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NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: WASHINGTON

March 25, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C.

JIM CALHOUN: Well, to state the obvious, we're happy to be here today. We survived an incredible basketball game last night between two incredibly competitive teams, and I think the game could go up as Exhibition A of what this tournament has been. If you watched the Villanova/BC game or so many other games within this tournament where games have been decided in so many different fashions and the parity amongst the teams has started to really, really show, I think that Washington certainly gave us everything that we could possibly ever imagine to handle. We're able to withstand that and advance, and that's what you want to do. And then tomorrow, we face a team to some degree in my opinion defensively where they are really, really good, can do some of the same things Washington can do. They run their -- I guess Jimmy has called it his new scramble that he put in right before the tournament. You know, we face a very difficult game.
Our kids haven't gone over the names of their team, just like we wouldn't have gone over the Washington team until the night before the game. That's just how we handle it. We handle the situation next in practice and we try to do what we do and then adjust to some of the things we want to adjust to. We have not really gone over -- they saw Lewis and they saw some of the things that they can do. You're going to see Lewis. Lewis is pretty hard to hide. But bottom line is that we are a great believer in ourselves and then make the adjustments based upon what the other team is going to do.
Lastly, just in summation, three things I will tell the kids in practice to make it easy for you, we're going to take care of the basketball; we're not doing that. We have got to start blocking shots around the rim to change games; we're not doing that in this tournament. And overall, we take care of that basketball, and then just defense. We're 37 coming into the game, No. 1 team in the country, field goal percentage defense, given up 43 point something in this tournament. We're actually up less than five blocked shots in a game, averaged almost ten during the season and we averaged about 15 turnovers and we're averaging in this tournament 19 turnovers a game. So it's not just last night. We have turned the ball over way too much.
We know what's at stake tomorrow, a trip to Indianapolis, and we're excited to have the opportunity to play that game.
Q. Between decompressing from last night's game and preparing for the next game, did anyone up there get any sleep last night?
JIM CALHOUN: Well, we got back, I looked up, it was 1:01 right after the game ended. I remember walking across to CBS for interviews, and then next time I looked up at my watch it was 2:20 and we were giving pizzas to the kids because we had so much cramping, obviously hungry, but pizza is loaded with all the good stuff as we all know. (Laughter) The thing it really has is fat and incredible amounts of salt and it's really one of the things that I'm sure you all prescribe for yourself when you start cramping and that's the reason -- that's the only reason that you have pizza late at night. (Laughter).
Somewhere around -- I know myself, Coach Blaney and myself, George Blaney, we met a little bit after 3 o'clock, just talked for a couple hours and then I was up at 7:30 this morning with my grandchildren to get a little bit of decompression, as someone said. We met as a staff for two and a half hours this morning. We will go to practice and then have a chalk talk after that. Obviously spend a great deal of time on George Mason, on the floor walking through, walking through, which they like, and then we will have a chalk talk tonight. We have the scouting report, we have all the games right up to last night. So at least in that aspect we are prepared, and they will know George Mason pretty well hopefully by the time -- they should know everybody, by 2:40 tomorrow.
RUDY GAY: I think we're pretty high off the win. Happy about this guy making a lot of good shots. Personally I went to sleep maybe around the same time that Coach did. We were just happy and glad to be in the next level of the tournament.
RASHAD ANDERSON: I probably went to sleep like 5:30. I'm just being honest. (Laughter) I mean, I couldn't sleep, so I just ordered me a nice movie, Aeon Flux, woman superhero, watched a move and I went to sleep.
JIM CALHOUN: I'm glad to hear that. Movies are cut off tonight, guys. (Laughter).
RASHAD ANDERSON: Just happy to still be here. Just this feeling, this is the best feeling in my life. I mean, looking back at what I went through last year, not knowing if I was ever going to get back to this point, it's truly a blessing to be here. I'm just taking it all in.
Q. First of all, Jim, I think I speak for most everyone in this room, sports writers consider pizza a food group and not just a remedy. Rashad, how do you feel when you're in the midst of a game, you seem to have impeccable timing for the 3-point shot, you understand the nature of momentum and runs, not just obviously last night, you needed a three, but in the midst of a game, talk about the mental process of when you're waiting to get the ball thinking this would be a good possession to take a 3 to try to change the momentum of the game and what you think about at the time.
