NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: AUSTIN

March 27, 2005

Maurice Ager

Alan Anderson

Shannon Brown

Paul Davis

Tom Izzo

COACH IZZO: Well, I can't be prouder of this team. I thought it was one of the great games of all time, but it seems to me all-time. I am sure because I was in the middle of it. Both teams played so hard. Both seems played so well at times, made some mistakes at times. For a college basketball game and in this city I thought the fans were awesome and the game was second to none. When I talked today Greg Gumble and Clark Kellogg, they said can you top the game? They were talking about the game from last night. I am not sure it topped that game. I think in some ways it was every bit as good. I am proud that Kentucky played their tail off too.

SHANNON BROWN: I talked to him today. You get a chance to talk to him yesterday. I talked to him today. He told us to go out there and play hard. Hopefully we'll have three Big-10 teams in the Final Four. But unfortunately we only have two. He wished everybody luck.

MAURICE AGER: The coaches, they really step up in the part making sure we will still be ready to play. At the same time, like hoping the game will be over. But I don't know, it worked out fine. We still came out on top. A lot of thoughts run through your head. You want to see what is going to happen.

ALAN ANDERSON: I feel like everything happens for a reason. We took a lot in and in the past year we felt like we weren't getting nothing out of it. It is like a period at the end of a sentence. We're in a senior year and for the guys to our right to step up and pick us up it is just a team ball, man. Everybody played a team effort.

SHANNON BROWN: I think we wanted to get the ball. We were trying to be relentless. We were getting in there, grabbing them, kick them out. We got a couple good looks then finally got the ball to me. I put it up and it went in.

ALAN ANDERSON: Coach smashed them tapes. It jumped right out of me. It was done by then. We said it was going to be a new season. We had the Big-10 regular season end, then we had Big-10 tournament, then NCAA tournament. So it was three seasons. With the hammer coming down, them tapes is out the way. It was either put up or shut up, pretty much.

MAURICE AGER: Not really. It felt like it was easy. We had our fans on one side. Kentucky does carry a lot of people when they travel. At the same time we didn't feel like a road game. It was a neutral site.

PAUL DAVIS: I think when they were trying to look at that shot and see, one of our coaches said this is what we are here for. Then it went to another overtime and, you know, we just -- it was a battle on both sides. I don't know if it has hit us yet, but I am sure it will when we get home.

SHANNON BROWN: I have been working a lot on my three point shot. I have to thank my teammates for having the confidence in me to give me the ball. It was just staying focussed and trying to shoot it the same way every time.

ALAN ANDERSON: Man, it was double overtime. It was like, man -- a lot going through my head. I mean, just like to be playing for your team it's great. In college and part of that you know, we still are practicing. I don't know timewise if it was a great thing. We are looking forward to practice on Monday and going to work. It is just a feeling you can't describe.

SHANNON BROWN: I think we did. It is all about having confidence without being cocky. We believed in ourselves. When coach smashed those tapes it was a new season. We knew what we had to do. He got the blueprint. He has been here before. We knew what we had to do. It was about us listening to the coaches and handling our basketball.

SHANNON BROWN: I think we tried to be aggressive. We didn't want to back down. They are a bunch of great players. They tried to take it at us, we tried take it at them. We tried to be aggressive and challenge every shot. Some people got fatigued. But we just tried to stay aggressive the whole time and get up in them.

ALAN ANDERSON: The free throws, everybody wanted to step up and knock them down. It was like usually you have one guy that needs to be on the free throw line. Everybody stepped up, whether it was KT Shannon, Mo, Paul, when you have it like that, you foul anybody the confidence is just out the door.

PAUL DAVIS: That is where I think our chemistry comes in play and, you know, we didn't wan to come out today -- and the Duke game was a big high for you us, we didn't want to have that be our so-called championship. We wanted to come here and try get to the final Four. When that last shot went in and they counted it, we held it up as the group. Those guys wearing the green jerseys, that is how we won the game.

PAUL DAVIS: Alan did shut that up. He made a very nice drive to the basket and he missed it on purpose because he saw me coming. (Laughter.) He drew a couple of guys and that left it wide open. I was trying to put my two cents in this big win. It was unbelievable. I don't think they counted it as an assist. But it just shows that everybody has got each other's backs.

COACH IZZO: I told my guys -- I sat there and looked a little bit. I just said it was good. I said the basket was good. I have been in a couple other overtimes in other years and I thought I did a poor job of maybe reenergizing my guys. We beat them the first time. They made a heck of a play. Give them the credit. That was the approach I took. It was good. So lets get a mindset now that we have to play another five minutes. They rallied around that pretty good. It seemed like that shot hung on the rim forever. I was counting the seconds it was up there wiggling around.

