NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 28, 1997

Dean Smith

COACH DEAN SMITH: We're delighted to be here. I haven't said that before. (Laughter.) We have had a couple of media moments since arriving, but Indianapolis is a great city and appreciates their basketball. I'm surprised we're here in many ways, but perhaps all four teams are. All four teams have won four big games in order to be here. And I don't care what they say, but you have to continue to win, and we're delighted.

COACH DEAN SMITH: They're very quick, they're 6-11, and of course Harris comes in and he's 6-11. You watch Davison and Jamison being introduced. They're really the same size and both are quick athletes. The difference with when Zwikker is introduced he'll be two and a half inches taller than Bramlett. And but Bramlett will get out to the introduction a little faster. But still we're happy with Serge's progress, and he has a force with which to be dealt, in that, you know, as we've said before, the rebound comes off to him he's likely to get it. And they may get it if it goes over there three or four feet. I think quickness is a part of the basketball, obviously, and a very important part. And they're a very quick team. Now, again, I've been -- I was raving about them back in November when they had his 17 points in 8 minutes to play, and that's without Miles Simon. And you can say that Miles is perhaps their best player and surely was what I've seen in the tournament. But what's nice about them, and that's why they're here, in all positions, Bibby had a great game against us. And really continues his fine play throughout the year. I assume he was PAC-10 freshman of the year, or rookie of the year. And they lost two games at Berkeley, at Stanford, the last week of the season. I've seen both of them on tape and they play well enough to beat almost anybody those two losses, because Cal and Stanford were Sweet 16 teams playing at home and playing better than they played in the tournament. So we have to play our best to be in this game, and if we do, we have a chance to win.

COACH DEAN SMITH: Again, I know we're here to talk about the Arizona, and some day I may answer those things, because when you do something you think is right, you don't worry about it or you don't want, quote, credit for it, nor should you get, quote, credit for doing something that's right. And to be remembered that I coached basketball and I cared about the kids and they graduated and they still like me when they're 50, Cunningham is getting up there, though. Larry Brown is here, he's my assistant, my captain, and he's going to be a father again and I told him, I think there's 57 years between -- the baby will be born next month, but he'll stay in shape, so he'll be a great father.

DEAN SMITH: First of all, Shammond is an interesting story no Division I school recruited, they weren't in their home, that's unusual for any Final Four team. And we'd like to have a little better depth. Shammond was one of those coming out of high school that Citadel had asked him to walk on. He was a very good student out of Greenville, South Carolina. I'd never heard of him. And only a friend in Charlotte said they had a kid down in the Charlotte summer leagues that was going to Fork Union that looked pretty good. We just had the McInnis, Stackhouse, Wallace recruiting class that would be seniors now, and we really were looking for a back up point guard, and maybe a small forward. In fact Miles Simon was one that we would have definitely taken and wanted to take and recruit so hard and we heard he was a Carolina fan. But Miles, I wrote him that we had Calabria as a sophomore and Dante Williams was a junior, and we thought Miles' best position was a big guard. I spent my time recruiting Wojciechowski made his decision, I had seen Shammond and we decided to recruit him. South Carolina, Eddie Fogler told me he was a good prospect. Eddie just arrived at South Carolina. I also wish Simon was on our team tomorrow, too.

COACH DEAN SMITH: Well, both Ed Cota and Bibby are going to be two excellent pointguards for four years. And this one year is behind them, they're more experienced, although if you happened to see the Arizona, North Carolina game November 22nd you'd have to say Bibby was a senior. And no one asked him if he was going to turn pro. And he did everything well in that game, defensively he steals, but he also can cover. He passed very well. He shot it very well. And Ed had some good moments in that game, as well. But I do think, you know, they're not necessarily the leader, we don't start Ed, but he plays -- he'll play 35 minutes, and that means he is a starter and we're confident when he's in there. We're not a great ball handling team, and no one has ever said that of us. And Ed has certainly improved since his 8 turnovers at Duke, two of which were forced, six were unforced and his judgment has gotten so much better. His defense has gotten so much better, and Bibby just seems to be solid all year long. I just saw the late games and our game. I didn't study them in January, because they're getting used to having Simon until the lineup.

COACH DEAN SMITH: I don't think I add much to that one. But Clyde Lovellette should be added, he was from Indiana and was player of the year on our 1952 National Championship team, of which many of you weren't born. We had a nice time. There was no media press conference to talk to people. And we had a nice time, won the National Championship. And certainly I added Klein to that, but Kansas basketball is Phog Allen, I didn't play much for him, but I played for him. I went there for him. K State wanted me more. Tex Winter, he was recruiting me, so he's older than I am. And then playing for Dr. Allen. I knew I wanted to coach. He wanted me to go in medicine. He had us call him Doc. I said, you don't think I can coach? And he said, why do you think I'm putting you with football players, but you'll enjoy yourself more as a doctor. He coached Adolph Rupp in '23. But so many names in Kansas sports history. You should add Roy Williams, just an outstanding coach who maybe had the best team this year, but we never said this was the best way to determine the champion, it should be 4 out of 7, there's not enough time. And to Arizona's credit they won you should add Larry Brown, he coached Kansas to a 1988 championship. So there's a lot of names in Kansas basketball, as there is in Kentucky basketball.

COACH DEAN SMITH: Does that mean Miles isn't going to play hard? I did write him a letter, and I seldom do that. Here was a young man, he liked North Carolina, and his coach told us -- excellent coach -- and we really -- you just don't want to overrecruit. At least we haven't in our place. He might have been behind Williams or Calabria. But that's nice of Miles Simon and I have great respect for him. And I just wish he were ineligible like he was in November for tomorrow's game only.

COACH DEAN SMITH: That's the press conference, you end up saying something and it ends up being something more major. Dr. Allen in those days we had a lot of football players come out after freshman football season. We had 20 on the team. There were 23 on our 52 championship team, we had 11 lettermen, and I was the 11th, 10th man, so I letter. But the other guys on the team would come out and had to be taught the offense. And Doc Allen, and the great Dick Harp, I think were the greatest coaches ever, and his assistant told me to go down as a player and teach them the offense to save them the time. I wanted to be down with our team. So that's what I meant by teaching them. I did stay around a year as a graduate assistant to Dr. Allen and to Dick Harp and coach those seniors and ended up getting beat by North Carolina in 1957 National Championship team. So guess who I was cheering for, I was cheering for Kansas in '57.