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NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: WASHINGTONMarch 26, 2006Jim CalhounRudy GayMarcus WilliamsWASHINGTON, D.C. JIM CALHOUN: Well, despite the rather obvious, first thing, leaving the locker room with kids filled with tears who had a terrific, terrific basketball season, a 30-4 season with a BIG EAST championship, a Final 8 that came up just a little bit short, and mainly because of what we were and we felt our great strength was we get outscored by the big people 39 to I think it was 19 or 20 or whatever the score was. That really ends up being the game. And the completeness of their guards on the outside made it really difficult for guys like Rudy and Marcus to try to help in the post. I'm incredibly saddened to have to face this group because I've told everybody how much I love them and how much I'm going to miss them. I miss them right now. I don't want them to leave. They are great kids. We've never been overrated as a team. We've just been, quite frankly, misconstrued as a team at times. But we have great heart, the play by Marcus, only a great player can make that kind of play. The performance by Rudy to answer, I guess, critics if you want it to be, he was great today. But with all that said, this team is walking out 30-4. If we keep winning 30 games a year, I think we'll be in pretty good shape and we'll win our championships again. We didn't get there this year but we'll do that. Just switching gears just for a moment, I feel so good, with my own sadness, but for Jim Larranaga, and playing at that level at Northeastern, I can only imagine and probably better than most, the feeling they must have on that campus in that locker room. Those kids who many of them were passed over by BIG EAST schools and others, and I tip my hat to their courage, to their conviction to staying with what they have, to the incredible coaching job that Jimmy did and to everybody at George Mason University. That's going to be a very happy group down in Fairfield County, I'm sure, and they deserved to win. With my own sadness and losing these guys and not getting into a basketball game, I feel a great deal of inner joy, honestly, about what they must be going through right now, something they probably never could have imagined. We have imagined it and we've done it. But they could never have imagined that. They just didn't come out, they had to take on Michigan State, Carolina, a really good Wichita State team and the University of Connecticut in overtime. I feel very, very positive and Jimmy is a friend and I wish them well and they will really enjoy the Final Four. Q. Did this feel similar to the other night, and did you ever have any doubts that you could come back and win at the end of regulation and overtime? MARCUS WILLIAMS: There was no doubt in my mind the whole game I thought we were going to win. I mean why play if you think you're going to go out there and not win a game? We were in a similar situation and just couldn't follow it through at the end. Q. For either player, the jumpshots they hit in the second half, was that just a case of them making tough shots, were you forcing them into shots that you wanted them to be taking? MARCUS WILLIAMS: Well, they did make some tough shots, clutch situations, shot clock winding down. Tried to help and -- tried to help inside and they threw a couple skip passes and kicked out a couple of times and they just made some big shots? Q. If both would mind commenting, if the atmosphere, the crowd, was a factor at all for you in the game? RUDY GAY: No, not at all. We played in front of bigger crowds and crowds that are a lot more crazy than that. That was the last thing that was on our mind. MARCUS WILLIAMS: Not at all. I mean, we played in the BIG EAST. Way tougher crowds than that. I mean, that wasn't a factor to me I don't think. Q. For either one of you guys, you guys are about 2 to 3 inches taller per position. What were they doing so right to be able to at least match you on the boards? RUDY GAY: Well, they were a tough team. They played tough and they have a lot of heart. That's all that really matters when you're playing a game like this. Q. Marcus, can you take me through the last play of overtime, what you were looking to create and what you saw? MARCUS WILLIAMS: Last play of overtime? Q. Yeah. MARCUS WILLIAMS: Well, Denham had the last play in overtime, he got the defensive rebound. Q. For both players, Coach Calhoun has said how he misses you guys already. Just wonder what your initial reactions are to this loss. RUDY GAY: You know, I think -- I thought this team could have done a lot more things. You know, we just fell short. You know this is definitely a team I thought could go all the way and for us to fall like this, it just hurts. MARCUS WILLIAMS: Like Rudy said, this is a team I thought that could get to the National Championship game. Made some mistakes and paid the price. Q. You talked earlier about coaching at this level and sort of knowing better than most coaches what Mason is going through in getting to this stage. Can you elaborate on that just in terms of the work that goes into getting this far for a team, for a school and team that does not have that