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BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES

COACH DREW: Well, I thought our offense was good both halves. The big difference was second half. We held them 36 percent and 2-8 from three. So really defended better. And then we only had five turnovers, which we were able to keep them out of transition more because of that. I thought they're a very good team, very explosive team.

And I thought our effort in the second half to take care of the ball and make sure we got back in transition was really good. And all year long our depth has been a good strength.

Al and T.J. had monster games, and that's what the beauty of having depth is. So they're experienced players. They didn't want to stop playing, and they did a great job stepping up, especially when Mot was in foul trouble the first half.

Q. Terry, that first after in particular, with J. Mot in foul trouble, did you feel like you needed to step up at that point?

Terry Maston: Yeah. He's a really essential part of our team and they was giving me the mid-range jumper and I made a couple and they just kept falling for me.

Q. Terry, it had been maybe three or four weeks since you've had a big game. Were you kind of anxious to have a game like this?

Terry Maston: Yeah, I knew in the tournament anything could happen. So I was just waiting on my opportunity when my team needed me, and I'm glad I could step up today.

Q. I think your bench scored 20 straight points in the first half. Can you tell me what that meant to the team and did it surprise you a little bit?

COACH DREW: Again, our staff doesn't look at it as starters. We look at it as a team, and that's the great thing of being able to have multiple guys who can come in and there's no dropoff and a lot of times there's a lift. So the great thing is it makes it harder for the other team to prepare against everybody, and when someone on our team has an off night there's somebody there to pick them up. Or if they're taking away certain things or giving us things, like T.J. giving him the jumper and he was able to take advantage of that and our guys did a great job getting him the ball, too, so he could.

Q. Probably the last three or four weeks you've been a really big contributor. What's kind of been the turnaround for you the last few weeks?

Al Freeman: That's a great question. Probably just confidence. When you see the ball go in a few times, you loosen up and you become more free. And I think early on in the season, I was really pressing and wasn't letting it come to me. And you know, these last few weeks I just had -- just keeping it simple. And once you see the ball go in a couple of times, you feel like you can put it in every time you shoot. So I just really thank God for that.

Q. The first five or six minutes of the second half, what adjustments did you guys make defensively to really clamp down on them and make the key run of the game?

Johnathan Motley: Well, we just made sure that we guarded the three-point line a little bit better. I think they went like four straight at the end of the first half. So we just made sure we guarded that and made them try to shoot tough twos over our shot blockers.

Q. Johnathan, just talk about you guys have had a couple of disappointing appearances in the NCAA the last couple of years as high seeds getting upset. Just talk about how you guys weathered the storm when they took the lead and were able to avoid that feeling again?

Johnathan Motley: We know the tournament is about making runs. They made their run and it was our job to come back and make our own run. So we went in at halftime and made some adjustments, made sure we carried out those adjustments. And good things happen when you follow the game plan, and we're glad we got the win and we did everything possible for us to get that win.

Q. Johnathan, did those early exits the previous two years serve as any kind of motivating factor for you today?

Johnathan Motley: Yeah, for sure. No one wants to leave the tournament early. Our ultimate goal was to come in and just win it, so we want to just take every game for what it is and make sure we come in and just play our hardest, play desperate, you know, because after this, you lose, you go home. So we knew one team was going home today, and we made sure it wasn't us.

Q. Johnathan, you've lifted the team on your shoulders a few times this season. When you go out with two fouls in the first half and guys like Al and Terry step up, what does it mean to you for them to help carry that load and keep you in the game?

Johnathan Motley: It means a lot, because we have full trust in each other. Like Coach said, our depth is what makes us so good. Anyone can step up on any night. So we know what type of player Al and Terry is and they're both great offensive players. So we know that we have full trust in them and when I go down, someone is going to step up. And that's just something we know.

And they did a good job of it today, being aggressive and making sure they made shots and also played defense as well.

Q. Scott, their first half, obviously they hit some three-pointers. That's not what they've done most of the year. Did the game plan have much on three point defense coming in? Did it surprise you a little bit in the first half?

COACH DREW: No. Coming in we knew that they had several guys that were good three-point shooters and made a lot this year and we didn't do a good enough job contesting some of those.

