NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 26, 1998

Gary Blair

Karyn Karlin

Sytia Messer

Christy Smith

COACH GARY BLAIR: Folks, we're very humbled, we're very honored, but the word is we're not very lucky. I think we've earned our right to be here, regardless of what a lot of other people have said. Anytime you can reach this level, you've done good. We're not a very complicated basketball team. We're probably not the best team here. But we have the opportunity to play the best, and that's all we want. We don't ask for anything but 40 minutes. When you give us 40 minutes, it's our job to go out there and try to prove that we are the best on that particular night. And that's what it's all about, participate go in the SEC. We're very proud, we're very happy for Tennessee. We're very happy for ourselves. But there's been a lot of other SEC teams over the years, is that have helped pave the way for the rest of us. If I'm not mistaken, there's six SEC teams that have been to the Final Four. We've made the six. And I don't believe there's too many leagues around that have had six teams in the Final Four. And I was talking to our guru of the voting polls over the years, Mel Greenberg, and I asked him this question last night. And he wasn't sure. If Mel isn't sure on anything, I might have him for once. But I think we're the first team ever to be in the Final Four that was not ranked in either poll. We were ranked earlier in the year, but we haven't been in the poll in such a long time. And a number of times we were not even receiving votes in the coach's poll. But we were always in the AP poll, the media poll. And the media knows a whole lot more than us coaches (laughter.) So, I really appreciate you guys and ladies, because that does mean something to us. Because when you see your name in those polls over the years, that's the biggest tool that a school can have for their admissions department, for a recruiting base, and for the hope of the kids that are out there playing. We're excited to be here. I've got no world premiere TV show tonight. I've got no book coming out. I'm glad Leon is here, because I'm just another pretty face along with Leon. I'm very, very happy for Kay Yow. She's meant a lot to the game of basketball. And it's time to see some new faces here. And what you see in Kay and I are a couple of new, old, tired faces that are very happy. I don't think there will be anybody smiling more than Kay Yow and myself. It's also good to have Tennessee and Louisiana Tech. I spent five years at Louisiana Tech and loved every minute of it. It was very, very important and very ironic the last night that Sonya Hogg was playing for a National Championship at NIT. It was very ironic that Leon has his team back here again. And perhaps it's very surprising in a lot of people's eyes that we're here, too. But a lot of my success individually goes back to the roots of the Louisiana Tech era, what I learned working with those two. A lot of my success goes back to the high school careers, eight years back in high school. The best thing I can say is I made every step along the way. I've been a high school coach, I've been the assistant coach, I was even a softball coach at Louisiana Tech the first year, along with the basketball. And I've been the head coach at a mid-level program, and helped raise that program back to the level that Sue Gunter used to have it at. And then I was given the opportunity to come to Arkansas. And I was very, very fortunate that I had an AD that believed what we could accomplish at Arkansas. We play in the best arena in the country. And I have a chance to raise a family in northwest Arkansas, and I'm very excited. And it's very ironic, my wife is working on her doctorate up here. She comes every Wednesday and goes home on Friday night, and she's working on her doctorate at nursing. So she had a ticket for Kansas City. She just wasn't sure I was going to make it. She's over there dissecting rats or something right now in her research program or something that she's working on. But she's working with big rats. That's serious stuff. But we're happy to be here. I'll open it up for questions. I'll quit rambling.

COACH GARY BLAIR: When you've been in the bubble for the last few years and you didn't make it, and there was a lot of hurt, a lot of hurt in this basketball team. But there was a lot of work that went along. We didn't give up on ourselves, where a lot of people did. And all of a sudden when we went to the West Regional, we expected that Arkansas always goes to the West Regional. They tried to send us to the furthest place away. I don't know what it is, but we accepted it. The best thing in the world that happened to us, we had a chance to get away from our, excuse me, girls, our parents, our fans, our local media, everyone. We were out there on an island by ourselves out there on Alcatraz. But we had a ball. We were able to be 13 days together and not have to live up to the expectations that sometimes you have when you're around so many people that are following you. And we were able to get closer together as a basketball team. And we were able to just let the chips fall. Harvard didn't do the dirty work for us. Harvard played a very inspirational basketball game that gave every team in the country hope that they could do it. And it was a heck of a ballgame. It wasn't that Stanford played bad, it was that Harvard played great. Stanford played well enough to win, but Harvard played better. And we were able to use that as a rallying cry, and say that opened up the door for us to play at the highest level. And from then on we just went after it.

CHRISTY SMITH: Well, one thing is for sure, I'm in a lot better shape. I was pretty -- I was struggling quite a bit in those first few games coming back. And in that game I remember going in at halftime saying, I can't play the whole game. I was so exhausted. And I think that's the main thing. I think I'm in a lot better shape now. It was kind of hard sitting out that long and riding a bike and trying to play in basketball shape.

