NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 29, 1997

Mike Bibby

Lute Olson

Miles Simon

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I thought our guys did a real good job of getting Carolina overconfident in that first 8 or 10 minutes. But I think it was indicative of the kind of heart and hustle that these guys have and have shown all year long. There was, I thought, some serious defense being played on both ends of the court. One of our big concerns coming in was dealing with the two big guys inside with the outstanding screening game that they have in there. And I thought our -- I thought the play of A.J. Bramlett and Gene Edgerson off the bench and Donnell Harris were really outstanding. Bennett Davison was not around long enough for us to see what he was going to do, but I thought that was one of the real keys. And then the other real key was Miles in that first half when it seemed like no one else could make a bucket, he really did a great job of holding us in there until such time as some of the other guys started hitting shots. Boardwise I thought we battled and scrapped. And this was the whole thing we've said all week long is it's got to be rebounding by committee. We have to do a job with everybody, and if you take a look at what happened, Edgerson came in and gave us 9, Brown had 10. But probably even more critical is the rebounding of the perimeter starters with Dickerson 6, Bibby 7 and Simon 5. And that was awfully important to us. Because they have outstanding jumpers, and we knew that the battle of the boards was going to be critical. The first half we were very, very careless with the ball. I don't know if it was that we were a little bit uptight. I didn't feel that we were, but I thought we tried to force a lot of passes into situations that we really didn't need to do.

MILES SIMON: The keys, basically, we got back on defense. You know, they were killing us with layups and lobs at the beginning of the game, and they got out to a quick start. We were sending one wing to the board and both big men, and Carter and Jamison they run the floor so well. Once we made them set up in the half court, our defense was very stingy, we made them shoot over the top of us. They didn't get too many open looks, and I think that was the key. And I just told Coach Smith at the end, it was just a pleasure playing against them. And just wished them, like, the best of luck.

MILES SIMON: The only satisfaction just came from helping my teammates to the championship. That's what I was out there for was to try to win tonight and move to Monday night, that was the only thing I was concentrating on.

MILES SIMON: I got the open looks, so I think we came out of timeout and I hit a 3. But basically the ball was coming in my hands and when I was open. I'm not going to pass up any open shots. And my teammates, fortunately, they're very unselfish and get the ball to me in the right spots.

MIKE BIBBY: My mentality is shoot. I'm not worried about what time the game is. I'm going to shoot. I'm not worried about anything, really. That's the way our offense is running. If we have the open shot, we're not going to pass it up. And that's what I was doing, and I finally started to hit some.

MILES SIMON: I think the key with Shammond is limiting his touches. He tries to come off a lot of picks. And one thing I think Michael Dickerson and Jason Terry did real well. They were fighting through those picks and not giving up and letting Shammond get his open looks. He would pump fake them and take a dribble in, but we were with him every step of the way. Cota, he doesn't look to shoot the 3 very much. Mike Bibby was able to back off a little bit, but if he was going to shoot, Bibby had a hand in his face. And Cota is going to drive in there and jump in the air and look to pass if he's not shooting it. That just helped us.

MILES SIMON: On Shammond Williams? Basically, if we got switched off on to him, we wanted to make him put it on the floor as much as he could, because he's going to be a great spot-up shooter. I think with my size and Michael Dickerson's size, it's hard for him to shoot over us.

MILES SIMON: It feels great, just to come out and play well in the national semifinals against such a prestigious program like North Carolina. I think they had the longest winning streak in the country, and to come out and play as well as we did after maybe the first five minutes, it's very satisfying.

MIKE BIBBY: That's what I was told. And that's the mentality I have. I'm going to shoot if I'm open. And they left me open and I shot it.

MIKE BIBBY: In the beginning I was a little -- I didn't really want to take it that much, and I guess I was nervous for a little bit. But once we got in the flow of the game, I just knew if I kept on shooting, from all the practice I was doing, I knew it would fall in sometime if I kept shooting it.

(Players excused.)

