NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL FOUR: MIAMI (FL) VS UCONN

March 30, 2023

Jim Larranaga

NRG Stadium

Miami (FL) Hurricanes

Semi-Finals Pregame Media Conference

COACH LARRAÑAGA: How great are those kids? Their personalities, they're just so much fun to be around. They exude confidence in themselves, but they also believe in each other. And just listening to them, they're enjoying this experience, taking it all in, and I'm hoping the emotions of the size of the venue, that they'll be able to channel their emotions in the right direction, because they know this is a challenge to get to the Final Four.

There have been a lot of great players, a lot of great teams that have never reached this point in their playing career or coaching career. So you've got to appreciate every opportunity you get. And we're just looking forward to playing Saturday night.

Q. We've seen a lot of great coaches step aside, retire over the past couple of years. What about this team, what about this sport still brings you joy?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: I might be 73 years old, but I think age is just a number. I just love doing what I'm doing. I love coaching basketball. I've done it for 51 years. And I hope to do it a lot longer. And what makes it so enjoyable are the players.

And I tell the players all the time, the court is my classroom. And you are my student. And I'm going to teach you as much as I can. And learn as much as you can, improve as much as you can because all these guys want to play beyond college.

They all want to be professional basketball players. And the best way to do that, no matter how good you are when you come into a college setting, is get better. Improve. Increase your stock, they say.

But I enjoy the growth. If you look at an Isaiah Wong, see where he was as a freshman, where he is now, you can't imagine it. The guy has gotten so much better in everything.

And Wooga Poplar is on that same track. He didn't do as much as a freshman as he probably hoped for, but we could see his potential, and now he's demonstrating that, and by next year he's going to be a monster.

Q. There are a lot of people that are fed up, what have you, with the profession and things like that and don't feel they are relevant and can stay relevant anymore. What do you think you can, and why aren't you fed up?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: My wife and I have been married for 51 years. I was an assistant coach to Terry Holland at both Davidson and Virginia for 10 years. And my wife and I learned from Terry and Ann Holland that if you can create a family atmosphere and have a great relationship with your players, you can have a great basketball program.

And so when I got the opportunity to coach at Bowling Green and then George Mason and now Miami, my wife and I have just tried to make the players like a part of our family.

My coaches a part of our family. We have enjoyed the relationship we've had with them on the court and off the court. And I haven't changed at all. I still teach the same things, the fundamentals of the game. We still adapt a lot of things. Not changing, just, okay, adapting. We're going to play this ball screen differently or we're going to attack this opponent differently.

And I think the players, when they come in, they think they know everything about basketball, and they quickly find out, oh, wait a minute, I didn't know about that. So they learn. They get better. And as a result, with these guys, they're like a sponge. They want to learn as much as they possibly can. And by doing that, the team has just gotten better and better, from the start of the season, until today.

Q. The team success the last couple of years, and just with what the women have done this year shined a lot on Miami, too. And also just with what NIL has done and just wonder if you can characterize from your point just the importance of having somebody in this era like John Ruiz and what that's been able to do for Miami athletics?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: You look at it a different way than I would look at it. I think the university made a decision over a year ago to provide the resources and support for all of our athletic teams. The president announced in an email that Rudy Fernandez and Joe Echevarria would take on more of a role when it came to athletics.

And that role has turned out to be hugely successful because those guys have provided the resources for me, for Katie, for our football program, and our other athletic teams. I think the transfer portal has had a far greater impact, because I don't think any of us would be here without the transfers. And what those guys are looking for is just a better landing spot.

Some of them had -- like Norchad Omier had a great two years at Arkansas State, and Nijel Pack had great two years at Kansas State. But Nijel was looking to move to the point guard position. He wasn't going to be able to do it at Kansas State. We had Charlie Moore graduating. So he could look at our program and say, oh, I'm a really good fit I'm like Charlie Moore. He is. He can score like Charlie. He runs the team like Charlie. He's a great quarterback. So he's fit that role and made himself very valuable.

