Texas Tech continues its preparation for the first round of the NCAA Tournament as the Red Raiders will face Northern Kentucky at 12:30 p.m. on Friday in Tulsa. Head coach Chris Beard, Davide Moretti and Tariq Owens spoke with the media on Tuesday.
Chris Beard
- Beard started off saying he has gotten the chance to watch every game of Northern Kentucky up to this point and said the Norse have had a fabulous season. “It’s not just a one season story either. They’ve had a lot of success since coach has been there. He’s done a great job.”
- Beard said he does not really believe in the seeding for the NCAA Tournament. “You get in the tournament, everybody’s good.”
- Beard described Drew McDonald as a great passer, great vision, great pace of play and competes on the defensive end. McDonald is also the focal point of the Red Raiders’ game plan going into this game including the other players on the Norse roster.
- With the dogfight of the Big 12 and nonconference games all year, Beard said around this time he hopes it pays dividends. “We’ve been through about everything you could go through and we’ve played against different defenses, different styles, different kinds of players, so, not a lot of inventing things this week in practice we just remind the guys, ‘hey remember when we played Duke, remember when we played Abilene Christian, remember that game against Incarnate Word and you get into your conference; Texas did this, Oklahoma State did this.”
- On Northern Kentucky’s head coach John Brannen, “I have a lot of respect for him. Basically, he’s built a program, not just with one team, they’ve been very, very good from the time that he’s been there. They’ve competed for championships, third year in a row postseason to my knowledge. I think the most pressure in all of sports is when you have to win your conference championship tournament to get into the postseason after having a great, successful championship season, we were in the same situation at Little Rock. This is a really good team, this is a team that could make a run in the tournament, this is a team that could win games in the Big 12 conference, they’re very well coached, not much more I can tell you. They have our full attention and respect.”
- On having the fans come out to Tulsa, “I’m all for the students going too. I’m not in any way saying skip class, but we sure could use you at Tulsa. Any faculty and staff out there, it’s nice to give the students off a day from time to time.”
Davide Moretti
- Moretti emphasized the importance of the Red Raiders staying locked in as Northern Kentucky will play tough in the first round.
- On previous experience in the tournament, “We know what we’re getting into. We just let Tariq and Matt know how it’s going to be. They know it’s going to be a battle we just let them know we’ve got to play our best basketball.”
- On Northern Kentucky’s shooting from the perimeter, “We’ve got to guard the three-point line first of all but we know they play really hard and they play in transition.”
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Tariq Owens
- On his first tournament appearance, “This is what we came here for with this coaching staff and this team. Really spent a lot of time together and really bonded and just feels great. I’m happy to do it with these guys and this coaching staff.”
- Nothing has changed in terms of preparedness for Northern Kentucky and the Red Raiders are sticking to their routine.
- Owens described Northern Kentucky’s McDonald as a very skilled player who can shoot, score in the post with good court vision. “We’re just going to have to try and key in on him and not let him do what he does.”
