NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 31, 1995

Dean Smith

Jerry Stackhouse

Rasheed Wallace

Donald Williams

DONALD WILLIAMS: Well, it's no difference, than last year we went deep, and this year we're not, and the guys are getting more play time.

DONALD WILLIAMS: Same situation, we came in the Final Four, as underdogs, and everyone was thinking we were going to not beat Michigan, and we proved them wrong, and we came to the Final Four this year, and same situation.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: No, I know that's what they're going to do. But we ask that they break their initial press and get in our transition game. And once we do, we'll get some easy baskets.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: I think we changed up a little bit on our press before the Kentucky game. I think that might have been where we mixed up a little bit. I think we went back to the way we've always done things as far as handling the press.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: Not really. I still felt that we had some things, goals that we wanted to accomplish in the team, and I didn't let any individual goals affect the way I wanted our team goals to be. I think we have a -- really didn't have a chance to accomplish the goals we set out for the beginning of the season. I don't think that there is any more pressure there than I had put on myself. I really had set for myself and my team to achieve a lot of goals, and I think that we reached them.

RASHEED WALLACE: Well, I cracked a couple of rims in my time, but I never shattered a whole backboard, like Big Country did today. That's an amazing feat. Plus I don't think I'm heavy enough to crack a backboard.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: I have to take it as a compliment. I think everybody knows Michael Jordan is the greatest player. For people to think that we have some things in common, gives me a lot of encouragement, and a lot of confidence. But I still think that I have my own style of playing and I think we do do some things similar, but basically it's almost a totally different game.

RASHEED WALLACE: He can take it out if he wants, because the percentages on hitting three, from what I saw of Arkansas, they're pretty good, but it won't always happen.

DONALD WILLIAMS: I think I just had a great tournament in '93, and just something to dream about came true. And as far as last year, you know, injuries happen one season, work all summer, and forget about that, and came out with the success we had this year, and was happy to be back again to the Final Four.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: Really sometimes the stars probably wind up canceling each other out, role players and those guys are the guys that really step up and really can dictate what happens in these games. And I think that it would be no different this time. I think it really is going to depend on our guys off the bench come in and help us and everybody. It's definitely a great field, but as long as we don't get up there and get caught up into individual matters, and it's still a team, that would be the key.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: It's been great, because he's almost like a father figure to us. Our parents are older than a lot of parents of kids my age, so it's good. He's teaching us a lot, not only about basketball, but about other things, and it's been great. He scolds us, but he picks us up when we're down.

RASHEED WALLACE: To me, he's a phenomenal coach, the things that he's done in the past and the things he's doing now. And he's just one of the top notch coaches out there, and he's trustworthy, my mom trusts me with him, and he trusts my mom with me, so there ain't too much more you can say about a coach, it just works.

DONALD WILLIAMS: The team had much more size in '93. And I think as far as the players they're the same, as far as pressing for 40 minutes, and I think it's added more size, and I think they're better than the 93 team.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: Yeah, we spent some time in the summer and everything, but no, he's definitely I think he's definitely a key for Arkansas, I think. In order for us to be able to contend we're going to have to close down on him and make him kick it out and make him beat us.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: Not really. I mean you have anxieties, but to me it feels almost like an ACC tournament. That's big for us, I mean it's just another step to what we want to accomplish, really. I mean it's definitely a big game. You have the type of fanfare out there this year, you haven't seen, but I think we have to look at it like we're playing a game, it's just going to help us improve for the next game. And that's how we're looking at it.

RASHEED WALLACE: Well, if we weren't going to the program, then we wouldn't have came to North Carolina, that's the way I feel. And past players that went to Carolina and come in the summer, they have a lot of loyalty, to sit back and tell the stories about their road trips and this and that. But for a lot of loyalty, the Coach Smith has a lot of respect.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: Those guys, they write back and give us good luck, and encouragement, and come back, stop back and talk to us and everything, and give us encouragement. But it's definitely the feeling throughout the program, and it's just the camaraderie we feel among our players past and present is just great.