RASHAD ANDERSON: I just think about putting the ball in the hole and helping my teammates out. I don't really think too much about anything. If you ask any of my teammates or Coach Calhoun, when the game is on the line ask we're down, I want the ball, knock down two shots to get us going again. I never think, I never second-guess myself when I'm taking a shot. I just know the next one is in. My teammates do a great job giving me the ball and I just go with that.
JIM CALHOUN: To add to that answer, I've stated publicly and I got a phone call last night from Ray Allen to congratulate our guys. He is the best clutch three-point shooter I've coached and we've had some great ones, certainly Ben Gordon, Ray Allen, etc. I think without knowing it, I think intuitively, he has a feel, like you said, when we really need a big 3. And I still think he's trying to shoot and all that stuff and so on and so on. Intuitively, no one makes as many big shots, I call them daggers, last night as you said was out of necessity. No player makes as many daggers as Rashad has, so there must be more to it than just I like to get the ball in the basket, that type of thing. He has done it time after time. So many games we're up three or four, down that stretch, it's a minute and a half to go, he hits a 3 and the game is over. Or we've been down five or six and he hits a 3. Going back to the Duke game in the semifinals a couple years ago, we're down eight, looks like it's over, he hits a three, now we're down five and it's doable. It's more intuitive on his part to take that shot than it is just shooting the basketball.
Q. When you say turnovers are up and blocked shots are down and in terms of field goal percentage defense you're not where you were, how are you continuing to win with all those things happening, and Marcus Williams, the condition of how he's doing health-wise?
JIM CALHOUN: First of all, I think it's rather obvious, coaching (laughter).
I think that, quite frankly, very honestly, when someone asked me last night that our team is flawed at times and flawed in certain positions, I said I loved this team. And someone said, well, how does it compare to this team or that team and someone asked an intelligent question and when are we going to see the Connecticut that we have heard about. You have seen somewhat the Connecticut you've heard about being disrupted in the tournament because teams do catch up. Teams find ways to catch you when you play 30-something games. We are 30-3 and I think they find a way to win. A lot of the things that happened last night were plays that players make. Guys that refuse to lose a basketball game, guys who with 1:17 to go down five, with 30 seconds down five don't believe they are going to lose.
And that, as a coach, you don't teach. Maybe you try to set the mood that we're still here, but you can't set the mood if you don't have the winners with you. And I said something in New York when we lost to Syracuse and we were down big, we have a championship's heart. I think we have a champion's heart and I think that's the reason we're able to come back. Do I expect us to do those things? I think we do and I expect us to keep advancing and go quite deep, quite frankly.
The second question was --
Q. Marcus.
JIM CALHOUN: Marcus, his condition is much like Hilton's, both have a little bit of puffiness in their ankles and they are being treated right now, will be treated all day and I fully expect they will both be pretty much full-go tomorrow. I'm sure they will watch it very closely but I fully expect them to be full-go.
RASHAD ANDERSON: We just refuse to lose. In the huddle Denham is like we have a minute 15 or a minute 17 seconds left, there's still a lot of time and we can win this game. We're just a team that refused to lose. I'm still like shocked today. I mean, when I Wake up this morning, me and Marcus this morning, we woke up it was like, "Yo, we won last night." If anyone knows Marcus's personality, that's him. I just turned to him and I was like, "Yeah, we did." (Laughter).
We just refuse to lose. I remember last night, Rudy and Denham was on the basket and he said his eyes got as big as these cups, the singles of these cups, when I hit the shot, they both look at each other momentarily like -- (mouth gaping open). (Laughter).
We're just focused now and like Coach said, we have to cut down on turnovers and we'll be fine.
Q. Is there any concern at all, and this is the risk of putting any ideas in anybody's head, that you are going to tomorrow, the whole Cinderella thing, that you guys avoid playing not to lose rather than playing to win.
JIM CALHOUN: There's always that chance. One of the genius that Jim Larranaga has pulled off is his team never came out tight. Matter of fact, they didn't do it once, because you can do it once but they have come out three straight games. When you say the names, Michigan State, Carolina, a real good Wichita team who they defeated early, disappeared early, that means the team has been able to grasp what Jimmy has been selling which is just play, I want to have the best time as a coach during this tournament. When I thought Jimmy said that, it's like the coach from Albany, Coach Brown said we think we can beat Connecticut. Someone said are you offended by that. No, I have so much more respect for Coach Brown from Albany for saying that, same thing with Jimmy. They think they can beat us and we think we can beat them. That's what great competition is about.
