT: The last three weeks, I think after Oklahoma State got on us so big at home and we almost came back. The last three weeks have been different. Even though they have been competing all year, the last three weeks, they have been able to come back against really good teams and been right there.
And so I just thought we had to call a few guys out or the team out at half and see how they would respond. We got what we wanted.
I will give these kids credit. They made the plays, started playing defense.
I got worried. We got off to a start like we did to Iowa State. I don't know what the answer is, how we can change that. They just picked it up and just keep on coming at you.
So I'm just impressed. I thought at halftime we sat in there in the coach's locker room and said, "Let's see what happens. They have done it before, let's see." We didn't let them know that. We made them think it was over with and they had no chance. But they proved us wrong.

Q. Coach Knight, with your story and background, where does this victory story rank?
COACH KNIGHT: It ranks up there in probably my top four or five as being a head coach. It is so much different coaching than it is playing. I was fortunate enough, I played with some really good players and we won a lot of games that had nothing to do with me when I was playing.
Now as a coach, you are involved with everything. It is just great, not just for the players but I have had a great administration. My chancellor, my AD Coach Myers have been behind me all year long, our fans have. It is just good for them these last couple wins we've had that they can feel good.
They can feel good going into next year that we got things going in the right direction. And I'm happy for the seniors. They have had two games toward the end -- I have repeated myself about this -- 10, 15 years from now as a player, no one will remember your record but they will remember certain games. Now they got two games that people will always talk about with Texas Tech basketball history that these guys were a part of.

Q. Coach, coaches talk all the time about conference tournaments being a new season. That said, did what Georgia did last year running through the SEC give hope to teams like yours that maybe didn't do so well in the regular season and maybe get to the tournament?
COACH KNIGHT: That's very good. That's what we talk about was Georgia. We talk to our team about Georgia. It does good things for you.
If you can win the tournament, just have a good run in the tournament, it ends the season on a better note than maybe it would have ended in conference play. But then it gives you momentum, especially for a team like us with good, young players coming back. Leave them with confidence and a good taste while they work through the spring and summer getting ready for next year.
CHARLIE FISS: Coach, thank you. Congratulations.

End of FastScripts

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