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BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES

Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew

Opening statement...
"Well, this is one of those games everyone talked about would be a trap game, and obviously coaches get worried about every game. I was really concerned from a standpoint of several teams that came back from the islands yesterday lost. Michigan State lost, St. John's lost, and VCU was down 16-0 to Princeton. You're always worried about that hangover from the standpoint that that's an emotional three days, and it wears on you, and you're tired. I thought our guys, starting with (Ishmail Wainright) and his leadership, making sure everybody was ready to go from jump. To hold Sam Houston State to 45 points is tremendous, and 28 field goal percentage defense is as well. That's a team that has six seniors, a lot of experience, and is picked to win their conference, and I know they're going to have a great year. Coach (Jason) Hooten does a great job. I think tonight was more of our guys having a respect for knowing how good they are, and making sure they were ready to go from the beginning, and when we got a lead, we built on it, which was important. We did shoot too many threes."

On the three being available most of the night...
"They gave us the three, so we want to take the three. We prefer to it have been 24 or 25 rather than 31, though. Coming in, we knew we would have good looks from three. I think we wish we would've gotten it inside on a couple more times, or had a better look from three, because this was a game where you have open looks from three, and you can shoot a high percentage. You just want to shoot the right ones, because we are so good inside, so we didn't want to get away from that."

On if they were nervous even after jumping out to a big lead...
"There is no safe lead in college basketball. Louisville is a perfect example. That was a 22-point game, and that was the sixth ranked defense in the country, and you usually don't come back against great defensive teams like that, so, with the three-point line and momentum, there is no safe lead. I know, as a coach, when you have a lead at 10 and you get it to 20, and you get it to 30, and you feel a lot better than 20 to 10. Florida Gulf Coast is a perfect example of that. We were up 10, and we didn't expand or grow it, and next thing you know, we were down three."

On if Georgia State and Yale losses help team not look past lesser opponents...
"I think it really comes from Ish's leadership and the upperclassmen. Maybe part of that is Georgia State and Yale, but I will tell you, every night you look at the ticker, you see power five schools lose. The thing I'm probably most proud of is that with our last two years' teams, we haven't had a bad loss going into the tournament. And if you look at Yale, that's a 5/12 matchup, and those are about 50/50 in the last three or four years of the tournament, so I think that's one reason how our programs have gotten to the postseason, because we've beaten the teams we're supposed to beat, and haven't had bad losses in non-conference. So I really think that, with these guys, we gave it the grown up approach, and told them why this was supposed to be a trap game, and why we were concerned. We told them they had to be ready to go, because we weren't very good in practice yesterday, which is why I was concerned."

Junior Al Freeman

On Sam Houston State giving them the three...
"They were definitely playing pack line defense. They were pressuring the ball, but off the ball, we were able to step into threes. Our bigs have been killing it all season, so they probably wanted to focus on them."

On playing after almost a week off...
"We knew that coming back from the Bahamas, guys could be tired, and we knew that we couldn't come out and cruise through this game. They're a good team, and they're going to do well in their conference, so we knew if we didn't play well this could be a trap game for us."

Sophomore King McClure

On getting hot in the Bahamas and it carrying over...
"After the Louisville game, I feel like I gained my confidence back. Once I saw the ball go through the basket one time, I was able to continue to see it, and thanks to my teammates encouraging me, I was able to put my head down and keep grinding it out, and this is what I have been doing."

On how his coaches never lost faith in him when he was struggling...
"My teammates believed in me. I was kind of struggling with myself, and I had to pray about it and work things out and really start believing and getting back right with myself. As a result, I was able to start making shots."

Sam Houston State Head Coach Jason Hooten

Opening statement...
"We played a very poor basketball game tonight. We could talk about our team, but that would not be very fair to Baylor. They are a really good team. It may be one of Coach (Scott) Drew's best teams because it seems like he has a bunch of kids that love to play together. They share the ball and they seem to play harder defensively than I have ever seen his teams play. That is a pretty good recipe for success."

On Baylor's inside game...
"They are 7-foot, 6'10" and we have a kid in there that is 6'8" and a really good player in our conference. He played very well against a very good mid-major program in Idaho on Friday. Now he is trying to shoot an up-and-under on a 7-footer that is probably going to play in the NBA. That's different."

On pick-your-poison mentality vs. Baylor...
"We took away their inside game. I don't think they got very much at the basket and we made them make threes, and they did it tonight. When you play a high-major school, most of the time you have to pick your poison, and it just backfired on us."