If I tell my guys simply Michigan State and Carolina, three good teams to beat, I think they will get the message. The only time we have played tentatively was in the first game and for the first 30 minutes we admit that. In the last ten minutes we were magnificent. Might have been the best basketball we played in the tournament, defense and offense combined matter of fact, I don't care who we were playing. We have so much to gain, it's a wonderful opportunity for these kids, that's what this tournament is about. I would hate to see us leave the floor tomorrow with a "W" or an "L" and not have given it our very best and not playing for something that others might perceive or any other thing. We just want to play basketball and advance to Indianapolis and so does George Mason. That's how I feel.
RUDY GAY: I think you have to play to win every game. Like Coach said, they beat a lot of good teams and we'd be stupid not come out here and give it our all.
RASHAD ANDERSON: They summed it up. It's one and done. We come out ready to play every game. Last game we didn't play our best but we expect to come out here and play our best basketball tomorrow.
Q. Given Mason's 11th seed and obviously the height disparity, is there a danger of sort of overdramatizing their status as the underdog? It's an easy story to write about how daunting this task is. Do you see it as not as dramatic a gulf between the two teams as maybe some of the journalists do?
JIM CALHOUN: I see things a lot different than a lot of journalists. (Laughter).
No, on a more serious note, Michigan State one of the best rebounding teams in modern history of basketball in the last ten years, I believe they out rebounded by 18. So what's -- where's the height differential, okay.
Carolina, against Duke when I saw Carolina, they were the best team in the country on that given night and Mason didn't pay any attention and just went out and beat them.
So I very simply think that it's a game that we just need to play. George Mason has three 1,000-point scorers. We have played against a team of very similar size last night. We won the rebounding battle by a large four, I believe it was, and blocked only five shots.
No, I don't think -- I mean, they have terrific ball handling. That's not necessarily our best forte, so it's a matchup really of their ability to handle the ball and our ability to use some of the power and strength that you talked about. But beyond that, they have a 3-0 record and our 3-0 records are going to clash. Whatever team is able to impose it's will and style on the other team, that's the team that will win.
RUDY GAY: You know, it's just they are a tough team. No matter what, they made it here. And I think we're a tough team. So it's going to be a good team no matter what.
RASHAD ANDERSON: A lot of people get caught up in 1 seeds versus 8 seeds, 11 seeds versus 2 seeds. When it comes down to it, you've got to win. Nobody cares about all that stuff, rankings, all that stuff goes away. It's all about putting together 40 minutes and whoever puts up the most points and depends the ball win.
JIM CALHOUN: I didn't hear much about Jamaal Williams from Washington. I stood beside him yesterday, he's a 6-5 post man. He used and abused us, okay. So my point being simply, when the games begin, they throw the ball up, they are a terrific basketball team just based upon what they have done. We think we've advanced to this level, we are a good basketball team and the Old Mills Lane, let's get it on. That's what it is and that's what the games all come down to.
Q. Briefly, Marcus Williams, what he went through this year, how he dealt with it, how you dealt with it and how he's gotten to this point. It seems like an interesting story?
JIM CALHOUN: He's an incredible kid and a kid who made a dumb, stupid mistake. I'm not in the business after 35 years of abandoning kids. That's not what I feel I need to do. If a young man doesn't belong in our institution or within our basketball program, we've had a couple of those kids unfortunately and it's time for them to leave, they have left. But Marcus wasn't one of those kids. He had never made, quite frankly, from Crenshaw High School to Oak Hill Academy to University of Connecticut, he's really a kid that's been an ideal kid to have in our program. He did something very dumb and very stupid and he's paid a pretty good price for that. He's paid a pretty good price to that and continues to pay a price to this day for that and, quite frankly, will pay a price for a long period of time, a public price, which is much more difficult than some people's private transgressions that don't get publicized.
But, you put yourself in the limelight, you're going to ask for that. Marcus has handled it magnificently. I've never seen it really affect his basketball. I think it's given him strength and I think the chance that we gave him the second chance, clearly, we're all deserving of. I truly believe that the job of education is just to do that. Having everything taken out of the locker room, which was his family, these guys, for the whole first semester, you say, well, it's only three or four months. These are his family. He's from California so we took him away from his family. He's not allowed to use anything at the university except for the classrooms, he's not even allowed to come to our morning breakfasts, etc., not allowed to watch practice, do anything, he has 400 community hours, he's completed 200 of those and he's been written about, jeered, wrongly criticized, but he's put himself in that position as I told him. Now he's going to stand up as a man, grow and say, I made a mistake, and show you that it's nothing more than that; that's not me, that was a mistake.
