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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2016

Kansas City, Missouri

TCU-67, Texas Tech-62

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by THE Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith and student-athletes, Justin Gray and Zach Smith. Coach, we come to you first.

COACH SMITH: Certainly want to commend TCU. Coach Johnson had his team ready to play.

Things just didn't go well, didn't shoot the ball well. And when that happens, we have a tough time. But I really was impressed with Zach. He really came ready to play. Again, it was a disappointment, but again we got outplayed and outhustled and probably outcoached.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Going to questions for our student-athletes.

Q. Justin, you all started out with a 7-0 start for the game, and then what happened after that? It seemed to maybe have got an little flat?
JUSTIN GRAY: I think a lot of guys were fatigued. I think we got a little bit tired being out there, so that's on us, but we just have to suck it up and keep playing. But overall, I think we were kind of flat, not making shots we usually make and just making little defensive mistakes that we shouldn't be making. And they kind of charged back and took control after that.

Q. Zach, you obviously had a great night on the boards, but down the stretch a lot of 50-50 rebounds that they got. What did you see in the last few defensive sequences in the closing minutes?
ZACH SMITH: I think they just had better positioning sometimes, and they wanted the ball more some of the other times. And that's something we need to change.

Q. Justin, you guys were able to outshoot TCU by almost 20 shots. Did you feel like you all had some good looks, but it wasn't going in the cup tonight?
JUSTIN GRAY: Yeah, of course, I really thought we really had a lot of great looks. We executed plays to perfection to get those open looks, and fortunately the shots just weren't falling tonight.

Q. Justin, what do you think was the biggest defensive change-up in the second half on Chauncey Collins, able to hold him to only 3 points after 16 in the first half.
JUSTIN GRAY: Firing pick and rolls when he comes off the top and they do that high pick and roll, screen. I think pressuring him when he comes off the screen, I think that was one of the biggest changes we made and forces him to give up the ball to the other teammates and not get as much shots or as great looks as he got in the first half.

Q. Zach, what effect did Vlad have for TCU? He finished with four blocks tonight.
ZACH SMITH: It had a big effect. They started out the game getting some blocks and I think it just changed our mentality for the whole game.

Q. For both Justin and Zach, can tonight be an example of how tough it can be to beat one team no matter the opponent three times in the season?
JUSTIN GRAY: Yeah, of course. A team can be beaten on any given night. My parents raised me that way, multiple coaches told me that and Coach Smith repeats that. Any team can be beaten on any night, and if you don't bring it you can loose. And we didn't bring it tonight and TCU did.

ZACH SMITH: Yes, I think it does show how hard it is to beat teams three times. They get the full scouting report, they get to see player tendencies. And unfortunately tonight, we weren't hitting some of the shots we should have been making.

Q. Justin, with going out in the first round of the Big 12 tournament, do you guys still feel confident in your position and where your headed to Selection Sunday this weekend?
JUSTIN GRAY: Can you repeat it?

Q. Do you, as a team, feel confident where you are positioned at this point now headed to Selection Sunday this weekend?
JUSTIN GRAY: Yes, sir. I think we have kind of proven ourselves throughout the whole season and won big games and made great road win. I think we put ourselves in a pretty good situation and place to make the tournament. Pretty much, we've just got to play the waiting game now and see what happens.

THE MODERATOR: All right, guys, thank you for coming and good luck next week.

JUSTIN GRAY: Thank you.

ZACH SMITH: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Now for Coach Smith.

Q. Tubby, .500 teams in this league usually get into the tournament. Do you have any doubts about you all's name being called on Sunday?
COACH SMITH: You always have doubts, and that's why I was concerned about today's game. But, like I said, the body of work we've put in throughout the year, strength of schedule, you know the wins we've had, I think we've got a very good shot of getting in. We'll have to see. But we are didn't help ourselves tonight obviously.

But again, TCU, you get in a tournament like this, a lot of teams get beat in the first -- somebody's going to lose, and we just didn't have it tonight.

Q. Coach, would you credit TCU more for perhaps being flat tonight, lacking some energy, or do you think that this came with your team, as well?
COACH SMITH: Yeah, I thought they just -- we gained -- we struggled scoring the whole game. I mean, when Aaron Ross and Todd Gotcher and Devaugntah Williams are struggling they were shooting the ball, it's going to be a long night and it was. Because they are the guys that are shooting well. Aaron really hasn't shot well in the last few games. He made a couple of threes in the last game that made him look a little bit, but people are playing him differently. He had some wide-open looks tonight, and he's been shooting it well. I don't know what happened.

Again, Toddrick, he looked like he was struggling, had a little groin pull. And I think that happened with him. When Keenan is not out there playing his game, you get four fouls in, what, 18 minutes of play -- so those things, that's going to put you in a dire situation because those guys have been playing well up until tonight.

Again, a lot of them had to do -- because we had good looks. I mean, we had looks, the same looks we had in the last games, they just didn't go down. And I don't know whether it was they said something about fatigue, but they were fatigued at a point and I thought that's how we made the run right before the half and got some momentum, but it evaporated quickly in the second half.

Q. Coach, first half obviously Chauncey Collins 16 points to lead the team. In the second half, you only held him to 3 points, but they really got some other players involved with Brodziansky, Parrish, Trent. Were you surprised that some of those were successful to counter Chauncey Collins?
COACH SMITH: Well, yeah, he can make shots. He's a really good stretch-4, can shoot the loose ball that he caught and laid it in the basket I think it was a tie game at the time. Those things, but he was in the right place, right time. And again, that's players making plays and energized.

And I told them before the game, it can go two ways, fellas. You come out and we jump on them, we push the ball -- but we looked like we hit a wall and really couldn't fight through it, and we kept fouling. That's what we do better, we usually get fouled and get to the free-throw line, and we didn't do that tonight, and that's one of our strengths. And so we got outshot tonight 17-23, only shot 11 free throws.

So it's -- again, I can't put my finger on what happened, other than TCU was ready to play. I mean, they made shots they had to make.

Q. What did you think of Norense Odiase today?
COACH SMITH: I thought Norense played well, he ws 5 out of 10, probably should have played him more. He played 19 minutes, and that's probably what would have happened, looking back on it. We were trying to go inside and Matt was playing well and Norense was playing well.

And then you worry about the other end defensively, I thought that Norense was a little winded in that situation. You know, he had three personal fouls, but he was playing well, shooting the ball well. You know, we really have had trouble -- we've been knocking down shouts from outside and today we didn't do it, and we threw it inside a few times. When we did early on, we were pretty effective. But I was impressed with Norense, he did a good job tonight. Good to have him back healthy.

Q. Coach, were you pleased with the shot selection for the most part? They just weren't falling?
COACH SMITH: I thought we were -- again, we had some good looks tonight. The iron was -- well the one he should have shot and dribbling in, and like it was interesting to hear, felt a little bit intimidated by their shot blocking ability. They blocked nine shots tonight and had nine steals, so I think we were a little less -- so I think we were a little hesitant and lost some of our aggressiveness, and that was because they were just shooting the gap, getting steals. And because, when I look at it, we turned the ball over 11 times, forced 14 against them, but you look down and usually we're the team that's doing the shot blocking. But it was pretty evident right there, Aaron struggling shooting, he takes one dribble and goes to the big guy and he blocks his shot. And he would have usually shot that ball, but he wasn't shooting the ball. He had no confidence in his shot.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.

COACH SMITH: Thank you.

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