Wichita State head coach Isaac Brown met with local media Monday to preview Tuesday night's rivalry game with Tulsa. Read on for the transcript.
 

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HEAD COACH ISAAC BROWN ON…
 
… Opening statement:
"Tulsa, rivalry game. No matter what our records are, this is always a tough basketball game. They play a lot like Tulane. They play a matchup zone. They 1-2-2 press back to the matchup. Right now, they're 1-7, so they need a win as well. They're coming in playing hard. Jeriah Horne has always been a matchup problem for us. They're playing him at the five-spot a lot when they get in that zone, so you've got to switch one through five, and we've got to do a good job of matching up with him. We've got to be prepared to play."
 
… On Saturday's gut-wrenching loss at Tulane:
"I thought we had the game under control, up nine with about four minutes to go in the game. We missed a couple of wide-open shots. We've got to be able to make wide-open shots to win those types of games. I thought we defended at a high level. At the end of the game, I thought we defended. We put them on the free-throw line a couple times, stopped the clock. We had a couple turnovers down the stretch that ended up costing us."
 
… A season-high 19 turnovers against the Green Wave:
"We keep talking about that. In order to be a good basketball team, we've got to value the basketball and right now we don't value it like the game is on the line. In order to win these games and play a good 40 minutes, you can't turn it over."
 
… An opportunity to get on a roll with three games in the next five days:
"That may help us. I'm glad that we're playing games quicker. We had four games in 34 days, and maybe playing these games back-to-back, because we do have depth, maybe that'll help us a little bit. Tulsa's a good basketball team. SMU, right now, is in second place, so it's a big challenge for us playing those three games."
 
… What's gone wrong down the stretch in close games:
"Last year with games on the line, we were able to make wide-open shots and we didn't turn it over. So we've got to take care of the basketball. We can't become stagnant on offense. They did a good job making adjustments in their matchup zone by bringing another guard up top, and we were unable to get in inside like we should have."
 
… How he handles the outside pressure:
"I don't look at social media like that. I stay offline. When we lose a game, I can't even go watch another game on TV. I go back and watch our game three or four times to try to see where we made mistakes, but I come in every day and just try to get those guys ready for the next game. I still think we've got a good team. We've lost three games in conference by a total of four points. We lost another game in conference when we were shorthanded, so that's four games right there that I felt we could've easily won. We've just got to correct our mistakes. If we were in these games getting blown out, I would think that I need to get on the road and go recruiting and just go out and try to find some better players, but that hasn't crossed my mind. I think we've got a good enough team to win. We just have to correct our mistakes. I'm still excited that I feel like we can win these games. If we cut down on our mistakes, start to make some wide-open shots, play 40 minutes instead of 36 minutes, I feel we can turn it around. The one thing that crosses my mind a lot is we're 1-5 right now, but three years ago we started out 1-6, but we got on a roll, so we've got to try to get on a roll like that and start winning these close games. It's not like it hasn't happened before. Three years ago, those games weren't close. These games have been close games that we end up losing at the end. I still feel comfortable with this team. I still feel like they're going hard every day in practice. I still feel like the coaching staff is working their butts off in order to get these guys better on a day-to-day basis."
 
… How Etienne's positivity outlook and energy affects the team during this tough stretch:
"I think having that positive energy in your locker room helps your team a lot. When the leader of your team can say that and echo it to the other players, I think that gives them the confidence to come to practice and practice hard, practice well and try to learn from our mistakes. We've just got to go out and make some plays and take it one game at a time. The next opponent is Tulsa, and it's a game at home that we've got to go out and win."
 
… How he handles the adversity of losing as a head coach:
"Number one, I go back and watch a lot of film. I want to know if there was something I could've done differently in the games, and I try to correct it in the next game. I ask myself all the time, 'Am I going hard enough in practice or am I going too hard in practice? Am I going so hard that these guys are fatigued in the game? I go back and watch a lot of the practices, but for the most part, I just try to come into film after we lose. I tell the guys all the time, 'It's got to sting. I don't want you guys to ever feel like we are happy with losses. We're never happy with losses, so the film has to sting.' The number one thing I do is go in and talk about it and ask guys questions, 'Why did you do this? Why did you do that? What can you learn from these games? We do a lot of talking alone in the film, and then we go out in practice and we make everything a little bit harder than the game to try to make those guys learn from it, but they always come out with a positive attitude. Even when film is tough, they come out in practice, we do a lot of conditioning for the blown matchups in the game, and those guys are still positive."