Following being crowned co-Big 12 Champions, Texas Tech must now prepare for the Big 12 tournament later this week in Kansas City. For the Red Raiders, they will either face Oklahoma or West Virginia as those two teams battle it out at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. Whoever wins that game will face Tech in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Head coach Chris Beard, sophomore Jarrett Culver and redshirt senior Brandone Francis spoke with the media as they prepare for the Big 12 tournament.
Jarrett Culver
- On the goal going into Kansas City, “Our goal is to try and take one game at a time and just try to win.”
- Culver said he has not seen the names such as Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin that were also undergraduates and won Player of the Year awards. “I’m just focused on basketball and what I can do for my team.”
- Culver said the team always prides itself on keeping a chip on their shoulder as now with the Big 12 Champion title as a part of their name, they could have a target on their back going into the tournament.
Brandone Francis
- On the goal going into Kansas City, “Our goal is to execute on what we’ve been doing, stay composed and just follow the game plan.”
- Francis then talked about the feeling of having the Lubbock community welcome the Red Raiders back after their game against Iowa State. “I think Lubbock is a great place overall. The people, they’re super friendly, they support every single sport either if we win or lose, so it’s just amazing how they support each in every night.”
- Francis said he has spent some time with his mother while she has been here but did say it is basketball season so it has been hard for him to spend time with her.
Chris Beard
- Beard started off talking about how special the celebration of cutting down the net a couple nights ago was, “I know it took a long time. I think we broke a record the other night, ‘longest net-cutting celebration ever’, but that’s just who we are and there’s nobody more important than anyone else in our program. The student manager has to execute his job just like the best player.”
- Beard then gave some insight into the philosophy has with Tech when facing any opponent, “The first part of competition is you put yourself in the mindset well, here’s how the other guy can beat you. So, I envision that all the time we don’t block out, we don’t play unselfish, we allow runs, we foul too much that’s always kind of first part of competition is always understanding what the other guy is going to try to do to you.”
- Beard said following today, he will not answer anymore questions about the regular season or the Big 12 regular season championship, “First thing we’ve got to do is understand that everything that’s happened is over and nobody can take it from us, but now we’re entering in another tournament that’s really important to us. So, like even this morning, 95 percent of the questions are about the awards and the championship, you’ve got to let it go, it’s over, after this press conference, I won’t answer any more questions about awards or the Big 12 regular season championship because it’s time to move on to the next one.”
- Beard said everyone knows West Virginia will be a huge factor in the Big 12 tournament and the Mountaineers are basically four games away from making the NCAA Tournament. “I think they’re playing their best basketball right now.” With Oklahoma, Beard said the Sooners always play well in March and are always a factor.
- Beard said the experience of the team is the foundation, “This is really kind of materialized like we thought it would and hoped it would. The big part of our team is experience. I think when people think of Texas Tech, they’re like ‘hey, they’ve got those seniors, they’ve been through the wars’, so that’s been nice. How we draw on that, you hope that it works in March but when the ball goes up, the team that players better on that day wins, but as you prepare and as you handle moments that each game throws you, the thing we’ve always tried to do is be experienced.”
