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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: OKLAHOMA

March 18, 2016

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

UNI-75, Texas-72

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the Northern Iowa Panthers, Head Coach Ben Jacobson, student-athletes Paul Jesperson, Wes Washpun and Jeremy Morgan. Coach, your thoughts about the game?

COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, thanks. What a game, huh? In the first half, that middle ten minutes of the first half, we played great. I don't know that we could have played a whole lot better during that stretch, as we knew going in.

Shaka, he's a tremendous coach and done a tremendous job in a short time to have this team playing the way they did throughout the season and playing at that level of emotion and that level of enthusiasm. So we knew that that was going to be part of it as well.

But I was just, I tell you, proud of our guys in that middle ten minutes to be able to get the momentum, to be able to get out to a lead. Then the second half, we just had to fight.

Texas played great, and we had to fight and fight and fight because we weren't playing great. As we've done, we did. We were able to get a couple stops, so great game. I suppose we got a little lucky at the end, right? But these guys have found a way and they've continued to find a way, so I'm happy for these guys.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Paul, a two-parter for you. First, when you got the ball at half court, what was going through your mind there? Then when you put the ball up, did you know it was going in? Did you think it was good from there?
PAUL JESPERSON: You know, I caught it and saw there was a guy in front of me, just tried to take a dribble to the left to try to get a little more towards the center of the court. When it left my hand, I felt like it had a chance, but obviously you never know with that. So just thankful it went in and thankful we get to live another day.

Q. Paul, when you take that shot in practice or a game of horse, how often do you hit it?
PAUL JESPERSON: I can't say I've shot that shot in a long time. We used to mess around before practice a little bit and shoot those, but I don't think we've shot one of those this year. So, like I said, just happy it went in.

Q. Paul, with how your season's gone this year, how big is that moment for you just to go through something like that and have it go in for you?
PAUL JESPERSON: It's a great moment for all of us. We're just trying to play as long as we can. It's been different guys every year. Obviously, you guys know the deal. Before this game it was Wes who hit one at the end of the clock to bring us to this situation. Tonight I hit one that at the end of the buzzer that sends us to a new day. It's been the deal the whole year. Different guys have stepped up when they needed to and have always been willing to take big shots. We have multiple guys on this team who can make big shots. So we're happy to be able to play on Sunday, and looking forward to it.

Q. Jeremy, usually you see 72 points, you maybe don't think of it as a great defensive game. How do you guys evaluate how you did defensively? Because it seems like you did, like Coach said, in the middle of the first half you had them flustered a little bit?
JEREMY MORGAN: Yeah, that first half we did a great job sticking with the game plan. Then the second half they came out and started making shots.

It's tournament time now and people are going to step up and make shots. So I think we did a great job of staying with the game plan and just fighting through it.

Q. Wes, in all the other situations you've been in this year where a game has come down to the wire or been on the line, how much did that help the team as a whole tonight with what happened?
WES WASHPUN: I think it helped us a lot tonight, especially down the stretch there with the game being back and forth like it was. We've been in these situations time and time again, and we just keep figuring out a way to get them done.

Q. Wes, you hit the last game winner. What was your reaction when Paul's shot went in? Where were you, and what was your response?
WES WASHPUN: I was behind him and just wanted to go and find him and tackle him to be honest. I couldn't be happier for this guy. He deserves every moment of this. He puts in an incredible amount of time to his craft, and he deserves this moment.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Jacobson.

Q. Coach, is there something in the water in Oklahoma City for the Panthers?
COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, I mean, there is no way for me to describe what happened at the end. Obviously the last time we were here in 2010, so many good memories from that trip. I don't have a way to describe it, and I don't have an answer. I can tell you about this team. You've watched us. They just keep finding a way.

Q. This is similar, but you can go a whole coaching career without having an Ali moment or Wes a couple weeks ago or a shot today. Is that something -- is there some way you could trace that to what you instill in these kids or do you just feel really fortunate?
COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, I would say it's some of both. We work extremely hard so that our guys, when it comes time to play, they play with all the confidence in the world. For me that's really the bottom line. We work at that and work at that and work at that, and it's not necessarily something that we talk about every day. It's not something that we necessarily hand them a sheet of paper every day or hand them a manual. It isn't that as much.

