NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 29, 1999

Jim Calhoun

Q. Coach, what do you think about your stay here in Tampa Bay? How did the people treat you? Would you like to see another Final Four here?

JIM CALHOUN: I think it should be held here annually. (Laughter.) I think it should be a permanent site. I will make that recommendation as soon as I leave. I saw a questionnaire, and I'm going to fill it out and say St. Petersburg-Tampa should be a permanent site of the Final Four. I don't think there's any question about that. In a more serious vein, I thought it was an ideal situation. Everybody complained that there was travelling to do. But the travelling, you're travelling in paradise. When you travel in paradise, life's a lot easier. I thought the people who ran the tournament, it's a very difficult thing to do. Granted, I haven't been to a Final Four, I'm occasionally reminded of that -- I was reminded of that, is a better way to put it. I'm not saying that bitterly, I'm just being factual. A lot of the regional sites we go to, people feel they have to run this gestapo unit. It's difficult to handle. I thought people here were magnificent from the time we arrived. It's been a great experience for us. Frankly, I would have said that if we lost the basketball game, although I guess you wouldn't have been asking me that question. I don't know if I could have responded because it's such a great game for either team to lose. It's been a great experience for us. We'd like too have it here every single year, and, by the way, we'd like to return every single year it's held here.

JIM CALHOUN: Probably the same thing that goes through the mind of a guy from Chicago, Illinois, like Mike Krzyzewski. Obviously some special feelings. I notice the kids were just like me to some degree, except for Ricky. We truly realized we won the game, but we were the most focused we've ever been all year. And I think you have seen a little reaction from us, obviously the hugging, the grabbing, the crying, all those kind of things. But we're so focused into our keys, make Langdon handle the ball, double team, rotate, things we kept talking about for 48 straight hours; they realized they won the game. As Rip said, by the time we probably hit Connecticut tomorrow, we'll fully realize that we won the National Championship and we could be proud of it.

JIM CALHOUN: Depends on who we matched up. We wanted to attack William Avery on the drive, attack Brand as much as we could. We were willing to use 11, 12 people to do that. We were willing to take a couple charges at that. We looked hard at Duke, Cincinnati, Maryland, all those teams along the way just in case one of those little folders of mine, blue cards of mine, which have different teams on them and notes about them -- and William Avery's a great player. The two keys to them, I still maintain, has been Elton inside; and as great a player as Trajan Langdon is, our game plan was to make sure we attacked. In fairness, it's the same thing he did at Gonzaga in the regional when Khalid got in foul trouble. He wasn't going to lose. His performance was amazing tonight. His performance in the regional finals to get us to the Final Four was amazing. He's truly an amazing kid. He really is. And some of that stuff, I think you can see it; he wasn't going to let Duke get any distance on us at all.

JIM CALHOUN: Once again, you're from Connecticut, right?

JIM CALHOUN: I just said to Jake Voskuhl, if everything goes right, Jake, we could actually get used to this idea. But we're going to lose some very good players, obviously Ricky, Ras and maybe another player possibly. Right now, I think we'll think about celebrating this and then I'm sure that in the pre-season poll or tomorrow, if we're in the Top Ten or 12 at 15, I'm sure there will be expectations again. Right now the only expectation I have is trying to spend some time with my family, because I've had the joy with one of my families, the basketball team. Now I want to be with my family to really enjoy this one.

JIM CALHOUN: Thank you very much.