NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 30, 2001

Jason Gardner

Richard Jefferson

Lute Olson

Loren Woods

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, first of all, they play hard so they're -- every time the ball goes up, they've got four guys going to the glass. Most teams will send three, maybe what we call three and a half, where you've got a long rebounder plus three guys going to the glass. They commit four to the boards and they're quick jumpers and they're aggressive and they anticipate the shot really well. Their abilities plus, I mean Tom does a great job with court balance. They've always got people in position to go hard to the boards.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Yeah, in answer to that question, we've used the Michigan State at Illinois tape along with a lot of others in terms of our preparation, and our game against Illinois was very mild compared to how that game was played. But Michigan State is, I mean they go after it, but they're, you know, I'm not sure that anyone is necessarily more physical than Illinois. I think Michigan State's jumpers are quicker.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, you better get a body on them. But what you need to do is you need to get a body on them, then you need to pursue the ball, because they're very quick; and you can go to get a hit on them, get a block out on them, but it's very difficult to hold that block on them. So the main thing is you get the advantage of being -- getting in front of them, then going after the ball. But they're as good a rebounding team as I think you'll ever see probably in terms of their ability to get to the glass. Sometimes with bigger guys, yes, they may have some advantages on rebounding. But I think when it comes to offensive rebounding, the biggest advantage is quickness. They have a lot of that.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I think both he and Richard Jefferson are just fabulous athletes. But it will be an interesting matchup, because you're going to have two of the premiere athletes, I think, in the country going against each other. So Richard will be -- will certainly be challenged, but he's -- he's had to draw tough assignments during the course of the year and seems to relish that, having that opportunity. He'll have his hands full, there's no question.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, it's been well-documented what I've said about that, that you know, Loren has been his own worst enemy by expecting perfection. This game is not conducive to perfection. So what it's been is just trying to get him to the point where he plays hard and leaves it on the floor and doesn't think back on things. Because things happen so quickly in this game that if any of your thought process is involved in what's just happened, you're probably not going to be very successful in terms of doing the things that are ahead of you. But he's become much more aggressive. He's always been an outstanding passer. We just want him to be able to, if it's a one-on-one situation inside, we really want him to create something with his moves to the basket. He has great touch. He can use both hands equally as well, and for a while it was a case where we would work hard to get it into him, come back out again. Now when it goes in, he's challenging the defense, I think, a lot better.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Keys to the game, I think, will be winning the possession battle, which means rebounds and turnovers. I think both teams are outstanding defensive teams. Frankly, you wouldn't be here in the Final Four unless you're a good defensive team. I think that's true with all four teams. It will get down to shooting both from the field and from the line, but we cannot afford to have them have a tremendous number of additional possessions as a result of their offensive rebounding. So those are key things I think.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, you know, I've -- Duke certainly has been one of those that's been consistently up there all year long, so I think if you were, you know, talking about a favorite, you'd probably have to talk about them. But Michigan State is the defending champion, and they are that until somebody beats them. But it's an exceptional field. When the highest seed that gets in is the No. 3 seed, I think that's saying a lot about the quality of the teams that are in here. Somebody pointed out last night that the early season rankings had the four teams that are here all in the top five. Jim Nantz, I think was the one who said it, and he said we could just as well as held the tournament in November with that. Stanford would not have been in accord with that, but... It's definitely, definitely wide open, I think.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I think what it says about the players is that they have a mental toughness that, despite all of the distractions, they've really done a great job over the last two and a half months of really being focused on what's been needed. And the old statement about what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I -- I think that it has further developed the team chemistry. It's a very, very closely knit group of guys. They enjoy being together on and off the court. They're -- we've always felt that our environment was a family kind of environment, and certainly these guys have epitomized that, I think.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Right.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, we've -- we've used some tape on Michigan State back in maybe early January just to -- we did on Duke also. What we try to do is to point out that, "Hey, if you're going to be compared with the best people in various phases of the game, then you need to take a look at that." So we used the tape. We put together a tape on Michigan State's rebounding ability, and just asked our guys, "Okay, let's make a comparison. How do you compare with Michigan State on the boards? What do we need to do to be better?" We did the same thing with Duke in terms of their man-to-man defense on the half court. As far as utilization of that tape with Illinois, that was more from the standpoint of our coaching staff using that. There are probably some clips in the different tape, edited tape situations that we're using that they will see or will have seen. So there will be some clips from that - from that game in terms of Michigan State's ability to get to the boards.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Players. You know, we have, unfortunately, sort of a unique situation compared to the other teams in this tournament in that we have not had the good fortune of very many players in Arizona that we felt would either fit into our system or could play at our level. Some years, it was a case of we already had somebody in the program that was similar to somebody in the state, but I think we've had maybe three or four players from the state in 18 years. Compare that to Michigan State, Maryland, you know, Duke, and you see Duke, because they're such a nationally known program, they're able to draw kids from all over the place. But with us, the guys that we have had in our program have been brought into the program because we felt they would fit well in the mix. And then we've had guys that other people overlooked. Gilbert Arenas was one that was overlooked. But I think in terms of the success of the program, it's been a case of the right mix of players more so than having a huge number of McDonald's All-Americans or the other thing; it's been a matter of getting guys that fit well together.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, just by looking at the teams, you can see the tremendous balance on both of those teams. So how important is the Arenas-Bell matchup? Pretty important. We have five guys that average in double figures. We have guys that come off the bench that have specific roles they have to play for us, just as Tom has with Michigan State. But I would say that every one of the positions is a key matchup. There's -- both teams are really well-balanced. I'll just respond. I didn't get a chance to finish that one response about how the year has affected me and how it's affected the players. It's been difficult for both the coaching staff and the players. But it's, in my case, as I've said many times, the thing that's gotten me through has been family. We have the five kids here today, and we have half the grandkids, so we have seven that will be at the game. They've known that they needed to prop me up a little bit. And we have a lot of really close family friends, and the fans have been great. So it's not been easy for any of us, but it's through family and friends I think we've all been able to survive this.

