NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 31, 2002

Mike Davis

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, when we played Illinois this year, we played well - probably the best game I've been involved in. I thought at that point that we could make a run if we continued to play that way - not at that level but close to that level. That was back I think in January and February. I'm not sure. But I felt that way. Our goals that we set this year was to win the league and the Big-10 tournament, and play in Atlanta. So I felt that way the whole while.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: When we were seven and five, what people didn't realize was, just think about the five teams who beat us. We lost to Butler, who I thought was playing great basketball at that time. They should have been in the NCAA Tournament. We lost to Miami, who I thought -- at the time I didn't know they were really good, but they proved to be a very good basketball team. Also Kentucky, who had Duke down by 12 the game before we played them. They had an opportunity to beat Duke. We lost to Southern Illinois who, you know, Sweet-16 team. We lost to Marquette, we lost to Butler and Marquette on the last second tip-in. So the five games we lost were against very good basketball teams. All five teams won 20 games or more. We could have easily had a cupcake schedule and been 13 and 0, 14 and 0, 15 and 0. But we had a tough schedule. I just think people got down and not really looked at our schedule. Out of the first 12 games, we only had two games at home. I felt good about the team. When we lost to Butler, I told our guys we were on the way to having a good season.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I hope so. I mean, I have a 16-year-old son. I don't want people trying to intimidate him. I mean, I get on my guys a lot, and they know my personality. But I want my players to like me. I just feel like if they like you, they'll play hard for you. A lot of times when you have that fear-factor, it gets to a certain point where they may play hard for you, but at the very end they'll say, "Okay, I'm tired of it." I think our guys right now, they don't want the season to end. I think it's because they like me a lot.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I just think that's why it's really not about coaching, it's about luck, it's about who wins, who loses before you play them. We had a great situation. We played Utah the first game. Utah and Indiana are similar. Not a whole lot of quickness, but play hard. Then we played North Carolina, Wilmington who beat USC. After watching USC, I didn't think we could beat USC. Then we played Duke the next game. Instead of playing Alabama, Oklahoma State or Pittsburgh, we played Kent State. Kent State beat us last year, so we knew they were a very good basketball team. We come here in the first game and play Oklahoma instead of playing Kansas or Maryland. I just think it's the luck of the draw. It's not about coaching. I mean, you have to prepare your team. It all depends on how you match up with certain teams because it's not like you're playing a seven-game series, you're playing one game. The teams that we played so far, we've been better than they are in one game.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: We don't have but two seniors on our team, Fife and Odle. But I think it's very important when you have guys, just like Kent State, Kent State had four players with four or five years of experience. You need that. But times are changing. Kids are going to come out if they think they can go up first round, they'll go. Development is really not important anymore. It's about making money. Can I blame them? Hey, if my son was good, who knows. But I just think you have to take advantage of the situation when you can. We have a guy on our team now in Jared Jeffries. I don't think there's no way he's coming back next year. But, hey, he's in the Final Four, he's in the championship game. That's a decision he has to make with his parents rather than me.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Miles College is in Birmingham, Alabama. I had read a book one time, it was talking about having a deadend job. It said that if you're doing something that you like to do, it's never a deadend job. That really motivated me to stay with it because I never really wanted to be a coach, really. But when I start having basketball camps, I enjoyed it. Coaching at Miles College gave me some experience in coaching. It didn't matter about the money at that time. After I read that book about it, I mean, it paid off because I'm here.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I am (smiling).

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, I don't want people to take this the wrong way because when I say something, not about you guys, but about Indiana fans sometimes, my first real job, Miles College was my first job, but my first job was in the CBA. I love NBA basketball. I watched NBA basketball all the time. I mean, I doubt anyone would ever call me from the NBA. If they did, I definitely would listen. I mean, that's the ultimate, is to coach in the NBA. I think my style of letting guys play, I would really enjoy that. I mean, I know people are going to take this the wrong way - I shouldn't even talk about it. We're in the championship game, doesn't matter now (smiling). I would love to coach in the NBA. I really would. Maybe it would take me five, ten years from now. That is a goal of mine.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: It definitely helped keep our composure. There were games where we played Duke, we were down 17, it should have been over, but we stayed with it. Last night, I mean, I thought Oklahoma came out last night and took it to us early. I think we only scored five points. It may have been 12 minutes on the clock in the first half. But I've talked to our guys a lot about keeping their composure during the game. "If you miss a shot, just keep playing. If you throw a ball away, play through it. It's a 40-minute game."