pedigree and history? JIM CALHOUN: Tom Izzo worked just as hard and so did Roy Williams and so did I. So the work ethic I don't think changes. I said yesterday and I really truly believe this, that when teams come in, from that underdog position and as I said, five times at Northeastern we came and we were fortunate enough to beat Rod Higgins at Fresno State and Fresno and St. Joe's when they were No. 1 in the east and some very good wins. It's a different kind of philosophy and I think sometimes the NCAA Tournament can overwhelm a team. But then other teams come in, and, quite frankly, see the great opportunity available, play with a sense of looseness, even better than what they had. They shot six or seven from 3 in the second half. That's decent shooting, I believe. My point being very simply is that the work for all of us is the same. The pressure for all of us is different because we have different aspirations, but I don't think Mason ever thought about Final Four championship. It seemed to me that they just thought about every game they played and were incredibly well-prepared for those and went running along and never was scared off by the NCAA; as a matter of fact, were inspired by the NCAA. To have that happen, and it's happened before, Maxwell leads Charlotte and other examples throughout the year. Certainly no team from the Colonial league -- somebody can correct me -- but I'm sure there has not been at least of recent note, but they are a heck of a basketball team. It's a credit to the fact that they have three great seniors who played terrific. Jimmy did a great job of spacing us. We could not get back-to-back doubles because if we did, they passed the ball to the rotation and they made threes. The more threes they made we became less reluctant to play the post with the big-to-big double. We cannot send down the small man, so every one of those threes, forget the number just for a moment, were like daggers that allowed both Lewis and Thomas to do what they want. The biggest surprise to me in the game wasn't the fact that they were going to play hard, wasn't the fact that they are well-prepared, Jimmy is a terrific coach, but simply the fact that 39-14, the starting 2, 4, 5 man, I never would have expected that coming into the game. Actually our best big guy certainly was Jeff Adrienne who was magnificent. But in life, as I told the kids, it doesn't always go the way you planned. They don't measure heart by inches, they don't measure courage, they don't measure basketball instinct and intelligence. The game is a beautiful game because you can win in so many different ways. They spaced us and kept us away from doubling the bigs, and when we did double the bigs, we paid a price. I give them all the credit in the world. Imagine what it's going to be like down in George Mason. It will be crazy at UCONN, but George Mason I think there will be a whole different kind of level down there. I applaud them. I share in some degree to Jimmy's joy because as a friend, I know what he must be feeling in his heart which he's probably long fought so many years just to get that opportunity. When they got the opportunity, they took full advantage of it. They were a very tough basketball team today. Q. You mentioned just now that you felt that people had not overrated your team necessarily, but had misconstrued it some. Can you elaborate on that? JIM CALHOUN: I said all year that we played with wings and big guys and that we have one guard. We have to use Craig Austrie who is only a freshman and put him in this position and -- Craig is a very good player, very good player, but he was not one of those kids. We expected to have A.J. Price, and I think people had this misconception that if you have three 6-10 kids, all of a sudden you have a good basketball team. If that was the case, then you get five centers and you win every game and just roll the ball in and dunk it. The game takes instinct and takes a couple of guys create plays. We've been fortunate over the years and we have one now who does it as well as anybody and that's Marcus Williams. Our wings are wings. They are guys who can rebound and they are guys who can make shots but they are not creative to make other people better at times. What Mason had today is three guys, all the time, who can go by you. Three guys who could make threes, but most importantly beyond the shooting aspect, they could create situations for their big guys or create situations for fellow teammates. When I look back upon this season, I'm going to be so proud of what -- how we were able to get by sometimes; the inability to transport the ball to better situations to create for teammates, because we were unselfish. This is a great group, it's a great group, and I have said and people kept saying to me, well, it must be your favorite team because it's the most talented. It doesn't even compare with some of the other teams we've had in the sense of balance. We do have talent but it's kind of jammed into a couple different -- really, two positions. And obviously like any team, to be advancing this deep, you've got to be complete. We almost got away with another one, without people being exposed. But as you move up the ladder, you get teams playing on this magic