The other thing is transition. They're so good in transition, the last thing we wanted to do is turn it over and give them easy ones, which we did in the first half more.

I thought second half, maybe it was our depth, maybe the sense of urgency, but we did a great job of getting back taking care of the ball so they couldn't get in those transition opportunities. And then really defended the arc a lot better.

Credit to them, and they made some tough shots because they're a good team. When you win 28, 20 in a row you got good players and you're well coached, and you gotta give them credit.

Q. Same thing I asked Johnathan about using the previous early exits as a motivating factor. Did you guys talk about that or do you want them not thinking about that?

COACH DREW: Actually we didn't talk about it as much as we did the previous year. I think you can look at it, two Elite Eights and a Sweet 16 or you can look at it as two first round losses. If you're in the tournament enough, you're going to have both. So the goal is to win more in the tournament than you lose.

I thought the Big 12 tournament for us was a great indication to that when it was one game and we were home. At the same time, it allowed us to get healthy and get some practice time with some guys, and I think that was critical for our team. And hopefully we can keep playing good basketball and have guys step up, because this is the best time of year. This is why you spend all those hours in the gym in the summertime and in the preseason is for March.

Q. Scott, you talked about it being a breath of fresh air getting away from the conference. You're 13 and 0, one of six remaining undefeated teams outside of conference play. How much of a breath of fresh air was that? Maybe it wasn't at halftime, but just for the whole game?

COACH DREW: I think players prefer to play in transition than they do half court; right? (Laughter). So I know our K State's first game they scored, what, 90. That was an up-and-down game and fans like watching up-and-down games. And again, in the conference when you play someone a third time and they start to lineup in a set and you're telling them no, you gotta go there, it's tough to get easy buckets or transition buckets because you're so well scouted. So the tournament's great for you to have an opportunity to play other people.

#0 Jo Lual-Acuil Jr., JUNIOR FORWARD
"It's a good win. Coming in here we didn't want to win just one game. It would mean nothing if we lose on Sunday. It's one win. We have to take it for what it is and move on and get ready for the next game."

#3 Jake Lindsey, SOPHOMORE GUARD
On Maston's performanceà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"If you have seen Terry Maston in practice that is not unbelievable. He is probably one of our most talented guys. He is a great dude. He has really come a long way. I'm proud of him. We have seen him explode like that against Texas Tech. Last year he has done it. So that doesn't surprise us."

On the locker room mentalityà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I feel like this team is really close. We all came from similar basketball backgrounds as far as not being the highest recruited guy. So we always keep a chip on our shoulder when we were having early success. Even though we had some tough stretches this year we stuck together and got through it and that came through today."

On playing like the team from the beginning of the seasonà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"It sure felt like it out there. I know we are a confident group. Our coach has done a great job preparing us. We didn't panic under pressure. That is all you can really ask for."

On having fun during the gameà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"Winning is fun. Losing is not. That is the easiest way to put it. We were able to get some easier buckets in transition than we have been. That was because of our defense. We were able to get stops. We were able to get rebounds. They played fast and I think they may have gotten a little fatigued and our depth wore them down just a little bit. They are a great team and they had a great season."

On the fast pace of the gameà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"They played at a fast pace. They pushed it on makes and misses. Ian Baker is a great point guard. And they have shooters. Their shooters made shots the first half. Freeman and T.J. were big in keeping us close. And then our defense was able to pull us through in the second half. When you are able to get stops you are able to get in transition a little bit easier. And we did a good job of that and that got us some easy baskets."

#24 Ishmail Wainright, SENIOR GUARD
On NMSU hitting the three right before half and if they were uneasyà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"No, no. I mean they were hitting great shots, contested threes. They are a great team. I didn't know that number three was a sophomore. And I'm saying, 'How old are you?' And he says, 'I am a sophomore.' 'I thought you were a junior or senior!' They are a great team."

On the halftime speechà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"'We are not done yet.' It's another half. Even when we were up ten or fifteen, twelve or something like that. We went to the bench during timeout. And the guys are saying it is not over yet. There is still thirteen minutes left in the game."

