NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 31, 2002

Tom Coverdale

Mike Davis

Dane Fife

Kyle Hornsby

Jared Jeffries

Jeff Newton

Jarrad Odle

DANE FIFE: Very good question.

DANE FIFE: That's all. I mean, it's really -- we're going to have to rely on our outstanding coaching staff to give me -- I'll probably be the one that's guarding him -- to give me a good scouting report. It's very hard to stop a guy like Juan Dixon, especially the way he's been playing.

TOM COVERDALE: You know, I think that's something we've done great all year is putting Dane on a guy like that, then just play great team defense. I don't think you can stop him with just one person.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, I feel good about it because the guys really played well down the stretch of the season. Like I said last night, it's really not me, it's them.

JARED JEFFRIES: No, I don't remember nothing about it. My mom, she watched it. My father probably did. They have it on videotape. I seen videotape when I got a little older. I was probably six or seven then. That probably wasn't a real big priority.

JARED JEFFRIES: Hornsby didn't have a TV back in Louisiana then. Mostly radio comments (laughter).

DANE FIFE: Well, it certainly allowed guys like Newton and Odle to develop their game, especially in a game-type situation more. It allowed them to, I guess, show their skills and maybe gain confidence in themselves because we were depending on them to score more for us, and to give us more minutes. It definitely developed them more and gave them confidence. But, again, we wouldn't be who we were without Jared Jeffries and the way he can play at 90, 100%. We wouldn't be here.

JARRAD ODLE: I think, you know, every kid obviously, once he starts playing basketball, dreams about playing college basketball. Then there's always that ultimate goal of making the Final Four and playing for a National Championship. Living in the State of Indiana with basketball being so rich in tradition as it is, really brings a lot of satisfaction to myself to know that I've worked my way through it. With these teammates, we're basically playing a kid's dream and living it out. Hopefully Monday night, we still have some work to do, and hopefully we can get it done.

TOM COVERDALE: I think it will sink in a lot more once the season is over. Right now we still have one game left to go. We're just concentrating on that. I don't think you have time to get caught up in all that, you know, think about what it means or any of that because you still have one game left to go.

JARED JEFFRIES: I mean, definitely once you like really get caught up in the tradition of Indiana and you get a chance to see how much the fan support. I was telling the guys on the way over here, the way Indiana fans support this basketball team was unbelievable. For the last couple years, they haven't had a lot to cheer for you. Right now you see the pride in us winning these last couple games.

TOM COVERDALE: I think it was limiting, but I don't think it was any excuse the way I played towards the end of the game. So I think it will be better on Monday night. It was pretty sore after the game. But I think it will be better Monday than it was Saturday.

DANE FIFE: I was listening to the sports reporters this morning on ESPN. One of them said that we don't have a chance, but the other came back and said he wouldn't be surprised if we won the game. He didn't think we were an underdog. That was probably the first media person I'd ever heard give us a chance this year, outside of Indiana. I think that basically sums up what I think. We don't consider ourselves underdogs, although everybody else does. We believe we can win this basketball game, just like we have all season.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, we haven't practiced on Sunday since I've been here. I just feel like, especially now, what can you do? We know our basketball team. Coach Treloar and our coaching staff watched tapes to prepare our guys for tomorrow's game. I don't think it makes any difference about practicing today or not.

JARED JEFFRIES: Also, we've been having two-a-days this whole tournament. Don't get it twisted that we haven't been going hard. Before we had our shoot-around on Thursday or Friday, we had a two-hour practice. Don't think it's a big time off (smiling).

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, you know, when a guy is playing the way he's playing, you hope he has an off-game. He's playing unbelievable. He's probably the best player in the tournament. I think I saw somewhere where he needs 23 points to move up scoring in a tournament. It's going to be a difficult game for us if we don't control him. He's a tough-minded guy. Just listening to him talk in his interview, he's the guy who is on a mission. He wants to win the championship in the worst way, and you can tell. He's going to put Maryland on its back to try to do that. What we have to do is to make sure we play really good team defense and give Dane a lot of help.

