NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 29, 1997

Ron Mercer

Rick Pitino

Jared Prickett

COACH PITINO: Well, we beat a team that's as physically and mentally tough as any I've coached against since I've been at Kentucky. They get up in your pants and they take you out of your offense. They're tough-minded. I have tremendous admiration for Minnesota. And I have tremendous admiration for our basketball team tonight that overcame a lot of problems, from foul trouble, to cramping, to a great team, and still was able to dig deep down and win this ballgame. And my hat's off to Wayne Turner. I don't know how he did it, because he took on all that pressure and then turned around and gave pressure, penetrated when we needed it, played 39 minutes of great basketball with only one turnover. He gave a remarkable performance, and I'm proud of Wayne, as well as our basketball team.

COACH PITINO: I was very concerned. Fortunately we had Allen Edwards to put in. But Allen is really not able to play. But I knew if it was a close game down the stretch we'd need to run some things for him. But he was coming in, ice it down, and he'd be able to go back in, and we've got to get plenty of fluids in him, rest him tomorrow and obviously be ready for just a great Arizona team on Monday.

COACH PITINO: It is incredible. We're not last year's team. But I've never coached a team with this much heart in my life. When our backs are to the wall we keep coming out and playing aggressively and we're tired, we're banged up, and these guys just keep digging in. So it's a remarkable accomplishment. Ron said at a Christmas party last year when we played in the Holiday Festival, he said what are your dreams for Christmas? He said I want to win a championship this year, and come again and win next year. It was on our highlight tape and we laughed. And now we're one game away from making that possible. We're going to have to play an unbelievable game to beat an Arizona team. When Arizona beat Kansas we said it was an upset, which it was. But by beating Kansas, they proved themselves not only a great basketball team, but a team right now that has young players with no fear at all. And we know right now we have our hands full, every player has their hands full, because this is the quickest team I've seen in quite some time.

COACH PITINO: I said a while ago when he got hurt, the only time I'd use him is if we got a technical. And we got a technical, and that's the only time, if we had a technical foul.

COACH PITINO: This is a very young team. In the Providence team, Billy was a senior, Delray was a senior, Jacek Duda was a senior. This is a sophomore-dominated basketball team. You start a freshman, three sophomores and a junior. These guys are young, and you don't see that type of performance from young players. But today I think they played so well in their careers, that it really makes no difference what year you're in. But without question, it's the guttsiest team. My Providence team was a Cinderella team. We played kind of a soft, nonconference schedule. We were hoping to get in and we had to do a lot of things. This basketball team has played five Big 10 teams, a tremendous nonconference schedule. They've been to Alaska, they've gone to the West Region, where Iowa was as good a basketball team as I've seen. We've now beaten two teams in the top five to get to the championship game, and I'm blown away from their grit. They're doing the work, and I'm thankful. I don't know how they're doing it, but they're doing the work.

RON MERCER: Well, as far as the cramps, you know, I started catching cramps in the second half. I tried to continue to play on, but it was most of the time when I was jumping and it kind of affected my jumping a little bit. As far as my shooting, sometimes you're going to shoot good, sometimes you're not. I had pretty good shots. I didn't get enough left on my shot, but other than that, I'm glad we won. I'm not really concerned about my shot now.

RON MERCER: It's something a lot of people don't really get a chance to win one National Championship, but we've put ourself in a position to try to win a second one. And for the fact that I'm leaving next year, I want to take the most with me. I want to enjoy the tournaments and the moments I'm having right now. And most definitely it would top it off if we won another National Championship. I think a lot of people will remember teams winning two National Championships than one. And I want to be known for going out and winning two National Championships and being a part of this Kentucky team.

JARED PRICKETT: It just means a lot to me to be back on the court again playing. It was really tough. I practiced with the team all last year, but when game time came and you have to sit on the sidelines, and that's the most exciting part of college basketball, being out on the court. And I was just excited to -- I'm just excited to be part of the tournament right now, and to be a part of this team. And as far the Minnesota big men, they're probably the most physical big men I think we've played against this year. Between them and Iowa, they're really strong down low, and I give them a lot of credit. They did well tonight.

JARED PRICKETT: I think Nazr deflected the ball, and I got it before it went out of bounds. And I threw it to Wayne and he did the rest from there. The other one, when Anthony got it, I don't think they saw me sneak behind the defense, and there really wasn't anybody in the lane, and I was wide open. He threw me a good pass and I shot the layup.

(Players excused.)

COACH PITINO: We felt that this was one of the best rebounding teams we've gone against, and I said, I noticed the one key in all the games is when it breaks down is how well you defend the three-point shot. You know, last year we won the championship shooting, I think, 38 percent. The Chicago Bulls won the championship at the pro level shooting 38 percent. I believe you win championships off your defense. Tonight we ran against a great defense, and if we keep playing defense the way we're playing, as we have all through the tournament, we've got a great shot to win. So I'm really proud of that, because no matter what you do on offense, your defense still has the opportunity to stop them. And I think our defense came up big tonight, under a lot of adversity. Ron Mercer, I've got to give him a day off, he's put in so many minutes, so much hard work, he needs to take the day off and watch the other guys, because he's physically really beat.

COACH PITINO: I think a lot of things went wrong for us tonight. I think they're very physical. They were dominating us in certain areas and I felt that our guys just when it went their way and they had the lead and they had momentum we stopped it right then and there, came back immediately and made big plays. And I think it takes a mentally tough basketball team. They've done that throughout the tournament, to Utah, Iowa, and they've been mentally as tough as I've seen the group. And it's a young group. That's why I think the classes don't really matter, these kids are so mature when they come in, this is a sophomore dominated team and they're mentally as tough as I've ever had, I don't think it really matters what class you're in any longer.

COACH PITINO: I think in the tournament you really -- it's obvious we got hurt a little bit, because Prickett and Padgett were in foul trouble. We had to play Edwards at the four. But with the NCAA tournament and especially the Final Four with time outs being just under three minutes, I don't think the bench really matters as much from a conditioning standpoint. It matters a lot with foul trouble. But not conditioning. So I think we've been able to get by, for instance tonight I find it mind boggling how Wayne Turner could play 39 minutes doing what he did, but you really have about 12 minutes in the game where you're just sitting and relaxing, because of TV time outs. And I think that helps our basketball team now. So we're very lucky. But we've got to keep our four men out of foul trouble, because Padgett gives a lift with his shooting.

COACH PITINO: This is the quickest team I've seen maybe in some time. I haven't seen a team like this, with this type of quickness. I was watching the game first half before we left and looked like Carolina was going to go out there and they were getting easy shots and transitioning. And you thought it was going to be a no-brainer. You see how much quickness they have, even in foul trouble. And the one amazing thing to me about the game was that this team absolutely, being so young, has no fear, and you remember the "Fab Five", you know, an advantage for young people is they don't see any pressure, all they're doing is dancing, having fun, and the older people, they see, well, my time is running out, I'm a junior or senior, it's one last moment. The young people don't care. It's a little bit of an advantage. It seems like they play with no fear at all. The thing I like most about their ball club is how they handle pass and spread you out with unbelievable quickness. Our dilemma is can we press this team with awesome quickness. And we've got to stay up tonight until 6 or 7 o'clock tomorrow morning and watch every film we can get our hands on, which is about 22, and make that determination.