Q. I was wondering if you could recall the first time you made the Elite 8, what the feeling was like, what the atmosphere was like and contrast that to now where you're head of a program that expects to be in the Elite 8 every year and expects to go to the Final Four every year.
JIM CALHOUN: Different. Yeah, we had a game we thought one in the Elite 8 and that was against Duke and it was 1990. I don't remember it that well (laughter).
And a ball was thrown upcourt to a kid named Tate George who went on to play with the Nets in New York, New Jersey. I remember Bobby Hurly was ahead and Tate accepted the pass and we were up one. As he started to turn to dribble the ball, he dropped it out of bounds. Oh, it's only 2.5, don't worry about it. It's their ball, probably 35 feet in front of the Duke bench, Mike was right there. Called a time-out and they ran a play, later on came back in, made an incredible shot and we lost the game.
I still remember to this day, to this moment, the tears, the anguish, the disappointment, and then eventually the celebration of just how far we had come in 1990. Now at 30-3, that team was 31-6, by the way, 31-5 at the time, we answered the questions daily, and I guess rightfully so because we had been the No. 1 team in the country, etc., at the time, what's wrong with Connecticut, what are you doing. Is the atmosphere for me any different? This is our reward for having a great season.
Our reward for having a great season is to get into the NCAA Tournament and be given the type of seed that you want and advance. I was as excited as I was in 1990 and the moment I lose that is the moment I will stop coaching. If you can't get excited about this, you need to hang your whistle up. And so therefore, the contrast is interesting. I wouldn't have thought about it, but it's so different, everything. I mean, elated to win this first game against Boston University and then California and then the great shot by Tate George. Elation and everything gravy and everything, house money.
And now, what's wrong with Connecticut, they are only 30-3, they are in the Elite 8, and that's the price you pay. And that's the price you want to continue to pay. I would like to have, as long as I'm coaching at Connecticut and far beyond that hopefully, I would like to have us in this position where we face that type of pressure. Yeah, thank you. I said "thank you" because it brought back some good memories, that's why (laughter).
Q. Can you talk about the environment that's changed in college basketball, maybe even high school for you guys where at one point a Cinderella was a Cinderella and now you see guys at camps and everybody knows everybody and it's harder for these guys to be, I guess, intimidated by big schools any more like maybe 10, 15 years ago where North Carolina, UCONN or a big program was seen as unbeatable. If you can talk about how things have changed in college basketball to get to this point?
JIM CALHOUN: You hit the nail on the head certainly by saying simply the AAU thing has changed everything. TV has changed it. Journalism has changed it, everything has changed in the sense that they are known factors. So all of our kids have played against all of our kids. You have played against everybody somewhere and whatever pro game you end up with, if you're at the top, you want to show you belong there and if you're not quite at the top, many times you're a mistake.
I heard something yesterday, Connecticut with all it's great high school All-Americans, if I'm not correct, we have one McDonald's All-American on the team. We've had eight in my 20 years. There's eight at Duke right now. Doesn't mean they are the best players, and that's I think the point you're making. The best players are the kids who develop like Hilton, Armstrong. The best players are the guys who develop like Rashad Anderson. Rashad was a very good high school player. Obviously Rudy was a McDonald's All-American, but you're right.
I think, quite frankly, with the national exposure of kids playing against each other, they have a chance to test in the margin of error and recruiting is so thin, that you may get a kid, for example, using a McDonald's All-American as some kind of a level, that may be a kid who is there but now, but two years from now, he's still there and he has not developed quite as much. There's so much more in the idea that these kids see each other, play against each other more. The idea of fear and stuff, that's gone, 100%. I think AAU, playing against each other four times a day, these guys when we go with rosters of teams, I played against them here, I did this, they are always talking. They know guys from Washington who is a West Coast team and I think that's really one of the things that's helped changed the idea of "Cinderella."
RUDY GAY: I think it's more the idea of developing. Those people that be at camps that you know, they continually get better and that's what puts them at the point they are right now like the team we played. They are at Washington or whatever but you cannot take them differently because they got better as a team and to get where they are right now.