DONALD WILLIAMS: I think that it's a big family atmosphere. And once a player graduates from North Carolina, and attends back in the summer and play pickup games with us and hang out, I think during the season if we lose or something they call and leave a message getting on us, but they call keep in touch with us, and they never forget the North Carolina program.

RASHEED WALLACE: He reminds me of Julian, because Julian has that bulk on him and the muscle. But I have to do the same way, I have to play the same way I played against Virginia, I hustle and really try.

RASHEED WALLACE: I think that even though Jerry and myself weren't here, Don was here, but Carolina is a defending national champion, also, they won it in '93 before Arkansas won it. So, it's like a battle of champions, it's going to be a good ballgame, and there's going to be some big players, and every player is going to be in possession.

JERRY STACKHOUSE: I guess it's just the way that it is kept up through Coach Smith. He calls, he's involved with their lives after the basketball is over with. The NBA or the guy who's going to work for some firm somewhere, he cares about us all the same. And I think once guys see that, and sees he has respect, and cares about us the same, they look up to him so much, and they try and keep in contact with what's going on.

COACH SMITH: We're very pleased to be here, it's obvious. I think any team that is here has to feel lucky, there's probably 40 teams each year are good enough -- me minds me of the NC State, they have a railroad track. But seriously, we are excited, and I think all the teams should be. And I think anybody could win it. You get this close to win two games, but we're looking, of course, hopefully and only at Arkansas because I just think they're playing extremely well. Any of you saw their game against Virginia, they're very athletic, they're very active defensively, and we didn't look like we were really great against the press and playing Kentucky. They're a great rebounding team, and we have to handle the ball and we have to be able to rebound in order to come out, even make it close.

COACH SMITH: From a coaching standpoint, I really believe each team has its own identity, and we're equally excited with any win or any advancement in the NCAA tournament. I even remember 1967. And I guess that's a good sign. But still I do think I'm equally excited, I'm happy most for the guys that haven't been here. I think it's a great experience. For a while we thought each one of our players should have the experience one time, and in '87 we didn't do a great job against Derrick Coleman and Syracuse and failed to go. But I'm pleased that Pat Sullivan can be in three by redshirting and he can have some good luck for a change.

COACH SMITH: It really has been different for Donald from the standpoint when he was a sophomore and he started about halfway through the season he got in the starting lineup and he became our No. 1 option for outside shooting. We were still intent on going inside there with Eric Montross and George Lynch really didn't have a position, but he was an outside shooter. Brian Reese was tremendous getting the ball into Montross. And Derrick Phelps to me is one of greatest guards in college, and I'm shocked he isn't in the pros. But the outside shot was the main reason they keep telling me why he's not in the NBA, but he'll be there, he has to be some day. So therefore Donald's job was to take any open three and he's gotten so much better as a basketball player in penetration and that little runner, he's better at that. We go equally to Calabria or Donald on any set place for three. So, it's been a different role. And I think midway through this season Jerry realized that this isn't high school where he's supposed to try and make a play every time he catches it. I think the others realize that we had a guy named Rasheed Wallace on the team, and we didn't want him to touch the ball or feel a part of it. And since then I think we've really improved, and Donald was the leader in that. Donald Williams really is getting the ball inside, he's playing well defensively. He's a better basketball player than when he made those five out of seven for two nights, and that of course is why you voted him as outstanding player. I might have voted for George Lynch that night myself.

COACH SMITH: One of the reasons we have the NCAA officiating committee put in force is to create uniform officiating throughout the country. And basketball is a difficult game to officiate, but it still says if I'm shooting or passing and I hit my arm and I have a ball, it's a foul. It's still in the rule book, you still expect it to be called. I'm amazed at how people say how it's called as if it should be called differently. It's supposed to be uniform throughout the country. The NCAA has lost millions of dollars probably trying to get this in place because we do want officiating to improve as the coaching techniques, as playing techniques, as players improve. The game is going just like this, and officiating is supposed to be with it. And I think we have improved it to be more uniform, and so I would be disappointed in you're saying -- let us, know, too, we can fight. That's why I'm saying if I'm driving 70 miles an hour, and the other guy is going 90, maybe both of us should be penalized, but the guy that's 90 if it isn't called is going to win the race.

