NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 27, 1998

Tubby Smith

COACH SMITH: Unfortunately, not many of them will be able to make it down. I think three or four will be here for the -- my mom and dad will not make it. They were stressed out because of the last game, I think, worn out behind that tough game against Duke.

COACH SMITH: I was very fortunate to have played for some outstanding coaches throughout my career as a player, what I consider career. Most people consider that just somebody that showed up to play. But it was -- Coach Steele, having played at Wake Forest and played for some great teams at Guilford and went on to coach the Carolina Cougars, and I didn't get a chance for play for him. But one year in my senior year -- I wish I had played for him for four years. But he converted me into a shooting guard, helped, because at the time I had been a small forward. But High Point, it was a great time for me and we had a lot of fun. You are always doing the era when the great teams -- there have always been great teams in North Carolina but that Tobacco Road was overwhelming with the great talent that came through during that era. I had chance to play against Guilford and Carr and Tomlin and Durante, and Henry Logan at Winston, and there was some outstanding talent. But before Jerry Steele, J.D. Barnett, and then I had Bob Vaughn who was a coach when I went to High Point College, you can tell that kind of helped their careers along, and short end their careers when I went there. But it was fun. I still stay in touch with Coach Steele. They had a good year, too.

COACH SMITH: Those teams presented problems at the forward spot for us. They had really athletic forwards and athletic centers, guys who look at Louisville, Alex Sanders was a small, really playing forward and playing center and he's 6 foot 7. He created real problems for us. And Ole Miss, Ansu Sesay, and Anthony Boone, who was six-eight, and six-six centers, and they created real matchup problems for us with Nazr Mohammed and one was six-seven and one was six-nine. And the Florida loss, they shot the threes extremely well, something we didn't do a good job defending most of the year, and that was the common thread. The athletic forwards that those teams had. Florida, the same way, a kid by the name of Greg Stolt, a six-nine, six-foot-ten, who can go out and shoot the ball from the perimeter. And Arizona, talented in every spot.

COACH SMITH: I don't think anything is incomplete. Incomplete means you don't finish the season. So we are going to finish the season I hope, God willing. So I think there has been a complete season whether we win or lose. These kids have overachieved and played beyond a lot of expectations. So we feel very comfortable with the achievements, so far, but we know that we still realize that there are goals that we want to achieve as well.

COACH SMITH: Defensive cohesiveness. I think we were having a lot of defensive breakdowns, especially stopping people off the dribble, man to man, one-on-one defense was very poor and people just broke us down off the dribble quite a bit. That's an area that we have to work on every day to improve. I thought that was a major improvement that we had this year.

COACH SMITH: Well, we feel like we are a team that likes to get the ball up and down the court. We feel we have a pretty good transition game, and if we can get easy baskets in transition, we do. But we are very versatile, I think, a team that can play a transition game and up tempo, fast breaking style, or we can settle down and play a half court offensive game. Certainly Mark Madsen and Tim Young create a real -- present a real challenge for Scott, Nazr and Jamaal, Michael Bradley and our whole front line, Heshimu Evans. But we have a lot of depth. They have a lot of depth, too. They talk about Tim Young and they have outstanding players, Jamaal Collins. What really concerns me, not just those two but with Peter Sauer, who is a really six-seven small forward but we don't have anybody that can match up with him, along with Ryan Mendez and David Moseley they have got a very big team in every position.

COACH SMITH: Yes.

COACH SMITH: I'll be pretty nervous coming tomorrow but as we prepare, we have watched the Final Four, attended the Final Four as a coach going to clinics, but to be in this position, no, I don't think especially after you have been in the business for a while, you realize that there is not -- but this is unique, and certainly the attention and the focus and the media coverage is probably things that make you more nervous than anything else. Because you are preparing your team just like you would for any other game. So that part of it doesn't make you nervous.

COACH SMITH: Arthur Lee is critical to their play, and he has had a tremendous game against Rhode Island and an outstanding game, 26 points, and I thought he was the key to the comeback that they had. And the same holds true with Wayne Turner. He was the key to our comeback with his ability to penetrate. Arthur Lee is a player at 6 feet who can really do a lot of different things. He is a leading scorer. He is a point guard that's looking to score. That presents a double challenge to your point guard, to Wayne, and our defense because now you have to be in a position to help out when he breaks you down on penetration because he can finish and score. Whereas a lot of point guards are trying to get their team into offense. He does that very well. But he is a total package, really quick, excellent handle. And he's got -- and they have an excellent backup in Michael MacDonald. I've been impressed with his ability to run the game and play a real good game as well.

COACH SMITH: You got to have a quarterback. Like anything else, you have to have someone, because the point guard is the first person that touches the ball, usually, other than the guy that's inbounding the ball. He's the guy that has to recognize to get people in position. I really believe you have to have an outstanding point guard in order to be successful. You could have an outstanding center, outstanding forward. But I really think in order for you to be a team that wins championships, you have to have that guy who can distribute the ball, pressure the ball when he's on defense and do all the other things to create shots when you don't have an offense, when your offense is not floating.

COACH SMITH: I didn't realize it was focused on Kentucky and North Carolina only. I don't know why it would be focused on us. Kentucky has won a lot of championships. But I think our guys realize they have had to, as I said before, overachieve, and they had the feeling that we are an underdog. Nothing that we have created -- this probably has been created because of the coaching change last year, losing the talent of Ron Mercer, Anthony Evans, and Jerry Prigadoff, a team that finished second in the season last year. With that we have an excellent center for them to play well and not look at themselves as a front runner.

COACH SMITH: It is always tough when you hear someone say something, you know how hard your kids are playing and they really have done a tremendous job. It doesn't bother me but it bothers me that someone would think like that. So that's part of coaching, part of sports. I don't know but we have been pretty consistent all year along. You know, I'm sure that one of the reasons we heard things like that was because we lost three home games, and they were tough losses to take, not just by the team, the staff and the fans. It was tough to take. But we overcame that, and I think everybody is pleased with the outcome so far.

COACH SMITH: In our league, I would say Ole Miss is really similar in their ability. They are pretty physical. I think Stanford's physicalness is in their size, I think, and their pretty aggressive inside play, whereas some teams are more agressive and they are overplaying and denying and bumping and cutting. I think Stanford's physicalness comes from their ability to put their bodies on you because they are so big and rebound the ball and keeping you off the block by pushing you off the block with their strength.

COACH SMITH: Pretty quick. I've been impressed with the way their kids run the floor. Arthur Lee is as quick as any player we have in our program. And Kris Weems is a very quick two-guard. I said all along, we are very similar in a lot of ways, and in, I think, positions. The matchups are as even as they can be in a tournament that I have ever attended or been a part of.

COACH SMITH: Thank you.