Norchad Omier, he went to high school -- he went to Miami Prep. Our whole community is very -- most of them are very Spanish-speaking. Not me. I don't speak Spanish. I'm only Cuban but I don't speak Spanish, but my point is Norchad loved Miami when he was at Prep and it was a natural for him to come back.

But the thing that makes me enjoy it so much is that it's not about whether a kid transferred in or we recruited him out of high school or he got an NIL deal, is my job is to coach them and make him the best basketball team they can be. And these guys have bought into everything that I consider to be the Miami way. This is the way we're going to do things. And it's never been an issue with not a single guy, not with our freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors.

Q. When you first came here I remember you going to dorms with pizzas getting people to pay attention to your program. Not a lot were paying attention, very little. What did it feel like yesterday to be like Moses parting the sea of fans? They had to have security moving people out of the way for you to get onto the bus. Could you talk a little bit about the evolution of the begging people to come and now having people pushing you over to get on the bus?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: I had the great privilege of being at the University of Virginia back in the early '80s with Ralph Sampson and Jeff Lamp and Rick Carlisle, great teams. We had great fan support, that watching Virginia, the way it operated was very much first class. And I thought if I could ever get a head coaching job in the ACC, that's the way I would want to build our program and build up a fan base with the student support, with the community support.

And so when my staff and I got there, my coaching staff and I discussed, what are our steps? I said the first thing is we have to understand -- we have to recruit everybody. Not just recruits, but fans. My first week on the job I went to Sir Pizza. Remember Sir Pizza? And four young men walked in. They were like teenage years, like 12, 13, 14, and I stopped eating my pizza, went over to them and said, Hey, do you guys play basketball? And they all pointed to one young man.

I said, You play basketball?

He said, Yeah.

I said, What's your name?

He said Matthew. He said Matthew Dutch.

Are you David Dutch's son?

He said yes.

I said, Well, you tell your dad to send you to my camp.

A young lady came over to me and said, I have a son. Can he come to your camp?

I said, How old is he?

She said, Five, but he's a great athlete.

And I said, Well, my grandson's coming, and he's five, so they can be kind of friends. So they did.

We tried to build the camp up, and my message was this to my staff and to the community: Look it, we want you to join us. Our players coach the kids at camp. They're going to be friends. Come to our games. Buy season tickets.

I said that every day: Buy season tickets. Buy season tickets, come to our games.

So the players did. And I told them, very, very clearly, if we win, I want you to come down to the locker room and say hello to the guys who coached you this summer, the guys on the team that you're watching on TV. But if we lose, go home. Nobody wants to talk to you after a loss.

And so we kept building. This year alone we invited a Category 5, The Spirit Group. There were 80 members of our law school came to a practice. We had the band come to a practice, just to watch and get to know our guys, and we ate a meal with them afterwards.

Everything is about inclusion. So our job as coaches, I know it's to coach the sport, but it's really to be an ambassador for great universities. Miami's a great university, one of the top 50 schools in the country. The city is paradise. It's 75 degrees every day. I go for a walk and go for a smoothie every day just so I can sit on campus and look at the beautiful venue we live in.

Did I answer your question? I don't even remember what you asked. (Laughter.)

Q. What did it feel like getting on that bus?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: So what has happened through my 12 years is everything has grown in the right direction. We've got greater support for the program. We've got greater fans come to go the program. More people are aware of us. We're in the great ACC. It's a great conference. And so the students really got behind us very early. And that's just grown and grown. And now the community of Coral Gables, we have 5,000 tickets sold to come to Houston.

12 years ago, that wasn't even possible. But now everybody's behind us. We're going to have a great support come Saturday night.

Q. There was a time a year ago where Nijel was coming in and then there was a comment attributed to Isaiah that maybe he was going into the portal. A lot of things were public. And maybe people looked at this and said, boy, this is the new world of college sports, it's going to be a nightmare. Why hasn't it been a nightmare for this team, and was there a point where you were worried just the public nature of all that might affect your locker room?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: Honestly, no. Even when all that stuff was going on with Isaiah, he called me said, Coach, I'm not going anywhere. He told me that. So what the public perception is, is not the reality. The reality is Nijel came on campus, went into the gym. Isaiah was there. They became best friends overnight. They clicked immediately. Why? They love basketball. They're gym rats. They love to compete, and they want to win.

