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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 12, 2009

Alan Voskuil

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

Missouri Â– 81
Texas Tech - 60

CHARLIE FISS: All right. Ready for Texas Tech and Coach Pat Knight and his student-athletes, Alan Voskuil and Mike Singletary.
Let's go to questions for our student-athletes, and then we will come back for Coach Knight.

Q. I'm wondering what the last day has been like for you, Mike, and was it tough to follow up on your performance last night?
MIKE SINGLETARY: I mean, it is always going to be tough to follow 43 points and the zone I was in.
But I'm just really proud of our team. We fought so hard all year. We battled to the very end and can't say much more than that. I'm just so proud of our team.

Q. I wonder if you can talk about Missouri's defensive frenetic pressure they had in the second half. It looked like they kind of wore you guys down as the game continued.
ALAN VOSKUIL: It took a lot of effort out of us. I mean, that Texas A&M game took every ounce of energy we had and coming in to face that, I think in the second half it started to get to us and we got a little tired and careless and the game got away from there.

Q. I saw you take a pretty big blow from Carroll -- or from Tiller, I'm sorry. I just wanted to see how you are doing after that now that the game is over.
ALAN VOSKUIL: I'm doing good. I mean, it would be a lot better if we won. But, I'm fine, I'm not worried about it.

Q. Also in the second half, Missouri got a lot of shots right at the basket. Was that also kind of being wore down as far as handling their pressure and then they are coming back and doing a lot of back-door stuff and getting to the rim?
ALAN VOSKUIL: I would say a lot of it was fatigue. We were getting lost on defense. Switches weren't being correct, doing the right thing. I think we just got really mental and we got tired and didn't quite follow our game plan we had in the first half.

Q. They talked about fatigue, Pat, can you also address the first half, you guys have the eight-point lead and then I think the last nine minutes scoring only three field goals and the effect that had going into halftime.
COACH KNIGHT: We had a chance to add to the lead, and we just kind of wore out. You know, we were trying to play at a slower pace, be patient. They were actually playing, I thought, at a slower tempo the first half than they normally do. That actually helped us.
We just -- you know, we just didn't have enough in the tank. We had enough for a game and a half. But it started showing towards the end. We stopped cutting, started settling for jump shots. Usually when kids get tired, the easiest thing to take is the jump shot. So we kind of started settling, instead of putting pressure on them. We got in the bonus, I think, with about seven minutes to go.
Instead of shot faking and driving or catching and driving, we settled for easy shots instead of making them work. A lot of that has to do with being tired.

Q. Pat, obviously Mike wasn't going to follow up that 43-point night with another one like that, but could you just talk about the way you did perform because obviously he was kind of the target of some pretty good defenders out there by Missouri and he seemed to respond well.
COACH KNIGHT: I thought he responded well. I thought he pressed a little too early, trying to make things happen.
I think trying to have another night like he did last night, that's just not going to happen. But he still gets 17 points and eight rebounds which is a great effort. He just battles. Even if he gets off to a bad start, he is a guy you can count on having numbers. That's why I actually -- I bring him off the bench because we are just not deep enough from a standpoint of having a bench.
If I started him during the game, then I don't have any production really coming off the bench and he has been great because I actually asked him before the season when I kind of figured how we were going to be, if he would mind coming off the bench. And he actually preferred coming off the bench.
He has just been a solid contributor to us. He is only a sophomore. That's the thing -- that's the thing I really like. He has competed here against two of the better teams in our league. This is something he can build on, not just the performance he had last night but also, I think, tonight.
To have 17-8 against Missouri is pretty darn good.

Q. Does Missouri's defensive pressure give them an extra bonus in the tournament setting when they can come out and get you with 14, 15 guys?
COACH KNIGHT: Yeah. Mike has done an unbelievable job. I love their roster, just the type of players they have. They are all versatile. They bring great energy to the court from a defensive standpoint. Not only are they good from a trapping situation, they can do a lot of switching.
From an offensive situation, they can all shoot. They can all catch and drive. They are very hard to play against. I have said this before when we played them in Columbia, he has done a great job building this team into the style of play that he wants to incorporate. He hasn't had the roster his first couple years, and now he has his roster. Now you can see how lethal that style of play can be.
It is tough to play against because if you think about it in the league, it is the only team that does anything remotely close to that. So now tournament time, it is the same thing. Even next week when they start the NCAA tournament, I think they will have an advantage because there is not a lot of teams around the country that do that.
CHARLIE FISS: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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