NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 29, 2002

Tom Coverdale

Mike Davis

Dane Fife

Jared Jeffries

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I think we've really improved this year in rebounding, so it's going to be a tough task tomorrow.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Just confidence, freedom. He knows if he misses a shot, it's no problem with me. I trust him shooting the basketball. He just has freedom to shoot. If he misses, fine. If he makes it, fine.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, the reason I set the offense up the way I did is for Jared Jeffries to cause confusion and havoc. We want teams to double-team us. That's our strength. He's an unselfish player. He'll pass the basketball. He won't try to hold onto it. That creates opportunities for other people.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I think that's right on. They're very aggressive. They're probably a better defensive team than Michigan State was this year, but Michigan has had some great defensive teams in the past. It's a tough team. Watching film, there's no weaknesses that I've seen. I've watched about seven or eight games. It's going to be difficult for us if we don't really execute tomorrow.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, about 40% (laughter). No, just kidding. I think he'll definitely play. How much, it depends on him. He's a tough guy. He played in the Wilmington game when he was injured. To keep him out, I think he has to be broken.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Sometimes coaches get credit for certain things. I think Dane Fife is really -- he's made our defense this year. It all started last year with him just every day in practice, every game, not one game that we've had this year that the officials haven't called Dane or whoever he's guarding over to have a discussion with them. So he's a fiery guy that I love as a player. He deserves all the credit for our defense because he's the guy every day that's putting out. He's the guy that we can watch film and point out things that he's doing on defense. If I was an opposing coach going against Fife, I'd probably tell somebody to break his legs because he's really good. If your best offensive player is not strong mentally, he can definitely take you out of it.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: He has no choice but to be ready. We played Louisville. I don't think anyone pressured like Louisville. Coach Patino is in a class by himself when it comes to pressing. Will it cause some confusion tomorrow and havoc? Probably will. But it won't be anything that we haven't really faced before Donald Perry. The only problem he's had this year, there hasn't been a lot of time for him to play with Coverdale playing so well. Coming into this season, I thought they would share equal time. But Coverdale has proven again that he's a really good basketball player. He's averaged about 32 minutes per game, so that's not a lot of time for Don to play. When he's played, he's had some very good moments for us.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Better be Dane Fife. If not, we may be in trouble anyway. But I believe in Fife as a defender. Price is a very good player. He's going to score his points. What I hope is not going to happen is you draw two fouls on Dane the first two or three minutes of the game.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I hope so. I mean, Jeffries is a big-time player, I think. When he went down this year at the end of the season with an ankle injury, it really hurt offensively. We have guys that can shoot the basketball. We have guys that can pass the basketball. If they're going to space it out like Duke did against us, then we have to go inside. I think it took us about ten minutes to realize that versus Duke. We don't have ten minutes to waste against Oklahoma because Duke is a great team, but Oklahoma defensively, they have seven or eight guys. They're really focused on defense. If they don't defend, then Coach Sampson, he won't leave them in the game.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I'm loose. I'm loose. I may be the only coach in this whole event that's changed a diaper. Wake up at 2:00 in the morning, getting juice for his little boy (smiling). I mean, we're the Cinderella team. You look at the other teams they're well coached, good basketball teams. I won't be nervous. It's the players who play anyway. They played great for us. They deserve a lot of credit. If you look at our basketball, no one would ever have thought that Indiana would be here. So it shows you a lot about the character of this basketball team, how hard they're playing, the plays they've made. I'm hoping it's a packed house tomorrow. I think I'm loose. Tomorrow may be a different story (smiling). As of right now, I'm loose. The only thing that bothers me right now is I'm worried that we may not score because of Oklahoma's defense (laughter).