CHRISTY SMITH: I remember we got beat by quite a few points. But I don't know if they pressed us that much. Did they press us that much? I don't think they did. I remember that we were playing great defense and they would still make this spectacular shot. And they were just a very talented team. And they still are. They had a lot of great players come off the bench for them. They were just a very well-rounded team then, and they still are now.

COACH GARY BLAIR: We had to play that game on January the 1st, due that they had a national TV game against Tennessee. It was the only time, because we had a ballgame on the 28th and 30th. And Tennessee had not played, it had been 15 days or so. And we figured we've got them, there's going to be no fans there, they're all home watching the bowl games. We had two games under our belt, and there was 15,000 people there on that ballgame on Sunday afternoon or Saturday, whenever we had it. So we didn't surprise them. They played well. But a lot of it, if most of you will remember, had a little bit of revenge factor. We were the team that beat them 77-75 the year before. And I think they really remembered that, and they came in totally prepared and just gave us a clinic out there.

COACH GARY BLAIR: No, I'll put a different spin on it. It was one of Sytia Messer's best games of the year, because she was guarding her. We're dealing in the positive. I cannot worry about a kid, how many shots she missed. I can only commend my player for the job that she did on her defensively. And so we try to live off that. I don't quite mention what Holdsclaw did to her on January the 1st too often. I think Sytia remembers both ends of it.

CHRISTY SMITH: Well, we've been working on that quite a bit in practice, working on bringing the press. And I think the thing that Tennessee does really well is they get their opponents frustrated and flustered. I think if we keep our composure and keep focused on our goal, and if we make one mistake, just come back and not make the same mistake. I think if we stay together, we'll be all right.

COACH GARY BLAIR: I think when you're looking at Tennessee, how do you prepare for them? You have two pressing teams, and it's a little different variations of different press. They play more of a zone press, and it's very effective, just due to their size and everything. We're more of a man-to-man pressing team. And sometimes a pressing team does not like to be pressed. Somebody is going to crack, okay? And that's just part of it. It's just not two teams that are going to go in there and be able to do what they want to all the time. We didn't come up here to sit back in the 2-3, zone and play defense. If you get a chance to dance, you better dance with your best moves. If we look like we're in retreat, we'll get run out of the gym. And I don't think Pat would expect us to come in here and not do what we do best. But when we beat them two years ago, the two guards that were playing were Laurie Milligan at the one and Kyra Elzy at the two, who was a freshman. And Holdsclaw was at the three. Now, you have the Randall factor, you have Jolly, who is healthy and playing now, and you've even got a better Holdsclaw, and now you've got a Clement coming off the bench, which they didn't have before. The only thing you're missing is Elzy, who might be the best defensive player in the country. So it's a little bit different personnel than what it was two years ago when we won.

CHRISTY SMITH: I think she's the glue to their team. She gets the ball to who needs it, runs their team very well. You know, I don't know what you can do to defend her, unless you just keep her from getting the ball. But I don't know how that would work. But I think she's definitely a very good player for their team and works well with their personnel.

COACH GARY BLAIR: I think when you look at Kellie Jolly, first you've got to put your ego to the side and you've got to work more on your leadership abilities to be able to control the talent she has around her.. I think that's very important. And there's a lot of pointguards in the country that will not share the basketball enough or will not get it to the right people. And that's what makes Jolly so special. She does not mind being the fourth wheel or the fourth spoke or whatever in a great team, because it's all about reins, it's all about getting to the top. I think that's what made her special. This last summer, Christy has to do so much for us offensively. She played for Jim Foster in the World University game. She averaged three points a ballgame, started over a couple of ABL players, did what her basketball team needed for her to do. And that's what a point guard has to do. If Kellie Jolly played on another team, she might be expected to score 13 or 14 points. But she shares the ball, and when you have the triangle with the Chicago Bulls or Tennessee around you, you get real smart around you, you say give it up, they'll make me look good.

COACH GARY BLAIR: The team was better. And I think that's a lot of it. We were playing at home in front of 8,000. And our 8,000, it's something else, folks. When you've got 8,000 Razorbacks fans out there, Tennessee has great fans, also, but they made the biggest difference. And we pressed them full court. And my two guards, one who's graduated now, Kimberly Wilson, had 21 points and Smith had 21. We had 42 points between the one and the two position. We kicked them at the guard position, and played some defense on Holdsclaw, and then played a little bit of HTM, "hope they miss." And they missed a few shots. And we got a few breaks. But a home court can mean so much in the college game and professional game.

CHRISTY SMITH: First of all, I had a great time. Going into it I thought there's going to be a lot of egos. And I was afraid they wouldn't like me or they wouldn't get along with me. But they were not only tremendous athletes and players, but they were great people. And I had the time of my life. The coaching staff was wonderful. It was just an awesome experience. All I had to do was bring the ball down the floor and throw it to somebody, and they took care of it. I learned a lot from Coach Foster. It was a wonderful opportunity.

