NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 28, 1998

Arthur Lee

Mark Madsen

Mike Montgomery

COACH MONTGOMERY: I think it is -- as disappointed as you are to lose, especially when you know you have a chance to win, it's hard not to acknowledge a tremendous performance by our basketball team, a tremendous college basketball game, and a group of kids that gave you just about everything they had on the court. And that's kind of my approach at this point. You know, I can go back and turn over here, failed defensive assignment here, which I always will do. But we have always just asked our kids and our players to play as hard as they can, to give it everything they have. And if you do that, you should never feel bad. And I think we came fairly close to that today. They were poised to start the game. In fact, as we talked in the locker room beforehand, I saw smiles, people actually looking forward to the challenge rather than being nervous about this thing. They went out and made play after play when it was required. So rather than -- I am extremely proud of these kids and the effort that they gave. For this team and our program right now, this maybe proves that we were at the level that we achieved. I think that's saying an awful lot.

MARK MADSEN: Well, I'm not really sure what happened but I think actually that my hand may have been on the inside of the cylinder on that play. And I think I did touch the ball, but I also think it could have been called a goal tend because I think I was on the inside of the cylinder. So I mean, it was their ball out-of-bounds, and when I didn't hear a whistle and I saw it was their ball out-of-bounds, I was pretty happy because I feel that I had goal-tended the ball.

ARTHUR LEE: I guess so, but I thought we have been proving that throughout the tournament. We have been playing quick team after quick team. And we continued to beat them. We had a chance to win this game, to say the least. And a turn in our favor here or there, and the outcome could have been a little bit different. But I don't know. I feel we have been proving something throughout the tournament. But I guess you could say that this Kentucky is a quality team, they have experience, and stepped up. I think everyone stepped up today. So I guess you could say that.

MARK MADSEN: I really felt that we were going to win the game. You know, Arthur was making some huge plays. He came out at the beginning of the game making huge plays. I thought this was going to be just like the Rhode Island game. He was making huge plays for us down the stretch as well, and I really thought we were going to win it. But, you know, Kentucky just made big play after big play, and they deserve the victory.

MARK MADSEN: Firstly, I don't think you saw any of the desperate body language or anything like that because we have had a great season. In a lot of people's minds, we have overachieved. We have high expectations for ourselves. We really thought we were going to win today. But we have had a great season. And everyone on our team, the guys on the court, the guys on the bench, these are very competitive players and they have given it everything that they have had. We are going to take this thing and learn from it and work as hard as we possibly can this spring, this summer, next fall, and we will be back.

ARTHUR LEE: I don't think so. I think it was a turnover, and we made minimal mistakes. We could have held on to the ball a few times, and pass when the guys were there. I mean, I don't think the pressure -- it was a good pressure. They can wear you down but I think more so it was our fault. I turned over the ball a few times where I could have made a better pass or kept it myself and dribbled it up the court. I think everything that happened today, it was our doing. We felt we were in control over what we did out there and it was our fault.

ARTHUR LEE: It definitely hurts. Like I told the coach, when the buzzer sounded, I couldn't believe that we lost. It was a great run. Every time we figured that no matter what the deficit was, we will come back and get a victory. We almost did it. It hurts but, I mean, guys aren't really down, so to speak, because we had a great run. We almost made it to the National Championship game when very few people thought that we could make it this far. Now we have something to build on. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise for next year. So we will have to wait and see.

ARTHUR LEE: It was tiring. And the ball was in the air, and I knew I was going to get it, but he jumped in the air before it could get over his head and smartly dribbled it out. I thought that was us right there. Six seconds left, I believe, and, man, I was thinking about what I was going to do after I got the ball. But, I mean, they played smart down the end. I think we played smart down the stretch as well. But I don't know, man. This game is so tough, we will be second-guessing this one for a while. I thought I was going to be able to get that one.