RASHAD ANDERSON: Everybody is getting better no matter what school you want to, people want to be good. People who probably got overlooked by other schools, you know, they take it as a challenge and they work their butt off. They try to show everybody why you passed up on me and things of that nature.
People tend to get better at whatever program you tend to go.
Q. It's unusual for a No. 1 seed to be playing in the kind of atmosphere you guys are going to play tomorrow night 22 miles from their campus. What do you expect and what do you hope to do about it?
RASHAD ANDERSON: Hopefully win. (Laughter).
No, we can't worry about the crowd situation. What we've got to do is we've got to worry about ourselves, those 16, 17 people sitting on the bench and what little Connecticut fans we do have, we've just got to come and play. We can't worry about the crowd because once we're on the floor, we don't worry about nothing else but those 40 minutes on Sunday.
Q. Just wondering, could you describe your relationship with Jim Larranaga and what do you like about him as a coach?
JIM CALHOUN: Well, he's always been a terrific coach. I remember I used to play with the coach at Providence College. We used to go to Providence or Boston, college guys would always get together and play. I was probably a year or two out at the time a graduate assistant and I played against Jim some. I will tell you this much, he never passed the ball; he always shot it.
But as a coach, I've watched him grow. He was at American International which is my alma mater and I'm on the board of trustees there and he coached there for two years and went on to assistantship at Virginia, the ACC, went to the Midwest, did an incredible job out there.
What I like about him is he seems to have an incredible ability to get some of the players that someone referred to before, he gets older players and kids who come to George Mason and I think they have a swagger without arrogance, which I really like. Their arrogance doesn't show. They are not doing any kind of chest thumping some teams carry in my opinion too far, but they have a confidence that really, really is from a coaching standpoint a long way from the x's and o's, and it's a well-developed team. They can do a lot of things, Michigan State, Carolina, and the other thing is they are good, they are a good basketball team.
When I see Lewis, I'm not sure if he's a better NBA player or NFL player. What's that, the Dancing With the Stars or something, he can beat Jerry Rice with his feet, he's got terrific feet, yet he's 270 pounds. They have good basketball players. I think Jimmy does a great job of demanding, you can see that, discipline, defensively. And then I think he allows the kids to play offensively. He allows them to play offensively which gives them great confidence. They are a terrific basketball team and their record and what they have done is not a shock -- should not be a shock. Is it a surprise? Of course it is. Carolina, Michigan State are two of the best teams and programs in this country. But George Mason, what he's done, that has absolutely been phenomenal in my opinion. I would take the X's and O's but I would almost take the idea of the fact that his team does not act like it's a team to just win a game and move on. Sure, they can play a little bit, but they are here to win, but they have shown that they can play.
Q. Rashad has been a cut up pretty much from the day he came on campus; can you talk about him as a breath of fresh air as a person that he's been for four years?
JIM CALHOUN: I've already said that I've started to miss him and he's not gone yet. I'll miss his smile, I'll miss him walking in. Even on one of his darkest moments as he just had been taken off the resuscitator when he fought the potentially fatal bacteria, he said, "I bet you miss my jumpshot more than me." He was semi-right. No, he's just an incredible kid. (Laughter).
When you meet his mom and dad, there's something special, something special he brings. He's fearless. We used to call it oblivious. No, it's fearless. And he's oblivious to criticism in the sense that he does not really concern himself with the shot missed. He only thinks about the next shot made. That's a unique characteristic and allows him to make those big shots, and check.
And as far as what he brings to our offense, what he brings to our team, he is the cut-up, he is the clown, he is the guy who never gets tight. And having seen him like that has allowed him to us to win 30 games this year and a lot of games during his career where I believe thus far we are averaging over 27 wins in the years he's been with us.
Q. Before this tournament started how familiar were you with that team and you had seen them play in the regular season?
JIM CALHOUN: I saw them twice on TV. The worst thing they ever did for me was give me a satellite dish and the TV package and my wife said that that's, you know, that should be grounds for divorce because I watch everybody. I see Ivy League games -- bottom line is, I watch a lot of games. So I saw them twice. One was a game I thought they did not play particularly well, and then, the other game they were absolutely terrific.
