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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2008Dan ColemanLawrence McKenzieTubby SmithINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA THE MODERATOR: Coach, we'd like to have you make some opening comments if you could, then we'll go the question route. COACH SMITH: Okay. First, certainly want to commend, congratulate Illinois and Coach Weber and his team. They did what they had to do to get the win today. They're one of the best defensive teams, one of the best rebounding teams. And I also want to commend and congratulate and wish both teams, Wisconsin the best in the tournament. I thought we played with a lot of heart and a lot of hustle and a lot of toughness today. And it was indicative by the way we rebounded the ball. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Dan or Lawrence. Q. Obviously there might be an outside chance that this team get an at-large bid in the tournament. Can you talk about that and the possibility of going to the NIT? DAN COLEMAN: I mean, I don't know what to say to that. Hopefully. That's up to the selection committees for either tournament. But I'd like to keep playing. LAWRENCE MCKENZIE: The same thing with what Dan said. I'm just wishing for the best, hoping for the best and that's up to the committee. But I do want to continue to play. Q. Dan, I know everybody's got a lot of intensity in all of these tournament games. But the way you guys won last night, did that -- what was the impact of that? Was it just kind of sort of such an emotional high that it made it tougher today? What kind of feeling did you have from that? DAN COLEMAN: I didn't think it affected us. I mean I think everybody played hard, left it on the floor. Couple rolls here there might be a different story. But I think last night didn't -- if anything, it added to the adrenalin to this game and had people playing harder. Q. Can you just talk about the last three games overall? Obviously coming back from Northwestern, down 16 and then the tough Indiana game, sort of what you've all been through the last three days here? LAWRENCE MCKENZIE: Started off with a tough game with Northwestern. They played their butts off. And we were down 16 and going into the halftime. Guys came out and played with a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, ended upcoming back, with that. Then yesterday Indiana, started off well. Started off well, started off with a great lead but we knew that those guys got two great players and D.J. White and Eric Gordon, they've got some other guys that are definitely great role players. And you saw what happened there. Like Hoffarber hitting an amazing shot, we were very excited about that. Then coming today, Illinois played some great defense. That's pretty much how it is each time we played them. They play some great defense. We got a couple of looks. Some shots were in and out. Took a tough L. THE MODERATOR: You're free to go back to the locker room. Thank you. Finish with questions for Coach Smith. Q. Coach, if you had a chance to go before the committee and explain to them why you think your team should go to the NCAA tournament, what would you tell them? COACH SMITH: Well, we've certainly -- our schedule is not really indicative of I think how hard and how -- because this is a pretty tough league, the Big Ten is a league that probably deserving of multiple -- and certainly I think Ohio State, and probably already have four teams in, in Michigan State, Purdue, Wisconsin. So now it's a matter of trying to figure out what this conference, power rating is and that type of thing. We've played better over the last few weeks. That's about the only thing we can talk about. And I think that there is -- to overcome some of the adversities that I think we've had to make the turnaround like we have this year would be a great story. But otherwise -- but that's not up to me and I don't get that opportunity. But I hope that people would consider us. Q. Can you talk about last night's win, sort of what carry-over there might have been from that to today's game? COACH SMITH: Well, I was interested in what Dan and McKenzie thought about it, because it was a very emotional win and you're trying to get them to settle down. And all you can do is just say at the end of the game, we talk about it not being to that point, could have iced it at certain times, so as a coach you try to pinpoint that we were very fortunate and there were things that we could have controlled a little bit better, to get to ice the win after having such a large lead and controlling a lot of the tempo early on. So that's how you bring them back. That's how I brought them back to earth. But again physically and mentally and psychologically, you are spent. So it takes some time to recover from that. But a lot of it has to do with just playing against a very good team in Illinois who has a lot of confidence, obviously, when they play against us. Q. You might have answered this question already, but to this point, with the 20 wins, with the signature win against Indiana, a lot of people witnessed the shot that Blake hit. Do you think you guys are on the bubble? I mean, do you have a -- COACH SMITH: There's always hope. There's always that hope. So you can never -- you never say never and you just -- that's about all we can do at this juncture. So it doesn't really do much good. We don't really talk about it. Haven't really talked about it until someone from the media or someone asked me about it. Because you're too focused on trying to prepare for the next game. And we'll probably leave here in the morning, get back. Certainly we'll be waiting like everybody to hear what our good fortunes are or bad fortunes are. Q. You haven't been in a situation like that in a while, but if say you find out you're not in the NCAA tournament you find out immediately after that you're going to the NIT and who you're playing, what is it kind of like that to kind of feel maybe emotions go up and down knowing that you're not going to be in then all of a sudden having to prepare for that? COACH SMITH: To be honest with you, I always feel like it's a real, it's icing on the cake, any time you can get to post-season play, it's no real let down. You play a long season. The kids work extremely hard. And you hope they've been rewarded in the way you make those sacrifices throughout the season. So you're not really -- you know you're giving it all. Yes, you don't have that feeling of not making it. I'm sure there are teams that in situations, in conferences that have had great ratings or RPIs and didn't make it that felt like they deserved it. But no, I don't think we've ever -- I've never felt like we need to sit here on pins and needles and worry about it. We need to move on from there because there's a lot of things in your program that you have to deal with, that you have to get ready for the following year or for the post-season or for recruiting. So your attention is on a lot of different things. Q. Can you just talk about the last three days. It seemed like it's been such a roller coaster with Northwestern being down by 16 yesterday and then here today what it's been like for you? COACH SMITH: It's been fun. In coaching that's what you live for those moments where you -- players do too. You don't want to be in those situations, but you prepare yourself that decision-making time, and we were great -- we haven't had many of those opportunities this year so it was fun to be in those two situations back to back where we had some chances to make plays and coach and make some decisions in tight, pressured situations. So that's the beauty and the joy that you get from coaching. Q. If you do find out you're playing in the NIT, how much of a benefit would it be to play at home, as well as you guys played lately there? COACH SMITH: Well, we've had our problems but we have been playing better. And certainly no doubt about it our fans would be excited about it. But we'll have to wait and see. It would be a good experience to have someone, to play another game in the barn or two. We were just getting used to it. Thank you all. It's been a good tournament. Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.
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