NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 28, 1997

Lute Olson

COACH LUTE OLSON: We're just thrilled to be here. It's been an interesting season for us, and an interesting run through the playoffs. I know a lot of people have sort of felt like we don't belong here, but I think our guys do belong here. They've had to come a difficult road with all of the games being close games, but I think it says something for their character, the fact that they could be in games where they're way down and come back and get other games where they were well ahead and lose leads and still are able to survive. So we're very pleased with that. I think as far as our game with North Carolina is concerned, a lot has been said about the point guard matchups because of the two outstanding freshmen, but I really think the key matchup may be with Jamison and Davison in the four spot and with Bramlett and Zwikker inside. Those two, the two from North Carolina playing so well together, making it so difficult with the inside screening game, that we cannot allow them the kinds of shots that they've gotten against most of the other people, an awful lot of layins, an awful lot of putbacks. I know it's easier said than done to get that stopped, but I think that's going to be the key to the game, more so than anything else.

COACH LUTE OLSON: I don't think that would be fair for me to comment on that. I think what Mike would want to talk about on that is up to him. I think that's a very personal thing. All I can say about Mike Bibby is that you're not going to find a finer young man in the world than this kid. To have someone who has been as successful as he has been in basketball. He's the only one playing in the history of the State of Arizona to have been the player of the year three consecutive years. McDonald's All-American, everybody is All-American, and yet from day one I don't think I've ever had anyone more coachable and more willing to do whatever you ask him to do than what Mike is. So he's a phenomenal young man.

COACH LUTE OLSON: No, I'm not surprised. Mike really plays well under pressure. And the thing is if you've noticed his composure on the court. You never see him get very excited about anything, you never see him down about a mistake he may make. He just has great emotional control, and I think that's the reason that he's been so successful. I've seen times during the course of the year where maybe he got a bad call or he got something else happened to him, and I mean you would never know it. His facial expression remains the same. The only time you ever see him break that is if somebody makes a really good play on his team then you'll see him break out in a smile. But otherwise he's not a fist pumper or anything else. But he's a very -- he has a tremendous amount of self-confidence, but yet there's no way in the world you'd say he's cocky.

COACH LUTE OLSON: We're going to play three against two. If Dean let's us go with six guys, that's what we're going to do. We've watched every tape that's available on it, and no one has found the secret to that. We thought as well as Duke knows Carolina that certainly that would be a tape we would want to use. And yet, of course, Duke doesn't have size this year, but Carolina just got basically what they wanted inside against them. And generally speaking, in preparation I'd much rather have the tapes that we have from conference opponents to view because North Carolina State is right there, and Duke is right there, and Clemson, and so we've tried to find what would be the best formula to deal with this, and it just has not -- with their run now, there just hasn't been anyone that's been able to slow that inside game down. Obviously you've got to have strong pressure on the basketball, but Jamison jumps so well and Zwikker is so big, that even with pressure on the ball, it seems like they get touch passes up high beyond the reach of the defense. So we'll -- that's a big job for us. Coach Johnson has spent a lot of time, he works with our big guys this week, and trying to deal with it. And where we have a couple, three different plans with that, and we're just going to have to, hey, if this one that we think will do the best job, if that works, fine. If it doesn't, then we have to go to plan B and plan C. But that's -- they are, right now, I've never seen a team execute better in the half court than what they are right now. The pass is right there, it's on the money. The timing -- well, you don't have to say anything about Coach Smith and his staff, but I'm not sure -- we played Carolina before in the NCAA, and as good as they were at that time, this team right now is just -- I mean, it's like a machine.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Through the years there was a time period in there where we had a lot of really good big guys. And we tried to take advantage of the abilities that we had inside. Then with the '94 Final Four team we had Stoudamire and Reeves, and we had a lot of experience up front, that we knew we were going to have to pattern what we did -- we were going to have to put the weight on the shoulders of those two guards. This team, it's not -- it's very perimeter oriented, more so early than it is now, because Bennett Davison and of course first year in Division I and Bramlett and Harris played limited amounts last year as freshmen, now they're sophomores, and Gene Edgerson is. And we had to rely on what we had. And what we had was great quickness and ability to score from the perimeter. But we have had some very solid games now over the last month or month and a half from our inside guys. So we're better balanced right now and I think our perimeter people are doing a good job of recognizing that and getting the ball to the inside people when they're there and available.

COACH LUTE OLSON: No, we haven't even had the kids look at that tape or anything about that tape because these are two so totally different teams right now than what they were earlier. Going into that game Dean had a lot of inexperience, we had a lot of inexperience and I'm not sure either one of us knew what to expect in that first game. But it seems like light years away now, that that game was played. We were without Miles. Our inside people at that point, you know, were just so young that we had to rely on perimeter in that game and Michael Dickerson and Mike Bibby just shot the lights out from outside. And that's the only reason. It wasn't a case of our outplaying North Carolina as much as it was outshooting them.

COACH LUTE OLSON: When you take a look at the innovations that Coach Smith has originated I think that's unbelievable. Maybe the shot clock is as a result of Coach Smith and his four corners offense. I think that was the driving force behind that. You look at teams huddling at the free throw line, I think that started with Coach Smith. Multiple defenses, at least to my knowledge of this whole thing, Carolina was the first team that I could remember that all of a sudden they're in the zone and then they're in the man and then they're in full court pressure. And when he's referred to as the Michaelangelo of coaching, I really think that's a very appropriate term, because there's just so many things that started with him. And the great thing about it is the humility of the man. I can remember when I was a high school coach attending a clinic and had a chance to say hello afterwards, it was like with Coach Smith, I think he's friendly and open to everybody, whether you're somebody or whether you're no one. And I think that's a real true measure of the man, is the greatness and yet the humility that he shows.