BOBBY HURLEY: It's a real honor to get an opportunity to play for a championship tomorrow in such a prestigious event. Just proud of my guys. As everyone saw last night, we had a war with Texas. That was a really hard game, physical game and a quick turnaround. I thought Washington State played very well. Give them credit.
The kid Glass had some performance tonight. So to overcome all that is pretty special. These two guys were a big part of it.
Q. Moe, 26 again for you tonight. You're clearly just in a next-level flow. What's your minds right now?
MOE ODUM: Just doing whatever to take the win. If the defense is not letting me pass to my teammates and they're giving me the shots to take, then that's what I'm going to do. I'm not really trying to go out there and score a lot of points, I'm just taking what the defense is giving me.
Q. You were guarding Glass. Coach just talked about what kind of game he had. He put up almost 40 points --
BOBBY HURLEY: Yeah, he had a 40 ball today.
Q. How did you two go about guarding him and limiting his damage I guess would be the way to say it?
MOE ODUM: Respect to him. He came out with a mission. He didn't complete the mission, but he almost. But he balled out. Congrats to him for scoring a lot of points against us.
But we're tougher. That one man is not going to beat us. Good game to him.
Q. Guys, tell me about just where you were going into this tournament and then where you feel you are right now because back-to-back games, 10-point deficits, and it doesn't feel like there's any deficit that can control either of you two.
BRYCE FORD: I feel we knew going into this it was going to be a whole lot of dog fights and that's really what we were looking for, to come here and get better. I feel the two teams we played, those teams really got us better. Now we're looking forward to the championship.
MOE ODUM: Yeah, one thing I ask of my team before every game is to control your energy and effort. If that's at the highest, everything else is just basketball. Everything else is 50/50. But our controllables, our energy and effort, we've got to keep that the highest it can be.
Q. Ranked 16 out of 16 in the Big 12 preseason poll. There's a clear chip on your shoulder. Do you feel like every day you have something to prove?
BRYCE FORD: Yeah, definitely, especially in practice. I feel that's a little bit of disrespect, and I feel that we're just going to prove a lot of people wrong.
MOE ODUM: Yeah, for sure. It's a preseason poll. It is what it is.
Q. Bryce, for you, an Arizona guy, to come back and I don't know what you thought your role was going to be coming in here, but to come in and take center stage and be a mainstay in this lineup and be a heart of this team, how do you feel about the way things have gone since entering the transfer portal and deciding to come here?
BRYCE FORD: It's a blessing. Coming here I knew I could trust Coach Hurley and I knew coming back home I was going to feel more comfortable and be closer to family and overall more comfortable state I feel, but overall it's been a blessing.
Q. If you could, a couple words on those two, especially the last question. Talk to us about getting Bryce to come home and the way he's stepped up on your last game in Tempe; maybe not the last two games that he wanted on the island, and now outstanding tonight.
BOBBY HURLEY: I think you get rewarded for the work you put in, and both of those guys are two of our hardest workers. They're the guys that are staying after practice, getting shots. They're coming back later to work on their game again.
Bryce, he was never handed anything. Coming into it, I wasn't sure what his role was, but he won his role like in practice and workouts. He was a standout all summer and preseason just like Moe. Those two guys were front and center, day in and day out. I don't think Bryce missed a practice or workout. Just you could depend on him so you can count on guys like that.
Q. I thought I was a rules guy, but 8:13 to go, looked like they called an offensive foul, checked for a flagrant, and all of a sudden it was no longer your ball.
BOBBY HURLEY: I think the rule is that if they go and look at the monitor and see if there's a flagrant to be upgraded then everything is on the table, including a foul on us or no foul at all. So that's the rule.
Again, I can't credit -- and then you guys can, you can for everyone, but I can't credit the effort Washington State put forth tonight. Just super impressive. The way they shot the ball, I mean, 14 of 26 from three. You can be locked in a gym by yourself and not shoot like that, so it was really impressive.
Q. When you just talked about Washington State, Pac-12 is no longer -- it's coming back, but it felt like a Pac-12 matchup. You had the crowd and you've got USC, there's that element here. What does it feel like to see those folks across the way from you?
BOBBY HURLEY: We love it. That's why I've gone out of my way in non-conference scheduling to address that. We signed up to play UCLA on the road this year. They'll return the game next year. The same thing with Oregon State. We're going to play a home game versus Oregon State in December and return the game the next year.
We want to maintain those relationships. There's probably a little more juice in there. My assistant coach, Coach Mickey Mitchell, we talked before the game and he reminded me of something I didn't know. We were having a really good year, we were the 3 seed in the Pac-12 tournament, and Washington State had upset the 6 seed, and it was the night before COVID happened. So Mickey's last college game never took place, and it was supposed to be against Washington State.
In a funny way, I'm happy that he could be a part of us getting a victory against that team today because he missed his chance. We would have been in the NCAA Tournament that year.
Q. You obviously being a phenomenal point guard yourself, how great does it feel to coach Moe Odum?
BOBBY HURLEY: I'm in awe of some of the plays he's making. He's playing with so much confidence. The off-balance three in front of our bench, that was like, wow. I know he's got a lot of heart. He's got guts and he's a play maker. Glad he's on my side.
Q. Just talk to Phoenix for a second. You're 3-0 so far on the island. I don't know what your personal record is now, about 14-0, something like that. Just talk to Phoenix about what you've done, to be 3-0 so far on this trip and to be able to have a chance to come home with a trophy?
BOBBY HURLEY: Yeah, all the history of this event, all the great players, great teams, great programs and coaches, to be able to say that we're in a position to play for a championship, it's a great honor. It's the highest honor for this time of year to play in an event like this and have a chance to win it all.
Q. You said -- you just complimented Washington State and said it's really hard to shoot like that. How do you coach against that where they're just making everything? The defense wasn't really playing bad, they just were making every shot. Did you have any doubt that your offense was going to be able to counteract that?
BOBBY HURLEY: Well, I think the problem on our end is how we started the game. There were some blown assignments. We lost shooters, and I always say the basket gets bigger after you make a couple like that.
But yeah, we did a better job I thought in the second half, but they were unconscious today. It was a really great shooting performance.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports