NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 3, 2004

Will Bynum

Paul Hewitt

Marvin Lewis

Luke Schenscher

PAUL HEWITT: The two things that have allowed this team to be successful this year are defense and unselfishness. Again tonight, you know, our defense was very good in the first half. Obviously, in the second half they found a rhythm and scored well. But at the end of the of the game, in the second half, our unselfishness really paid off again. Started moving the ball a little better. At the end, there was no doubt that we were going to put the ball in Will Bynum's hands. We wanted to run a screen-and-roll from the top of the key. Because of his heart, his competitiveness, we felt that was the best option. Even the kids in the huddle, we talked about what we should run. I think Marvin is the one that spoke up, said, "Let's give the ball screen to top, just live with his decision." There's no doubt that if he's not on our team, we don't get out of the first round. He helped us win the Northern Iowa game, the last weekend we all know what he did, then today. I'm happy for him.

WILL BYNUM: I mean, this is the biggest shot I ever took in my life. I mean, it's like a dream come true, making a shot like this at this high level. I mean, words can't describe how I feel right now.

WILL BYNUM: No, I don't think it was because of the match-up. I mean, the coaches and players, they instilled a lot of confidence in me. They had confidence in me to take the last shot. Luckily I made it.

WILL BYNUM: I mean, I was upset that I missed the shot. Again, the coaches and the players told me to stay with it, stick with it, I'll get another opportunity. And I did.

WILL BYNUM: I mean, to me, I didn't feel any pressure. I mean, the only pressure I felt was going into the locker room if I would have missed the shot (smiling). I mean, other than that, I didn't feel any pressure.

LUKE SCHENSCHER: Yeah, everyone calls me the big fundamental (laughter). But I think after working my -- I work on my fundamentals, I don't have too much athleticism, natural athleticism anyway. That's how I get more points and get people open. Yeah, that's what they teach in Australia. We don't have the athletes like Americans have, so we have to go about playing different ways.

WILL BYNUM: Yes.

WILL BYNUM: He just congratulated me for making the shot. He said, "You got me this time." That's what he said.

WILL BYNUM: It felt even better to be against Oklahoma State. I mean, like words can't describe how I feel, so...

MARVIN LEWIS: It especially means a lot to me just because, you know, we're keeping this team together as long as possible. To be a senior, to go out this way, you know, you can't ask for anything else.

LUKE SCHENSCHER: Yeah, it's just great to be able to do this for Marvin and Robert, Mario, Dave Nelson, all those guys that are seniors now. It's their last year. They've been here for four years, whatever. It's great to be able to do it for those guys.

LUKE SCHENSCHER: Yeah, I think one thing I always had in the back of my mind was that my family was watching back home, this game, they got to see it. Same with the Kansas game. That always gives me extra motivation and edge when I know that they're watching back home. I think my whole town actually came to my place to watch the game at 7 or 8 in the morning. So they were all watching it back there. That gives me an extra edge to know that they're watching, gives me some confidence and motivation.

WILL BYNUM: Coming out of the huddle, coach said get the ball about 10 seconds left, run the screen-and-roll. If somebody is open, hit them, if not, take the shot. In my mind I was thinking, "Take the shot" the whole time.

PAUL HEWITT: I know he's telling you the truth there (smiling).

LUKE SCHENSCHER: With Marvin, just at the start there, to be able to get off like that, we were pretty stagnant on offense. He just stepped up and made those huge shots for us, like he's been doing all year long. I think that's what helped, especially my game inside, because no one could help off him then when he was making all those shots. He drew all the defense out. He may not have been scoring as much later on, but he was definitely freeing it up for other guys on the team.

MARVIN LEWIS: We have a lot of confidence in Luke. Every day in practice he works hard. Over the summer he's worked harder than anybody at getting better. I'm just excited that it's finally coming where he's getting rewards for all his hard work. I hope he just continues.

WILL BYNUM: I mean, we don't care about that. We're enjoying the moment, being here in college, playing for the national championship. I mean, I think I'm speaking for everybody when I say this. We don't really care about that right now. We came here to win.

MARVIN LEWIS: I think especially the last 10 minutes of the second half, Will did a good job of penetrating off the screen-and-roll. I said if we can get Will in the same position - because last time we got to the basket, he just missed the shot, and if we get him in position, I was coming up to the top of the key. He was going to take the shot I knew that, but if guys started collapsing on him, I was ready, too. I'm just happy he knocked it down and we're going to the championship.

PAUL HEWITT: It great to take this group or have this group take me actually to this point. Before the tournament started, we talked about each game represents a chance to keep this team together. This is a very close team. Earlier in the year we suffered a major injury, Theodis Tarver, who was playing well in the pre-season, dislocated his kneecap. It was pretty gruesome looking, a gruesome-looking injury. When we finally got him up off the court and up into the locker room, the trainers had him in the locker room, Clarence Moore brought the whole team together and said a prayer. We usually break the huddle, I'll say, let's say together. But from that point forward, they have always said "family." At the start of the tournament, I told them, "If you enjoy being around each other that much and you are truly a family, let's see how long we can keep this thing together." Now, honestly we're going to give it a great effort. I think we have an outstanding chance to win the national championship. But this team will be together forever. Any time something major happens in their life, they'll talk with each other, communicate with each other. That's the type of stuff I really enjoy about being a college basketball coach. The wins are great. The opportunity to stay involved with basketball is great. But watching a team like this evolve from pre-season, picked seventh, to now here we are getting ready to play for the national championship. That's something these guys will never forget. I may have another chance if I'm lucky enough to get back to that point, but these guys will never forget it. That's the good thing, positive thing about this experience.