COACH WEIR: I have to tip our caps to Baylor. They played a terrific second half. It's a great team. You know, I was talking to Coach Henson earlier this week before we left, and coach told me that you're going to have to play well but they're going to have to have a bit of an off night and we didn't catch them on an off night. They went 14 for 14 on the free throw line in the second half. They made a lot of two-point jump shots and just made a lot of plays. So you gotta give Baylor credit.

I thought we played well, ran out of gas there towards the second half. But that has nothing to do with how hard these guys work or how much they care. It was just a little bit of maybe just running on a little bit of fumes from three games in three days last week. But an amazing opportunity for us. Unfortunately, the margin of error in games like this is really, really small. And we just had a couple of missed cues here and there, missed free throws here and there.

And again tip the hat to Baylor. They were terrific.

Q. You guys aren't exactly a program that needed to do much rebuilding or anything, but does this season give you two a sense of kind of a launching-off point and maybe a foundation moving forward? It was Paul's first year, and you guys have been to five out of the last six tournaments. But was there a sense of kind of building something for the future with what happened this season?

IAN BAKER: I think so. I think, you know, this year we wanted to get here and make some noise. Unfortunately we wasn't able to do that. But I think the future looks bright for New Mexico State, and hopefully it's something we can build on for the future.

BRAXTON HUGGINS: I agree. We came in hoping to get a win. And we need to build on -- we need to learn from this loss and take it to next year.

Q. Ian and Braxton, how special was this season for you guys? I know Coach always said this is a special team, and you guys accomplished a lot of things that hadn't been done at New Mexico State in a while.

BRAXTON HUGGINS: I agree. The season is very special, not only because the wins, like the 20-game winning streak. Just because of all the hard work we put in. The first day of practice at White Sands I'll never forget. I remember that day like it was yesterday, throwing up like so many times. I never thought it would end. And we made it here just because of all that hard work we put in?

IAN BAKER: I agree. I think it was a pretty special season. We did some pretty good things throughout the course of the season. So definitely a lot of up-and-downs coming into the season. I'm sure people didn't know what kind of team we would have. We didn't even know what kind of team we would have. And I love the way we all came together as the season went on and we did this thing together.

Q. Paul, these guys talking a lot about happy to be here, and I know that for you it wasn't just happy to be here, but being able to win a game and get past the first round and possibly the second round. How does this program take that next step as a team that can make some noise in the tournament?

COACH WEIR: Yeah, you know, there's probably a time and a place for those conversations, but right now I really -- I treated this, I think the only fair way to do this as a coach, particularly to Ian was to treat this like it was my senior year, too, and we just went pedal to the metal all year long like this was the last year we were ever going to play together. And at some point we'll pick up the pieces. But I really don't want to worry about that.

This is about appreciating this team and what this team did and I don't want to look past the contributions of what this team was able to do together. I'm really proud of them.

Q. Coach, you guys had the five points the first six minutes of the second half. Was that due to them coming out of their zone defense and playing more man at that juncture or what was the biggest fact or?

COACH WEIR: Yeah, you know, we got some empty possessions there at the free throw line early. I thought that hurt us. I liked our man to man offense in the first half as well.

Baylor just kind of came out and locked it up a little bit. You gotta give them credit. They did a really good job and unfortunately we just weren't getting stops at the other end. They scored 53 points in the second half. It was just we had to get more stops. I think if you told me based on where Baylor was defensively we were going to shoot 44 percent and score 73 points and get more shot attempts than they were, I would have probably taken it. We just didn't get enough stops particularly at the beginning part of the second half. I think they had 22 points in the first two. So I guess both kind of went together, but you gotta give Baylor credit. They were terrific in the early part of the second half.

Q. For the players and Paul, I also want you to answer this. They have two guys come off the bench, obviously two guys that I'm sure were on the scouting report, but you guys were able to kind of contain the starters, especially in the first half. Did the guys coming off the bench, Maston and Freeman, did that catch you off guard at all that they had that kind of game and impact?

BRAXTON HUGGINS: No, it was kind of the game plan. We wanted to take the ball out the best player's hands and kind of make the role players try to beat us. And in the second half Johnathan Motley just came in and scored a couple buckets on us and opened up the lead.