But from our staff standpoint and my standpoint, the bottom line is I want them to play with all kinds of freedom, and I want them to play with as much confidence as they can possibly muster and have. What that had to do with the last shot tonight, right, I mean, that's lucky. What it had to do with Ali's shot, yeah, that probably had something to do with Ali's shot. And there are some other plays.

Like I said, that's the bottom line. I want them playing with confidence, freedom, and having as much fun as they can.

Q. Coach, was there anything at all designed, planned, rehearsed about that shot as far as who took it out, who passed to who? And how much of it did you actually see?
COACH JACOBSON: There was -- the first part, there was not. At the time, at 2.7, I was right in between calling timeout and not calling timeout.

Now, in terms of who takes it out, Bohannon is the one that he takes it out for us the entire game. So I knew Bo had the ball in his hands. And I saw him grab it and saw him take his time and he was looking. So I felt good about him not making a bad pass because he had the ball. It wasn't like somebody else grabbed it and ran out of bounds. So when I saw Bo had the basketball, I was going to let him go and let him make the play.

The other part of that is, to further answer your question, I guess, we did not have anything drawn up. They were in that situation, normally the ball's going to go to Wes. That's something that we do practice all the time. We're going to get it in. The guys know we're not going to call timeout unless we absolutely have to. But usually it's going to get into Wes' hands and he's going to rush the floor. I saw -- I ended up seeing all of it, yeah.

Q. The stretch that got you to that point that ended up making it a tie game, Wes sat for a while. How important were those minutes with Wyatt in there to get the lead back to give you a chance at it?
COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, when Wes picked up his fourth, they had all the momentum, so that obviously is not ideal for our team. Wyatt has been -- man, since that game at Wichita State, he's been off the charts good. And he was really good again tonight. Handled the pressure well and made some aggressive plays for us. So I was fine with that lineup.

Just the fact that they had the momentum up and they had the lead and Wes had four fouls, that's a situation that we haven't had a lot of. It happened some at Wichita State when Wyatt played so well. So, again, I wasn't completely out of sorts, but just not sure.

Because, in addition to that, offensively, we really hadn't done much in the second half, so trying to figure out where we were going to get points and Wes on the bench, and them having the lead, I think that speaks to we needed some defensive stops. I just think that speaks to the way this team has played. They knew we had to, with Wes or without Wes, they knew we had to make some plays.

Q. I know you haven't had much time to think about it, but your first early impressions of Texas A&M of playing them Sunday evening?
COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, I was able to watch maybe ten minutes of the second half tonight. Other than that, I haven't seen a lot. I've got an assistant coach that's watched everything we could to this point, so he's got the scout, so we'll go over that more tonight.

Obviously the things I do know, they've had a tremendous year. It appeared in the ten minutes I watched tonight that they've got things everywhere, okay. And again, this is ten minutes of tonight. I'll have the rest of it here in short order, but what it appeared to me is they've got some of everything. When I say that, guard plays really good, they've got the scorers in between, the guys inside are really good, but that's really all I would comment on at this point just because I haven't watched enough of it yet.

Q. How would you describe your team if A&M had some of everything? Just kind of give me the rundown of what you guys have, don't have, that kind of thing.
COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, we've got a point guard that has played off the charts. I mean, he has been great. I talked about it early on. I think he's one of the better guards in the country. I talked about it in the fall. In our games against Carolina and our games against Iowa State, he played exactly like that, and we were 2-6. So nationally we kind of went away and he did too. But I think he's terrific and he's taking on a lot of leadership and he's really improved in that area.

Bohannon and Jesperson haven't shot it great in our last four games, but both of those guys can really make shots. All three of those seniors are really good leaders. Jeremy's a guy that's got the versatility we need to go with those guys, so he brings some of everything to the table. Then those young, big guys they just kind of figure it out.

Some nights Bennett plays a little more and better than other nights. Some nights Klint's our best option so we can go smaller at that center spot and he's got versatility at the center position.

And Wyatt Lohaus, as I mentioned about him, he gets talked about the least, but he's made big, big plays over the last six weeks. So it's not an overly deep team or overly experienced team, but they've figured out how to get it done.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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