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Feb. 2, 2013

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes |  Photo Gallery 

TEXAS
Head Coach Rick Barnes
On whether the pace of the game was the reason his team scored 60 points: I think it was a little of that. I think that we wanted to play a little quicker, obviously, but in second half, I think I broke the rhythm a lot because guys weren't doing the things that we wanted to do consistently, (like) when we went in the zone, getting back and getting up in their positions. One thing we had talked about last night was that if you're not engaged with what we want to do, then you need to step aside and let someone else come in because we've got to get execution. That breaks your execution. You watch the game-- guys were in and out quickly for things that had to be done. Things are non-negotiable, but overall, there were a lot of good things. We had as many post feeds as we've had in a long, long time. If you just look at the shots--the post guys got maybe half the shots. You had Papi (Papapetrou) with nine shots, Prince (Ibeh) with three, Connor (Lammert) with six, Jaylen (Bond) with one, and Cam (Ridley) with four. So, we did that. We want to play inside out. We did a good job. In the second half, we just didn't handle the penetration well, along with the other things we weren't doing.

On why Cameron Ridley didn't play as many minutes in the second half: (It was) about what we're trying to do. He missed a block out. They put the foul on someone, where the shot went up and he didn’t block out. That's what we talked about. Everyone has a job. We have to block out, as a group, so those were the type of things we have to get across.

On whether he saw the level of engagement he's looking for: I'd say that's the one thing--they were more engaged tonight than ever. We had more guys talking and really helping each other, but again, I think the real question is why this happens. That's where I think we get a lead and get lazy mentally. We think we can take a little time off. We did it in transition--not getting back. We took Papi out one possession because he thought he got fouled, said something to referee, didn't get back and his man scored. It's plays like that. You need to play through all those situations. But again, I think the guys are engaged with what we are looking for--talking and helping each other. Connor came in the very first play and he came back out because he didn't do what he was supposed to do on the ball screen and they ended up scoring. (With) that said, it's going to disrupt your flow, especially offensively.

On what it takes to overcome mental laziness: Mental toughness. It's really a pretty simple game, if you think about it. I said before, I think (TCU head coach) Trent (Johnson) does a great job. He's extremely sound. They're going to start driving the ball. We defended their sets pretty well. At some point in time, you're going to have to drive to get people off of you and we didn't do a very good job. We want to pressure the ball, but they were doing a little bit of a weave and we didn't handle that well.

On whether it is important that his team has now won two of their last three games: I think, again, with where we are, they are all really important. There is a lot of basketball left to play. We need to make it happen. No one is going to give it to us. We did a lot of things that we wanted to do today. That was a really good thing. It's just those little things that are going to keep getting us unless we can really get totally into it. We haven't had our whole team, but hopefully that's going to happen pretty soon. It's going to get even more fun because accountability is a great coach. If you don't do it, step aside and let somebody else do it.

On what it will take to get even with West Virginia on Monday: We should block out better. We need to get our hands up. We need to have all five guys ready to do it. It's going to be a rebounding game, just like it was here. It's going to be a very physical game. There is no doubt about it and that's what it will be. Exactly what I told them before I left to come down here. You need to rebound the ball. It's going to be a totally different game. We played a lot of zone here last time, but we'll see how it goes. It's going to be a totally different game, so we need to be ready pretty quickly to turn it around and see what we can do.

Connor Lammert
On the game’s slower pace: I think we tried to keep the tempo up. This game we had an emphasis on getting the ball inside more and playing more inside out. I think that with that mindset, we shot a high percentage because we got the ball inside more and hit the open guys on the outside. I think we took great shots and we worked the clock down well. We tried to limit our turnovers, but we just have to keep improving on that.

On if the team was running their regular scheme or implementing new plays: We were pretty much running our normal stuff. We threw in a couple of things that got the post more involved. We pretty much just had the mindset that we were going to feed the post. In the past games we have been running the same stuff, but we figured we needed to get [Cameron Ridley] and Prince [Ibeh] more touches. That was our game plan- we were looking inside.

On the team’s mental state after losing to Kansas State on Thursday: I think this season we have had to overcome a lot of adversity after some of the games. We knew we had to stick together and come out strong and really protect our [house]. We knew we had to get this win. We really try to stick together in practice and we need to execute what we do in practice.

On having a revenge mentality when facing a team like West Virginia that beat previously won: Definitely and it’s not going to be any different when we go to TCU or Texas Tech. We have to get those too. When we go to West Virginia it is going to be a physical game. We have to do a lot better on the rebounding and blocking out. We know it is going to be a totally different game than what today was. We just have to have a different mindset in that game, but bring the same intensity.

Ioannis Papapetrou
On playing more in the post: I really believe that basketball is just basketball. It doesn’t matter what position you play. Obviously, John [Holmes] got hurt and we didn’t have a lot of big guys. With my height, the coaches asked me to do that and I am more than happy to help the team win. Whatever I can do to help the team win.

On if the team felt ‘embarrassed’ after losing 83-57 to Kansas State: I don’t think it is about embarrassment. It is about pride. We know we are Texas. We know what the program is about; it’s a division I program. I don’t feel like we are embarrassed. We knew we shouldn’t have been in that situation and we knew we could have done better. We blame ourselves and we just try to get better everyday and win every game from here on.

On what Coach Barnes said in the locker room post game: He tried to keep the confidence up. We are going to West Virginia. We fly there tomorrow and play on Monday and we have to get one back. They came here and won a tough game, so we have to go there and get one back. He wants the guys to stay focused. We won tonight, but we cannot celebrate the win for that long. We have to stay focused and go to West Virginia to get the W.

TCU
Head Coach Trent Johnson
Opening Statement: For the most part, I thought Texas defensively caused some problems for us beginning in the first half; got us out of rhythm and spread us up. We did a good job in sprouts but right before the half we had bad turnovers and bad decisions, which lead to us being in a situation where we had to play from behind. I like Rick’s team, they are young and talented; their future is really bright. They did a great job running what we call a basic cut, getting their post to run deep with the ball and where they need to get it. Javan did a great job for his team. I hope people can really appreciate how good he as been running the point coming right out of high school, I am very familiar with him; I was at LSU when he was in Louisiana. He is a special kid, he is a winner. We did not shoot it very well. We have not shot it well all season. Texas did a great job sagging off our non-shooters, we have a lot of them but I have to encourage the team to take shots. We will continue in the gym, working on free throws and offensive execution.

On the last few moments of the game: Against any team like this, any team in this league; blocking out, shot clock violations, or any other situation where there is a momentum swing are huge. We did not do it, we did not execute; we have to tip our hat to them. We are going to fight. We are going to keep playing hard, but it is a matter of seeing improvement in situations like that. You want a guy to understand that he has got to rebound the ball and shoot the ball with confidence. No, we are not a great shooting team, but guys have got to be balanced and shoot the ball with confidence.

On turnovers: For us, when you have situations like that where guys are not executing and trying to do too much or what they are not capable of doing, it will not work well against well-coached teams. And there are a lot of them in this league.