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, it's been a struggle. I thought it was something that was normal and that you couldn't overcome. You know, I think sometimes when you're put in a situation that you have to improve, that's the only time that you really work on it. So I've been put in that situation, being the head coach at Indiana. It's really helped me to concentrate and focus on just taking my time.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, I don't think we match up with anyone in this tournament individually, other than Jared Jeffries. We have tough guys, Tom Coverdale, Dane Fife and Odle. Those guys are tough. When it comes to matchups, when it comes to heart and fighting, will to win, I think we have the advantage. The only thing about now is there's four teams left, and all four teams are tough teams.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: If he's getting a check for it, it would be wonderful, but he's not getting paid, so... He's good for me. I know a lot of people maybe don't agree with it. But he's -- he's really good because he takes my mind off of a lot of things. He doesn't really care if we win or lose. As a matter of fact, he picked Duke to beat us, Kent State, all the teams. But he loves basketball, he loves the players, they love him. They know if he's around, then I'm calm. Sometimes in practice I can get a little -- I can go to a different level as far as intensity goes. But he calms me down. I don't want him to hear me saying any bad words. I make sure I don't around him. He's good medication for me.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: It's true, we are the underdogs, if you think about it. We're fifth seed. We're playing a two-seed who probably was a one-seed. The other two teams are one-seeds. One, one and two, five, you definitely got to pick five to be the underdogs.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I think it was very difficult for me because I've never been a head coach before. I've never been really criticized before. I think sometimes I took it personal. But not realizing it wasn't about me, it was just about whoever was the head coach of Indiana. There have been some good things said; there have been some bad things said. But I try to focus on more than anything now is the basketball team and not getting caught up in what people think about me. I think the incident that I had after the Kentucky game, had a lot to do with the way I thought people felt about me. But I'm growing every day as a coach. I realize now that no matter what happened, it's not about me.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, he's the guy that opposing teams are trying to figure out how to stop. So since he has that presence, he's our guy. We play off of him. A break-out game, I think he's had a lot of break-out games. The Duke game was a great game for him because that was a game that we really needed. The Utah game, second half, I thought was his best game because that's the game that he stepped up for us and played well. It had been a long time since he played well offensively, over a month. We were fortunate enough to win basketball games while he was out. Our guys really stepped up and played well. Coverdale, to me, he's very important for this basketball team. Second team Big-10, I thought he should have been first team because of the way he's carried the basketball team at times.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, to me it's a blessing for me to be here. Every game is the big one for me. Now being in the Final Four, you know, I think about a lot of coaches that are a lot better coaches than I am that never made it to the Final Four. You know, Coach Keatie from Purdue is just an outstanding coach and had a great run. I still don't believe we're here. I thought we could get here, and I base that on watching Wisconsin a couple years ago, get here. Last night we had a deal, I'm sitting on the stage with Coach Williams from Maryland and Coach Williams from Kansas, and Coach Sampson from Oklahoma. For them just to know my name, it makes me feel good. It's unbelievable being here.

TOM COVERDALE: Right now it's really hard to tell because they haven't allowed me to do much on it. They just want me to rest and ice the whole time. You know, tomorrow at our morning practice will really tell a lot because they'll allow me to do some stuff on it.

DANE FIFE: I think it's certainly a lift for us. But that's Indiana. If you guys aren't from Indiana, that's what we experience every day. I mean, there's not a day that goes by in our practice we don't have 30 to 40 people at our practice. That may be stretching it a bit. It's Indiana basketball. I think the fans have come out of hibernation again because we're finally winning again.

DANE FIFE: That was my quote, "Coordinator" (laughter). It's more so the defense. Coach Davis has said this, he is the backbone to our defense. He serves as a mentor for Coach Davis. Coach Davis just oversees everything. But, again, Coach Treloar is our man on D. We look to him when we have a defensive question. He has been around. He's coached in Europe. He played the game. He's coached all over. He's had the chance to learn from several great coaches that he served under. Again, he knows the game very, very well. He basically serves as a mentor.

TOM COVERDALE: It's real frustrating. The most frustrating thing is to think we all worked so hard to get to this point, and there is a chance I won't be able to go out there with my teammates and give it my best shot. You know, there's still a chance. Hopefully I'll be out there, you know, competing with them tomorrow. If not, you know, Donald is a good player and he's going to step up and make some big plays for us. This team has proven they can win without me.

TOM COVERDALE: Like I said before, they didn't allow me to do much. I just shot some jump shots, you know, worked on some conditioning because that's the two main things I have to keep up if I'm able to play. You know, just tried to get a lot of shots up, which didn't feel too bad. But the main thing, you know, going to be sprinting and cutting on it. We'll find out more tomorrow.

JARED JEFFRIES: The coaches, they probably have Brown guarding me because McGee had been in foul trouble a couple times. Price may be on the double-team. It will a normal game-time thing. Have to see when I catch the ball on the post, find the open guy.