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I think I went to bed about 4:30 this morning. My mother and family, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nephews, everybody is here from my hometown, friends. I guess I'm not the traditional coach where I need to have peace. They just stayed and we talked about everything. I really enjoyed that because for them, it's really big. It's big for me, but it's really big for them, to be able to be in this environment, in this situation, because it may never happen again. I don't want to be stuck in a room watching film 24 hours and not enjoy it with my family.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I think the history of that is good, UCLA with Coach Wooden, Alabama with Coach Bryant. It will always be there. I just hope if I'm here for a long time, from somewhere else, that I can have the same effect on whoever comes in after me.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I really don't know. People I know in recruiting who will help me are from the south. It's really hard to recruit because the way it's set up you can only call once a week and you can only see kids certain times. You need people that you know and know the kids to really talk to them for you. I have been fortunate. I mean, Jeff Newton is a guy, he's got a lot of potential, but he's not a finished product. I was lucky to be able to come in and get a guy like him. He probably would have signed with Georgia, Georgia Tech, same as Moye.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: We have not. We're just going to wait till the end of the season and see what happens. I mean, I make more money than I've ever dreamed of making. But people, the thing that frustrated more than anything is when they said, "You have to prove yourself; to prove yourself." We're in the championship game. That should be proof. Maybe not, but to me it should be. There's a lot of people that's not making any money. I don't want to seem selfish or anything. If they want to take care of me, fine. If they don't, then, hey, I have three years to go in my contract.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: It really humbled me. I was a decent basketball player coming out of high school. I was No. 1 in the state, so on, so on. But having this problem, it kept me humble. I'm glad because the thing that I dislike more than anything is when you have players, NBA guys or coaches, who think that they're more than someone else because they play or coach. It kept me level. I'm too old to change now.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, I play that way. As a player, I had limited ability. I could shoot the basketball. When I went against guys, I played against Dominique Wilkins, Michael Jordan, Jeff Malone, some of the older guys. I took it personal. If they scored a basket on me, it was like life came out of me. You can't measure that. even in practice, I wanted a guy that was going into practice, "Hey, this is a long day." Same with the game. If you defend now, there's not a lot of players who can handle really good defense I don't think. I think a lot of players now like it easier, they like open shots. They'll hit one or two tough shots, but not over 40 minutes. I tried to instill that in our team. I think sometimes when you watch our team, you look at each individual. You should shake your head because if you watch Oklahoma, Kansas and Maryland practice, and you look at us, you probably say, "There's no way these people -- they can't win." I look at us sometime, I'm like, "Boy, this is a bad team." That's just from looking at the picture, seeing each individual guy. But Dane Fife will cut your heart out. I mean, he's a little psycho sometimes, but he is really a hard-nosed guy. Dane Fife and I are similar. My wife told him that, because we always stay into it about things. When I play, I want to stop every guy I guard. If I lose, it bothers me for days and days. Dane is the same way. And Coverdale, for him to play last night, he's about 80%. You guys saw. For him to play, and I thought he played well until the last stretch of the game, but you can't measure heart, there's no way.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, it's why my first wife left me, because we didn't have any money. No, I'm just joking. Don't write that. You know, I was a former player. You know, here I am coaching for $200 and selling T-shirts out of the back of my car. But it's no different from anyone else who's trying to make it. We all will do something. I did something to get to this point. Selling T-shirts taught me a lot of things about people. If you don't catch them on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, they are going to charge, get it on credit, you won't get your money. Never give them credit, because they won't pay you. When you get it, it's not worth it. I learned a lot about people doing that. It kept me focused because here I am saying, "Hey, I don't want to do this for the rest of my life. I don't want to set up at a flea market here, go to a park and do this." But I had to at the time because I didn't want to do anything illegal. It really humbled me even more. Once I got the job in the CBA, my first year, I made $150 a week. That's not a lot of money, but I didn't want to sell T-shirts anymore. I used to wash the clothes, drive the wives around to the grocery stores. I mean, I was a taxi, I was everything. When I started coaching in college at Alabama, they had managers doing this. I was like, I'm on top of the world. I mean, I owe Miles College a lot. Last year I spoke at that banquet, and I hope I can have the opportunity to go back and speak again. It really gave me my first opportunity.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: They wanted us to be co-coaches. Coach Treloar stepped up and said to give me the job, I deserved it. He coached for me at Alabama, and in the CBA. We have a great relationship. We are co-coaches now. He has the freedom to do anything that he wants to do on this team. If he wants to make a sub, he'll tell me. I mean, he's a great coach. Will I be able to keep him? I would hope so. Then again, I would hope not, because he's really good. I mean, here is a guy for 35 games, 36 games, that has broken down every game defensively, prepared for it. Our defense is one of the best I feel in the country. He deserved the credit for it. I don't want to lose him because he will definitely be hard to replace. At the same time, you know, if he happened to step up and say, "Give Mike the job," maybe he knew about the pressures of it. For him to say that speaks volumes for him. He could have easily been the head coach. As a matter of fact, I thought they would go with him because he had head coaching experience.