IAN BAKER: Yeah, I wasn't surprised. I think that's what makes Baylor a good team. Even when their best players don't have it going they have other pieces that can come in and fill the void. Our job coming into the game was try to contain not only the best players but everybody. We just didn't do that good of a job of letting their role players kind of get it going as the game went on.

COACH WEIR: Yeah, these guys get on it. I don't have a second half only box, otherwise I'd get a little bit on that.

Freeman is usually a good starter. He made some threes in the first half. We knew he was a good shooter. And Maston came in and made shots. And that was the game plan going in. And Motley was kind of fresh in the second half and came out with some pops. So the game plan in general was something we liked. It just didn't actually get executed to the complete degree, I guess.

Q. Paul, Motley didn't play in the final nine minutes of the first half because of foul trouble but seemed like he made a difference in the second half when he got back in. How much of a difference did he make against you guys with their length and size?

COACH WEIR: Yeah, he's a good player. He's an All-Conference player. He's big strong long. I thought his 3-point shot was a really big shot for them. That's not ordinarily a shot that he's making. I thought the guys did a really good job of keeping him off the glass and doing good things. He kind of got some stuff towards the back of the press and the end of transition which is where we were in that lull offensively and we couldn't get anything to go down.

Again, credit to him and them. It's a good team and a great player.

Q. Coach, from the beginning of the year to now, where do you think the biggest growth was for your team?

COACH WEIR: You know, I don't even know how much I've told these guys. When we went into the season, we had this plan, this idea of where we were going to go, and I don't know if any of us really knew it was going to work, but we just all got in the boat together and decided to give this thing a run.

And this team I just told them after the game has taught me a lot about emotion and energy and togetherness and those values that maybe some people think is lost. It's not lost. It's real, and I learned that it's real from these guys.

We beat a lot of teams this year that we weren't supposed to beat. We beat a lot of teams that were flat out better than us. We were trying to do it against one more team tonight and we were trying to do that with I think what we showed for 20 minutes which is a team that just plays really hard and together, and to bottle that was a lot of fun for me. I think it was really fun for them, and it made it a really great year.

It sucks the way it ends. I wish we had a different ending to all this, but I think whenever we sit back and look back at the season and think about the discussions that we have had we're all going to look back on this team really fondly one day and have memories for a long, long time.

Q. You talk about memories, Paul, and this is for Ian as well being a senior. What will be your biggest memory and take away from this year's team?

IAN BAKER: I don't really think I know how to answer that question right now. I gotta kinda sit back and reminisce on the season. So many things happened this year, it's kind of hard to answer that question right now.

COACH WEIR: Yeah, I'm with Ian. We had some fun times. Man, to beat New Mexico at home for the first time in ten years was terrific. To beat a power five team on the road for the first time in nearly 25 years was terrific. We finally beat a Mountain West team. We were on death's door after the Utah Valley game and came together in the locker room and went on a run after that.

I mean, I could go on and on with these guys and the memories we'll have. I don't know if there's really one that stands out.

Q. For Ian and for Paul, too. Ian, obviously closing a great career for you at New Mexico State. How much fun did you have at New Mexico State and what will you remember most about your career, and Paul, same with you about Ian. You've said he's the best point guard you've ever coached. And what will you remember about his career?

IAN BAKER: I would say my four years at New Mexico State, I had a blast. I can't really -- like I told him, I just can't really -- I don't know what would be my most memorable thing at New Mexico State. I'm going to have to take some time and sit back and think about everything that happened.

But overall I love my experience that I had at New Mexico State. I'm glad I came there. Like I told -- I don't know, I told one of these people here the other day that in a million years I would have never thought I would have ended up at New Mexico State but it was the place for me and I'm glad I ended up there.

COACH WEIR: Yeah, if there was anything that had to sacrifice this year it was going to be Ian. You had new a coach, assistant, players. Eli, Braxton, Sidy, guys like that, they were excited because they're getting to play now. Before they might have had reasons to be a little bit disappointed, but for Ian to buy in to me and for Ian to basically go through this kind of like transition and be the leader and take the lumps and be the guy everyone points the finger at when we lose and all that kind of stuff, I mean I'll never forget him. I'll never forget the games that he's won. And I mean, I'm just -- I mean I'm -- I'm forever thankful to him. Thank you.