DANE FIFE: Well, I think getting under people's skin is everybody else's assessment. My assessment is basically if my guy scores, that's another point for the team. I've always prided myself on the ability to guard the other team's best guard. I don't consider myself a dirty player at all. I think generally if somebody comes down and gives me a shot that I don't like, I'm going to get them back. If they come down and talk trash to me, I'm going to start the trash talking, too. But I like the way Dennis Rodman plays. He usually just went out to play and really didn't say a word, just played his butt off the whole time. That's basically the way I see myself.

DANE FIFE: Well, he's certainly becoming folically challenged. He has really developed many gray hairs and his stress levels are probably more intensified with this situation. On a more serious note, Coach Davis, I think he's grown so much as a coach between last year and this year, it's unbelievable. That may be due in part that he has the head coaching job. I think he's learned a lot over the past couple of years. He's never been a head coach. He understands a little more what it takes to win and what it takes to motivate a team and get all the parts running. In a strategical way.

DANE FIFE: I don't care anything about it. Basically this is Coach Davis' team right now. People make the big question, "You're playing with Coach Knight's players." Then Phil Jackson is playing with Dell Harris. Patino is playing with Crumb's players. This is Coach Davis' team. We consider ourselves Coach Davis' players. We're here to win a championship together as part of Indiana University.

TOM COVERDALE: I think it just depends on the way Oklahoma chooses to play because we feel that Duke decided to just let JJ go one-on-one, and he really hurt them. Then Kent State saw that, decided to double him. We were able to knock down shots. Basically we're going to do what we've done all year and feed off JJ and see what the team gives us.

DANE FIFE: Well, when I played against him in high school, I thought he was soft. Really the first time he came and played against me, when he first got to college, his freshman year, he definitely proved me wrong there. I think he gave me a hip check into those basket supports, the old Indiana-style basket supports. I think Jared really gained himself another fan in me. He's just been an outstanding person for this team this whole year. He was playing with an injured ankle for a long time. That's when we started to struggle. Everybody could tell when Jared goes, we go. I think that's probably the same goes for Tom.

TOM COVERDALE: You know, I don't think this injury is going to be able to take away that. If you play a certain way all the time, I think this whole team plays that way. If I'm able to play, I'm going to play as hard as I can. I'm not going to play as hard as I can because I'm hurt. I don't think that's going to have any effect on the way this team has played throughout the whole tournament and the way we're going to play tomorrow.

DANE FIFE: You know, I've expected Tom to play all along. But, I mean, there may be a chance he can't. We've got a very good point guard right now called Donald Perry who can step in, bring the ball up, get us into our offense. All he basically has to do is get it past halfcourt and enter it into the wings. The main thing we're missing without Tom is a tremendous ability to put the ball in the hole. If Tom gets hot, it's very hard to stop our team. Again, I think Donald Perry can definitely fill the void. He can guard people. He really needs just to stay focused. He can't get caught up in being a freshman and playing like a freshman.

DANE FIFE: I was a bit surprised at what they said because I think we had a great relationship, Mr. Downing, Pat Knight. I think we had a great relationship. I was a bit surprised. But they have their issues with Indiana, and at the same time I understand that. But, you know, I was surprised. That's basically what I'm going to say.

DANE FIFE: I've always had the freedom to shoot, I just never could make any shots (smiling). When you shoot 3 for 50 from the 3-point range the first three years like -- like I did the first three years of my career, I don't think anybody expected me to shoot, and I didn't want to shoot. Basically Coach Davis, I do have to give him and his coaching staff all the credit in the world for bringing me out of my three-year shooting drought, so to speak.

TOM COVERDALE: Basically I've just had ice on my ankle for 24 hours a day. When I'm not in the training room, then when I'm in the training room, going through different cycles with the ice, whirlpool, you know, compression stuff to get the swelling out of the ankle, which has been successful. You know, just a lot of rehab, just trying to get it strong and ready to go tomorrow.

JARED JEFFRIES: Oklahoma does a really good job of pressuring the wings and putting pressure on you on defense. Whenever you bring the ball up the court, they do a great job of being physical. I think a lot of teams aren't used to that physicalness. I think last week we had 50 some fouls in a game. Hopefully they'll do the same thing against us and we'll hit free throws down the stretch and put them away.