COACH DAVIS: Well, it was a small town - small town. Everyone know each other. When you drive by in a car, everyone waves. You wave when everyone passes by. If you're sitting on the porch, you wave. That's why now we speak to people, they think, "What's wrong with this guy?" I grew up like that. We integrated my fourth grade year. That was probably the best thing that happened for me. I was introduced to sports for the first time. I made a lot of friends that way. I mean, I love my hometown, I do. I hope one day I can go back to my hometown and live. There's a lot of good people there, work hard. And they support me because they know me. They see my development to this point. That's why if I get the opportunity, I always go back, spend time with people.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Coach Burns and I are good friends, coached at Ole Miss. When you watch the television after the game, it's a little embarrassing to see yourself acting a certain way. Sometimes I get emotional. I guess coaches will act a certain way on the sideline. But, you know, I don't know. That's not me. But after I watch it, I'm a little embarrassed about it. But I had to celebrate because it was like the world was on my shoulders. I saw coach Newton over there, Coach Newton recruited me in high school. He gave me an opportunity to play at Alabama. He kind of took me out of Fayette, my hometown. He showed a lot of confidence in me. I just felt like, here we are, beat Duke, here my college coach is sitting here, and he's really been great for me. Last night, I was like, "Don't embarrass yourself, don't run around, don't cheer, act crazy, because it will be on ESPN or CBS. It will be on there, so don't do anything." Tomorrow night, win or lose - if we win, I don't know, I'm going to try to just keep it, you know, under control. You guys have no idea what I go through sometimes. It's rewarding to be able to be at this point.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I like guys like we have. I played at Alabama, we had some big guys. But then they started getting guys like Robert Horry, lean, athletic guys who can block shots, who can guard guys on the floor, guard on the post. I just think sometimes when you get really big guys that only can defend a certain spot, when you play certain teams, it hurts you. So I like a guy that can run and jump, like Newton and Jeffries and Leach. I like that type of player.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Miles College is in Birmingham, a small black school, like Division III, real small. We bused everywhere we went. We had four to a room sometimes. It was a great experience. Sometimes the bus was cold. Sometimes it was too hot. Sometimes the bus driver was sleepy when he was driving back and forth. It was like, hey, let me out of here (smiling). But it was good to go through that. It's really good to remember that. They're proud of me at Miles. To invite me back to speak at their banquet was a nice gesture on their part. I forgot your other question.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: We played Fort Hay State (phonetic), Tuskegee and teams like that, small black schools.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I coached Wichita Falls, Texas, for a few years. I coached in Chicago for one season. Went to Venezuela and coached for a couple seasons. That's a real experience. I was telling a friend of mine last night, I remember coaching in see Gatorade bottles flying over your head during games. It's different over there, it's just different. If you lose a couple of games, they'll fire you. If you're not playing well as a player, they replace you. No contract; you're just working and playing.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: The will to win. Just having the will to win. Like I said before, as a player, I played hard. As a coach, I coach hard, but I try not to put a lot of pressure, if they miss a shot or miss a ball or make a bad play. Sometimes I do get upset - I do. But I want them to have freedom in their mind that everything is okay. It's like Coverdale, when he wanted to go in, "Coach, put me back in, I'm ready to go." Jeffries, he don't even ask, he just goes to the scorer's table (smiling). He's a different person. You know, we have that relationship. Newton is not playing well, take him out. "When you're ready to play, let me know." It's like that. They have to have freedom, they have to enjoy what they're doing, and they have to know you believe in them, and they have to know if they screw up, okay. But they know they can come in and talk to me about anything. When they do, I listen to them - I do.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, coached tough guys. Juan Dixon is probably one of the best competitors in the country. To just listen to him in his interviews, it says it all. He wants to win in the worst way. I mean, I shook his hand in the hallway the other day. He's a tough guy.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: No. Coach offered to pay us out of his pocket if we didn't want to stay. I just felt like I owe it to the guys to stay, even if I was an assistant coach. First I said I wouldn't stay unless I was the head coach. After talking to Jeffrey Newton's grandmother and mother, they trusted me with their boys. I just decided, they don't give me the job, I'll stay for one year as an assistant coach, get a job somewhere else. But they named me the head coach. I mean, I had to take this job. There's no way I wouldn't take this job when it was offered to me.