From the head coach’s postgame conversation with the media…
Opening statement:
“This is always the worst part of it right here. I’m so thankful for Joe Toussaint and Warren Washington, tow guys that trusted us and literally gave everything they had. There is nothing else these guys could give more to give our program a chance to compete for a national championship. What they did in this league and the heart that we showed over the course of the season, and one thing about this team, we got down a lot. I mean, we got down in this game, but I thought the last two and a half minutes of this game, three minutes, just showed kind of the collective fight and grit of these guys. And it was the way we did it all year long and never was perfect but just a team that loved each other, and our team cares. They care about each other and that part as a coach is what you love. I’m so thankful for these two seniors that led us all year long.”
Can you kind of take us through how they attacked you in the paint with their two bigs, kind of testing Warren and Rob got in foul trouble there early?
“Their paint points were the difference. I thought we had a good gameplan and that kept us in it, we wanted to double a few more times. We had a double off the bounce. Also I thought, DJ’s minutes were obviously significant in the post, but Middlebrooks was the one that hurt us the most because he’s been scoring but he hasn’t been scoring like this. I just thought he got angels and it’s when you give both of those up, you gotta kinda pick your poison with them. Because DJ Burns is such a good passer, it’s like do you let him, we talked to a lot of people about trying to figure it out, do you let him shoot twos or do you let them pass and get open threes? The rotations, I thought our double team probably should’ve went to it more consistently. But man, just a really good physical team and they were definitely more physical than we were.”
You went to a smaller lineup in the last six, seven minutes of the game, no Warren, no Robert Jennings despite them having such success inside, what was the reasoning for that?
“You just get down significantly and felt like we needed to get some threes. And then the double team scheme, it kind of doesn’t matter who’s playing in that if you can push them off far enough and get to the double team scheme. Just felt like we needed a change of pace and tried to create more opportunities to get space threes. And we went to a full court trap, it kind of doesn’t matter the length on that back side, just tried something different.”
Live and die by the three-pointer, 7-31 tonight, can you just talk about that?
“Well early I thought NC State did a good job defending us and our threes in the first half were difficult. We didn’t share the ball well enough in the first half, and I felt like if we, we got some paint touches and we shot some difficult twos, and then we shot some quick threes, whether it be transition or maybe one pass. Just needed to have more patience and create multiple paint touch opportunities to get threes. And we looked at it at halftime and I thought we made a few adjustments, but we couldn’t guard them in the second half. Then we got on our heels because of their point production and hit the panic button a little bit and give them credit. They got to the free throw line and made their free throws, they shot 80 percent from the free throw line. It’s kind of that double combo, we got down and I thought we had a little better flow to us offensively, just couldn’t get stops.”
With Joe and Warren here, having guys like that, veterans that came in and said hey I want you to help finish my career… what do you look back on through all of this to where you are today from where everything was a year ago?
“This team had so many games where we got down double figures and still found a way to compete and give ourselves a chance to win. Pretty much competitive all year long. Warren, when he was healthy, and we had one of the best offenses in the country when he was healthy and he was moving well. Joe’s grit and fight, he just never missed a practice, never missed a game, never stopped competing, I thought that jump ball on the sideline where he was trying to wrestle it away, just typified who Joe was. I think back to the Kansas State game where he had that layup in the paint to give us the win. He just willed us to so many things positively. Tonight, didn’t shoot it great, but his competitiveness, no matter the time or the score, was always consistent. And I just love going into these games knowing that you got a point guard that’s tough and will compete every possession and guard. I thought he did a solid job on DJ Horne, just making it hard on him. Obviously we didn’t make it hard on them as a team but I just loved their competitiveness and think about all of the things that we did to overcome. Those guys really set the standard for how we want to compete every day.”
Wrapping up the first year, laying the foundation, can you talk about the future for Texas Tech basketball?
“One person who jumps out to me, I’m just looking at his stat numbers who played 40 minutes tonight, Darrion Williams couldn’t even hardly walk in the semifinal game against Houston. And he comes out, 40 minutes, 10 points, seven rebounds, and six assists no turnovers. Just the grit that this group continued to show, I just love. Guys like Darrion I think moving forward are really going to be the foundation of what we do and what he did tonight and showed, even though he was beat up, showed kind of the heart that I think this program will have. We got to be better defensively and we’ll continue to improve and do things to improve our program, but the people that invest in Red Raiders across the country, our homecourt advantage, I just believe honestly that we’ll compete for a national championship. I believe it’ll be soon, I love the administration, I love the students at Texas Tech, I love the community of Lubbock and our family loves it and I can’t be more excited about where we’re going and what we’re going to do. I do believe the best days are ahead of us. I’m thankful for Joe and Warren and their investment and them trusting us because they set the foundation to move this forward.”
