NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 1, 2002

Tom Coverdale

Mike Davis

Jared Jeffries

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Again, I thank God for this opportunity because who would have thought Indiana would be playing for a National Championship. It's truly a blessing for us to be here and to be able to compete against the best basketball team in the country. I thought we fought hard. The first half, I think we came out a little tight, but they were, too. Going in down six, I thought we were in the right position for the second half. We came out flat, and they came out flat. But we got it going, and it was a great game down the stretch. We couldn't make shots because they did a great job of taking away our open 3-point shots. When we took them, they were contested. We hesitated just a little bit because of their defense. Coach Williams did a great job preparing his team for our team. I think Indiana basketball's future is bright. It just needs to continue, just keep working, and hopefully next year we'll come back.

JARED JEFFRIES: I mean, I wouldn't necessarily say they bumped us off stride. But they were definitely physical. Down low, it's just a matter of putting the ball in the basketball. We had certain shots that would kind of go in, rim-out. They did a good job of preparing for us on defense.

TOM COVERDALE: It didn't feel too bad. You know, I was able to play. So there's no excuse for anything I did wrong. You know, I was happy with my play for the most part, but I thought I turned the ball over and made some mistakes, just like everybody else. But you have to give credit to Maryland because they did a great job.

TOM COVERDALE: You know, I thought their inside defense was great. That allowed them -- they didn't have to double-team as much, they could just lock down on our shooters. We haven't really faced a defense that could do the things that they did.

JARED JEFFRIES: I mean, right now, it's more a feeling of coming up short. Maybe a week from now, if we all look back, maybe it will be a little bit different. But right now it's just the feeling of coming up short.

TOM COVERDALE: We definitely feel like we came up short. We had a chance late in the second half to make a run at them. The score was tied. They made the plays down the stretch, and we didn't.

TOM COVERDALE: I think it's hard to think about that right now. We're disappointed that we lost. We'd rather still be out on the court right now. But I think when we look back, we'll be proud of the fact that we got Indiana back competing for a National Championship again, and hopefully we'll be back here again next year.

JARED JEFFRIES: Kind of like he said, I mean, for the most part, this is a stepping stone for Indiana basketball. It's established, and showed the country how Indiana is going to play in years to come, that this style of play can win championships.

TOM COVERDALE: Yeah. You know, that and some offensive rebounds. They just made the plays that championship teams make. You've got to give them credit.

JARED JEFFRIES: I'm going to take a little bit of time just to kind of decide what's going to be best for myself and my family. I mean, this is definitely going to weigh into my decision just because it's such an emotional thing, it's such a large part of my life right now.

TOM COVERDALE: I think we just settled down a little bit. At the beginning we were just caught up in all the hype, a little tight, short on our shots, trying to do things we weren't supposed to do. Once we calmed down, our offense got a lot better.

JARED JEFFRIES: I mean, they did a really good job as far as just contesting shots. They really didn't do a whole lot of fouling. Not a lot of bumps. They did a good job of not going across the arms and just contesting shots.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I thought they really set the standards for the way it's going to be from here on out. Both guys played with a lot of emotion, a lot of passion, played with their hearts. Fife is a warrior. He plays every possession the way you want players to play. Odle came on in the Big-10 and played well down the stretch. Both guys should be really proud the way they played down the stretch in the season.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: No. I thought we missed a couple of shots. We gambled defensively. They got rebounds and put them back in. It was them more than us. We couldn't block out. I think Dixon hit a shot. He got a rebound. We were down four. Nicholas made a lay-up, because of the double-team. They got offensive rebounds and free throws. That really hurt us more than being tired.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I thought they did a great job in the passing lanes. Really chesting us up defensively. We weren't strong with the ball. They always kept their hands on it. When we had open looks, they were there. It was similar to what Duke did to us. It took away our open looks. But we can get some looks. We made ten 3-pointers. They only made two. They only made one more field goal in this game than we did. We got more shots. I'm happy -- not happy, but I thought we did the best we could do not making some shots that we probably should have made.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: He's so physical. He was just kind of bulling our guys out of the way. He would step in real hard. He got the ball point-blank. Once you get it point-blank, there's nothing you can do.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I think we went further than any team could go, other than Maryland. I mean, I've said from day one that we could be here. I base that on what Wisconsin did a couple years ago. It's all about playing defense, playing team basketball. Jared Jeffries leaves, it's definitely going to affect this basketball team, no question about it. His development to me is right on schedule to being one of the best basketball players in the country. But if he leaves, then who knows. We have great guards coming in, I mean, really good guards, with speed and quickness, they can shoot the basketball. I mean, we'll see.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, we threw the ball away a couple times, and we probably should have -- the passes were there. It's just we bobbled them. Once we bobbled the ball, they came up with the loose balls. In the past games, we got every loose ball. Tonight they got all the loose balls. They were still quicker than we were.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: You know, we played Duke, we got caught up in emotion, running down the court. We were down 17. The same thing tonight. I have no idea why we were trying to run against this team. We got the ball inside. We wanted to early. We had open looks. But we spent so much energy trying to run the fastbreak. It really hurt us. We missed -- I told our guys we missed four lay-ups and we missed free throws. We only had seven free throws, must have all been in the first half. We missed two front ends and one, one and one, I think. We were only down six. Just came out and controlled the tempo. We have to control the tempo to be a very good basketball team. When I say "control tempo," we have to take shots with seven and eight seconds on the clock, not 30 and 29, unless there's just a wide-open look.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: It was a great called game. The officials in this game are the best. I thought they did a great job. We fouled them. We had to foul. They were point-blank for lay-ups. Baxter and those guys did a great job of just posting us up. The reason we didn't draw fouls is because we took a lot of five-foot shots instead of taking the ball to the basket. I thought the officiating was great. I thought the officiating has been great the whole tournament. It's been great.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: The victory was won. There's so many people who appreciate me speaking about my faith, and that's the victory. You know, the score board, we wanted to win, but to have people call me and tell me they really appreciate that, that I've helped them spiritually, that means a lot to me. So that's what I mean by already claiming the victory is won. We had a chance tonight, but Maryland is a much better basketball team than we are.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I love to coach. I love to prepare for games. I love to see the development of players. I think we've had -- go down the list, Newton, Jeffries, all our guys have made great strides this year. Next year we have Brayson Wright coming in, Marshall Strickland, Darryl PeGraham (phonetic). I think Brayson and Marshall are fantastic. To be able to play the way we did this year, and bringing those guys in, it's really going to take us to another level. They can go make plays. But what they have to do when they come in is play with the same intensity as a Dane Fife did this year. I love coaching. I couldn't do anything else. I probably should have sold some T-shirts in this Final Four deal, but I don't want to do anything but just coach.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: No question. Fife played him well. For him to score 18 points on nine attempts tells you what kind of basketball player he is. We knew he would be a handful. He's really a good basketball player. I think he's the best player we played against this year other than Jason Williams. They both are in the same class. He's a special guy. Fife was playing the best he could play him.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: It just tells you he has no fear. If you listen to the young man speak in his interviews, he says it all. Tells you what kind of player he is. Your best player, if you are going to win a best championship, your best player has to step up and make plays. And he did that. He got them off to a great start. I think he was four for four in the first half, two for two from the free-throw line, and down the stretch when we had the momentum, he stepped up and played well.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Thank you very much.