carpet ride that George Mason is on, and they are not on a magic carpet ride because there's any myth there, they are good, they are really, really good. But tapes, scouting reports, so on, catch up, and they made Marcus -- they wore Marcus down, I thought, a lot, making him handle the ball. No kid should have to handle the ball that many times in a game. That shouldn't happen. There should be other guys to relieve pressure to create plays on their own. I felt all season we really didn't quite have that. But we had other things, and those other things today didn't work. We got beat inside the post, which we haven't really all year, and we got beat good in the post, and not to blame any of our kids, Adrienne was wonderful, but we could not get points or rebounds or particularly blocked shots on kids, six, seven players that normally have done a great job. That's a credit to George Mason; not really a discredit to UCONN kids. Q. Obviously as a coach, you never think it's over one way or the other, but the shot rolls in at the end of regulation the way it did, after what happened Friday night, you talked about their courage, did you have any sense like, okay, we're in pretty good shape right now? I mean, obviously I know you don't think the game is over, you know what I mean? JIM CALHOUN: Well, I thought we had dodged a bullet, because I thought we had let up and once again, what I described before, we allowed too many easy threes, too much penetration and allowed their post guys to back us down and we should have made better stands there. When we got into overtime, I said we're in pretty good shape right now. We had new life and we needed an adrenalin shot and we got it, that was great, new life, and it's only 48 hours removed from the situation. Rudy wins the tap and the other night we scored, today we threw it away and they took advantage of that. Once again, I never felt -- I thought we were going to win the game -- I thought the shot was going to go in. He had a great angle, great shot at the end to go in and I truly believed it was going to go in. One of the things I try to do and that's why I continue to coach and I love this game is that I truly believe that you can play all 40 minutes, and I thought that Denham's shot was going to go in, there was no doubt in my mind. But it didn't. We got the shot we wanted to, we fouled the right people, we did some of the right things. Genius of me, I said foul Lewis and he comes in shooting 2 for 10. By the way, teams shot 86 percent against us in the foul line. I know I throw that out there. You're saying, what the hell does that mean. I don't know what it means either. Here is Lewis, 2 for 10 shooter and he made a bunch of foul shots against us tonight. They are very good. I truly believe we win that game, particularly after the lay-up, there's no question, because it hung on this rim. I just said, "Don't touch it, it's going to go in." And thank God no one did touch it. Once again, if this team walks out there and this is what I told them, at 30-4, writers can write, people can talk, I can think, we all have the right to do this, certainly; this is a very good basketball team that has won 30 games, lost four, won a BIG EAST championship and had a lot of games, not that dissimilar particularly in the last month like this and won more than our share of those. It's been a great season for us, it came up short, I truly believe we could have gotten the NCAA Tournament and unfortunately we lost today to a really gutsy, gutsy, and by the way, real good George Mason team who truly took advantage of what they have better than what we took advantage of what we have. Q. It seemed to me that Mason in the second half was quite a different team than it was in the first, and I bet you saw it somewhat differently. I'm wondering -- JIM CALHOUN: No, I saw it the exact same way. Q. Good. I guess the question is, did you see anything out of Mason in the first half that indicated to you they might have the kind of second half that they had? JIM CALHOUN: Yeah, they beat Michigan State and Carolina. Case closed (laughing). I mean, Tommy Izzo is one of the best rebounding coaches in the country, the best team I saw recently was Carolina at Cameron beating Duke. A week and a half, two weeks later, George Mason beat them by scrambling them and doing a wonderful job. So, the thing I didn't see in the first half was those dagger 3s. And the dagger 3s today I thought were what led to the post play. You know, it's one of those things, you can't have it both ways, if you're going to come out and play them and we got a little bit in between by rushing people a lot of times with penetration around the kick. One of the critical things was the shot clock and they got the ball back I believe, that was a very tough situation there. And then was there a palming call down the stretch. Those kind of things happen in basketball games and those are the kind of things you have to live with. In the last two minutes of the game, usually you don't see those kind of things happen it. Was a great game, well-officiated and George Mason deserves to win. By the way, thanks very much, I really appreciate everything all year. Thanks.
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