NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 1, 1996

Rick Pitino

COACH PITINO: 45 seconds to go in the game the crowd was chanting SEC, but I didn't want them to do that, and I'm preaching the entire night not to celebrate, and I didn't think the game was over. I try to use pressure as a motivating force for the players and the staff, because even though the players say it doesn't exist, every fan they see on campus, win it all, win it all, win it all. I wanted pressure to be a good vehicle. I think there's great pressure and bad pressure. I think great pressure helps you watch as much film -- these guys never left the hotel and just watched film, hours upon hours upon hours. They had an hour shoot around today where they were in a deep lather to get ready for that. And that's our system, we believe in that. I felt against UMass that no matter how tough you may think you are, no matter how good you are, that a lot gets taken out of you with that game, because we had to work so hard to beat them. And it has to take great character to come back from that game and still win and shoot the percentage we did in the second half. I really hadn't had a moment to feel elated, to feel good until now because I just tried to make it good pressure and just work as hard as you possibly can and make that the focal point until the last buzzer sounds. And now I feel great. I'm delighted for Kentucky. I'm delighted for the guys in the team, and I'm really, really happy that I can be part of this situation.

COACH PITINO: Really not relieved. I told the guys the best part about basketball is if you want to play to one, two in the morning, and that's what we've got to do in the morning. We're a little tired but we wanted to play, trying to push the pace. Syracuse kept coming back. And it was a big time performance under the influence of fatigue. I'm not relieved. We've got to go out and get ourselves a big man. So recruiting is on my mind right now. I'm going to allow myself a day or two to enjoy it. Don't print this, but I haven't had a beer in a month, and I'm going to go get myself a cold beer and just enjoy it a little bit. We've got to get a big man, we're losing two really special seniors.

COACH PITINO: I think so. I think we've been strong at the 2-3. We're not as deep as people think in certain areas. We are very, very deep at the 1, 2 and 3, very slender at the 4, 5. But I gave the team the nickname, everybody in Kentucky has the fabulous 5, the Rupp's, Runts and the Fiddlin' 5. I told the guys I was thinking -- dreaming a good dream that if we won it you have to have a nickname. I thought about the Professionals, because they're professional about the job. I felt an appropriate nickname for the team is the Untouchables, because they were so good at focusing in on defense that during the regular season on the road they didn't let anybody touch them because of the defense. And then tonight when we went against a great defensive team they were still untouchable because of the defensive plays and they made it happen all season long. So we're very excited. We beat a great team tonight. I don't pay any attention to -- we've beaten some teams, everybody thinks that was such a great win. But we beat two teams who were playing phenomenal basketball. Massachusetts has dominated this basketball game the last two years, and we were playing against a team tonight that was on an unbelievable run. I'm very proud of our ball club for playing that untouchable defense. And they've done it all season. When people said we couldn't guard the big man, we stomped Dampier, Duncan, everybody that stepped in our way. And Otis Hill who was shooting 70 percent. And you do that by playing great team defense and focus on the game plan.

COACH PITINO: We took very few 3's, relatively speaking, for Kentucky. But we had to build this team in order to win on the press and the three point shot and a lot of motion. And then this year we got away from it because , quite frankly, I thought we were better on the interior, we were better slashers. When you play against the zone, though, no matter how much penetration, no matter how much movement, no matter how much inside out, you've still got to knock it down. And I'm very, very proud that we built this program in the first couple of years in the three and we ended the National Championship really winning it with the three.

COACH PITINO: I think every system is -- I don't think you can win today unless you up tempo. You're going to think that sounds a little bizarre. Because I think the game today from the NBA to college is so sophisticated, like we'll put together a splice on the player, and notice 19 out of 23 times he'll go left, and that's what everybody is doing. We're in the video age of just shutting down everybody's strength and weakness. And unless you create easy baskets for your team with full court pressure or half court defense or your break, you're going to get caught shooting a low percentage a lot of the times. When you look at Duke, Vegas and Kansas and with the exception of Villanova, help me out last year, my mind is gone, UCLA, one of the best fast break teams I've seen, you need to be up tempo but you have to play great defense. That's what we've done. And this up tempo system is based on quickness, and that's why we built this thing this way. If you know of a good quick, 6-11 guy, I would love to have that guy. That's the missing link for next season for us.