BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2002

Caron Butler

Jim Calhoun

Ben Gordon

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Well, you know, obviously we hadn't played Notre Dame, it was kind of different in the sense that, the way the league is now set up, it certainly wasn't an out of conference game. But the matchups were different. I really thought that Thomas was good before. He's better than that. Humphreys, in the first half, was just a tough, tough matchup. Johnnie Selvie, we switched him late in the first half. Johnny really did a tremendous, tremendous job in the second half. Ben and Caron made big baskets for us. I thought we defended well. And a lot of credit to our defense in the last ten, twelve minutes of the game. I thought we played well, ran out well, and just missed a few baskets. Otherwise, I think it was a great performance against an awfully good Notre Dame. Awfully difficult team for someone to play in the NCAA tournament. They can stretch you, terrific post player, pass the ball exceptionally well. They find each other. I thought we did a good job of finding them. That was the key to the game. Made some baskets ourselves.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Yeah, to us, as you know, that's always kind of gets us going. Because we either get steals or rebounds, we run very well out of there. Caron made a tremendous effort, missed the layup. This was caught in his feet. Other time he slid. But we were running. That's the key. The key, we really put a great deal of effort in getting the ball up-and-down the court. We started the game off just to make sure we pressed. We had not seen many other teams fully press Notre Dame. The fear being what you saw a little bit late in the second half when they started to get the threes out of it. For us, if the game could get more ratty and athletic, we thought we were quicker as a team and we could take advantage of that. I certainly think we did. I think the defense down the stretch was great. The threes that Thomas made, I'm not sure we're going to stop them now or later or next week (smiling).

COACH JIM CALHOUN: They start three seniors up front. I think you make a great point. Being in Madison Square Garden on a Friday night is different. I think we had terrific poise. Caron really gives us great leadership. He gives us ball leadership from the three spot which most guys can't do. He gives us ball leadership in getting us into things. Ben has done a terrific job of making big baskets for us. Tony, with a three-guard offense, one set to get a basket, when they got within five. I think the kids truly believe in each other even though once again we're a relatively young team. I think we're pretty much tested in a lot of big games, we played Maryland, Oklahoma, we went to Arizona. We've been in some of these situations before and had some success in them. I think clearly, you're here on a Friday night, you know, you got to make some plays. Obviously, we did. That's taking nothing away from Notre Dame. I just think we made plays. That's what you need to do.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Yeah, our defense was really solid with the group we had on the floor, Ben, Taliek, Johnny, Emeka and Caron. I think we really needed to get more offensive spark. They were starting to jam the middle pretty good. When Tony came off the bench, he kind of liberated us by kind of mismatching one of their forwards, small forwards, having to play a guard. Caron can play anybody. He can play Swanagan or a three man or two man. That's one of the great advantages of having a great player like Caron.

CARON BUTLER: No, I just found out right now.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Congratulations, Caron. Ben?

BEN GORDON: Congratulations. I already told him. He knew (laughter). He said, "Ben, I went over 1,000 today." I was like, "For real"?

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Here's the truth. You get the candid answer.

CARON BUTLER: It's an honor to be in the league group now. I'm not concerned about individual, you know, awards and stuff like that, accomplishments. I'm just trying to lead my team, get into the NCAA. We're concentrating on a team effort.

