NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 27, 1999

Elton Brand

Mike Krzyzewski

Trajan Langdon

TRAJAN LANGDON: Michigan State's a great team. I don't think there's any bump in the road.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Hold on one second. Just let me make an opening remark. Let me just say Michigan State was the No. 2 team in the country. They are not a bump in the road. They're a great basketball team. We beat a great basketball team today in a great basketball game. You know, both teams played their hearts out on the defensive ends of the court. It was tough to get shots tonight because each kid invested all that they had. Now for us to win a game like that, we are ultimately proud, ultimately proud. That's my opening statement. All right.

MICHAEL REDD: I just don't want this game to be -- it would be disrespectful to the two teams that played it to say that. It was a great basketball game. Sorry.

ELTON BRAND: Tonight I feel I was in better shape, better running shape. We got out, Trajan, William, Corey were in great positions to score. So I knew -- I had a lot of confidence coming into this game but I had a better performance than the last game.

ELTON BRAND: Before foul trouble I was confident in my moves. The guys were hitting me. I felt I could score most of the time and get fouled, find an open man. I was really demanding the ball a lot.

ELTON BRAND: Three-on-one break, I got the rebound and just tried to push it, push it out. Sometimes in practice, sometimes in games I do that. With teams, we stepped up, took the charge. It was three on one and he made it a three on one if I got the ball up. He made it a brilliant play. That's what happened.

TRAJAN LANGDON: Michigan State was doing a great job on me all game, keeping the ball out of my hands, really shadowing me. So I give them credit. But Coach told me stay aggressive and my teammates did, too. That's a move I made a lot of times. I'm not even worried about my shooting anymore, it's the National Championship game. I waited five years for this. I'm excited.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: That's why we need him.

ELTON BRAND: Definitely, first game we were out rebounding tremendously. Michigan State coming into the -- I mean into the NCAA Tournament rebounded half their misses. Coach made it a point of interest to get on the boards and block out. We did. I'm pretty sure we had an advantage at half time on the boards.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Nice of you to say that. (Laughter)

TRAJAN LANGDON: With Elton out of the game, we've been -- he was playing tremendously. We knew we needed to step up as a team. Primarily what we were concerned about was on the boards. Elton had 15, 16 boards on the game and was in foul trouble. We knew we had to pick it up on the boards and that's the thing we were concerned about, that we didn't have that presence in the middle without him also.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I think a few kids stepped up during that time, Avery hit a big shot, Carrawell drove the ball well and Maggette gave us some big minutes during that time.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: My staff -- we haven't looked at Connecticut. I don't think they'd be able to talk about Connecticut now. Hopefully before the press conferences tomorrow we'll give them some information. I mean, for me, I wasn't sure, you know, I can't look ahead and these guys can't look ahead. But they've played against some of those players, Hamilton and the teammates. We know how good they are. But we don't know their style completely yet. We'll know that by Monday night, hopefully.

TRAJAN LANGDON: Definitely. Like Coach said, they're the No. 2 team in the nation right now. They're an unbelievable team. You saw the way they responded in the second half, especially getting on the boards, playing physical. They just made it very difficult for us on both ends of the floor. We beat a great team tonight.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, obviously we're ecstatic about winning. The type of game and the type of team we played against makes it even more worthwhile. I mean it was really as fulfilling a win that we've had all year because they're so good. Points were so hard to come by. And then Elton's foul situation put a spin on the game that might have made it even more difficult if our bench didn't step up.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Elton is Player of the Year nationally. He deserves it. I thought that us being so good defensively and on the boards, that was such an emphasis for us in the first half that I think we even got worn down a little bit. They rebounded better than us in the second half. But overall, it was so important for us to insert ourselves like that and Elton was the key guy for it because he had double-figure rebounds at half time.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Certainly having that experience makes you better. We're still a very young basketball team, and some of these kids have been in all of those situations. Because, you know, a lot of them are sophomores and Corey's a freshman. I thought they handled it well. They handled it well. This was a possession-for-possession game. And, you know, even when we got up 11 or 12-point lead, they missed some open 3s, too. We were fortunate on that. We knew we had to play every possession with all of our heart. I thought overall that's what our team did. This is a very well earned win by our team.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I think it's a good point for both teams. When you're playing like that, sometimes the free throws are when you stop. I thought that was more so than nerves, just the physical -- the hard-fought nature of the game put us in that position. Hopefully we'll get refreshed and be at our best on Monday.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: This reminded me so much of my first Final Four when Duke and Kansas played. It was an amazing game. We were fortunate enough to win that. We then lost to Louisville in the Finals. But that was a game like that, where you had, you know, really two -- we have three of the best -- the three top teams in the country are in this Final Four. And I'm not sure people have given the other teams their just due as a result of their great seasons. So we felt that it would be this type of game, and we know that it will be that type of game on Monday night.