PAUL HEWITT: Well, the one thing is time. Unfortunately today when people cover sports, they want it like now. Last year we lost a lot of game on the road. Everybody was making a big issue. "Georgia Tech can't win on the road." We had a freshman point guard. We were a young team physically and mentally. I never lost sight of the fact, my assistant coaches never lost sight of the fact, if you're building the program the right way, there's going to be steps. You don't go from zero to 60 in sports. Takes time to build it. We're in an age where everybody wants it right now. To me, we've made normal progress. The loss of Chris Bosh was absolutely significant. He was perfect for this team. He made a decision that everybody in this room would have made. We knew we had quality depth in the front court. We knew we had outstanding guards and great defenders. It was just a matter of going out and proving it. I think time is the only thing that we needed to get it together.

PAUL HEWITT: He and Clarence Moore have added an element of toughness to this team, and Will is a guy that thinks he can take anybody in the country. Sometimes it works in his favor, sometimes it doesn't work in his favor. The second game in Milwaukee was probably the toughest game I ever coached in my life. I think an awful lot of that young man. He's made some changes since he's come here both on and off the court. I sat him in front of his family for a lot of minutes. We went to dinner Tuesday night, I said, "Just hang with me, you're going to get your chance." Nevada he got his chance, delivered. Kansas he got his chance, delivered. There was no doubt where we were going at the end. I asked the kids, "What do you guys want to run?" Marvin spoke up. I said, "Let's go." I just keep telling him, "Listen to me, keep working with me, everything you want out of this game of basketball and education out of Georgia Tech is going to come with you. Be patient, keep working with me here." He's such a competitor. There's times I'm not the top of the hit parade with him. I understand that. It comes with his competitive spirit, which is one of the reasons why we're here.

PAUL HEWITT: Well, in that situation, this team, Oklahoma State, is so good defensively, they were giving us a lot of problems down the stretch, post entries. Middle of second half somebody said they had a right, Luke was getting a lot of easy touches, he was finishing. The post entries got tougher and tougher to make as the game went on. In that situation, you want somebody - you want to put the ball in somebody's hands, let them make a decision, give them a chance to break down the defense. I thought there were times when we let the lead slip away where we didn't allow ourselves time to allow something to break down, allow us to break the defense down. We tried to go one-on-one, one-on-two. We just thought if you put the ball in Will Bynum's hands, give him a ball screen, something good will develop. I can't say I envisioned him making the shot, but I knew something good was going to happen, something positive was going to happen.

PAUL HEWITT: That's a good question (laughter). I'm enjoying the ride. I mean, I wish we could pull away and win the games, because it's been the same thing. We've had second half leads. Just when we're about to the point where we're about to put our opponent away, they come right back at us. I think it says a lot about the quality of the teams we're playing. Maybe we tighten up a little bit. But the one thing I love about this team is even though things may not be going well on offense, they continue to defend, they continue to guard.

PAUL HEWITT: You just got to feel. As a coach, you have a feel of how the game is going. If you asked me before any game, the guys that we really think about getting the ball to in clutch situations, are BJ and Isma'il. I think they post-up stronger than anybody. They can create a situation where they're going to draw a lot of help, get an easy shot. As the game goes on, you just have a feel on things. Last week I thought we would get a chance to get Marvin fouled, great foul shooter. Today I wanted to put the ball in Will's hands. When you make a lot of passes against Oklahoma State, they get in the passing lane, you get a chance for deflection, turnover. I just wanted to put the ball in Will's hands and see if he could break down the defense and create a shot for somebody.

PAUL HEWITT: That was mentioned to me by one of the guys after the game. It is pretty ironic, especially when you consider how close Will was to going to Oklahoma State. He called me in the afternoon. The day that he made his decision, he called me around 6:00 and said he was coming here, that I'm getting ready to go down to my basement to watch some tape, 7, 7:30, an ESPN reporter came on and said Will Bynum is transferring to Oklahoma State. I said, "Okay." I thought maybe he changed his mind. About 11:00 that evening, the phone rings. "What are you doing? I thought you were going to Oklahoma State?" He said, "Coach, don't listen to reports. I'm going to Georgia Tech. This is when I'm reporting." We're lucky he made that decision.

PAUL HEWITT: No. When you play in our league, you know. People hear me harping on how good the ACC is. You know it's possession to possession. You got to win the next possession. Never throughout this entire tournament run in any of the five games did I see any doubt in their eyes. Even when BJ got hurt last Friday night against Nevada, they always have this resolve, "Let's just win this next possession." Playing in our league, you're conditioned that way. You can't worry about what happened the possession before. You got to get the next possession. If you start worrying about things that happened, you have no control over them. You'll get blown out and run out of the building.