Opening statement:
“This is always the worst part of it right here. I’m so thankful for Joe Toussaint and Warren Washington, tow guys that trusted us and literally gave everything they had. There is nothing else these guys could give more to give our program a chance to compete for a national championship. What they did in this league and the heart that we showed over the course of the season, and one thing about this team, we got down a lot. I mean, we got down in this game, but I thought the last two and a half minutes of this game, three minutes, just showed kind of the collective fight and grit of these guys. And it was the way we did it all year long and never was perfect but just a team that loved each other, and our team cares. They care about each other and that part as a coach is what you love. I’m so thankful for these two seniors that led us all year long.”
Can you kind of take us through how they attacked you in the paint with their two bigs, kind of testing Warren and Rob got in foul trouble there early?
“Their paint points were the difference. I thought we had a good gameplan and that kept us in it, we wanted to double a few more times. We had a double off the bounce. Also I thought, DJ’s minutes were obviously significant in the post, but Middlebrooks was the one that hurt us the most because he’s been scoring but he hasn’t been scoring like this. I just thought he got angels and it’s when you give both of those up, you gotta kinda pick your poison with them. Because DJ Burns is such a good passer, it’s like do you let him, we talked to a lot of people about trying to figure it out, do you let him shoot twos or do you let them pass and get open threes? The rotations, I thought our double team probably should’ve went to it more consistently. But man, just a really good physical team and they were definitely more physical than we were.”
You went to a smaller lineup in the last six, seven minutes of the game, no Warren, no Robert Jennings despite them having such success inside, what was the reasoning for that?
“You just get down significantly and felt like we needed to get some threes. And then the double team scheme, it kind of doesn’t matter who’s playing in that if you can push them off far enough and get to the double team scheme. Just felt like we needed a change of pace and tried to create more opportunities to get space threes. And we went to a full court trap, it kind of doesn’t matter the length on that back side, just tried something different.”
Live and die by the three-pointer, 7-31 tonight, can you just talk about that?
“Well early I thought NC State did a good job defending us and our threes in the first half were difficult. We didn’t share the ball well enough in the first half, and I felt like if we, we got some paint touches and we shot some difficult twos, and then we shot some quick threes, whether it be transition or maybe one pass. Just needed to have more patience and create multiple paint touch opportunities to get threes. And we looked at it at halftime and I thought we made a few adjustments, but we couldn’t guard them in the second half. Then we got on our heels because of their point production and hit the panic button a little bit and give them credit. They got to the free throw line and made their free throws, they shot 80 percent from the free throw line. It’s kind of that double combo, we got down and I thought we had a little better flow to us offensively, just couldn’t get stops.”
With Joe and Warren here, having guys like that, veterans that came in and said hey I want you to help finish my career… what do you look back on through all of this to where you are today from where everything was a year ago?
“This team had so many games where we got down double figures and still found a way to compete and give ourselves a chance to win. Pretty much competitive all year long. Warren, when he was healthy, and we had one of the best offenses in the country when he was healthy and he was moving well. Joe’s grit and fight, he just never missed a practice, never missed a game, never stopped competing, I thought that jump ball on the sideline where he was trying to wrestle it away, just typified who Joe was. I think back to the Kansas State game where he had that layup in the paint to give us the win. He just willed us to so many things positively. Tonight, didn’t shoot it great, but his competitiveness, no matter the time or the score, was always consistent. And I just love going into these games knowing that you got a point guard that’s tough and will compete every possession and guard. I thought he did a solid job on DJ Horne, just making it hard on him. Obviously we didn’t make it hard on them as a team but I just loved their competitiveness and think about all of the things that we did to overcome. Those guys really set the standard for how we want to compete every day.”
Wrapping up the first year, laying the foundation, can you talk about the future for Texas Tech basketball?
“One person who jumps out to me, I’m just looking at his stat numbers who played 40 minutes tonight, Darrion Williams couldn’t even hardly walk in the semifinal game against Houston. And he comes out, 40 minutes, 10 points, seven rebounds, and six assists no turnovers. Just the grit that this group continued to show, I just love. Guys like Darrion I think moving forward are really going to be the foundation of what we do and what he did tonight and showed, even though he was beat up, showed kind of the heart that I think this program will have. We got to be better defensively and we’ll continue to improve and do things to improve our program, but the people that invest in Red Raiders across the country, our homecourt advantage, I just believe honestly that we’ll compete for a national championship. I believe it’ll be soon, I love the administration, I love the students at Texas Tech, I love the community of Lubbock and our family loves it and I can’t be more excited about where we’re going and what we’re going to do. I do believe the best days are ahead of us. I’m thankful for Joe and Warren and their investment and them trusting us because they set the foundation to move this forward.”