KARYN KARLIN: I think at this point in the season we have so much more confidence than we did at that point. I think we've gained momentum through every game of this tournament. We have so much more confidence in each other. I think everybody has been able to step up and contribute, and I think that's the biggest part of our winning is the team effort that we've been able to do. Someone different stepped up every night, and I think that's the biggest part of it.

COACH GARY BLAIR: They had ten losses, and one of those losses was for Arkansas. The SEC prepares you to win championships. You might not be the team. Sometimes it might take you two years down the line to be put in that position. That's what the SEC does. And, folks, it's not a cake walk out there. We just played 14 straight conference games, with no non-conference games in between, no cup cakes. Then we played two in the tournament. That's 16 straight. When we got to the NCAA's, we were glad to see somebody our size. And we were knocking the teams, and we were playing. But our kids all of a sudden felt a whole lot more confident when we were out there playing people that we could look eyeball to eyeball. And that's what happened in the first two games. And then after that we went back to play Kansas and Duke, which had the size of the SEC teams, and by then our confidence, it was very high.

COACH GARY BLAIR: Christy Smith is the ultimate point guard to coach, both on and off the court, because she never, never makes an excuse. And folks, you just don't understand how hard that is in coaching today or even dealing with your own kids back home, just think of it. I've got a 16-year-old and a 11-year-old. They should be arriving here pretty quick. And I love them to death. But the first thing it's going to be I wanna, I wanna. And this is what this kid is all about. She's about we and about team. And she shares the mantle out there. And then she gives back so much to the community. And then she is the biggest example on our team for all of our youngest kids, how to do things right, both on and off the court. There's so much in basketball besides sitting up here and being the star, being asked the questions. There's so much more you can do to be the complete person and to be the complete player. We had her high school coach, Jan Coner (ph), who just finished No. 2 in the nation at Martinsville, Indiana, come over and watch our closed workout that we had over at Saint Teresa this morning. And it was such an inspiration to have a kid's high school coach come back and to be able to see her product be polished up a little and play at the highest level. And that's very, very important. We're playing this Final Four not just for Christy Smith's parents or Sytia's parents or Karyn's parents or people back in Arkansas, but we're playing for the high school coaches and AAU coaches that helped pave the way for these people, and the ex lady backs that made it easier for me to go out and be able to recruit, and the ex coaches at Arkansas that have done an excellent job of building this program. And we've been very fortunate. But Christy Smith is a giver, and she is probably -- you go put Christy Smith on Tennessee or Connecticut or Louisiana Tech or Stanford, those are probably the highest profile teams that are out there in the women's game right now, she would do the same thing. She would do the same thing. She just has to do a little bit more for us.

SYTIA MESSER: I think it will help us a lot, because we know they're a great team. But by playing them the last two years, I think it will help us; especially defensively, how to guard Holdsclaw. Because we've guarded her. I've guarded her for two years. So I think that will help us.

COACH GARY BLAIR: We were like the TV sitcom, Three's Company. It was very similar. I was sort of the middleman. All three of us, none of us would admit it, we're all six months age difference apart, and Leon is the oldest. And Sonya will remind me she is the youngest. But I was sort of in between. Leon and Sonya were so good to the game. Sonya put class in the game of women's basketball, back when class was needed. She did things the first class method. She drove a white Corvette and later a white Cadillac. And she'd tell me everything to do, turn the radio off before you start the car, do this, do that. But she did everything first class. And I learned so much from her just on the public relations aspect. Learned on appearance. She had our kids dress like a million dollars, whether they went to practice or whatever. She put dignity back in the game of women's basketball. And she was sort of -- I always used to say -- she didn't like it. I used to say she was the Dolly Parton of women's basketball. Because she just had that air and charisma around her. And you had Leon, the Bobby Knight of women's basketball, who was the motivator. Those kids would go through the wall for him. And they still go through the wall. And that is something that, as a coach, you want that so much, to be able to get kids to play hard for you. And I learned a lot from them. I learned what preparation was all about. And I learned how to treat people, how Sonya learned how to treat people. And they were good for the game. And we worked well. Leon and Sonya were good. Sometimes they were just likes sisters and brothers. They would fight, and I would be in the middle. And they would get so mad at me, because I wouldn't back either one of them. I would agree with parts of both of them, because there was different ways to do it. And so that's what I learned. It was a good era. And I'm happy that all three of us are still able to coach this game.

SYTIA MESSER: Last year, whenever she gave up the ball, I tried to deny her. I would deny her the ball. The best way for me to defend a person is to not let them touch it. That's what I did. This year I really didn't get in the flow of the game when we played Tennessee in January. So I didn't really get a good feeling about guarding her.

CHRISTY SMITH: Me, personally, I never feel like somebody is invincible or a team is invincible. I go into every game and I feel like this team goes into every game. You've got to believe you can win. What's the purpose of playing if you don't believe you can win. I don't think we've ever felt that way. But, you know, North Carolina played a really good game against them. I thought they had a pretty good chance. Tennessee is just a great team. And they pulled it out and did what they've done all year. But I've never felt like a team is unbeatable.