JASON GARDNER: I don't know. I don't really kind of want to discuss that. I think -- I don't know. I think it's just a hard subject, and I think, you know, we've been dealing with it all year. We just had a team meeting about it. I think, you know, the team and the coaching staff decided that -- not to really go into that subject.

LOREN WOODS: I think since the beginning of the year there's been a lot of expectations. I put a lot of pressure on myself this year to perform well, and it's finally paying off. And, you know, once we got to the tournament, after we won in the first round and, you know, we -- I was looking forward to a matchup with Wake Forest again second round. After we won, when I was talking to my team and my teammates and my coaches, I felt that it really wasn't even a big deal, that throughout the whole year it has never been about me, you know. I'm just one face that's going to go through the Arizona program and in 20 years might not even be remembered as an Arizona basketball player. So it's not even about me; it's just about this team right now. It's going to be more memorable if we can, you know, pull this thing off, if we can win a couple of games and be national champions, than it is if, you know, I had got a lot of accolades throughout the season or whatever.

RICHARD JEFFERSON: I really don't try to focus on one player, neither does our team. I think he's a great player. A lot of people are making a big deal out of it because we have similar styles, we're both very athletic. But I've had a bad game and we've still won. Jason Richardson's had a bad game and Michigan State's still won. We're not going to try to focus too much on just him. We try to focus on the team. They're similar to us in a sense that they have quite a few players who on any given night can go out there and really play well and really affect the game. I think Jason Richardson is one of the more consistent players. If we play solid defense and try to get the team game going, then we'll be fine.

RICHARD JEFFERSON: Well, I think they have an advantage and a disadvantage. I think they still have that mark on their chest because they are the defending national champions. But, you know, we have Gene Edgerson who was here, Justin Wessel who was here when Arizona won the national championship. So we have a little bit of the experience with that whole thing. They've been talking to us and letting us know what the media's going to be like, what the whole situation is going to be like here. So, you know, I think it works both ways and kind of evens out.

RICHARD JEFFERSON: Well, I think, you know, when we were struggling as a team, we were struggling with a lot of things. We were struggling with our offense, we were struggling with our defense. I think once, you know, Coach Olson started coming back, we started getting into a groove, we started playing better defense, a defense we were capable of playing. I don't think we were doing anything amazing. Our steals numbers aren't amazing. Loren's block numbers are good, not the best of his career. I think we started picking it up slowly. I think after a while, once you start to do things game by game by game, you start to become more consistent with it; and I think that's what we've done.

LOREN WOODS: No, I don't think so. You know, experience is always good, and they've showed it. They have a lot of players; they have a lot of talent. And experience is definitely a good plus to have, like Richard said, Gene Edgerson and Justin Wessel have been talking to us throughout the whole tournament, telling us about how much of a good experience it's going to be to be in the Final Four, what it's like winning a national championship. I think it's helped us. You know, it's helped us regain a little bit of the focus that we might have lost, you know, after we beat Stanford. You know, we had a close game with Cal. We get to the first round, Gene and Justin are telling us, "Hey, we have to have a different kind of mentality going into the tournament. Nobody has anything to lose anymore." Experience is always going to be good. They have a lot of experience, but we also have a lot of experience, too.