COACH IZZO: Well, in '99 the first Final Four is like your first kiss, I guess. It was hard to compare anything to that. There were some memories. After what these guys have ben through, I think this was the most satisfying of all of them. Maybe because I realized how hard it is to get back to a Final Four and how many great coaches that I have respect for. This one for me was special. There is no question. I felt guilty that I put these seniors through more than they deserved. Now it is rewarding. What didn't kill us made us stronger. I think we survived today.

COACH IZZO: On Sparks we did something completely different. We came up with a hell of a game plan the second half. Just trying to keep someone within two feet of him. I was disappointed in how we played. I give him credit. He would run off the screen and we were nowhere within five feet off him. That was part of our big game plan. We talked about there is going to be a guy we are going to footprint him. We were going to have a guy with him. I thought for the most part we did. Chuck at the end, I coached him in the Pan American games -- I said to Tubby, he happened to come by the practice. He says he is your kind of guy. It took me ten minutes and I knew he was making my team. He wasn't the biggest or the best but I think he is their version of Mateen Cleaves was for me. What Magic Johnson was to Jud. He is a winner. There were certain characteristics that some people have that define everything he is. That is what I think of Chuck. I told him that I love watching him play. I felt privileged to coach him a little bit. Anything I can do I would love to help.

COACH IZZO: I was disappointed. You know, every broadcaster known to man always talks at the end of the game about it is not the shot it is the missed shot and getting the rebound. I went off that in the huddle. Once they take that we have got to get five guys there. When the overtime started, we missed a good shot I think. We made one free throw of the two or a pretty good tip play that I stole from your Notre Dame game, coach Heathcote way back when you were younger. During that period, we came down, they scored, we turned it over, then we turned it over again. We looked real sloppy. I was concerned that maybe the wind was out of our sail. What a great way to do it when you get offensive rebounds. Then you bury a three at the end. That gave us an emotional lift.

COACH IZZO: I told Kelvin he did a great job. We left him on a island there. He had Azubuike on one side. Rondo is a great player. I thought Torbert did an unbelievable job of leveling him. I think the credit goes to KT. We tried to shrink the courts and pack it in like a three two zone. I guess everybody did a good job but he did the best.

COACH IZZO: I am hoping that we can have two games out there as good as these were. I was proud of Wisconsin today. They played unbelievably well. I was pleased for Bruce Weber. Maybe the Big-10 and Michigan State were kind of anonymous this year. It seemed like our league had to struggle and earn their way. I thought that was what our team did. I am hoping it will pay off for the Big-10.

COACH IZZO: I probably will embarrass him and he will be mad at me , but Jud called me. He is sitting back there. He gave me a call. He knows me like a book. He knows my strengths and weaknesses. He came up with the tape idea. He came up with the idea of you have to put the season behind you. He had to convince me. He said get your players to believe, take the good things you have done and eliminate the bad things and move on. I took that and took it another step or two to make it have an impact. The credit goes to him. A lot of people call you after wins. He called me because he knew what I was going through. He probably gave me advice that helped us get to the Final Four.

COACH IZZO: We said at the seven minute mark in the huddle , I just kept telling them I am glad it is here. It will prove our point more. We wanted to do so much more for ourselves. I don't know if I was trying to convince myself of that or my team. We talked about it. As it got closer we ended up pulling Tran in some and we were switching four and five spots. I think that is why we held them without getting a shot off. The free throw shooting that was part of selling our players that we're not trying to do something we have never done before. We are not trying to reinvent the wheel. We were a great free throw team for a year and three quarters. For some reason we faltered a little bit. It was going back and working on it more. It was just telling ourselves that. We led the nation all year this year. Just go out and do what we do. I made sure Anderson got to the line at the end every time we could get him the ball. Because he was our best free throw shooter.

COACH IZZO: It is ironic. I guess our players talked about "revenge tour" because we thought we might get Syracuse. In North Carolina the only irony is my assistant, Doug Wojcik, helped recruit most of those players on the team. I have great respect for him. We played his teams at Kansas. I know they are extremely talented, big. They have some depth. They have speed. They have athleticism. They have shooters. It was why everybody has picked them all year long. You know what, what a better way to go about it. You think of a better way to get to a Final Four than beating the two programs we beat. You think of trying to advance by beating that team. To be the best you have to beat the best. We will have our opportunity.