And so for me, my job was easy. I just do what I do. I go into the gym and I coach 'em. And I don't worry about that other stuff. I know the media makes it a bigger thing about that. And I think it's a misperception for our program. I don't know about other programs of how NIL affected them, but there's been not a single day of negativity in our program based on NIL.

Q. Do you feel that you approached the Final Four and the event itself any differently than you did in 2006? Or is that something that stayed consistent even now, 17 years later?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: That's a good question. I would say I'm more patient right now than I was back then. I was probably a better dancer back then.

But here's what I would say: In life, you learn every day. I read a lot. I try to learn and try to pass that along to our players. You know, I'm always preaching the seven habits of highly effective people. We have a philosophy based on attitude, commitment, and class that I'm preaching to the players all the time.

Honestly, I feel like if all I ever did with my life was teach kids how to dribble, pass and shoot, my life would not be very worthwhile. I feel like my job is to mentor them and to help prepare them when they're no longer playing basketball, to learn life skills, to develop their own philosophy, own values of the things that are important to them.

That's what I learned from my high school coach, and he was my inspiration for wanting to get into coaching.

And I have a lot of guys now who have played for me or worked for me that are doing great in coaching as well. So I feel like we're doing a good job.

Q. You went on that run in 2006. Now FAU is sort of going on their own run. How important can FAU's run be for basketball in South Florida, and how much can it do, do you think, for the university?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: We played them last year. Dusty May and his staff have done an incredible job. We were lucky to beat them by two at their place. And they've just grown from there.

As far as I'm concerned, I hope every eight to 18-year-old that's still growing and trying to find a school, I hope they follow FAU and Miami during this Final Four and decide, I'm going to play, basketball is going to be my primary sport.

Because that's really how your sport really evolves. When the Orlando Magic And Miami Heat franchises began, '86 or something like that, basketball all of a sudden became a major sport in the state. We have a lot of young players in Coral Gables and in Miami that are going to be very highly recruited. And there's a lot of great players throughout the state. And this only enhances it; that their run and our run will make kids watching TV will make it like, man, I want to do that.

Q. Off the top, you mentioned telling your players to stay in the moment and enjoy it. How are you staying in the moment and really savoring this trip?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: Well, I'm with you guys. I like talking to the media. I get a chance to tell some stories about the guys I love. These guys are so much fun to be around. Someone said to me, are you tired of this? I said no, what could be better than having a conversation or meeting someone and telling them how much fun you're having? And I hope you guys have fun covering us.

I want our players to enjoy this moment. Because you know what? It will last a lifetime. 17 years ago and you guys are still asking me about our run to the Final Four at George Mason. It never stops. For these guys, they'll be telling stories to their grandchildren: Oh, man, I played in the Final Four. We went to Houston. Yeah. Did you win? That will be what it's like.

And so we're having a blast. I'm staying in the moment and just having fun with it.

Q. You made some comment sometime earlier in the tournament about how you're old, your players are not old; they're experienced. In that end, even though they are maybe upperclassmen, juniors, seniors, you're not getting any closer in age to your players and yet technology is probably making that gap a little bit more full. So how do you still relate to these guys that are 18, 19, 20? Is Wooga showing you TikTok dances? What sort of stuff helps to bridge that gap?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: I just think my relationship with my players has all been based on love. I love the guys I've coached. Someone was talking to a few of my former players back in my George Mason days, Tremaine Price and George Evans, and they were asked the difference. And Tremaine said his dancing has gotten worse. So I just think when you care about people and they know you care about them, you try and help them in every way you can.

You are sharing meals with them. You're traveling on airplanes, on buses. And me, I haven't changed. If anything, I've gotten a little more patient and a little calmer. But other than that, I'm still the same guy I was when I got my first head coaching job at 36.

Q. Do you see parallels between 2006 George Mason and FAU this year? And is there any more of a sense of accomplishment or joy when you take a program like that, a mid-major, to this venue?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: Well, first of all, the tag "mid-major" means nothing to me. Because I think anybody that makes the dance is good. 68 teams, all you've got to do is look at the upsets and say, what, that team was no good but they still won? No, they're good.

