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NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOURApril 1, 2019Tom IzzoMinneapolis, Minnesota THE MODERATOR: Hi, Coach. This is David Worlock with the NCAA. Congratulations on winning and advancing to the Final Four. Q. Hi, Tom. You've talked so much in the last couple years about the "get old, stay old," kind of a Jay Wright mantra of having success in the tournament. I'm wondering how much yesterday's result and you look at the teams in the Final Four, along with you, I think Aaron Henry is the only freshman starting, how much has that been reinforced to you over the last couple of days? TOM IZZO: It's a funny problem. Everybody would like to have what Duke and Kentucky have as far as personnel. Both of them have had incredible years, but experience does matter too, you know. Somewhere there's probably a happy medium. If you don't have the best talent, you'd better be very old and very experienced, and if you do have it, I think it helps to have some blend in there because I say a lot of times that games in the tournament are won in the hotels and the walk-throughs, on the airplanes, in the locker rooms, and if you don't have anybody in there that kind of tells you what's going on or what you're going to go through or how it is. I felt for Duke and the respect for those four great freshmen, but we played one or two that game, and both of ours were kind of in the fog. I can imagine what that's like. That's all. Q. Good afternoon, Coach. You handed Tony Bennett a couple of his early NCAA Tournament losses at Virginia. I was just curious your reaction to him getting back and him reaching the Final Four. TOM IZZO: I don't know if you cheer for people. I guess you do in certain ways. But Tony's been one I cheer for. I seem to have known him since he was a little kid. I used to work his dad's camps. Watching his career, playing against him when he was at Michigan State and he was at Green Bay, and then, of course, he was, I think, a GA when we won against Wisconsin. I have the utmost respect for his dad, and I've always had tremendous respect for Tony. I got to admit, my respect for Tony, if it's possible to upgrade, was upgraded last year with the way he handled that loss in the Sweet 16. I'm not sure there was anybody that's ever done a better job of handling something. And in his own way, using that as a motivator to not feel sorry for ourselves. It's part of who we are, and let's move forward. I am very excited that Tony made it. Watching his dad in the stands when I know him so well was not only fun, but it was a little exhausting because his dad takes those games, I think, harder than Tony and I. Q. Coach, the previous Final Fours that you've been to featured the likes of Duke and North Carolina, Kentucky. How is the Final Four different? Maybe you don't have as many of the so-called blue blood programs, and you guys are, in fact, the marquis, the blue blood program yourself. TOM IZZO: That feels good, I guess, if maybe we could be considered in that a little bit. Like everywhere else, Villanova wasn't considered one. Florida wasn't considered one. Both of them won one back to back, won one two out of three. We won one, and we're back in Minnesota that next year with a pretty good team and didn't win one. I don't think it -- yeah, you get used to the Dukes and Kentuckys and Carolinas, and Kansases, but this day and age, it's about who's playing the best and who matches up the best. Matchups are very important this time of year. Some teams just don't match up well and others do. It's not going to change anything at the Final Four. When you have a player like Zion Williamson, and everybody knows is maybe a once-in-a-generation player, sure, that probably changes a little bit of it as far as the way people look at it. But the Final Four is bigger than a player, it's bigger than the coach, and it's bigger than a program. With that being said, I think Minneapolis is going to be a great place. The facility is awesome. I've been by it, and really looking forward to coming up there. Q. Tom, not to compare or trying to compare teams, because I know it's difficult, but having not been to the Final Four in about four years, at this point in your career, do you start to kind of try to appreciate them a little bit more and just the difficulty in how hard it is to get to this point? TOM IZZO: Well, I think, when you did go with a couple of pretty good teams and didn't even get a sniff at a Final Four, I think it -- I don't think it humbled us because I don't think I've ever taken that for granted, but I think it teaches you that it's not just about being really good. We were really good in, I don't know, '13 or '14 with that team and didn't make it. We were really good in '16 and didn't make it. We were really good in '18 and didn't make it. So I kind of have that feeling, and yet when you go a four-year stretch, you thought you would in '16. You thought you might in '18, and you didn't even get close. I think it makes you appreciate where we are now even more, and I think every program would do that. Whoever thought Duke and Kentucky wouldn't be back there for years either, and it's just the nature of the beast nowadays, and it's the way it is and the parity and the transfers and the guys going pro and all the different reasons. You got to be good, and you got to be lucky. With that being said, I know one thing, I look at it now like who knows if you'll ever get back? I thought that early on, and then we went to three in a row, and I probably got a little spoiled myself. Right now I'm going to enjoy every bit of it, but I'm going to try to find a way to do things a little differently because we have been to seven others and only one won. That means that maybe we're not doing everything right when we get there. We're trying to look into that seriously and yet still enjoy the process. Q. Tom, I was wondering -- kind of a two-parter. We haven't had one in a while. First of all, this is a Final Four that doesn't have a lot of Final Four experience, outside of you as a head coach and the program. I was wondering how much that plays a factor in this. And also with Kenny in particular, I think he's the only player who has -- has been to a Final Four, obviously didn't play. For him, how much was that experience helpful to pass along to guys? TOM IZZO: That's a good question. As I told a couple of coaches, I did talk to Chris Beard earlier today, and first thing I said was get your tickets done today. Get your hotels done today. I think the first year I was still doing them at tip-off. That was not very healthy. Experience helps some, but I think the excitement of it, everybody handles it differently. I have experience, but I don't get to play the game. As you just said, there's almost no players on any of these teams that has actually played in a Final Four. I hope the experience helps me on the auxiliary things, and yet once the ball is thrown up, I don't think it helps you as much as I'd like to think it would. If the players played in it now, I think that helps even a lot more. Q. And