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UTA (5-3) 72 at Texas (3-2) 61
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Frank Erwin Center • Austin, Texas

Postgame Quotes

UTA Head Coach Scott Cross

Opening statement …
"Very, very proud of our guys. We finally put it all together for two halves. We've been through a lot of adversity early on in the season when we weren't playing the way we were capable of. Our guys figured it out that we have to play together and that we have to be great on the boards. We have to take good shots. We have to have player and ball movement. They did those things tonight. I am blessed to have the opportunity to coach this group of guys. These two guys (Drew Charles and Kevin Hervey) are unbelievable players who have 100-percent bought in to doing everything we have asked. This will definitely go down as one of the biggest wins in the history of our basketball program."

On confidence facing UT after taking them to overtime last season …
"Yes sir. Last year was a tough one. We played, we were on a roll at the time. It didn't go our way for one reason or another. There were lessons to be learned from that game. Our guys did have confidence in this game. They felt pretty good about it. We hadn't been rebounding the ball well. We hadn't been playing defense the way we were capable. We knew it was a matter of time before we figured it all out. This guy right here, Kevin Hervey, he's still coming back off ACL (surgery). We saw glimpses tonight of what he is capable of doing. He's going to continue to get better and better. This is probably one of his best all-around games. His previous best was the game before this one. He's just getting better and better. He's starting to get confidence that his knee is going to hold up when he crashes the boards and rebounds. When we posted him in the short corner, you could see his confidence. He hit a couple of those shots down the stretch that were huge for us."

On where this win ranks on his list of the biggest in his career, UTA history …
"This is definitely No. 1 on my list. Last year, Ohio State and Memphis were No. 1 and No. 2. Just the success that Texas has had. They are the premier program in the state of Texas and to have the opportunity to come in here and finally overcome it and come away with a win, it is definitely No. 1 on my list."

On Texas …
"I just think they are a young basketball team. They are going to get better. All of Coach Smart's teams get better as the season progresses. They are going to be really good by the time they get in conference. This is a little bit of adversity for them. Coach Smart is one of the best at rallying teams together and getting them on the same page. It is unfortunate for them that they played a veteran basketball team that was not yet clicking and finally all of a sudden things clicked for us. They are going to be a lot better as the season progresses and once they find their identity and get in a rhythm, they will give people some problems."

On facing Shaka Smart's up-tempo style of play …
"I've always been a fan of his and the style of play that he plays. Watching them on tape, their press did make me a little bit nervous. One thing we do have is we are a good passing team. Sometimes our decisions aren't always the best. That is one thing that makes Kevin Hervey so special. He's 6-foot-9 and has a 7-foot-3 wingspan and his vision and passing ability is as good as it comes. Erick Neal is a tremendous passer. Drew (Charles) can pass. Jorge (Bilbao) can pass. All of our guys are very capable passers. We've been pressed more this year than any season I've been around. The two previous teams pressed us their entire game. Their press did make me nervous because of their size and their length. Jared Allen on the ball gives you problems. As they go along they are going to get better at it and it will probably cause some teams trouble."

On an approach of shooting 3-pointers and rebounding …
"Our guys just have to believe in each other. They can't force shots. We have to move the ball. Sometimes when that ball sticks and you see one guy bouncing the ball a lot, that is not what we want. A big key for us is just getting ball movement and player movement. I like to shoot threes. That helps us with our offensive rebounding. That may have been one of the problems, a lack of offensive rebounding in previous games. We had guys cutting in to the basket instead of staying out and being open passers for the guy with the ball. That was kind of our combination last year, why we were so effective at being an offensive rebounding team. When you shoot a three, it's a long rebound. We don't have the biggest team but we have guys that will fly in there and when you get a running head start, you have a chance to get offensive rebounds. I love shooting threes I just want them to be open threes. We don't want to shoot threes with a hand in the face. If we shoot those shots and don't get offensive rebounds, it will lead to easy buckets for the opposing team."

On defending UT's outside attempts …
"We wanted to defend inside-to-outside. Anytime we play Texas they are going to have great play in the post and a size advantage. You have to protect the paint. If they are shooting layups and their power bigs are turning around and making layups you have no chance. Even if they were hitting shots, we'd still have to defend inside-out. Luckily that was one of our Achilles heels last year, was not defending the three. For some reason we've been great at it this year. It carried over tonight. That is a big key with winning basketball is you have to be able to defend the three-point line. Kids are getting so good at shooting from the outside. That is three points. And it helps with offensive rebounding so you have to do a great job defending the three."

On if his team is an NCAA Tournament team …
"With us, we just can't even think about that. If you start thinking about the NCAA Tournament, you are going to lose your next game. We try and nail our focus to just winning a possession at a time. When our guys do that and stop scoreboard watching, that is when we play good basketball. That has been a little bit of our problem. We had been looking and reading the press clippings and teams have been saying we are an NCAA Tournament team and you lose focus on what really matters. We have to really, really simplify it for our guys and talk about winning each possession."

UTA Student-Athletes

#25, F, Kevin Hervey

On returning to more of his 2015-16, pre-injury form …
"When I first came back, I was trying to force the issue because of the accomplishments that I had last year. After talking to coach, let the game flow through me and flow through my teammates. I look to play through my teammates. Whenever I make the game easy for my teammates the comes to me. Now, in every game from here on out, and in practice, I look to play through my teammates."

On overcoming adversity from injury …
"Any injury a person has, there is going to be some mental doubt. That is part of the process which is overcoming the mental adversity. It hits you hard, especially going through it twice. As the days go by and the workouts come, I'm getting better."

On having so many vocal fans in the crowd …
"It was great to have the fans there rooting for us. It felt like a home game. The shots that we were taking early on in the game, they were good shots but as the half went on we came together even more and we realized that we needed to take great shots instead of good shots. That opened up rebounding a lot for us and helped us get back and play good defense."

On Texas playing lots of young players …
"They are a young, talented bunch. We were young last year but this year we are able to withstand runs and come together. We know how to survive that better this year."

#4, G, Drew Charles

On winning a game he was looking forward to playing …
"Well to say the least, I'm ecstatic right now. It's a game that I've been waiting three years to win. We were 0-11 coming into this game but now we are 1-11. This is just going to make the road trip back even better. It's just going to be a great ride back home."

On nailing a couple of key 3-point attempts …
"To be honest with you it's the confidence that my teammates have in me. Coach (Greg) Young said when I was leaving the huddle to stick shots. I know he has confidence in me to make shots. If you get good open shots, then they go easy."

On facing an athletic Texas club …
"They are a very athletic team. But coach prepared us for this. We played Arkansas. We played Minnesota. Their length was always a problem but we were used to it because of the teams we played recently."