But the matchup, how you match up with an opponent, how you can attack their defense and defend their players, is huge. Sometimes you match up very well. And sometimes you don't. FAU's run, yes, is very similar to George Mason's because no one anticipated it. At George Mason, they didn't even think we'd get invited. We were an 11 seed. Everybody thought we'd get crushed by Michigan State in the first round.

In FAU's case, I can't believe anybody thought they couldn't get here. They have over 30 wins. You can't win 30 games in college basketball. The parity in college basketball now is at the highest it's ever been. And that's due to the transfer portal because guys are going from, let's say, a kid is a really good ACC player but he doesn't get the playing time he is looking for. So he transfers to a mid-major. And now all of a sudden he's the key cog in them getting to the next step.

Or, like we see in the ACC, some guy has a great career in the mid-major but now he's got one more year of eligibility and transfers to the ACC, and he fits beautifully into that team and helps them get to the National Championship game like Brady Manek did last year with Carolina.

The game of basketball is about synergy, about guys working together. You've got to develop that chemistry. And it helps if you have it on the court and off the court.

Q. You see that smile up there. How much fun are you having?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: For a basketball coach, the Final Four is the dream, you know? When I was a player, I dreamt about playing in the Final Four. And if we had beaten Villanova at Villanova -- in my senior year, we had a player named Ernie DiGregorio, he missed a free throw when we were up one, and Villanova scored at the buzzer. We went to the NIT and Villanova went to the national championship game.

I look at that today, man, that could have been us. When I got into coaching, it was: I hope that can be us. When I got to Virginia, it was us, twice, '81 and '84.

When I got to George Mason, I was interviewing assistant coaches for a position I had open, and one of the guys who applied for the job said to him, I really want to come here because I know you help your assistants and I really want to get to the ACC or Big East so I can get to the Final Four.

And then I told a friend of mine, well, he's out. He said why? I said because I want him to help George Mason get to the Final Four. Two years later we did.

Q. You were asked earlier about, especially in the ACC, the number of sort of coaches who have moved on in the last two years. You were very vocal last spring about how you felt like the league had been shortchanged a bit. Do you feel more of an obligation now to speak about things like that than you did when there were sort of more of your peers who had that sort of pulpit?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: Actually, I just feel anybody associated with the ACC should be blowing our horn, because I've been disappointed the last two years we've only got five teams in. Because I've had to compete against those coaches and teams and know how good they are.

But I also know the parity in the other teams can advance in the NCAA Tournament and deserve a shot. So my answer to really the question is let's expand the NCAA Tournament to at least 96 teams. Because there's just so many more good teams. He said, no, they're average. No, you get into the Big Dance, you're good.

You can see the different leagues. You look at North Texas and UAB are getting ready to play for the NIT Championship. Isn't that FAU's league? Come on. Their league is good. Our league is good.

I coached at Bowling Green. The Mid-American Conference was very good. So expand the dance and let's have more kids experience the fun of competing in the NCAA Tournament and be part of March Madness.

Q. Obviously you played UConn in that 2006 run at George Mason. Do you remember anything about that game at all, or everything about that game?

COACH LARRAÑAGA: What do you want to know? We were down 12 with 12 seconds to go in the first half.

Folarin Campbell drove to the basket, got fouled by their backup center -- I can't remember his name -- big strong kid. Got fouled. He made the layup. He made the free throw, we're down nine. I went into the locker room and I, quite frankly, just said to the players, we've got these guys right where we want them.

And they were like, what do you mean? I said they think this game is over. They're ahead and there's no stopping them. We've just begun to play. We're going to make a couple of adjustments in our offense and defense, and just go out and execute the game plan. And we did.

Lamar Butler made a three-pointer. Got fouled on it. We cut the lead. We tied the game up. And then it went back and forth. And then we were up two -- 76-74 or 74-72, and they made a fastbreak layup after a missed free throw to tie the game, put it in overtime, and everybody thought George Mason is done for.

But our guys rose to the occasion. Executed beautifully at both ends, and we were able to win in overtime.