The biggest thing I was impressed was overall impressed of how well they defended, the first game they didn't shoot the ball well, but the second game they shot the ball well. I was impressed with Lewis, I liked their quickness on the outside.
But were they household names? They won't be to your kids, but neither are the Washington kids, quite frankly. Even Brandon Roy, as you know probably the most underrated, not underrated but the most under-publicized kid and even the Washington kids, Brockman, etc., terrific basketball players -- I told George Blaney, he could not be as good as George Blaney was at 6-5; he was better.
That's what happens during the tournament. I was aware they were coached by Jim Larranaga and I've known him for 25 to 30 years and great respect for his coaching ability and know what he's done and the kind of person that he is. I'm as blown away just by psychologically by what he's done with this particular team and the kind of confidence they are playing with. When they throw the ball up tomorrow, we know who we're facing.
Q. I wanted to ask you if the basketball fan in you is remorseful that you have to play George Mason. Wouldn't it be fun to see George Mason make the Final Four if it wasn't at your expense?
JIM CALHOUN: It would be fun but not for me right now.
So, yeah, the junky in me says, yeah, it would be great to get Jimmy there. I said this before, and I truly mean this, it sounds kind of, I don't know, sappy I guess, but for a lot of guys who I think are terrific coaches and great people in programs, the experience of a Final Four is something that will live with you for a lifetime. There are so many people who deserve -- I think of John Chaney a lot, he never got to a Final Four. Maybe he would not have appreciated it as much as other people or maybe he would.
I've always felt that so many guys are so deserving in this business and don't get there. I hope Jimmy doesn't get there this year, that's my only hope. But yeah, there's some guys like him, guys who are terrific basketball coaches and clearly if we didn't go, obviously it would be a great story, and I would feel happy for Jimmy and disappointed if we don't go.
Q. I wanted to ask you about Rudy, with the representation he had coming in and the expectations that have been placed on him, a lot of people, fans and whatnot wonder why doesn't he dominate the way a Brandon Roy does. Can you talk about his performance in the tournament so far and what do you need from him the rest of the way if you want to get to the national title?
JIM CALHOUN: Well, Brandon Roy, 23, Rudy Gay, 19. Our society, our culture, basketball culture particularly, says those guys who are 19, 6-9, incredibly gifted, freaky athletes, have to go to the NBA as quick as they can where they sit on the bench or whatever they do, we're going to lose games anyways, might as well lose games with a kid who down the line is going to be very good.
Rudy is an incredibly gifted kid and great basketball player. He's cut from the same cloth as some of our other great talents, Ray Allen, etc., he just has not reached that level yet. That said, he's playing with some pretty good guys and he leads us in steals, he averages two assists a game, he's got a resume that's pretty darned good on a 30-3 team. I think because we are pretty well rounded with more weapons, he kind of gets overshadowed. If we eliminated one of those kids, he'd go right up to 19 points a game and we'd be happy with it. I think for those four points and, quite frankly, you've seen before a developing player. He was magnificent against Kentucky. He was okay, very good in the second half, not real in the first half last night.
I took him out because he had two fouls, too, that's the major reason he came out. Bottom line is Rudy Gay is being victimized by his potential and our need for instant gratification, and more so than anything that Rudy Gay is doing. He's progressing great. He's twice the player he was last year. He'll be twice the player next year that he is this year. That may be at Connecticut but that's a wild dream. I think they keep telling me he's going to go in the top five, but at the next level, in the NBA, I don't always say it's the next level, I've seen too many games (laughter).
Q. What is it like to be a favorite in a tournament that's so close right now that five straight Sweet 16 games just came down to who had the ball last, yet, you're expected to win among all this.
JIM CALHOUN: I think the best thing you do is treat it like a basketball game and don't treat it like anything else. We have been a favorite in Connecticut for probably the last decade, maybe longer, ten years, we've won championships in the BIG EAST. So every year, even next year if we lost five, six, seven kids and a couple kids went to the NBA, I bet you we're in the Top-4, 5, 3, just because the name on the jersey. So you kind of get used to that.
Quite frankly, it's not exactly a bad thing to aspire to. I'd like Connecticut to be North Carolina, Duke, Mike lives with it every day, every single time they lace it up.
The big news story was Duke lost. Not Duke had a great season.