TOM COVERDALE: I don't know. People can root for who they want to. But I know that there will be a lot of Indiana fans here rooting for us, just like there has all year. That's the only thing we really care about, so... We've got a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon these days that didn't believe this from day one. We know from day one it's just been the team and the coaching staff and our loyal fans that have believed in us. So it doesn't really matter.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I called him last night, and he wouldn't return my call (laughter). Dave, we talk a lot. Before we played Duke, I just called him and asked him a couple things. He just shared some things with me. We had a tape of the game, so I watched the tape a lot. Dave, I've been saying this for a long time, he's a very good basketball coach. Back-to-back Final Fours to him. I'm just hoping he gets a job out of this.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I think I said a lot of things (smiling). People, they made a great point about Indiana being in the front and no names on the back because it's not about anyone but Indiana. If I win the National Championship, I can do anything I want to do. If they want to have the names on their warm-up, we'll put them on the warm-ups. Put them on the back of the jerseys, I don't want a thousand phone calls telling me why not to put them on, so I won't put them on.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: AJ is okay. AJ saw Hornsby and knew he was coming into the game. He had to put the show on for everyone.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, I'm always hearing different things. I was glad they were talking about Coverdale because I knew he would play. I kept saying he's 40%, 50%, 60%. Then I said 70%. Everybody thought, "Okay, he's going to play." I said, I'm going to tell them 40% again to keep people off guard. He wanted to play. He kept telling me that the whole week, "Coach, I'm okay, just forget I'm hurt." Like I told him last night during the game, he got us here. He deserved the opportunity to go out there and play.

TOM COVERDALE: What was your question again?

TOM COVERDALE: Yeah, like you said, it stiffens up. I just got to keep it loose as much as possible. I think it does hurt a little bit when I get taken out of the game (looking at coach and smiling). You know, like I said last night, when Donald is playing the way he is at the end of the game, there's no reason for me going to the game. I seriously think we wouldn't have won the game without Donald last night, the great plays he made down the stretch, so...

COACH MIKE DAVIS: See, he forgot your question. That's why sometimes I have to take him out of the game (smiling).

COACH MIKE DAVIS: We talk about it all the time. I try to make it a daily deal where we talk about being unselfish and being a team. There's very few basketball programs that are real basketball teams because you have so many outside influences, you have friends, parents talking about why coach is not playing you, why are you not shooting the basketball, you should shoot more. I always try to talk to them about, "Think about winning, whether you play five minutes or 25 minutes. It's just try to concentrate on winning." It's hard sometimes. But I understand that. I do understand when you have guys on your team that want to play and they're not playing, not playing the minutes they think they should. But it's really difficult sometimes to be fair in that department. I just try to make sure that we are on the same page. I have a good feel for people, for players. I know when they're up or down. I know when they want to play all the time. I just try to make sure that we're always talking about team.

DANE FIFE: No (laughter).

KYLE HORNSBY: I can dunk, so.... I can do that - not very well. But I think we just know how to play well together. It's not necessarily that we're extremely athletic, as you can probably see out there. But we're athletic enough to do the job and get the job done. That's what it all comes down to.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I tell you how slow they are. During pre-season conditioning, I would challenge Fife and Hornsby and Coverdale to race, because I was watching them run. I say, "I can out-run those guys." Ended up pulling a hamstring trying to do it.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, I hope I get a raise (smiling). I do. I can handle it because, as I said from day one, I'm just a basketball coach. It's not who I am. I just coach basketball. But I'm a different guy. Over the last couple days, I understand how some coaches can forget who they are. When people start patting you on the back. I've had three guys kiss me, tell me they love me. If you don't know who you are, it's easy to get caught up in it. It's just a basketball game. It's something that I love to do, something I think I'm good at. It's the only thing I can do as far as working because I don't want to work nine to five. I tried that a couple times. Once I'm off the basketball court, you know, I try to be a father and a husband.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, if Jeff plays any better, he'll probably put his name in the NBA draft next week. He was great last night. We'll need George Leach to play well and Odle and Jeffries. I think it's good they have four big guys playing well. George stepped up last night and played well for us. Wilcox I think is a big-time basketball player. He's athletic, can run and jump. Baxter is a handful. I was disappointed last night that he got in foul trouble because he probably got his bad game out of the way. I watched him play thinking UConn, where he had 27 points. I was thinking to myself, "If we play tomorrow, how do we guard him?" It's difficult. They have four big guys who are really good.