RICHARD JEFFERSON: Again, I still think I'll stick with my statement that, you know, Illinois is probably the most physical team. Michigan State's the best rebounding team in the country, without a doubt. I think Illinois, when you look at just their strength, you know, their depth, that allows them to play very, very physical. You know, I think we just kind of proved to ourselves that we could play a tough, slow-down type game and still come out with a victory. You know, Illinois and Michigan State are completely different teams. You know, I'm not, you know, going to relate our victory against Illinois to anything about Michigan State. We just have to go out there and play the game and see how it turns out.

JASON GARDNER: Well, I just think Michigan State's a great team, and, you know, Dave Thomas has been having a great season all year. I think he's one of, you know, a key player on the team. Charlie Bell, Jason Richardson, they can get the job done like they did against Temple.

RICHARD JEFFERSON: Well, you kind of put us in a tough, you know, situation right there asking why we believe we could win this. Well, you know, I think, again, you just look at balance. You know, we have the three-point shooters. You know, we have the shot blocker. You know, we have the muscle down low in Michael Wright and Gene Edgerson. Even our shooters, you know, Gilbert Arenas and Jason Gardner can still take it to the cup if their outside shots aren't falling. Myself, I try to pick up the scraps wherever it's available. Then we come off the bench with Luke Walton, who, you know, is probably one of the best six men in the country. Comes off, rebounds, plays defense, passes the ball extremely well and he's 6'8" so he can play the two, three, four for us. You know, then we just had a lot of depth. I don't think there's anything -- I think Duke, if you ask them, they could come up with a million reasons. I think it's really hard for me to just say why we should win it. I think if you look at it, you know, our whole team from top to bottom, I think we're very balanced.

JASON GARDNER: I think you have to rely on team rebounding. Charlie Bell, like you said, he might not be, you know, the guy that, you know, is quick with the ball or this and that. But I think, you know, he gets the job done. He gets 20 points a game. He gets his five, six, seven rebounds a game. I think, you know, on the defensive end, he puts a lot of defensive pressure on the ball. I think with Charlie Bell, you know he's a good player. Also, like you said, it's going to be more of a team rebounding thing.

JASON GARDNER: I think that's, you know, the type of team we are. I think we have to have a lot of fun. Last year being in the tournament gave us an experience. I think this year we are taking one game at a time. Also I think that, you know, we're being more relaxed, and also I think that Coach Olson, a couple guys, even Loren and Gene, I think they were the guys that started it. Then Coach Olson agreed on it. I think he was more excited than I was. After I saw a big smile on his face, he rushed me to go up there, I was kind of zoned out, I didn't really know what to do. It was a lot of fun doing that, though.

LOREN WOODS: Okay, first of all, it wasn't my idea to prop him up there to get the dunk. I'm going to also, for the record, set it straight that it wasn't my idea to wear the headbands last year either. I won't say who it was, so don't ask me. It wasn't my idea. Everybody thinks it was my idea. (Laughter.)

RICHARD JEFFERSON: It's a basketball game. There's really nothing specific that, you know, they should worry about or we should worry about. We just got to go out there and play. I think they'll say the same thing. If you try to focus on just keeping them off the boards, you know, that wouldn't make sense. You know, I think they've only been outrebounded once as a team but they have four losses. I don't think that's the ultimate key. I think that's something you should focus on. But I don't think there's a key or any one thing that, you know, you could focus on either team because, you know, both teams have had bad games and still won. You know, so I think everyone just needs to go out there and play and whatever happens, happens.

LOREN WOODS: You know, as Richard said, you know, they're two different teams. But Michigan State is very physical. Same as Illinois. You know, to this point it's not really a matter of, you know, we have to focus on their rebounding, you know, like Richard said, or we have to focus on, you know, two particular scorers on their team and try to shut them down. It's going to come down to, as it did at Illinois, just both teams playing their style of basketball. I think, you know, we just won -- we won that game at Illinois because we were able to get some of their guys in foul trouble. We were able to knock down our free throws at the end of the game. You know, it might be like that this game; it might not be. What we have to do is just go play Arizona basketball.

RICHARD JEFFERSON: I don't know about it. What did he say, the developmental league? They got that now or something? (Laughter.)

RICHARD JEFFERSON: You got their phone number? (Laughter.)