that experience for Kenny, just being there and absorbing it, how much can he pass along to those guys? TOM IZZO: I bet he passed a lot, a lot on the airplane last night and in the room. I bet you today he'll be able to talk about how exciting it is and everything and all those good things. Maybe help with the distractions of the Final Four and all that you have to go through. Maybe that can help in that area. I think I'll get together with Kenny a little today and we'll brainstorm. But as you said, a lot of teams haven't been there, and now with the new one-and-done being more prevalent, even the real good teams that are there on a more regular basis might not be there with players that have been in the Final Four two years earlier. Q. Hi, Coach. I know you covered a lot of this, but with the seven prior trips, is there anything else besides the auxiliary things that you take from those as you go into trip number eight? I know you talked about changing things. I'm not sure you're ready to disclose what you would change yet, but just curious about any of the other factors that go into it that you've learned from your first seven trips in the Final Fours? TOM IZZO: I'll disclose this one thing. I'm going to try to win this time. I don't know if I've done a good job of that. You know, the experience helps because you do know what today is. Today is a day that we're going to practice a little bit and go through some things, but we're also going to have a big meeting on hotels and tickets and all the things for families because I think that experience does help, and I think that is pressure that builds on these kids as the week goes on. So that part will help. I think I'll be able to tell them about the media blitz and all the things that go on when you get there, and that will help. But I'm looking at sometimes, even as a coach, you're just happy to be there, and sometimes I'm trying to look at what can I do better than I did? We had a late, late night meeting with my staff, and we'll have another one in a little while because I told them, because a couple of them have been with me more than a couple of those Final Fours, let's look at what we did. Let's look at some other programs. I might talk to guys like Jay Wright who have done it and guys like that and figure out different approaches. Did you grind it? Did you let them just go loose? Everybody sometimes guys get too tight in the Final Four. Sometimes there's so many distractions they get distracted in a Final Four. So it's just trying to find it. And at the end of the day, it all sounds like good coach speak, and the game is won if the ball goes in the hole or if it doesn't go in the hole. It usually makes a big difference. Q. Hi, Coach. Congratulations on making it to another Final Four. Each Final Four in your career -- two-part question here -- how have you been able to enable success in your players over the years? And second to that is how does this team differ from teams that have reached the Final Four in the past? TOM IZZO: Well, two good questions. I know I think we've been able to do it because really of the base that was set by so many of the players before. Magic is still talking to our team before the game, and he's around a lot. And all those guys from the 2000, 2010s and '15s have all made a big part of why I think we've been able to do it. They all talk about the dream, the goal, how good it was. And I think it motivates players, and that's, I guess, what I'm luckiest about here. So we found a way to keep it going with good players, a very consistent staff, and a bunch of alums that live, eat, and sleep it for us, and for that I'm thankful. How this team differs from my past ones, you know, people talk about the toughness of this team, and I think we're tougher than we think we are, but I don't know if we're physically like some of the teams I've had. But I think mentally this team has been through a lot and had to adjust to all these different injuries and things. I think they've done an incredible job, and it's made them mentally tough where they have confidence in themselves, they have confidence in each other. I think a lot of teams were close. I use the word "connected." This team seems to be even more connected. I know this: All of them have been extremely enjoyable. Q. Tom, my question was actually about the mental toughness we were just talking about. I wanted to see if that's something inherent with your guys or something that develops over time with some of the adversity you've been through. TOM IZZO: I think it develops. I didn't notice at the beginning of the year -- Cassius is always Cassius, but I think a lot of guys, when McQuaid went out early, we forget about that. We lose to Louisville without him. And then Josh has been such a good leader, and when he's out and he's just always been the type of guy who leads. So that has been very, very helpful to all of us. Of course, when Nick went out, we had a big meeting on that, just because we know what Nick had been doing, and then, and then Kyle. It's just been different. I think the mental toughness has been because we had to adjust to survive. I think it brought our staff and them closer because we changed how we did some things, whether it be ball screens or anything else, and I think, because of that, they relied on each other. They relied on the staff, and we relied on different players than we thought would play. It's been an interesting, unique, but very exhilarating way to do things the last two months. Q. Tom, what has been your impression of Minneapolis over the years? I know last night you said you're a cold weather guy. It's supposed to be in the 60s here for the weekend. And also, just the 2001 Final Four, what stands out as memory-wise from that trip? TOM IZZO: I love Minneapolis, and I have some friends up there. Flip Saunders is a great friend of mine and really proud of what Ryan has done with the Timberwolves and how he's forging forward. So I think of Flip and his family, he was kind enough to make me an assistant on the Goodwill Games many years ago, and I've always had -- when we go up there to play Minnesota, there's -- I think it's a great city. I enjoy that. And the new football facility is off the charts. I think that's going to be fun to play in, having played in some unique places like an aircraft or like the 50-yard line when it wasn't cool in Ford Field. I think this is going to be a tremendous setting right downtown, and I'm really looking forward to it. And the weather's 60. That's good too. Back then in '01, it was snowing a little bit, and we were staying out by the airport. The rules were different. The NCAA has done a great job of getting us all downtown. I think that is one of the neater things that has happened. You're working a lot of hours during the Final Four, but if your players can get a little bit of the feel, we were 20, 25 minutes from downtown in 2001. I think this has made a huge difference and will make a huge difference in a place like Minneapolis. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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