NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 31, 2000

Dick Bennett

COACH BENNETT: Well, I've kind of run out of opening comments. So I will just say that this is where I'd always wanted to be, and I think the players feel the same at this time of the year, and we're here, so you can imagine the thrill, excitement, satisfaction. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

COACH BENNETT: Well, I know we have to play a very good game, Tom. I don't want to stress them out with the notion that they have to be perfect. Because I think that when you start thinking you have to be perfect, it's tightness and unnecessary pressures added. We have to play very well; we know that. And if that isn't enough, then it won't be enough because I doubt whether a perfect game is possible.

COACH BENNETT: Well, what we've talked about, and I think they've tried to do, is to almost develop a split personality, to be able to step outside of themselves, to enjoy everything that's happening. Because you don't want to go through an experience like this and miss it. So we've said that part of you, that objective-observer side of you is right to indulge, just enjoy it. Then when you step on the floor, we're getting ready for practice or a game, then you got to go into your other personality, the one, the real one that got you here, your basketball personality. If you can do that, if you can remember who you are and where you are, you'll be okay. We've talked quite a bit about that. These are very bright kids. I think they've tried to do that. If the very best they can do is just enjoy it a bit, that's okay, too. I don't want them down here remembering this experience as a difficult time.

COACH BENNETT: Well, it was the first round, and that particular group had a great deal of confidence. It was really a good ballclub, and we knew we were far better than anyone was giving us credit for being. That club carried that knowledge. I think what happened which has not really happened since and I know wouldn't happen down here, is the Cal coaches had their kids prepared. They knew about us, but the kids just didn't buy in totally; you could tell. The first ten minutes of the game we just were playing at a different intensity level than they were. And so we got the lead and hung on to win the game. So we've had -- I had a lot of close -- in fact the NCAA was against Michigan State, back when my son played and they beat us on a Steve Smith buzzer beater, then we lost to Purdue by one also at Green Bay. So we've been in some good games.

COACH BENNETT: Well, they don't give any easy baskets, rarely does that happen. They give you one shot; they don't give you a second shot very often. And their quickness, their overall team quickness and reaction and positioning cuts down your comfort time. You get so much time to get a shot in terms of receiving the ball and getting a look at the rim. I think they have reduced that more than any team we've played. You get so little time, you've got to make good. You have to do everything right to get that look at the basket, and then they cut into it. They're in your face so quickly that they affect your percentage. I think that's about their defense, which is so effective.

COACH BENNETT: No, this team does not lack confidence. That has seldom been a problem for us. But if you're asking is there a seed of doubt, I would be lying if I spoke for them and said there wasn't or if I spoke for myself. When a team beats you three times, then you perhaps say that's a superior team. And we're aware of their strengths, and we're aware of what we need to do. But we're not lacking confidence. Our confidence is in our ability to play a good game. It's not necessarily in our ability to go out and whip Michigan State. And so I think we have a confidence and we're in the right stuff.

COACH BENNETT: Well, we would like to get the best player we can. And in rebuilding programs -- and I've been involved in that at all levels -- you have to start somewhere. And we started with the notion that we wanted to get guys who were good players, had tremendous attitudes, who would be there for four years. We thought if we could do that, we could mold them into the kind of team that would become competitive, as this group has in basically it's -- for most of them, the nucleus is the junior class. They've done just that. We thought if we achieved that, that would open some doors for us. The one area that we will not sacrifice is attitude. We would like to get guys who are gifted physically, who are skilled, and, of course, have a great attitude. But sometimes we've had to sacrifice in the skill and talent area to get the attitude. Now if this enables us to get even more physical ability and more skill with the great attitude, then we will have done what we wanted to do.

COACH BENNETT: Well, to answer the second part first, yes. I said in the teleconference that back three years ago I could see what Tom was doing, and I admired it. I've known Coach Izzo for a long time, I knew him when he was a player and I was coaching at Stevens Point. I could see what he was doing, admired it and thought it was terrific. As I've said, now I hate it. Because I am so impressed with how he has built this team. As far as playing them, the -- it's more of an adjustment thing. There are certain things we need to do better, certain ways we've got to defend them that might be better. But a change philosophically is certainly not an issue. We need to be who we are. We need to make -- we just need to do a few things a little better to be more competitive. And the last two games have been relatively competitive. We've had our chances.

COACH BENNETT: Me look like Gene Hackman? Well, I -- I've seen the movie, at least 17 or 18 times. (Laughter.) I had a copy, someone took it. I don't know where it is, probably a media guy or something. (Laughter.) But I like Gene Hackman as an actor, always have. I thought he was always good, especially good in that movie. That was a high school setting, preparation. We practiced at Hinkle yesterday, that part, we didn't get the ladder out. But I eyeballed the rim and it was 10 feet, I told the kids that, except we're not playing there. I should have done it out here. But no, you know, I think that the basketball world at the college level has grown smaller. I think there's less difference between the haves and have-nots than ever before, because of all of the exposure. Kids now from all places get to play, go to camps, get in the gyms in the summer, get good coaching. So I really think that it's become a smaller basketball world, which is great for everyone. At the high school level, it might be a little different because you can't choose; you have to take the guys or girls who are there. And -- but the only comparison that I would say is synonymous, I have an assistant coach like he had. (Laughter.) I'll let you figure out which one. (Laughter.)

COACH BENNETT: There was an urge to come up with something different, I must admit. We tinkered for a day or so and decided that it might water down something else. So we didn't. We have made some adjustments, though. We really have. Jon Bryant has really come on in the tournament. He's had a good year, good career. He's always been important to us, but I, through no fault of Jon's, didn't use him as much as I should have down the stretch and in the Big Ten Conference. That was my fault, an oversight. But I realized in the Fresno State game how valuable he was, and he does play well defensively. And so since that time, he has been given a lot of minutes where he can, you know, fit himself into the game, and he has really delivered. And as I say, he probably would have done that on a more consistent basis had he been given more consistent minutes during the year. That happens to you when you have a lot of kids you think a lot of, and that's kind of where I was.

COACH BENNETT: I think that's because of their diversity. They run the ball so well, and they rebound it so well out of their running game. And so you need to somehow get a handle on that. But that could escape at any moment, any turnover, any defensive rebound, off they go. But you somehow got to get them on the half court. Then if you do that, you have to contain their little two-man plays which involve Mateen Cleaves and often a ball screen, and that's tough to handle. He gets in the lane and then all of a sudden you've got people trying to help on him, and it opens up rebounding lanes for their rebounders. If you get a handle on that, then you've got -- you've got Peterson coming off a screen or just stepping out, and just a little daylight and he's going to make three out of four shots. Granger can do the same off the ball screen. Hudson has been tremendous inside, and then there's, you know, the guy that's often forgotten, Charlie Bell, who, I think, does as many little things as anyone can. So they have such diversity and they have so many phases and sequence, sequences to their offensive attack, beginning with the runouts, the offensive boards, the picks on the ball, the penetration, and then the multiple screens, and then again the offensive rebounding. They are as complete as I can imagine a team can be.

COACH BENNETT: Well, it's probably always a little more complex than that. But I think that's -- we've had a lot of people play well in the tournament. There has been a different guy at a different time, and that is certainly true. That's happened. But, you know, the Big Ten, we were a good team pretty much all year because we had beaten some good teams early in a nonconference schedule and played some good ball in the Big Ten even in losses, but that's how deep the league was. I mean if we were the sixth best, it was good enough to get us in the tournament and good enough to enable us to upset a number of teams. The league was good, and it only served as a preparation, then, as you've recognized, certain other players got more consistent time and made some shots. But I do think that our league play did serve a very valuable purpose.

COACH BENNETT: It's not hard to get kids to play defense. I think every good player wants to play defense. He recognizes the value and the need to complete his game. That has not nearly been as tough a sell as people realize. The toughest part of the defense is once you make the commitment to it or offer lip service to it, you have to work on it. We spent an enormous amount of time working defensively. As far as our recognition, that has never really bothered me except in very painful moments when we -- we really labor to score and then people will jump on that aspect of it and say we're so ugly. And maybe offensively, it hasn't been good but it's always been pretty darn good defensively. And I've always believed that good shot selection, taking care of the ball are important parts of the game. And you do what you have to. If you can't make a play, if you can't break somebody down individually, then you need some help with screens and movement and passing and so on, and I don't know why that would be minimized when the object is to try to win the game. And most people in this day and age are so bottom-line oriented anyhow, that they say well, they should probably say, "That's what they have to do and they're doing it, so let's give them credit for that," and as you get a little better, maybe you do a little more. People that know us and follow us understand that. Our writers and media people have been very supportive of that for the most part because they've seen us. But people who don't see us but on that one Southwest Missouri game, for example, then they have a tendency to oversimplify it. But I'm used to it. It doesn't bother me. I'll trade the 35 years of criticism for this moment any day.

End of FastScripts...