Arizona - 82, Iowa State - 80
T.J. OTZELBERGER: First of all, I'd like to congratulate Arizona. They're a tremendous program. Coach Lloyd does a terrific job. They have an outstanding team, and they've got a lot in front of them. So they deserve all the credit. They were able to make one more play tonight.
When it comes down to our group, I'm proud of the fight, the compete, for us to win the rebounding battle against that team, for our leaders to continue to step up for us.
Unfortunately, we're one play away. And at the same time, our guys are playing terrific basketball. They should hold their head high. And we know we have our best still in front of us. We're going to use this game moving forward as motivation to be even better come next week.
Q. Coach, how do you move past this, losing on a buzzer-beater, the mindset behind losing like this, what do you put an emphasis on?
T.J. OTZELBERGER: Our guys started building their mindset in June. We got here nine months ago, their mindset is about mental toughness. It's the next-play mentality. It's the togetherness, it's the unity, and that's what we live out every single day.
Just like the games we win, we don't focus as much on the outcome. We take all the experiences that are there for us. And we make sure that we use that to help gives us the grit and resolve we need to move forward. We will absolutely do that after this opportunity.
Q. Looked like you were agonizing whether or not to call timeout before that last defensive possession. Just walk us through your thinking in that moment?
T.J. OTZELBERGER: I mean, a lot of times we'll call timeout late from a defensive standpoint to get our defense set. We felt good about our guys.
We want to be able to communicate. We had a little extra time with the ball kind of rolling around. We had extra time to communicate that we wanted to be in our switch 5.
A lot of times we call a timeout to do that, but because of the flow of the game we're able to establish that. And, look, at the end of the day, Killyan guarded Bradley as perfectly as you could guard him. For us, defensively, again, Bradley's a winning player, a fierce competitor.
And at the same time, the offensive possession that they had and Killyan being right there, you know, if you're on the defensive side of things with the exception of knowing that Bradley is such a competitor, you take that side of the equation most nights.
Q. Have either of you been in a game with that level of shot-making down the stretch in a really tight game before?
MILAN MOMCILOVIC: It kind of reminded me a little bit of last year when we played BYU here. Curtis Jones was going crazy. And kind of a little bit like that, reminded me of that game.
JOSHUA JEFFERSON: Yeah, I would agree with Los. I think it was really intense game and all credit to them. They came out with it.
Q. Obviously not the result you wanted, but to make that play to tie the game with time winding down, Milan, the way he'd been shooting the ball I think a lot of the general attention would have been to him to get that. Take me through the choice, though, to get that ball to Tamin and just that play as well?
T.J. OTZELBERGER: Yeah, that was great coaching. That's exactly what that was right there. It was -- no, look, at the end of it, if you think about it all of our leaders and captains who drive us every single day, not only do they make so many heroic plays defensively, but offensively, I mean Joshua hits a big one, Milan hits a big one, Tamin hits a big one late.
More than that possession, it's a group of guys who love playing for each other, love sharing the basketball, and there's no ego. Even though we all know that Milan is the best shooter in the country, and I don't think that's debatable, we also have tremendous confidence in Tamin.
And for him to step up, I believe that was the first 3 he hit for the night. He shot it great for the last two nights. But for him to step up and knock down that shot, we have all the confidence in the world in him to do it. And I'm proud of him for stepping up and doing it.
We've got confidence in all our guys and especially the guys and especially the guys that drive and lead us every single day.
Q. Milan, you're only the fourth player to ever make at least eight 3-pointers in a Big 12 Tournament. And then the stats down here the stretch the teams combine to make 11 of your final 13 shots on both sides and that included seven made 3s in that stretch. Can you articulate, Joshua, what it's like to be involved for 40 minutes in a high-level game between two national title contenders and for the flurry and fury of those final few minutes, what is it like to actually experience that going back and down, up/down the floor?
JOSHUA JEFFERSON: I think it's an amazing feeling. I think most important thing is staying focused throughout the whole 40 minutes and especially down the stretch, making every single play that you can. And I think when we're able to execute the way we did, it's going to give us a lot of chances to win a lot of those close games.
You know they just hit a tough shot at the end of the game. But I'm proud of my team and how they fought in the last four minutes.
MILAN MOMCILOVIC: I think it was just a real fun game. I mean, it's obviously not the result we wanted and we obviously wanted to be in the championship tomorrow. But, like you said, down the stretch it was bucket after bucket, and I mean the crowd was great tonight. It was really a fun game and obviously not the result we wanted.
Q. Dell'Orso went 4-for-4 from beyond the arc in the second half. Just from your vantage point, what allowed him to have that kind of success? Of course he's a great shooter.
T.J. OTZELBERGER: Well, they're so physical on the interior and their seals and their post-ups. So whether they're get it into the post or they have drive when they're sealing, you know, it causes your help defense to have to rotate.
And then when they're able to skip it on the backside, he was effective. Credit to them for making the passes under duress. And you still gotta step up and make those shots.
And you know that's a competitor and a big moment, stepping up and knocking down shots. Tip of the cap to him.
Q. Coach was complimentary of your guys' effort out in Tucson when you did guys lost, but you had more second-chance points today in the first two and a half three minutes than you did all of the game in Tucson. What was the difference there why were you guys able to convert in the second chances today?
MILAN MOMCILOVIC: I think that was probably one of our worst offensive performances of the year at Tucson. So I think we knew we were going to play better today, and we were going to hit more shots. So I think that was just having confidence in ourselves and our teammates to step up and knock down the shot.
JOSHUA JEFFERSON: I think proper intent and will to just go want it more than the other team, what helped us late in the stretch. I think as long as we keep that, we'll be pretty good going into the tournament.
Q. T.J., I know there's no moral victories in this one, but what can you take away when were you are able to play 18 minutes with a Final Four contender like that down to the wire? And how does that help you moving forward as far as just meeting the challenge like that?
T.J. OTZELBERGER: We have tremendous belief in the guys in our locker room, the work that they do every single day. And so we really respect Arizona and their program, but just like they're a Final Four contender, so are we.
And what our guys took away from tonight is that we have big things ahead of us coming next week, the following week and the week after that. So we're going to get back to work. We're going to lean into our captains, our leaders to continue to drive us, and we're going to be better as we move forward.
Q. Milan, what was it like seeing Killyan produce on offense like it was tonight? And how do you think it benefited your team in a close game like this before March Madness begins?
MILAN MOMCILOVIC: Man, I think it was great to see. Obviously some teams made some choices to obviously sag off him because he hasn't been shooting it as well. Just to see him continue to work, day in day out, on his shot and come into this game, a huge game and knock down, I think he had two 3s, a couple middies, it's great to see.
And we all have the belief in him. He's been playing so well the last couple of games.
Q. Does it feel like you're a better team exiting this tournament than you are coming in?
JOSHUA JEFFERSON: Definitely. I think we're hitting our stride right when we need to. I think we're gelling right with the team, and we're finding our success offensively these last three games. So just going to get back to practicing and lock it in for the tournament.
MILAN MOMCILOVIC: Like he said, I think we're playing our best right now. We're clicking on both sides of the ball. We've got some stuff to clean up. But I think no team really wants to see us in the tournament because we are ready to play and we're a fierce competitor.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports