NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 5, 2003

Nick Collison

Keith Langford

Roy Williams

COACH WILLIAMS: Needless to say, the first 25 to 30 minutes was sensational. You know, it was 7-7. I made up my mind that I wasn't going to look at the score the rest of the half, and I didn't. Running off at half, I had a hard time finding the score board, but I felt like we were in pretty good shape. To look up and see that margin, it really just emphasized how well we had played. Even though we played so well, we realize they missed some open shots. It was a fortunate day for us in that area, that they did have some open looks that we gave them, that they missed those shots. I think the biggest thing for us was offensively we kept attacking. I think that was something we talked about all the time throughout the course of the entire season, emphasized it in the locker room before the game today. We did a great job. I feel very, very fortunate and very, very pleased.

KEITH LANGFORD: Well, earlier, like the day before the game, somebody asked us about our transition game. I said that us running, you know, every team is capable of running. It's not us running faster than anyone, it's just the fact we're going to continue to do it. I think a couple of possessions they kind of celebrated the score. We were on the other end attacking and scoring. We got a couple easy baskets. We just kept pushing.

NICK COLLISON: Yeah, Keith, when he gets out and runs, creates some separation from himself and the point guard, really stretches the defense, puts a lot of pressure on the defense. He's as good a player as there is I think in the open court. It's all about him getting out of those first few steps, getting in the court, looking to pitch it ahead to them.

KEITH LANGFORD: No, I didn't change shoes. I mean, the first half was going too good to change shoes. The superstition, I really tried to grow out of it. Usually I change it if I'm not playing as well offensively, or something like that, in the first half. But, you know, I've tried to mature. You know, if something is not going offensively, I can try to step up as far as defense or rebounding or something like that. Offense is not the whole part of my game, and it shouldn't be. So I really tried to grow out of that and keep on the same pair of shoes the whole game.

KEITH LANGFORD: I mean, we've been focused the last few games. But, you know, I just felt there was a certain determination from everybody. You know, everybody was so confident from, you know, Kirk to Mike Lee to everyone. Everyone was determined to come out here and do what we've been talking about all year. We was just going to attack and go through with our game plan.

KEITH LANGFORD: Well, I mean, Coach Williams always says, you know, attack, attack, and be patient. At the same time, I found some gaps, other guys found some gaps. I mean, I can't really say. We watched film. They were a really good team defensively. I think we were probably just a step quicker for a while. We attacked. I think attacking early got them back on their heels.

KEITH LANGFORD: It could easily be both. I mean, Marquette beat Kentucky by 15,16. We win by 30 points. It's all about who's playing well on that night. I mean, anybody can be beat on any night. We've been beat by several teams that were unranked this year. So it's just day to day. You know, you just have to be consistent. We've just tried to keep our play consistent regardless of the opponent.

COACH WILLIAMS: I cannot remember any time where we've done that kind of thing. We're a team of runs. You know, we feel like we have some kind of a mentality on the offensive end that we can get some things going and make a run or two during the course of the game. You know, I'm sure it is or you wouldn't ask me that question, but 18-4, 18-4, that's pretty impressive. In the second half, the Arizona State game, the second round of the NCAAs, we shoot like 70% for the game, so we were sensational during that point, made 14 in a row. We talk all the time about different points of the game really important. Nick always thinks that last three or four minutes of the half is most important. I'm always saying, you know, it's not that important because I don't want us to feel bad if we don't play that well. I realize that it is because it gives you some momentum going into the locker room. Basically, the start that we got off in the second half basically determined that the game was over with.

NICK COLLISON: Well, you know, it's everybody's dream I think to play in the national championship game and win it. I think, you know, we're just at that step where we have one game to play. If we play well, you know, we have a great shot at winning. You know, it's all -- all you can really do is focus on the next game. Like I told the team, try not to read any papers, watch SportsCenter, anything like that. All we have to do is focus on who we play.

NICK COLLISON: It's never really been a problem. You know, we're in the Final Four. We've been playing all season. We've had a hundred-some practices, conditioning, running line drills. So I think when you get to this point, you've put in all that work, that you just focus on the game. That's the biggest thing. Everything else is extra and doesn't really get to us.

NICK COLLISON: I think we did a good job of getting stops. We didn't rebound as well. When we get stops, that gives us opportunity to run. It just really went well.

NICK COLLISON: Well, I think, you know, our goal was to win a national championship from Day 1 this season. I think we felt like we had enough talent to do it. But we realize a lot of other teams had as much talent as us. I think that's a goal that we had. We're definitely not surprised. I mean, it has gone well, especially later in the season we really started to play well.

NICK COLLISON: You know, I think we've been in situations where we've let teams get back into a game in that stretch. You just have a totally different mindset coming out, I think. If they were to cut the lead down to 14, like Arizona did earlier in the year, instead we push it up to, you know, 20-some, it's just a totally different mindset at halftime if you can make a push, you know, towards the end of the first half.

NICK COLLISON: I think early we weren't playing together, we weren't playing the way Coach wanted us to. Guys were taking too quick of shots. You know, I really don't know what it was. We really weren't playing well. The biggest thing with our team is we stuck together, we stuck by Coach. There's a lot of teams that would have started out poorly, would have started blaming people, blaming the coach, blaming their teammates. We realized we were playing bad. You know, we took responsibility ourselves to change it. We're really a totally different team than we were in November.

KEITH LANGFORD: Nope.

NICK COLLISON: Nope.

NICK COLLISON: We did get some clips from the game. We never watch the entire game. I think if we would have seen it, I don't think it would have changed anything. We had a lot of respect for Marquette, realized that they're very talented, would be a tough opponent. You know, I think we just realized we had to play our game, you know, whatever happened, that would happen. I think this time of year, you just go out and try to play on game night. What happened before, what happens later doesn't really matter.

COACH WILLIAMS: That winning's a lot more fun than losing. I think that's the biggest thing. But, you know, this is my 25th year as a college coach, first 10 years as an assistant with Coach Smith, then last 15 as head coach in Kansas. You have dreams with each and every team you coach you might be possibly be able to accomplish. Nick said something I thought was extremely important. When we were 3-3, and I still have on my desk the headline in the article about the biggest disappointment this year, it's Kansas. And I think that what Nick said about everybody sticking together, in the Oregon game, even though we came back and played very well in the second half, showed them like 12, 14 clips, of us taking a shot that really wasn't the best shot with over 20 seconds left on the shot clock. I emphasized to the kids it wasn't because they were being selfish, it wasn't anything like that. What it was what the kids say, "Hey, we're in bad shape, I've got to do something." To try to stress to them that it's not, "I've got to do something," it's, "We've got to do something." After that, they understood that part a little more, we started getting better shots. Today our defense got us some easy ones on the break. We end up shooting 53% for the break. Last five minutes we were something like 1-15, something crazy like that. I do think every coach has big-time dreams. If you're a coach at Kansas with Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich on your team, you should have big-time dreams. We're going to try to work as hard as we possibly can to see if we can make those dreams come true.

COACH WILLIAMS: Well, you know, I think we might be making a little bit too much of it because tonight we had some steals and some turnovers 25, 30 feet from the basket. In that situation, they don't have an opportunity to get their defense back, so it looks even prettier. But we realized, we caught Marquette on a night when their shots weren't going in and they were making some turnovers they normally would not make. It is an attitude. I've always felt like that, that we're going to try to attack you. I've always said that we can win in the 50s or 60s, but we just enjoy playing more in the 80s or 90s. That's the way we try to practice every day. Sometimes the opponent will not let you play that well, then you've got to be able to execute in a half-court offense. We do work very hard to be able to execute in a half-court offense, but if we get the break, we want to take that. That's the first thing we look for. We've got to do a good job on the defensive end of the floor or you don't get those opportunities.