COACH SMITH: We beat Duke 102 to 100, in overtime. We average 84.9. Arkansas averages 88. So, we hope they don't hit their average, and we hope -- maybe we win 85-82 I'd love that. I'd love winning 39-38, 21-20. So, I think we're pretty flexible on that throughout the season. We've played good teams, and we always look to fast break, ever since I've been the Head Coach, and that's not going to be any different. If they press us, we'll take it through, and if we get an easy one, we'll take it. If we don't get an easy one, we'll wait until we get a good one.

COACH SMITH: The first thing you have to congratulate them getting back to this level. With five returning starters, that's unusual. I know we didn't have George Lynch back, who was really the heart and soul of our team of '93. But we had the other guys back. But that doesn't necessarily mean in '93 if we played the Final Four again, we probably wouldn't have won next week. So, that's why I find it remarkable that they have done what they've done. I think they're a better team now for having gone through the Alabama game in Arkansas, to go at Alabama and win was very impressive after that. I think they're a better team than if they would have won all their games coming in here by two or three points. They've gone through some adversities, and it's really helped them. But what Duke came back with -- their key players were back, they lost somebody that didn't -- they really had all their starters back, essentially. So, that's highly unusual today, and it probably won't happen with the professional situation the way it is. You probably won't have teams where they're returning everybody intact for the next year.

COACH SMITH: Century? I didn't coach in the 19th Century, no. I'd say that human nature is much the same. And even though they were exposed to so much more with television and the movies and all this, but I find them delightful young people to be around. They do what they're told. Of course I suppose that's the kind of guy that will choose North Carolina, if you choose North Carolina or Indiana you know what you're getting, so there's no surprises. And a guy that maybe won't choose us that wants to do it his own way, entirely. So, I really haven't seen that much difference in people. And I hope I'm like any other college professor, some of you when you were in college I know had somebody that was in his sixties teaching you, and hope he could still teach his subject. But of course in the coach/player relationship it's a little more involved, because you're with them so much, and it's much more like a graduate student working with one professor.

COACH SMITH: I don't know if free spirit is a good way to say it, but he's a heck of a basketball player, excellent student, and he wants to be in business and think of ways to make money, he says. He's very frugal with what he has, I know that. He even was trying to sell, I shouldn't say this, but when we were recruiting him, he was trying to work a deal something of -- well, I'll let him tell it, but he was selling something for ten cents, but he got enough students to buy it, so he made about three dollars. But he really is a tremendous young man, and one that is so important to our success. He does it defensively. We may put him on Beck, because he's very good keeping people off the board. He's guarded six ten people this year, six nines, and he's played point guard for us.

COACH SMITH: Probably Murray State, Bob, because Scott Edgar was Nolan's assistant for 11 years, and we tried to play the same way. And if Nolan happened to look at the tape there midway through the first half he has to really be smiling about pressing North Carolina. We didn't do a very good job there, and our problem being that we were prepared all year, and played well against Maryland's press in the ACC tournament and they took it off, taking it through, and that's the least of our worries facing Murray State and all of a sudden it became a worry.

COACH SMITH: I think Jeff will be very effective. He wasn't supposed to do a lot, but I kind of, well, said, come on out here, Jeff, and see what we're trying to do. Next thing you know he did practice, maybe 20 minutes of the time and did very well. So, I'd say he's ready to go, and if we should be fortunate enough to win, that would be a huge problem, because he needs time on the groin pull. But we don't worry about that, because we're playing a great basketball team, which I think is the best team I've seen, as I started watching the tapes this year.