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Coaches get too much credit, they really do. I mean, you have to prepare your team. You have to get your team to play at a certain level. You have to stress certain things, fundamentals of the game. I haven't seen one coach make a basket. I've seen a coach draw plays and get guys into position. Rebound, blocking shots, scoring, diving on the floor, it's the players. Some coaches can't get their guys to do that because they don't think it's important. I mean, I have to give them credit for playing defense like they're playing. I mean, I want them to play like that and I talk about playing like that. Sometimes I feel like I'm stealing. I do. I said this last night. I'm sitting there sometimes, and we'll call a time-out, I'll draw a play up, we'll come out and score a basket. I know everybody will say, "That was a great play Coach Davis drew up." They didn't do anything I told them to do, you know. I'm serious. Sometimes I will draw up a play, and it works, we get a basket. You know, it's like last night. I'll give you an example. We were down 34-27, I think. I called Detroit. Detroit is a high-ball screen for Coverdale. Coverdale comes off, I just told him to wait till the clock was down for the last shot. Coverdale comes off, Odle steps back, hits him. Looked great. Odle shot. I knew people were saying, "Great call." It wasn't a great call, because I wanted Coverdale to come off and get somebody. I had no idea Odle was going to shoot a 3-point shot. Do you think I would draw a play to have Odle shoot a 3-point shot? "That was a great play Coach Davis drew up." As far as your question about Sundays, we never practice on Sundays ever. I think that's the day for guys to go to church if they want to. We play games on Saturday night. I remember as a player, when you play on Saturday, your family comes to see you, they want to go to breakfast with you, go to lunch with you, but you have practice at 10 or 11. You're saying good-bye to them going to practice instead of saying good-bye to them from your apartment. 2, 3 o'clock, whenever that is, I think that makes a difference. You need to know -- I don't want my coaches coming in on Sunday. If they come in, it's on them. If my guys come in and shoot, it's on them. I know how I felt as a player when my family would come in and see me play a game. I wanted to be with them and not go to practice on Sunday morning. That's why I do that. There's a lot of coaches don't practice on Sundays, I think.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I can't share that (smiling). I'm a spiritual guy. My grandfather was a preacher coming up. There's certain things you believe in. I always pray for wisdom and knowledge. Sometimes it comes in my mind what I want to do in a game. I'm not this guy who walks around and not speak to people. I mean, not all coaches are like that. I really enjoy talking to assistant coaches a lot, I really do. I have friends that are assistant coaches. When I walk up and talk to them, I see the look in their eyes. "You're not supposed to be doing this any more." Why not? If we have a game with a team, I see a coach in the hallway, I'll stand there and talk to him because the preparation is already done, it's over. I just feel like in this business, you know, you need to be friends with people and try to help other people as much as possible. It's just the way I feel. I have people call me all the time telling me, "You shouldn't do this, shouldn't do this, shouldn't say this." Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe it is a game and you have to know the rules of the game to survive. I just feel like God has brought me this far, and He'll continue to take me further if I stay faithful with him.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I mean, it's a great feeling. I was watching something this morning, and they showed all the coaches, I mean some big-time names, took like 11 years for them to get to this point. This is only -- I think it's my first year. I really don't count last year. But, I mean, how can you explain that, getting to this point? I felt like we could get here. But it's just like, a boxing match. If you fighting Lennox Lewis, you don't have a game plan until you get hit. Once you get hit, "I can't win." Our guys won't give up. They just fight and fight and fight. Tomorrow we could lose by 30 because Maryland is a very good team. The best team we'll face this year is Maryland. I've seen them have teams down 30. They beat Wisconsin unconscious. Wisconsin beat us at home. I hope it's a good game.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Oh, every time -- every word, every word, every word. I played quarterback, imagine having a quarterback, can't get it out (smiling). The only reason I played quarterback because I was bigger than everyone else, I was stronger, I could run, I could throw. So they put me at quarterback. I wanted to be this big-time quarterback. But not realizing you had to call the plays out, you know. I didn't play football long, I can tell you that. But I moved to running back because at running back you don't have to say a word. They just hand you the ball and you run. I stopped playing football in the eighth grade because it was just too embarrassing. Football, they like for you to scream and holler, all that. I didn't like that, so I didn't play anymore. But it's a struggle. I just try to pray about it and take my time. I read some books, I read outloud. Whenever I read, I read outloud instead of reading silent. I just read outloud all the time.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Coach Newton is a gentleman. You know, he taught me that you can do it without being this embarrassing. He was a gentleman. When he left my sophomore year, it hurt me a lot because I wanted to play for him. But Coach Samuelson (phonetic) taught me about intensity. I mean, I would have ran through a wall for him as a player. Coach Samuelson's style is different from Coach Knight. He's always like begging all the time, the officials. But he's fiery. He was a great motivator, great motivator. I've had two coaches that I look up to, Coach Samuelson and Coach Newton. I think my style is similar to both guys because Newton, I try to be laid back sometimes, then with Coach Samuelson, you got to really be tough, be fiery. Both of them have been really good for me.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I met Dave at my first year at Indiana when I was recruiting. We used to talk a lot. We talked talk on the phone a lot, not all the time. But I'll leave him a voice mail, he'll leave me a voice mail. He's a great guy. I think he's a really good basketball coach. Just sitting around talking to him, talking to him on the phone, he's good. I really enjoy talking to guys like that. He's a good guy.