COACH WILLIAMS: I'm one of the guys that I never really watch the score during the course of the game. I always try to focus on the play and let that determine my evaluation of how we're playing, and not just look up at the score. For some reason, I looked up and it was 7-7. I mean, I've gone a lot of times in a game, I'll go the whole first half, never look at the score. I did look up and it was 7-7. I didn't look up the rest of the half. In fact, I was running off at halftime, I was trying to find the score board to look at to see what it was. I got almost to our locker room and was able to see above some of those temporary stands the score board on the end. So that's really nothing unusual for me because I do try to focus on how we're playing. Like I say, when I saw it was 59-30, it just sort of confirmed that I thought we were playing pretty doggone well. What we thought about and what we talked about, I remember a hundred years ago, I was watching TV, Kentucky with 12 minutes to go, started shooting 3s every shot, started beating LSU. I'm not saying that because I'm in New Orleans, I just remember that game. I also know with Novak and Diener, the way they can shoot 3s, they can score points just as quickly as we did. I also know that we have Arizona this year at our place by 20 and we lose by 17. That's a 34-point swing. I mentioned that to them at half. I told them I wanted them to play. We came down here trying to focus on playing the best basketball we can. You know, the question about, "Do you feel sorry?" You always feel compassion for the other kids, you always feel compassion, particularly for me, for the other coach. But you can't tell your kids to stop playing. You know, we didn't press, we didn't -- but you still got to play basketball. Did I feel compassion for them? There's no question. But, again, I don't focus on how bad we beat somebody, I focus on how we're playing. I love Tommy Crean, I think he's one of the great guys in coaching. He is a great coach. He's going to accomplish great things in his career. Wade I think is a big-time player. Diener and Novak, they make those shots. I really do like their team. My kids, they're being kids. I try to tell them all the time, "Let's focus on playing and try not to look at the score." If you don't look at the score, you don't have that feeling as much.

COACH WILLIAMS: We talk all the time about getting the ball inside by dribble or pass, and Keith gets it inside by dribble better than anybody we have. You need a third option scoring all the time. Keith has really supplied that for us and has done a great job. Sometimes he is overlooked, I don't think there's any question. I was really surprised he didn't make second or third team all-conference this year because I think he's that level of player for us.

COACH WILLIAMS: I go back to the same answer I gave the gentleman over there, they were turning it over some 25 and 30 feet on the court, so they don't have a chance to get their defense back. You know, sometimes we did get it off the board and push it. We got it out of the net sometimes and pushed it. I think today some of those turnovers, and we were in a frenzy defensively, that's one of the things we wanted to play, defense in a frenzy, be effective, be going after the basketball and things. I think you did that on the defensive end, it translates to easy baskets.

COACH WILLIAMS: There's no question, I hope it has a psychological impact. I mean, you know, if we can make them really work to score and then we can get it out and run back while they're still feeling real good about themselves, I think it does bother them. Again, some of these two-on-ones and three-on-ones were off of turnovers. But we do work every day trying to get it out of the net, trying to get it off the board, trying to push it the other end. A hundred years ago when I played, I loved to play that way. All I could do was shoot layups and pass. For me, I like that. Kids love to play that way. Fans love to watch it. That's what we're going to try to do.

COACH WILLIAMS: I hope not, because then some people could say we reached the pinnacle of our game today. I hope there's some left in us. I just thought Marquette was sensational. We do put together tapes to try to give our team information. I said, "Let's not take too many clips, too many plays from that Kentucky game." Because they really did, they were sensational. But I think college basketball, you're still dealing with 19 -, 20 -, 21-year-old kids. Who knows what's going to be in their mood the next day. So our focus is to play the best we can, practice the best we can tomorrow, and hopefully be able to play the best we've played the entire season on Monday night.