NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 2, 2003

Roy Williams

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Well, two things. I was stunned by what went on in Chapel Hill. I talked to Matt several times down the line. I was stunned that it happened. The second answer to that question, I don't think it's fair. I said yesterday my team, my staff, myself, everybody, deserves to have the right to focus on this Final Four week. And regardless of what I say, the next guy's going to ask another question, and Ben Howland is a guy I love to death. Two weeks ago he said Pittsburgh's a destination. So, I mean, it's all just a bunch of garbage. I think my team deserves me to not have to answer those questions, and I haven't spent one second thinking about it except for the fact that nobody can understand English enough to take an answer, is that my team deserves me to be focused on what I am. I didn't think this decision would ever come up again, but it has, and it's already been a main in the rear-end.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Did it rule it out for Ben Howland?

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: He said -- I'm finished with this call.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: It's been extremely frustrating, and I don't know the best answer. I really don't. You know, people want you to say "I'm not interested," well, how the heck do I even know they're interested in me? People wanted me to say I wasn't interested in UCLA, drove me crazy over that kind of stuff. I never spoke to the UCLA Athletic Director. If he sees "Williams turns down UCLA," how does that make him feel when he never offered me the job in the first place? It's been very frustrating, but I'm focusing on Kansas. I think my team deserves the right to focus and enjoy this week. That's the way I'm going to look at it. If that's a problem for some people, they can have their problem because they're going to choose what they want to choose.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Thank you very much, Bill.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Thank you.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Okay. I think it means a great deal to the Big 12 to have two teams there. I think it meant a great deal to us last year. I used the word last year that I think we "legitimized" how good our league was. This year, we were all talking about we thought it was the best league. Somebody asked and I said, "There's one way to legitimize it, and that's by playing our tails off in the Final Four - by playing our tails off in the tournament." I think that we've done that. And to have three teams in the final eight again is something we should all be really proud of, and two in the Final Four. Hopefully, we can legitimize it even more (laughing). But the last question, I can't remember the first time I met Rick. I know both of us have the North Carolina ties. He's a guy that I have a great deal of respect for, a guy that I like, a guy that I enjoy. Several times during the course of a season if there's things going on in the conference or in the nation about college basketball, I will visit with Rick. Particularly if it's conference issues, I'll call him, he'll call me. You know, I think that even the stuff at the end, when they got a one seed and we didn't, and people tried to make something of that, you know, I tried to make sure, "Wait a minute guys now, this is nothing against Texas," because I love Rick's club and really do consider him a very good friend. We both end up at the same beach in South Carolina sometimes every now and then, too.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: I did. I can't say publicly what he said, but it was awfully funny (laughing).

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Well, he is. He enjoys life, enjoys what he's doing. I appreciate that part of him. He understood my comments and had no problems with them whatsoever. Some time when it's just me and you, I'll tell you what he said on the side.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Well, I worry about foul trouble and fatigue all the time with all of our players. I think it is something that is a huge point of concern, and it is particularly with Kirk because Kirk is so aggressive on both ends of the court that he does have -- not an opportunity, but he does take advantage of the opportunity to make a lot of fouls. But, you know, he's so much more experienced now than he has been. He's playing with foul trouble so much better. The Missouri game in the tournament is the one game where it really hurt us when he picked up his fourth foul, which was really not a very smart foul. But we need him in the game, and my guess is that we'll guard Marquette's perimeter players and change match-ups quite a bit to make sure that we do give them a different look and at the same time stay out of foul trouble.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: There were some mixed feelings. I don't know if they were bad, but there were some mixed feelings, nobody knowing exactly how it was going to be. At that time, I even made a statement that the four schools coming from the southwest would be the ones that would really benefit because of how important basketball was to the Big 8 and to these schools. I still think that today. Texas was one that basketball's been important, maybe even longer than the rest of the schools. I think the Big 12, our league has gotten stronger over the course of time with new coaches, new administrators coming in, that the sense of "Well, we're the old Big 8 schools," or "We're the southwest conf," or "We're the Texas schools," I think that has lessened a great deal. I think it's really been good for our league that now we do look at things together, and it truly is a fantastic league, very difficult in basketball, football, volleyball, about anything you want to talk about. But I think it's a league we're all very proud of.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Well, we'll still have our regular curfews and we'll still try to allow them to enjoy the atmosphere of a Final Four. But we will still have our curfews and try to do everything we can to keep them focused, too.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: "I like myself," is that one of those deals (laughing)?

