NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 28, 1998

Michael Doleac

Drew Hansen

Rick Majerus

Andre Miller

COACH MAJERUS: I thought our guys played really well and really hard, but in spite of doing that, North Carolina has 15 offensive boards. I think you got to credit them with a great effort, and that's with an effort to counter. I was so proud of these guys defensively tonight, and to block out with rebounding. I thought that we got that stretch there early, came out with tremendous enthusiasm. We got confidence. Carolina is obviously a terrific team, and it really was a wonderful game. It was a wonderful evening of basketball. I take my hat off for these guys, not only Andre, who is fine offensive player, Mike and Drew, but they really did a tremendous job offensively. That was just a wonderful effort on our part, and I thought Carolina's effort was also outstanding.

DREW HANSEN: The thing I like about the tournament is that the teams that usually play the best end up in the game. Kentucky is playing great ball. They were not even considered as we looked at the top four seeds to get to the championship game. Kentucky is playing great and we were playing great ball as well. It is nice to see two teams that are playing the best are going at it for a National Championship.

ANDRE MILLER: They slow the game down by going zone and I thought they were going to go man. Once they went to the zone, we just worked the ball around it and tried to get a good slot. Whatever happens, happens. When they did go out, I had to step up my game defensively and offensively to try to take over the team.

CHRIS PLONSKY: We are taking questions for the student athletes right now and then we will finish with Rick afterwards. Sorry. Questions for the athletes. Back right.

MICHAEL DOLEAC: I don't know. I think we knew pretty well coming in we could play with these guys. We had a great game with Arizona and we knew if we play an offensive game, we could hang with anybody. It is a lot different, when we play a strong defense, we shut teams down and make them struggle offensively. We knew we could play with them but had to make sure we execute our game plan and come out of the block. It was four threes in a row. That was a big help.

MICHAEL DOLEAC: It is another chance at them. You work the whole season to get here. We never knew how far we could come but now we have a shot. Tomorrow, it's not the game. It is good to have another shot with them. We obviously struggled with them a couple of years. We are playing great ball. So are they. We will come out and practice tomorrow. The coach has a game plan for us, and it is a go at another team.

MICHAEL DOLEAC: To stay down and we tried to jump with him and stuff like that, and he would get around us and get off with the rebound. Myself and Hanno wanted to stay behind him, play his left shoulder and make him make shots over. If he did that, he will earn that. We didn't want to jump on him. Another thing was just to watch him duck back and come down and duck back on us. We wanted to make sure to keep him off a low block and block him out as soon as possible.

ANDRE MILLER: I basically got to rebound all the time. They take a lot of long jump shots and long rebounds. I try to be wherever the ball goes. I had 14 rebounds against Arizona and Hanno and everyone was playing great defense. Why not help them out and get some rebounds, you know.

DREW HANSEN: I watched a little bit of the first half and came over here. We saw about a minute or two near the end of the game. We were trying to focus on our game. I heard it was a great game, and Stanford did come out of the box well. I knew that. We probably needed to do the same thing. But we have a good team and we are solid defensively and we rebound. That gives us a chance in any game. Our guys did a great job today.

CHRIS PLONSKY: We will let the student athletes return to the locker room. Again, the Utah locker room will be open until 15 minutes before. Rick, if you could stay and continue and stay for questions. Congratulations, gentlemen. Thank you. Questions for Rick. We will start on the right.

COACH MAJERUS: We are a man-to-man team and I think we have the 8th or 9th winning record in the '90s, and we are a man-to-man team. We did some things differently. I'm so proud of that group at the end there in the first half. Our big three along the baseline, had two and two fouls respectively, for a total of seven. Then we had to play that lineup of Caton and those kids. We went triangle-and-two on them, and I wanted to hold the fort. Our goal was no lobs, no back doors, no second shots and get back in transition. But those are pretty much goals consistent with what we do, you know, pretty much on a game-by-game basis. I was proud of the fact with different alignments and guys playing different things they were able to make adjustments on the fly, particularly those young guys.

COACH MAJERUS: I very rarely talk to them at the start of the half. I usually go in and meet with my coaches and try to collect my own thoughts. Before I went in with the coaches I said to them, look, there is a first half and there is a second half. Everyone knows in the game, the guys are playing pick-up ball, those will be the most important minutes. They will try to make a run. We got to make sure that we maintain our discipline relative to the shot structure. I was a little upset. We took bad shots when we needed two in the first half than we probably could have taken in the whole NCAA. I didn't want that one bad shot that Andre took with the crossover with the second hash mark, and the jump shot off the dribble I didn't like. Dave got out of synch a little bit, a little anxious, and Britton. But I don't want them tentative. I could live with the good shots. But shot selection for the most part was good. You know, to win this game -- the foul shooting. This is a hard building to shoot in. Obviously, Carolina, too.

COACH MAJERUS: That was the scout squad. I have them walk through this before with teams in parking lots. As a matter of fact, I have taken a team outdoors on many occasions in the WAC when the weather is nice to do something. So they don't have to travel so much. That was the scout squad that went outside and they come in. My assistant coaches, Donny and Judd and Brock, do a terrific job and be sure they have the other team's plays down. But that was not our players. It was not the nine or ten guys that were going to play the game.

COACH MAJERUS: Do you feel that we had the game? No. I think what we are feeling now, we got another game on Monday. I feel so bad they can't go out and enjoy it. I told them that. They want to go back to the hotel tonight and they will play some cards and eat pizza and all that kind of stuff. I said enjoy this tonight. Don't give a fleeting thought to Kentucky. We will get together tomorrow and have something ready for you. Thank God we don't practice until three. So I want them to enjoy it, and they do enjoy it, and they were so happy. I can't tell you how happy I am. But really, how close -- I don't know if I will ever get back here again. Probably not. I mean, we are right there to win a National Championship. At least we are playing for it. I think it's important that we collect our thoughts and move forward with a purpose.

COACH MAJERUS: Well, number one, I could sense that we were playing a little bit not to lose rather than to win. And secondly, sometimes I will ask them, but I thought we wanted to stay spaced and move and see if we couldn't catch Doleac down low. Then defensively at the end there, Andre wasn't pushing Cota to the pick. And Cota took that little shot there, taking the ball away and Andre to keep the gap. When you hear the word "pick" you have to limit that pick. And that was pretty much about it. I don't know.

COACH MAJERUS: We like to play the game inside and want to get to the foul line and get driving buckets off our passing game. You have two or three guys that can poke. There were some fouls called in that first half on both teams. We are sitting there with seven fouls on three, two and two, with our baseline guys, and they have Ndiaye with obviously his foul situation.

COACH MAJERUS: Thank you very much.