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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: LITTLE ROCK


March 21, 2008


Scott Cross

Rod Epps

Anthony Vereen


LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you'll make an opening statement.
COACH CROSS: First of all, it was a great game. It was unbelievable atmosphere. So happy to be a part of this whole experience. Never been happier or more proud to be a Maverick. We played one of the most talented, if not the most talented, teams in the country, and our guys fought their hearts out and played as hard as they possibly could.
Unfortunately, we came up a little bit short, but the credit goes to Memphis. Our guys battled and played as hard as we possibly can.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. For both Rod and Anthony, would you just talk about what you got out of this experience, what you think it will mean to the program in the future?
ROD EPPS: Well, I think it means a lot to the program. This is really big for our program, knowing that we've never made it before. And me being a senior, I'm just glad that I can end it off on this note. And I'm glad for Anthony and the rest of the team, they can keep the tradition going for next year.
ANTHONY VEREEN: I think that this sets the bar for our program, you know. We never really experienced success before like this. Now that we have, you know, we can only go up from here. I'm proud for my seniors. They fought hard, and I think it's going to help us go nowhere but up from here.

Q. Guys, how tough was it playing against these tall, athletic guys from Memphis? It seemed like the interior game took awhile to get established. Can you touch on that for me, please?
ANTHONY VEREEN: I mean, they're not the number one seed for nothing, you know. Thirty-four games, one loss. They're great players. Of course, it's going to make it tougher for us to get on the inside. Once we got it gone, we fell behind a little early. They're great players. Got to give all the credit to them.
ROD EPPS: They've got some big guys on the inside. Their confidence being a lot different than ours, it was a lot tougher out there and a lot of fouls that we're used to getting calls, we weren't getting those tonight. So it was different, but I felt that we played hard, Anthony played well, and, you know, I just know that a lot of things will change for next year.

Q. For Rod and Anthony, what kind of an impression do you guys think you've left on the people that were watching around the country tonight?
ANTHONY VEREEN: I think we brought our program to the forefront. A lot of people didn't know there was a UTA, or Texas-Arlington, but the way we played and competed, you know, we had good sportsmanship. Showed a lot of heart out there. Hopefully, we earned a little respect for ourselves out there.
ROD EPPS: We showed a lot of heart and a lot of sportsmanship. That's just how we played. That's how Coach Cross teaches us to play, and I feel that we left a good impression on all the fans out there.

Q. You all fell behind by double digits pretty early in the game, and then for the for about the next 20 minutes or so, you played them pretty even. Was it just a matter of kind of getting into the flow, getting adjusted to the atmosphere? Or what caused the difference after like the first ten minutes or so?
ANTHONY VEREEN: I think they just shot the ball really, really well. You know, when -- our game plan was to make them jump shooters, and when you go 50 percent from the 3-point line, it's kind of tough to stay in the game. But we just tried to execute our game plan, and we gave them the jump shot and took it and making it.
So I think we just have to make adjustments. Once we finally did, you know, just kept on playing, executing. We played even, but we just fell behind with the jump shots early.
ROD EPPS: They came out shooting the ball real well. I don't feel that any of our players were nervous at all. Just took a lot getting used to the atmosphere, but as far as being nervous or anything like that, I felt that we played hard and they just shot the ball well tonight.
THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Gentlemen, thank you very much. Congratulations on a great year.
Questions for Scott.

Q. Scott, two-part question here. What are you guys going to do the rest of the weekend? And number two, how do you hope this impacts your recruiting in the future?
COACH CROSS: First of all, I guess I have to talk to Jason who is in charge of everything and figure out the plan. You know, obviously you don't want to prepare to go home the next day, want to prepare to play the whole weekend. So, to be honest, I'm not sure where we're going to go from here.
As for the program, extremely excited. I think this definitely makes everybody realize that UTA does have a solid basketball program. The guys deserve all the credit for it. Hopefully it sets the bar. I think the guys know that we've got to get back here next year. They're going to work even harder and do everything in their power to make sure that it does happen next year.

Q. Coach, can you just give us your impressions of Memphis as they move on for the tournament after playing them?
COACH CROSS: They're unbelievable. They have ten players. Their second five could probably start for the majority of the teams in the NCAA Tournament right now.
They're one of the most talented teams, if not the most talented team, I've ever seen in my life and they're well coached.
They execute. They take what you give them. They know where they're going. They have a definite plan to everything they do. Coach Calipari is an unbelievable coach. It's an honor to be on the sideline with him. He's a Hall of Fame coach, most winning coach over the last three years.
You know, to me, they've got as good a chance as anybody in the country of winning the NCAA Championship.

Q. Coach, how well was your team able to limit Memphis in their transition game because that's something you touched on yesterday in the press conference.
COACH CROSS: Honestly, I think we did a great job. We did a very good job. Our guys executed the game plan that we set out to perfection. There wasn't any flaw in that. Again, Memphis is just -- they're well-rounded all the way around. I mean, they shoot the ball extremely well. They're extremely difficult to guard off the dribble. Very, very few teams guard them off the dribble. We got back in transition. We didn't give them very many easy buckets. They did out rebound us. That was one area they hurt us a little bit and got a lot of loose balls, but our guys executed our game plan as good as possible.

Q. Scott, given your background with the university, what does it mean to you personally to be a part of this and to have your team play as well as it did tonight?
COACH CROSS: I've never been more prouder to be a Maverick or to coach these guys. I mean, when you play a team like Memphis, I mean we're a 16 seed, they're number one. We think we can win this game. Again, one of the most talented teams in the country.
Our guys fought for 40 straight minutes. They battled. They -- our guys came out with the mentality we were going to win this game. I love that about them. We've got fighters on our team. I couldn't be more proud of our guys. The score, we lost by 24 points, but, again, they had to play their guys, you know, for 40 minutes. It wasn't like they were putting in 11 and 12th man on the floor the entire game. They were playing their top guys. We gave them everything we had. They're just an extremely talented team.
THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Thank you all very much. Coach, congratulations, great year.

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