NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 1, 1996

Jim Boeheim

Todd Burgan

Otis Hill

Lazarus Sims

John Wallace

TODD BURGAN: Being in the game, you know, like you said Lazarus went down, and we had some problems getting the offense. But it was our job just to keep it going while he was out.

TODD BURGAN: It definitely wears you down. But I think our team did a good job of helping each other. We made some turnovers that we look back on now and we shouldn't have made; silly passes when we had a man open, just over throwing them. But you've got to give them credit, they did a great job.

COACH BOEHEIM: Well, first of all, I'm real proud of this basketball team. Kentucky has a great, great basketball team. They have a great coach. We didn't do a good job with Delk in the first half. The second half, we found him and did a much better job with him. But Mercer was the one guy that came in and hurt us. I thought we did a real good job defensively finding people. We knew they would attack our zone a little bit differently than the other teams in the tournament. But we wanted to let them have the high post shot, which we did not get hurt there. We did a much better job. We just didn't do a good job with Mercer. When it was 13 or 14 and we came out of the time out and made the run to cut it to four, Kentucky made two great plays right then, one an offensive rebound and another play inside. And that was the game. It came down to really two plays, when it was 64-60 and Kentucky made the plays. They've been the best team in the country for most of the year along with Massachusetts. We put ourselves in a position to win the basketball game and they made great plays. And that was the difference in the game and they deserve all the credit in the world but John Wallace stepped up as big as anybody has ever done for us and all these guys were just tremendous. I'm very proud of them.

OTIS HILL: Well, it hurts a lot. We left our hearts out on the floor and Kentucky was a great team. We did as much as we could and we fell a little short. They're a really good team and they deserved to win, and they were predicted number one all season long and that's what they finished up as.

JOHN WALLACE: I think we played very good and we should have won the game. We had it 64 to 62, and I think personally, myself, I think we got a couple bad calls. It could have went either way. But calls are irreversible. But I think we definitely won the game, in my opinion.

JOHN WALLACE: I'm not going to talk about the individual stuff. It was a bad feeling fouling out, leaving your team hanging there like that. When we were only down four points and a minute something to go, we definitely could have won the game. Those calls could have went either way, but they didn't.

LAZARUS SIMS: We had a great game, we did the things we needed to do to get us in the position to win. Unfortunately, we lost to a great team. But he did do things we needed to win all season long, and that's what got us to this point. For me, he's meant the world to me. We're very close. He's like a brother. And I can't say too much about him. I can't describe what he means to me.

COACH BOEHEIM: They're a good shooting team. When you play zone, you know you're going to leave them open some of the time. I don't think that was the ballgame. We know they're going to shoot some 3's and make some. We want to do a good job in the inside people, we wanted to go for Delk, and if somebody made 3's, that's the way it is. We knew we were going to make turnovers to Kentucky. We made three or four we couldn't afford. There was three or four bad turnovers. It wasn't really -- again, a lot of it is their defense, but three or four of them were bad turnovers that we couldn't afford to win this game. Everybody said we'd have to play a perfect game. And I didn't think that. We didn't have to play a perfect game. But we had to play a little better than we did. We played pretty well. We held them below 40 percent, field goal shooting. We forced the ball out of the hands of key guys quite a few times. But a couple of Delk's 3's came just off turnovers, when we don't have our defensive set, because we made just a couple bad turnovers and he got two 3's, one a four pointer off a turnover. So it wasn't a matter of us playing perfectly. We had to play a little bit better, but there's no question we play 6 or 7 guys. And guys are going to wear down a little bit in that situation. Kentucky is not a great team for us to play against. Kentucky is not a great team for anybody to play against. But they bother us a little bit more than they would bother some, because we only use the six or seven guys. But when it was 64-60, we were in an opportunity to win the game. So you know they're going to make some 3's, that's not a problem. I thought we got a few opportunities inside. We wanted to spread them out. We knew they were going to look for John. He's great in finding the open guys, and when he did, we didn't convert a couple of times, and then a couple of times he took it right through the double team and scored anyway. But we needed one more guy to step up with a big game. Otis has been great for us and he got some great opportunities tonight inside. And we thought we could convert there. We thought that was an area that we could convert a few more times but this was a close game. They made a little run at the end of the first half and we made a run and then got back in it and then they took it out and we got back in it. When it got to 4, we had a chance to be in the game at the end, but like I said, Kentucky made great plays and that's all. That's all there is to it.

COACH BOEHEIM: I don't really know what it is, to tell you the truth. It's a bad bruise or a sprain, I'm not sure. But he was going to go back in and play. I'm not sure, honestly, where it was. He's got the heart of a lion, and he's going to play and try to make plays. He's an unbelievable -- he's had an unbelievable year for us and leading this team. I have never tried to play up the underdog type role with this team. They think they should win. They go into each game, they've gone into each game thinking they should win, and they still think they should have won tonight. That's the kind of attitude you want your team to have. And it comes from Lazarus and John. They have tremendous heart and character and are great, great leaders. I told them in the locker room that too much is made of "you lost the game." They didn't lose anything to me. To my way of thinking, if sports is supposed to be about good things, then this team is about good things. And they should be as proud as Kentucky is. They gave everything they had and that as a coach is all you can ask for. That's all I've ever asked for from my players. We've been very tough in this tournament over the years and we gave everything we had and I'm very proud of this team and I think they're champions. And I told them that, as I've told them many times before, all that matters is what I think. (Laughter).

COACH BOEHEIM: That was a big play.

COACH BOEHEIM: We needed to make a play right then. Lazarus thought he could get it to John. He made a good play on the ball. We had a chance right there, but that was the play. That was the game play, I thought.