BEN GORDON: I mean, I realized I hadn't scored in a while. We needed an offensive spark. I put it upon myself to try and seek out my shot more. I was fortunate enough to get some baskets.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Ken, I think early in the game, we weren't scoring on the outside. Once Johnny made some hoops inside, then I think they came down and Ben and Caron and Tony were able to get a few more outside shots. I think it took us - and one of our plans coming out the second half was to get the ball inside more so we could get them down off our perimeter players.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Well, you know, in 28 games we lead the country in field goal percentage defense because, A, we have kids who pressure you, get over the top of screens (inaudible) and make the extra play. And we have a guy in the middle who whether he eliminates everyone, he's going to (inaudible) change to Emeka. I think we've adapted ourselves and adapted what we really are. What we really are is a good defensive team that fast breaks off it. A lot of our offense comes off our defense. I think every team needs to get an identity. Our identity has been stopping you, getting steals and blocking shots and then running out of that.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Well, if we can get ranked, maybe, you know, after this one, Blaine's (phonetic spelling) jokes, we might go to 32 now. He's obviously as cynical as I -- no one can be. But almost as cynical as I am. But, you know, I think it just played its way out. You know how I feel. We've talked before about how I feel about regular seasons. You play 16 games. You acquit yourself as the best team in the league. Then you probably are. At least if you're not, you're pretty close to it. Both Pitt and ourselves down the stretch, we've won seven or eight straight, they've won nine. So --.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Yeah, the answer man. It's great having you here. But it's very important that the two best teams over a 16-game schedule -- sometimes doesn't always work that way. But I think it has worked that way. Obviously, we have not played Pittsburgh for two years. They're the most physical team I think we'll see all year. What they did at half time in the first game, they showed how they played Darius Rice. It was unbelievable. I mean, every time he went through the middle he was just getting bounced around. They run their sets exceptionally well. I do think that the 16 games do prove something. It does prove which teams, then unless they're fading at the end and kind of hold on, I think both teams conversely have actually played better down the stretch. I mean we played, as you know, very good at BC. We've had some very good games down the stretch. I think certainly Pittsburgh has done the same.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Well, I always tell the story, quickly, the room I walked into only had Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim, Willy Massino, John Thompson, Louis Consecci (phonetic) , Boeheim. We walk, in, Jimmy, Paul, and myself, the three of us, I remember coming out and saying "Holy shit." And, they were fighting by the way, which was even better. You say, "Oh, boy." I think all you do is aspire, that we wanted to get our piece. I didn't think anybody else -- if you know me over the years, our program has tried to be - hopefully within the past decade, certainly championship driven. We feel that's what we sell our kids. That we truly believe that. We think the reason it's happened is because we have great players. Someone said, "How do you get to enough finals.". You recruit a Darnell Marshall, a Ray Allen, Kevin Olley (phonetic), Richard. That's one of the reasons you get to those kind of places. I don't know if I ever really gave it that much thought. I knew it was going to be a Herculean job. When we took over, Jimmy, myself and Paul, the three of our teams had just gone to the Final Four. It was an exciting time. I think this league -- just as a footnote -- I think this league with the young players we have around, has a tremendous, tremendous future. And some of the kids that are coming in and kids that are here now, this league is very good now, it could be dynamite by next year.

CARON BUTLER: Yeah, I felt that way personally because we the kings of our division, they the kings of theirs. It would be only right for us to match off in the championship.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Not many like Ben's had in The Garden. I remember eight nine games, the dreaded eight nine game. I think we've always got leadership. Ben did terrific tonight. I'm still always going to look back to the guys who lead us. Even though Caron's only a sophomore, his leadership is something -- and I think Ben will tell you, he's no longer a freshman, he's had guys like Taliek, Johnny, Caron to bring him along. We've talked about that as far as our program has to do. Out of all of the players, he might only be a sophomore, must bring kids along. Ben's a great talent, a great kid. He's been brought along by some very good players.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: At times we don't get the big leagues. But it reminds me of what those veteran back courts have done where all of a sudden it seems to be winning time now. I'll say that now, and tomorrow we'll blow a ten-point lead. Quite frankly, if we did, we've been phenomenal in winning time. This team has been phenomenal. They have great resolve. They truly, truly -- they've got me believing certainly that we're not going to lose games. Somebody might beat us, but we won't lose a game because of what we don't do. If someone beats us, that's fine. We're not going to lose a game, someone has to beat us. The kids believe that, I believe that, they play that way. We make plays and defend it down crunch time. I can't imagine, we've never had a team this young probably, and I don't remember a team this young able to have as much poise as this team has.