So if you build the aspirations up that way and don't make them so rigid in your own mind that you suffocate your team, the natural thing that happened to Villanova because I talked to Jay Wright about this and our team in the first game when we struggled, happens. But we've shook that off since. We're not playing better or worse because of any kind of pressure. We're just not playing as well -- I didn't think we played well except for the Villanova game when we beat them by 14 at home in the last three or four weeks of the season and I think we captured our offense. Now we've got to find that defense.
I think that playing from the top, I'd always rather be playing from the top because generally speaking you're probably going to have a couple more weapons that can get you to where you want to be and I think that's the price you pay for that.
Q. Can you just talk a little about getting Rob Garrison and Marcus Johnson just a little bit involved last night, was it more for defensive effort there with those two guys?
JIM CALHOUN: I think in Craig's case, clearly he's been playing 15 minutes a game in the tournament and we're trying to get him to take some of the load off, clearly a lot of the load actually off Marcus Williams. In Roth's case, I wanted to introduce him in case we need him, so I decided to go a minute -- I think a minute and a half he played, that's all it was, but just to get his feet wet in the tournament as we advance down. He's the quickest ball handler we have, if we really get into a situation, he's better prepared now, even though it may seem funny, that important in a big game, than he was going into the game.
We were trying for that game and then thinking we may need this kid late in the game. He's a tremendous foul shooter and he is the quickest ball handler we have right now by the way. His problem right now might be defense, but he's the best defensive guard.
Q. You've been on the other side of it as a coach, a so-called mid-major from years ago; what do you think it would take for what's going on with the mid-majors to really go to the next level? Do they need to make it to a Final Four, do they need to hang on to a coach for a long period of time the way of Gonzaga or George Mason, do they need an All-American? What is the difference for them stopping at this level that they have over the years and actually making the leap?
JIM CALHOUN: The second most difficult thing in sports is building a program. We came to the northeast, we had five consecutive losing seasons.
The most difficult thing is sustaining it and that's what you're talking about really, is continually getting players. Rudy used the word, which I think is a good one, "development." If Hilton Armstrong is the product of Charlie Villanueva, we coached him some and put him in the weight room, and Emeka Okafor, two years and one year, Josh Boone, every day go against that kind of competition, which eventually makes you a much better player. And secondly playing some of the big games you eventually play in.
It's very difficult as a mid-major, Northeastern which I coached at, I had one of the most gifted players that I have ever been involved with is Reggie Lewis, God rest his soul, we had something very special. We beat Ohio State and Fresno and some awfully good people during that period. And we were going to be good within our own confines. But without a Reggie Lewis, to be honest with you, maybe times have changed but I don't know if you could continue to do at that level without that type of player, and it's hard to continue to get that type of player in today's day and age. And then if you ask to go out and play that schedule night after night, have to go to Louisville and your next game a day and a half later is at the Carrier Dome, it is difficult.
Can a team do that? My own personal opinion is I think eventually you can do it for a relatively short -- can you do it for a tournament in -- yeah, you probably might be able to do it for four games, six is really hard. Can you do it year after year? I think a league -- you need a league that's going to allow you to grow your program and grow your players and that's just personally what I think, which allows you to play those kind of games that you're playing. We played LSU at home. We went to Indiana to play. Those kind of games are going to at least make tomorrow's atmosphere for us not easier but we've been there before.
Q. How has your recruiting sales tactics changed from those days to these days now and kind of how it is for Jimmy talking to a recruit, how different is it from how you do it and the recruits that you get?
JIM CALHOUN: When we first came to the BIG EAST, UCONN had four straight losing seasons and I contributed the fifth straight losing season, the '99 team. So I'm included right in there. The next year we won 20 and won the NIT.
Those first couple of years, we were coming off the '86, '85 era, three teams in the Final Four, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Walter Berry -- the kids don't know who these are, by the way which scares the hell out of me. We saw the league, did you want to play against Alonzo? Do you want to play at Madison Square Garden? Do you want to play against those guys and we used the BIG EAST to recruit and now we use Connecticut. We put 23 kids from our program have played in the NBA, presently we have 13 in the NBA, we'll have a few more after this year it looks like. And my point being, the approach is entirely different.
You don't have to take a chance, you have too good of a player. You don't have to take a chance, you can go to the tournament every year. How do I know? Because we've gone to 19 consecutive tournaments and we've had X number of lottery selections, etc.