COACH MONTGOMERY: I guess you could go back and look and maybe we earned a jump ball and maybe that would have given us an opportunity. It doesn't come up that much. I think the administration of the jump ball is not very good. You know, it could have been our possession, too, and then we wouldn't have had to jump it and would have had the ball and gotten it. Those two possessions late, if you really look at it, Jarron gets his hands on it, and what if it comes loose? And it could have come loose pretty easily. And the second one, like Art was talking about, over the top, and where it was six. You just had the sense that that was it, we were going to win. In both instances we just didn't quite have it. To answer your question, I think the alternate possession thing is a valid way to do this thing. There has been some talk, you know, about an alternate possession situation earned by a defensive player, that the defense gets it in that situation. But I'm on the Rules Committee so I could be a part of that discussion. But I look down because I wasn't sure what the arrow situation was. Unfortunately we turned the ball over to start the second half on our inbounds play which negated the possession we were supposed to get. I almost wish that had been their possession.

COACH MONTGOMERY: I have a question on that. The officials, they did a really good job. Like you say, it didn't seem to have a bearing because the kid rebounded. It wasn't like we got it or anything as a result. So many times it seems that that stuff is let go because it didn't affect the play and it just turned out it was Tim's fifth which became critical. He was pretty certain that he pushed. So a lot of times in instances like that where the other team rebounds it anyway, it is kind of like to play on. The dunk situation, it may be that Tim had hit the cylinder, and Mark said that it was. I am relatively certain that it was. And he felt that he missed the dunk as a result of the contact that was made. So it's hard to imagine a guy touching it after he released it, which would have meant that would have been the last touch and hit the rim and went out. It is hard for me to imagine that. But Mark didn't feel that was the right call to make, based on what had happened. They hit a three right after that, you know. I thought it was our ball. The guy hits the back iron and came off, and oh, boy, it got to be ours because it hit the back iron. And then they came out and hit a three after that. There are always situations that come up in games like this, and you go over the missed free throw, and sometimes a technical foul in the game where we make shots and things tend to work themselves out based on what the score is throughout the game.

COACH MONTGOMERY: You are always going for the steal because you have to go for the steal. The steal is the plum. That's what you want. So you are trying to deny. They have the ball out of bounds. They have got to get it in in five seconds. That puts a little bit more pressure on them. The fact they were on the side and couldn't move, that's a tougher pass to get it in. So you are going for the steal. But with the amount of time, six seconds, there wasn't time to worry about who it was that you were going to get after. You are going to go for the steal first. If you don't get the steal, then you have to stop the clock. There wasn't enough time to allow to say no, you want to foul this guy because it was a one-point game. So if they make both, we will come back and get a three to tie. And that's if they make one, then you got a chance to win with a three. We couldn't allow time to go off the clock. We wanted the steal first, and the truth of the matter is, the ball presented itself to us and we almost had it, you know. And then they couldn't get it inbounds and they put it up over the top. And you were about that close from just timing your jump coming down with it, and bang, now you got them on the run and score and probably win. Yes, if we didn't get out the steal, there was a foul.

COACH MONTGOMERY: As I say, I think that this was a great college basketball game, and certainly our fans who have to be disappointed, have to be absolutely thrilled by the level of performance by our kids. And if indeed the coaches in the stands were standing and applauding our effort, that makes me feel very, very good.

COACH MONTGOMERY: Junior, is that you?

COACH MONTGOMERY: He was something. I got to believe, based on his performance in the tournament, he goes into next year as a guy to take a look at. He answered the call. He ran the club. The question was asked about the pressure. I think certainly you use pressure as a steady diet, there has to be an element of fatigue, whether it be the mental fatigue of some of the decisions that you make. Art would have liked to have kept the ball in his hands and yet he probably would like to have had somebody else help him dribble it up a couple of times and a couple of key turnovers came in situations like that. But yet, he had an unbelievable run in this tournament and there is no question if you ask people to step up, certainly he did just that. I thought Madsen did relatively the same thing. He was a little bit dormant in the first half but 17 boards in that situation is pretty impressive.