NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 28, 1997

Ron Mercer

Jared Prickett

RON MERCER: This is a great experience, just to get in and get the feel of the game. A lot of people can say that you go out and play like a normal game. But you really don't have that feeling, not just a normal game. It's more than a normal game. Because if you lose you're out. So the intensity is a lot higher than it would normally be for a regular season game. And everybody just goes out and plays hard. I think that's the experience I got for last year.

RON MERCER: Since I made my announcement? I think the thing that it has made me do is go out and relax a lot more. I'm more focused now. I don't really have to answer all the questions of whether I'm leaving or not. So I'm a lot more focused. And I think that tends to make me relax and I can go out and play like I know I can play and not worry about anything.

JARED PRICKETT: I think it's going to be a combination of things it's going to take to beat Minnesota, to tell you the truth. I don't think it will just be the pressure defense on the press, I think it's going to have to be a half court defense, three quarter court defense plus the press, plus we're going to have to execute well on offense.

JARED PRICKETT: You know, they really mixup their defenses quite a bit. And they've got great half court pressure defense, similar to ours. And they're a real physical team. So we just need to come out and execute our offense well, and try to break their defense.

RON MERCER: The thing I look at the most, it makes me appreciate what we're going through right now, even though I've been through it last year. I know that the NBA is not going to be anything compared to this. It's going to be more of a business thing, and I do realize that, so I want to take as much as I can from the college level and enjoy the moments I have right now. But I do want to win another National Championship. It's hard to win a championship in the NBA, and it's going to be very tough. But I just want to sit back and enjoy what I'm doing now.

JARED PRICKETT: I can see a lot of similarities in the guard play of Minnesota players and South Carolina players. They have great shooters, both teams have great shooters. They break the pressure well. They all can handle the ball, from the one, two and three spot. And we're just going to have to really step up and come together as a team if we're going to stop those guys.

RON MERCER: Minnesota does have good guards and you can't compare them to the guards we played that we lost. I think the games that we lost we didn't do the little things, and that makes the difference, even though they had good guards. It's the a matter of doing the little things in the end.

RON MERCER: I think probably the second or third time out. Once I got in I was a little nervous, I missed my first couple of shots. Then after that I settled down, after I got a sweat going, things started going well for me. Then I relaxed and felt like just kind of go with the rhythm.

JARED PRICKETT: I don't believe we're as big as the Minnesota team inside, but physically I think we work pretty hard physically down low. We try to execute well down there, doubleteaming on the big men. And we just look for a lot of help as a team. We don't really put it on one individual presence.

JARED PRICKETT: I don't think so, not really. I think there's quite a few guys on the team that have tatoos on our team. I'm not one, but there's a few guys. And I think they have the same discipline as anyone else on the team. That's the freedom of speech, I guess, whatever they want to do with themselves, free as an individual, and I think a lot of guys on the team that have tatoos are mature and handle the pressure well.

RON MERCER: The way I look at it, I can't see where he can make a comment like that. The times have changed since he's been in college. But I wouldn't say a person is less disciplined by certain things they do or what they have on their bodies. It's their choice. And it is -- you can go out and do whatever, as long as you get it done on the court and as long as you present yourself well.

JARED PRICKETT: There's all kinds of ways to stop him. But I don't think I'm going to let you guys know about it right now. I can tell you in a few days. But only it's really tough to stop Ron. It's tough to stop him in practice. And he just creates fits for the other teams. I don't know, maybe Clem Haskins can figure out a strategy to stop him.

RON MERCER: I'm going to go out and play hard. I don't see it as a one-on-one thing. I have to go out and play defense, like I know how to play defense, and not worry about a certain individual. We have to go out and help each other.

RON MERCER: That changed from a defensive standpoint? It's been tough, because we've been forced to have different lineups and certain people, we might have had a couple of weaknesses, but then again it made the team stronger. It made certain individuals step up and play a lot better, including myself, from a defensive standpoint. So as far as the changes it's been great. We just kind of learn from each other, help each other out and that's where we are today.

RON MERCER: I don't know if I would say if it's tougher. It's just a matter of going out and executing your plays and going out and doing the right things on the court. As far as the experience, I mean, you can go out and say this team has more experience, but then, again, you play on the basketball court. So we'll just see what happens on the court.

RON MERCER: I think we're okay right now. But we still have a lot more work to do, even though we play them tomorrow. We still are going to start preparing for them, keep preparing for them up until we start the game. You can never have too much information on a team. So we're just going to keep gathering information as much as we can until we tip it off.

JARED PRICKETT: I think -- I don't know if necessarily the first couple of minutes are important, but you've got to go out and play a full 40-minute basketball game if you're going to win this time in the season. And I think our team's ready to do that.

RON MERCER: I didn't bring it with me. But hopefully I plan to leave with one. I didn't bring it along. I felt that we were on a mission, we wanted to come up here, we wanted to win and hopefully we would go back with one.

RON MERCER: You can compare them a little bit as far as the guards, the top three guards, you can compare them to South Carolina a little bit, but they have better defensive standpoint than South Carolina a little bit. That's the team I can think of right now you can compare them to with the guards they have.

RON MERCER: Yeah, twice they did.

RON MERCER: The games we had with them were different. Even though they beat us twice, we didn't do the little things we needed to do. And they flatout beat us. And there's no excuses for that. But Minnesota is a different team, even though they have similar guards. But it's played different. You can look at South Carolina now and they're not in the tournament they lost the first round. And so we're in the Final Four. Games are played differently.

RON MERCER: This team right now close to last year's team? I wouldn't say so far as far as the talent wise, no way, not even close, because we lost four NBA draft picks. And not a lot of people expected us to be in this situation now, having lost those guys. We're not as talented or as deep as last year. But we do have guys that are willing to sacrifice and go out and play hard, and that's why we're here now.