Here are the quick statements from the head coach post selection show...
Thoughts on NC State:
"Honestly, haven't watched them play other than just the run they had. I know they’ve got great guard play and they’ll be ready. I mean, you don’t win five games and not be ready to go. Now they've got championship expectations now that they won it. We'll get a great team that's on a great run and it'll be a difficult game to prepare for but we'll be ready."
What was this experience like:
"As an at large, you hope you're in. I think what the expectation has been for our program is to prepare yourself the best you can to win every game you play and then let the rest of it be what it is. And we did feel like we've gotten better, especially in these last few weeks defensively. And so our focus is going to remain the same. How do we get better in these next few days in preparation for NC State? And how do we play our best basketball on Thursday? We are excited to be in and I know the celebration was now and now it's time to get to work."
How did the Big 12 prep you for this:
"It's like anything you want to get tested so that you know how you got to improve and you want to figure out how to you win games in different ways. Because I think that's what championship basketball is about how do you win in close games? How do you win against teams that play fast? How do you win against teams that play physical? And the formula for winning in the postseason is finding a way. You have to figure out like how gritty and tough you have to be on every possession and play it that way. And our team's bought into it. There's a fight to our team. And I know we're excited about putting it into the tournament and being ready to play on Thursday."
Darrion & Warren update:
"Darrion's improved over the last couple of days. Warren is starting to practice and I can tell you this, our anticipation is that we would have him as close to full speed as we can with practices under his belt before we play him in a game and that's to be determined but he has been practicing so we've gotten some opportunities to to see him move and and I'm encouraged. I don't think we'll ever know until we get out there and go live as to how effective he'll be."
On how to defend length like NC State's DJ Burns:
"Having the opportunity to to face the teams in our league that have effective size. I think you got to have a game plan for a lot of different ways to defend it. Anytime you're matched with somebody that's got that amount of effectiveness. It's not one guy that defends it, it's your whole team. So we'll have a game plan for everybody to be involved and gotta do our best to make it as difficult as possible."
Thoughts on NC State:
"Honestly, haven't watched them play other than just the run they had. I know they’ve got great guard play and they’ll be ready. I mean, you don’t win five games and not be ready to go. Now they've got championship expectations now that they won it. We'll get a great team that's on a great run and it'll be a difficult game to prepare for but we'll be ready."
What was this experience like:
"As an at large, you hope you're in. I think what the expectation has been for our program is to prepare yourself the best you can to win every game you play and then let the rest of it be what it is. And we did feel like we've gotten better, especially in these last few weeks defensively. And so our focus is going to remain the same. How do we get better in these next few days in preparation for NC State? And how do we play our best basketball on Thursday? We are excited to be in and I know the celebration was now and now it's time to get to work."
How did the Big 12 prep you for this:
"It's like anything you want to get tested so that you know how you got to improve and you want to figure out how to you win games in different ways. Because I think that's what championship basketball is about how do you win in close games? How do you win against teams that play fast? How do you win against teams that play physical? And the formula for winning in the postseason is finding a way. You have to figure out like how gritty and tough you have to be on every possession and play it that way. And our team's bought into it. There's a fight to our team. And I know we're excited about putting it into the tournament and being ready to play on Thursday."
Darrion & Warren update:
"Darrion's improved over the last couple of days. Warren is starting to practice and I can tell you this, our anticipation is that we would have him as close to full speed as we can with practices under his belt before we play him in a game and that's to be determined but he has been practicing so we've gotten some opportunities to to see him move and and I'm encouraged. I don't think we'll ever know until we get out there and go live as to how effective he'll be."
On how to defend length like NC State's DJ Burns:
"Having the opportunity to to face the teams in our league that have effective size. I think you got to have a game plan for a lot of different ways to defend it. Anytime you're matched with somebody that's got that amount of effectiveness. It's not one guy that defends it, it's your whole team. So we'll have a game plan for everybody to be involved and gotta do our best to make it as difficult as possible."
