March 15, 2010

Opening Statement...
Head Coach Brian Smith
"Well tomorrow we leave for Omaha, and we are bringing six great individuals. I think they realize that at this point in the season it just matters what you have done successfully all through the year. You don't work and look at the negatives, you look at the positives, and these guys had a lot of positives this season. They are going to find the way they wrestle the best, go out there and wrestle just like any other tournament. They have probably wrestled hundreds of tournaments in their lives, from pee-wee all the way until these years in college. You have to focus on the fact that it's just another tournament, but it's hard when there are 18,000 people. You have to go out there and do what you do best, and those are the people that are successful at tournaments."

On the seniors' last tournament...
Head Coach Brian Smith:
"I don't think of this as their last NCAA tournament, it is just another tournament. We have to go out there focused on the first guy we have to wrestle and you go wrestle him. If you focus on the fact that it's your last you get all emotional about it, thinking about expectations coupled with anxiety. So you just want to say, `Hey, I have this guy in this round, and I will do X, Y, and Z because it's what I do best."

Nick Marable:
"The way I am going to approach it is just going out there and wrestling. I do look at it as my last NCAA tournament, but I am not looking at it to get me emotional. I am looking at it as a motivation to win it. This is my last chance to win it, so I am going to go out there and do everything I can to win it. I am pretty confident I will, so then I will worry about it being my last tournament...after I win."

Max Askren:
"I haven't really thought about how I am going to look at it. I just plan on going in and wrestling, it's always a fun environment to go out and compete in front of different people, family, and friends. It should be a great time to compete with my other teammates, and it will be fun to out there together and know that we have made it through these four/five years. Not just made it, but done well."

On momentum from Big 12's...
Nick Marable:
"My momentum from Big 12's rests in the confidence booster it gave from my training. I changed my training a little bit up in the last five to six weeks, and the Big 12 Championship proved my training helped. I feel that I can go out there and beat everybody with the way I have been training."

On being heavyweight defending National Champion...
"It's obviously a pretty big competition, they are tough and there are a lot of tough guys. I am confident in what I am going to do and I'm excited. It is the same that I have always seen, so I will just go out and wrestle. That experience was then, this is now. It's different, and I am going to win a title."

On being seeded No. 6...
Max Askren:
"I think it's my time, and now is the time to prove it. Being seeded 6th doesn't put much pressure on me to go out and perform, but I expect it out of myself to go out and show everything I didn't during the season."

On outcome of the season in comparison to goals and expectations...
Head Coach Brian Smith:
"In the beginning of the season I said we were going to be a better NCAA team than in the season, and by Sunday I can tell you how that unfolds. With the group we have here we can finish very high in the country. If things go right, and we wrestle up to our capability then we are going to have a great NCAA. As a dual meet team, we did not have a great season. We finished 7-7, which isn't what we wanted, but I think we are headed in the right direction with these guys. With the seniors that are leaving and the guys replacing them, we are still in good shape."

On redshirt freshman Brent Haynes' First NCAA appearance...
Brent Haynes:
"I just approach it like any other tournament, whether it be international tournaments in high school, or all the kids I grew up wrestling, I don't think it's going to be any different. It's just a different place, a different arena."

On Todd Schavrien's first round match vs. No. 1 seed, Kyle Dake...
Todd Schavrien:
"No matter who I'm wrestling the first round I am going to wrestle hard. It doesn't matter who I have, it doesn't make sense to wrestle one match hard and not another. If I want to be a National Champion, I have to beat the 1st seed sometime, so it doesn't really matter. I have a history with wrestling number one seeds, but it's going to be different this year."