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: That's probably a good way to put it, even though I wouldn't quite go that dramatic as "I like myself." Making peace, I think, with your goals may be better. I do have a goal and a dream of winning a national championship. At Kansas, we've tried very hard to be in a position to be one of those teams to do it all the time. Still, we haven't done it; yet still I feel that my life is pretty darn good. And if I coach for another 15 years and have the same relationships and some similar success at least that we've had these first 15, I'll feel very lucky regardless of whether or not I win a national championship. The junk that's going on right now, I mean, I'm not 99 percent focused on Kansas; I'm 100 percent focused on Kansas, and that's the way that it should be.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: He's a very good friend, a guy I have a great deal of respect for. We've played golf together many, many times. We're on the NABC Board together. I think Jimmy's very bright. He cares about college basketball. A couple years - I guess last year, year before, he won his 600th game. As you say, we have both been around. He's been around even longer. But we talked this week, we were on the phone together at a conference call with the NABC. We talked a little bit about "if," and it's a huge "if" for both of us, but "if" we make it to the final game, at least one guy's gonna leave with some of that load off his shoulders kind of thing. Jim is a guy that has accomplished a great deal. I think that he feels similar to me that as long as he can continue feeling good about himself and his players feeling good about him and the people at Syracuse feeling good about the way he runs their program, the fact that you win a national championship is not going to change any of that. The best line I've ever heard, I was an assistant in North Carolina in '82, and after the game I told Coach Smith I was so glad that we won so those guys would get off his back. He said, "I'm not really that much better of a coach right now than I was two and a half hours ago," and that has really stuck with me for a long time.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Well, I'd rather have talent first. If I had a second, it would be the experience. But what you'd really like to have is experienced talent. That would be the first choice of everybody. But I think it is talent first, particularly in college basketball today where so many of the top, top seniors are not there, you know, that those talented freshmen and sophomores can compete and do just as well as some of those seniors who may not be as gifted. But I feel very fortunate with Kirk and Nick as seniors to feel that they understand what's going on. But still, once the game starts, you still have to be able to play. I've said a couple of times that the fact that we were there last year is a help to us, but is it a help enough to determine an outcome of a game? I don't think it is. I'd say the same thing about experience. Is it a help, yes. But is that going to be the determining factor in a game? I'd say I don't think it is. I think it's how you play on that game night.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Well, I think, you know, last year was just fantastic because we hadn't been in nine years. So that feeling was something that was really, really special. This year, perhaps in some ways it's even more satisfying because it was a rockier road to us - I mean, to the Final Four for us. We had some more adversity to overcome. I think that the feelings are different this year. Again, I would describe this one as satisfaction, and last year I would just say exhilaration because, I mean, we were just so pleased after nine years of trying and being close but not making it the last years. Last year was really important.

COACH ROY WILLIAMS: It's strange, because of all the comments about experience. If you were to ask me to pick which one of our players last year played the best at the Final Four, I would pick Aaron Miles, our freshman. That's the reason I go back again to that experience is important, but it's not the biggest thing by any means. We tried, throughout the course of the year, to give Aaron a great deal of confidence that he was the guy that we wanted to lead our club. I'm sure Jimmy has gotten Carmelo to feel that same way, that he is extremely important. Then their play backs that up and gives you more confidence for you to give them more confidence. It's that cycle that you go through. I think to expect a freshman to be successful at the Final Four, I think you should expect a freshman to be successful. If he's been successful all year, you should continue to expect that. And, again, we had four guys who had been through not in the Final Four before, but we had four guys who had started the year before, and Aaron was the only new starter for us last year. In the semifinals against Maryland, I think he played better than anybody on our team.