His approach will be you get a chance to show those people. Has Connecticut called you? No. Could you play in Connecticut? You'll be a different player at Connecticut and you'll get a chance to show those people that you made a heck of a mistake, so it's just a different way. We kind of have them fill -- be it the next Ray Allen or whoever it may be, and Jimmy is going to say, well, they made a mistake, they should have recruited you.
You're going to get coached like crazy, you're going to get a chance to get the ball more. I think all of us, quite frankly, with so many kids who can play the game of basketball, they both work. There are kids on the George Mason team without question that would be playing very comfortably at Connecticut, very comfortably. The point guard at Albany, he might be the answer for us at times as an experienced player -- no, I'm being very honest and very sincere. He would for us at times being a terrific kid coming off the bench, even Scottie, along with Marcus as a 2 guard scoring. But that's after four years experience at Albany, and so, you know, there are differences there, yeah.
Q. Did you see the end of the Gonzaga game the other night? From afar, we don't see it as you see it sometimes, but I saw this distraught guy who was going to be the Player of the Year in college basketball and I thought back to maybe Chris Webber calling the time-out. Do we forget that these guys are kids and not mature, grown adults and they can be beat any night, even the best ones?
JIM CALHOUN: And as long as you are in it and as long as you compete, momentarily, that's what you have to keep grabbing yourself about, you know what I'm saying?
I was tough on Jeff Adrien last night during the game, one of our freshman. I seeked him out this morning at breakfast. I said, "Jeff, I was thinking a lot about you. You kind of drifted on me." I said, "When am I going to get you back?"
He really didn't want to answer. I said, "Okay, let me start again." Good morning, Jeff, how you doing? When am I going to get Jeff Adrien back, because I really need him back to help our basketball team."
"You'll get him back today, Coach." Maybe my words on a freshman like that being tough on him can really hurt him. At the end of your career, Richard Hamilton said something to me, I said, "Rip," when I called him about the world championship, "how special was it?" He said, "It was almost as good as the National Championship."
This is an incredible experience. This whole deal of the camaraderie, when you watch these teams together, and watch these kids, and watch them become educated people and people at universities, societies are going to be very proud of and the way they grow; when they lose that family, it's a different world. They become men and they go out in the real world. It's an incredible thing to see that kind of thing happen.
The competitive side of you, we were fortunate to beat Gonzaga at the buzzer. One of best competitors I've seen in a long time, and I'm sure it hurt very deeply and it's a deep hurt and we saw it in his face and I was very saddened because he does compete as hard as anybody in college basketball. But we do forget all the time, yeah.
Q. Tom Moore's name has come up for a lot of jobs, you went through with this with David Carl, do you counsel a guy about what the best fit would be for him and what kind of coach will you be some day?
JIM CALHOUN: Well, Tom Moore, and I said this before and I mean, this I'm usually a fairly candid person, so I would say that if I were to all of a sudden, this table over here, thought that would be me, and I didn't get up, I believe Tom Moore could take over our program today. I think he's that good.
He's incredibly bright. He has a great relationship with the kids. He's one of the hardest-working human beings I know and really understands the game and he relates well to the university and to everybody around. He's going to be terrific.
Counseling, most singly important thing any of our guys can do, David, Karl Hobbs, I think we have eight kids out there coaching, Glenn Miller, Brown, so on and so on, is taking the right job. The next job has to be the right job, especially with Tom, who in my opinion could coach at any school in the country. I think that highly of him, yeah.
So it's really important he takes the right job, and not be three years down the road in a job where he can't take advantage of all of the things he did at Connecticut.
Q. You talked earlier about the price that Marcus Williams had to pay during the season. What went into the discrepancy of the penalties between him and the other player?
JIM CALHOUN: The dean of students address that had in the archives. In yesterday's Hartford Current newspaper -- trust me, I'm not advertising for the Hartford Current, that you can take to the bank.
Dr. Saddlemire, our dean of students, made it very clear that the discrepancy between the two kids was both kids were in possession of stolen property, and that's what they were eventually charged for and their names will be stricken from the record.
The difference was initially, A.J. Price lied, so he was brought up on two charges, lying and possession of stolen property. Thus, the two semester ban versus a one semester ban. I never had any say in it. I've never met John Saddlemire, the man who eventually got together with the people from Student Affairs to make that decision. In essence, it was two penalties versus one penalty and that's why there's a discrepancy.

End of FastScripts...

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NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: WASHINGTON

March 25, 2006

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