JARED JEFFRIES: Like coach said, those two guys are really talented and they play well. They also have two other guys come off the bench, Tahj and Randle. They really do a good job of working together. I think when Wilcox and Baxter come in the game, they kind of beat you guys. Those guys come off the bench, have a really good rotation inside.

JARRAD ODLE: Well, when this season started, I don't think we had too many people that thought we were going to do anything. Our guys on the team and our coaching staff and our trainers and managers, we knew we had a lot of talent and a lot of skill. As the season progressed, our hearts got bigger and we played harder every game. That's what our coaching staff tried to instill in us. That's what we did every day. We tried to block the media stuff out. It seems like we play a little better when we're the underdog every game. We're that way again tomorrow night. It's obviously going to take a big game for us to beat them. But I think we can do it.

JARRAD ODLE: To win the Big-10 when you're not expected to was definitely a great accomplishment. To be playing in the National Championship game with that chance to take that banner home, it really says a lot for this team and how much we've been through and how far we've come. Personally, I'm excited to go back to the state of Indiana. I kind of want to spend the rest of my life there. To be a member of a National Championship team, I think there's no better way to spend the rest of my life.

DANE FIFE: Really after that game, I was just focused on the Big-10 tournament, then hoping to get past the first and second round of the NCAA tournament. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that we would actually be here. I always pictured in my mind that, sure, we could be here, but never reality. It would mean much more to have a number up on the championship, the NCAA Championship, banner than just an appearance in the Final Four. That's what we all came here to do.

DANE FIFE: I personally went in and told Coach Treloar he didn't have to shave it if he didn't want to. He's getting older, starting to thin out, he's going to be bald in a few years anyway. Coach Treloar, he tried to make the excuse that he thought the whole team was going to shave it. Actually, Coverdale said he was going to shave it if he won the Big-10 Championship. He hasn't. We have a lot of people who aren't true to their word on this team, obviously (smiling).

JARRAD ODLE: You know, not a whole lot. Just what you see at the bottom of the ESPN ticker going across there. I think this is their First National Championship game they've played in. You know, when it comes down to it, everybody puts the uniform on the same way. No matter what the history, if you're playing your best basketball at the end of the season, you have a chance to win it.

DANE FIFE: I agree with Jarrad somewhat. I do have a pretty solid history dating back not too far, but when Joe Smith played, Lauren Proffit, all those guys. I had a roommate whose father went to Maryland. He'd call and e-mail me about the Terps and how well they're going to do each year. He's kind of been in my face ever since. I think it would be pretty nice -- I think it's a great situation for me to be able to, all in good fun, talk a little trash with him before this game tomorrow.

TOM COVERDALE: Growing up in Indiana, I became good friends with Tom Abernathy (phonetic) who was on the championship team in '76. He stopped by my room last night to check on me. Other than that, that's about the only person I've talked to besides the people that are always around, like Todd Leary (phonetic) and Landon Turner (phonetic). But that's about it.

KYLE HORNSBY: Say that one more time.

DANE FIFE: I didn't get that either.

KYLE HORNSBY: Well, that's hard for me to answer because I don't think I ever did actually. I mean, I think he understood coming into the job that there were going to be high expectations. I know that Coach Davis was up to that challenge. He's willing to tackle any kind of problem he has. That's what kind of guy he is. I think he was ready for that challenge. Of course, it's going to be hard - all challenges are. Me personally, I don't think I ever did because I think he understood that.