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I'm thrilled, as any coach would be, to have this opportunity. But I'm even more thrilled given the group of guys that we have, because they're fighters, they're competitors and they have been all year long. If you look at the job that they've done, I mean they're -- even the losses, they've been in the ballgames right down to the final couple of minutes. And I think that's a credit to the competitiveness that they display. And it's the same every day in practice. If we have a shooting drill that's picking a winner and a loser, they just flatout do not like to lose and they compete everything. I'm just -- I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to watch them play on Monday night. It's the first ever, and I told them as long as we've gone this far, we may as well get it done on Monday, as well. So we're excited. And it's going to be a great opportunity for our guys.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, we had indicated we wanted two guys back on the shot. But we were going to send our wing away from the ball to the glass. And obviously that was a big time coaching mistake, because they just came out of there and they were laying it up and dunking it and everything else on us. So I called a timeout to indicate none of the three perimeter guys go, let's get you back and make them play half court. And, actually, half court, according to our stats the first half, they were only 8 for 28, I think, from half court, and we just felt if we could get back and defend and make them run their half court offense, that we can have good success. And I think we did a great job of taking away -- you're not going to take away all of the things they do, because they do so many things so well. But I thought the -- I don't recall Jamison getting that stepping into the lane that they'd execute so well, I don't believe he had that all night. Shammond Williams hit the first shot on the three, and that was another thing, we took the timeout. I said, Mike, you have got to -- when he's coming with the ball, you have got to get to him by the time he gets to the three point line. Because he was 1 to 8 from the three point line, and that was his first one, and it was in transition when we didn't get the ball picked up quickly enough.

COACH LUTE OLSON: We wanted to take it down and get the ball in Mike Bibby's hands with about 15 seconds to go. And Carolina, I mean, there's no one that does a better job in late possession situations. And they came with a double team, and then we had to scramble out of the double team and made the first shot that we took, a difficult one. But I thought after that we did a good job of time management. And I thought the first one, I'm curious to see. But when the buzzer went off, it was in front of our bench, I thought we hit the rim on that one. But far be it from me to question an official on that call.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Frankly, until we have played the game that we've played, I don't pay enough attention to that to know. I know they're -- if you go against Kentucky, then you've got to handle that game long, full court pressure. But I think our guys like that type of game. If it's Minnesota, it's probably a case of where they can take it at you, but they're probably more a half court oriented team defensively and offensively. So I don't know. I don't pay any attention to who we're playing until we're playing them, and then we'll get on the tapes right away tonight and start getting our game plan ready.

COACH LUTE OLSON: I'll tell you, our very, very big key to us was the way our interior players played against their interior players. And that was very much the key against Kansas, as well. From an offensive standpoint, we know that for us to do well, we've got to be able to score the shot from the perimeter. But I thought when the inside guys were there, we did a good job of finding them. We didn't finish well in there, but it's nice to see that our perimeter people have confidence in their ability to do some things with it. So playing, it was beneficial to us to have played Kansas, there's no question about that because so many of the same types of things are done by Carolina, but there are some wrinkles that make it very different, as well. But I think the Kansas win gave us a lot of confidence that, hey, if we can beat Kansas, then there shouldn't be any reason that we can't beat any team that we have to come up against. And I don't want you to take that as a cocky statement, but it's not. But the thing that you learn is that if your guys don't believe that they can win, you're not going to win. And I don't think our guys are cocky or walking with a swagger or anything else. I think they've got an inner confidence, they've got a confidence in what their teammates can do and what they can do, and the mindset to me right now with them is perfect as far as what we would want as coaches.

COACH LUTE OLSON: This team has great quicks. The thing I was pleased tonight, in the practice all week long we've said when the shot goes up we've got to have five people in the vicinity of the paint. When it comes to those big guys, we mail not be able to go up and get it. But if we can get our hand on it and knock loose, our quickness will take over and we'll be able to get to those loose balls. I thought the guys did a great job of that. It was interesting after the game and the stats came in the locker room and the first thing Mike Bibby poked me on the shoulder and said, check the boards, Coach. And he had 7 defensive rebounds, and that really is very much the key. And then the second half we did not make a whole lot of mistakes with the ball. I think we had, what, 12 turnovers or 13 at halftime and ended up with only 16 for the game.