Head Coach Cuonzo Martin

What got into Tyrone Wallace in that second half?
I just think he was playing aggressive and his shots were falling, free throws weer falling. That's Tyrone, he plays aggressive, he plays very assertive. He did some insane things last year when we came up short. But he makes plays off the dribble, puts pressure on the defense, and again, when he's making his free throws and his 3-ball, he's a tough guy to defend.

You said he made eye contact with Wallace early in the second half, what did you say, “Keep playing?”
I just told him it's time to go because he was sitting by. He was looking at me for a play and I told him “You don't need a play, you've been doing this a long time.” It's a matter of him making plays abd putting pressure on the defense. It was more or less putting pressue on the defense every possession down because if you allow those guys to set up their defense, they're a pretty good team. We want to keep the ball moving and make those guys play in space.

What was your message to the team after a quick timeout in the second half?
Just settle down. You're coming off a tough loss on Thursday, and I thought our guys were mentally drained. Even at the start of the game I thought they were mentally drained. But, you don't want to talk about that as a coach, you want to say it. You've got to try and fight through it and we were able to.

Did you think the energy was down?
Yes, I did. Again, rightfully so. More mental than physical. And once we settled down we understood what we had to do to win the game. Guys made plays.

Do you think he ended the game helped Brown get back on track?
I think so. Jaylen's a good ball player, what happens is that when you're the leading scorer on the team, people target you a different way and it's never easy. Arizona State, they've lost some tough games and they're a physical team. They have very physical guys, they're long and they're athletic and they've got most guys a bit like him on the premise so you just can't make plays and do what you want to do. But it's part of-it's not anything easy at the level that he's at right now.

What was Eric Jacobsen able to do tonight?
I just thought he outplayed our big guys. I shouldn't say outplayed, he's the same. He made good plays, he does a great job positioning at low court, he gets angles on it and it's just so hard because he's almost 7 feet tall. But once you get an angle it's hard to guard that.

How much does it help getting a first round bye in the Pac-12 tournament?
I think it helps from a standpoint of fresh legs on the team. It's just a matter of what we do and how we do it at the level we are capable of doing it as a team. 90% of what we do from the last month or so is really about us.

Do you remember when you had that exchange with Tyrone?
It might have been 8:10 and I just told him it's time to go. I think what he was doing was waiting to run a play and get a position instead of just trying to pressure the defense.

When he's going like that how much does it affect the rest of the team?
He's going but he's making shots, he's making plays. It's not necessarily Tyrone getting shots even though he had 24 points but what he was doing a good job of was finding the next guy, making the next play. He did a good job of getting other guys involved.