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NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOURApril 5, 2008Wayne EllingtonTyler HansbroughRoy WilliamsSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you could just give us a quick overview of the game tonight. COACH WILLIAMS: Well, congratulations to Kansas. It's a great thrill to be able to play for the national championship, and they deserve it. Early in the game they were much more aggressive than we were. We sort of came out a little more casual than we'd like to. They hit us right between the eyes. We probably rushed things a little bit. They just kept hammering. But they were really something early in the game. And then we didn't play the way we wanted to early, to say the least. I guess it's a little like that story tale about the little engine that spent so much trying to get up the hill, it didn't have anything left when it got to the top. I was so proud of my team. We got it to four, but I don't think we ever got the ball when we got it to four. We had it to five one time, and Danny shot a three in front of our bench, went all the way in and came back out. I think Will Graves got the rebound. We lost it out of bounds. I couldn't have been prouder of my team at that point. We had a marvelous, marvelous run. But yet their dreams were bigger than this and it hurts a great deal now. The other coach, Bill's team, won the game. The other coach was the winner. But I love my kids. I love the road and journey they took me on, winning 36 games, the ACC regular season and the ACC tournament and the regional. This bunch did some great, great things. But we're extremely disappointed right now because we had a bigger dream. But, again, you have to congratulate Kansas. Wish them good luck because they were sensational for sure earlier. I'm sure Bill didn't love everything that happened after that. But it's a big-time loss and a big-time bitter feeling for us. Again, the other coach won. I wouldn't trade my kids for anybody's. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Could you talk a little bit about the defensive intensity they came out with in the first half. WAYNE ELLINGTON: Like coach said, they just came out, they jumped on us. They hit us between the eyes. We were too casual. You know, they pressured us. They got us on our heels. They just kept attacking us. TYLER HANSBROUGH: Just like Wayne and coach said, they came out early. You know, they got stops. And, you know, they just came out from the gate and played really well. Q. Did the game have any kind of a different feel playing here as opposed to playing in Raleigh and then Charlotte? TYLER HANSBROUGH: Well, of course, it did. You know, when you play in your state, you have more North Carolina fans. Also the Alamodome is a lot bigger and there's a lot more people. You know, overall, but still the same thing: we're playing on a court still the same size. I don't think that's the reason why we lost. WAYNE ELLINGTON: I mean, this is a different environment, you know. Like Tyler said, it's just a lot bigger. At the same time, the court is the same size. The goals are the same height, so... I mean, there's no reason... Q. What are the words that came to mind in the raw emotional moments after this loss, the way you lost, the margin as well, how stunned you were. WAYNE ELLINGTON: It just hurts. It just really, really hurts. I mean, we had a successful season. We did a lot of great things this year. We just fell short of one goal. TYLER HANSBROUGH: You know, first word that I think of is "frustrating." You know, you get here to the Final Four, you know, you feel like you've been playing good, and then we just didn't come out with the energy we needed to tonight. Just frustrating. Q. Could you talk about the defense that Kansas threw at you, particularly looked like they came after you with three or four different guys. TYLER HANSBROUGH: Yeah, they came after me with a lot of people. That's what every team's been doing, so... They did a particularly good job of it. I don't think I played the best. But, you know, they played real good D. Q. Tyler, was there a sense when you cut into the lead that this was your game to win? TYLER HANSBROUGH: Yeah. There was a point, you know, when Danny's shot almost went in, we felt like everything was kind of going our way. But, you know, they made little runs and we didn't get stops. They just kept going at us. Q. Roy mentioned the little engine analogy. Did you feel sort of sapped out later in the game when they made the run again, that you couldn't respond? WAYNE ELLINGTON: Yeah, I guess you could say that. You know, we fought and we fought. You know, we cut it. We had it right where we wanted to be. I felt like we just kind of gave in when they started attacking us again. I guess we felt like, you know, we had it, we were there. We had a great chance to win. We just kind of got comfortable. TYLER HANSBROUGH: Kind of like Wayne said, uhm, you know, they came back with a run there late. Uhm, kind of went in panic mode after that, like we needed to score a lot of points. And they kept coming down, scoring. That was it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Tyler and Wayne. We'll continue with questions for Coach Williams. Q. If you could also, the first things that came to your mind, stunned, shocked about the way this game sort of played out? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, surprised I think early because I didn't think we had the energy level. I didn't think we were attacking nearly as much as I wanted us to attack. We weren't as aggressive. So probably a little shocked at that time. And, you know, even at half, I still told them, and I really believed it, I thought we had a chance to come back and win the game. We gave up an easy one right before half, which is just silly. You got to come in and help on a drive. You can't let a guy drive all the way to the basket. But it was 17. If it had been 15, I would have felt as lucky as I ever felt in my life considering the way we played. I did have a lot of confidence that their kids would come back, because they're great kids. I apologize if their answers were so quiet. But you have to understand, they invest a lot. And the hurt they have right now is a lot. So please understand their answers were probably a little softer and not as vibrant as you would want them to be. But these are good kids. They're kids that you enjoy being with every day. Just shocked probably more than anything. Yet I still really did, at halftime I thought we had a chance to win the game. We just didn't get over the hump. Gee, I would say that, you know, I felt like, you know, we were right there. I even told them at one of the timeouts, We've been down five or six several times this year, and that's what it is right now. Don't worry about what it was in the first half. But Kansas made a couple of great plays. We had a couple of breakdowns on our defense, then all of a sudden it gets back up there again. Q. He was saying after the game, this was as together a team he's been on in the four years he's been here. No problems, tremendous chemistry. He never wanted it to end. He said that for several weeks. Surry Wood, who is also going, said the same thing. Was that your feeling as you coached him this year? COACH WILLIAMS: I probably think -- I think we're all lucky. I think Roy Williams is one of the luckiest guys in the world. But this team was really a special team. We had no issues. We no had problems. They were great kids. It was just a fun, fun group to coach. And in some ways, that makes it hurt even more because they are such good kids. I said this at the start of the season, some of you guys are a little more cynical and make fun of it, but there's not a one of you in here that wouldn't have grandchildren that couldn't say, How about watching my grandkids for the next six hours, and you'd feel awfully comfortable because they are that kind of kid. And that's what I want. As I said, the other coach won the game. I'm not being derogatory about Bill. I'll say Bill Self won the game. Don't try to paint things that aren't there. But I wouldn't trade teams because of the character our guys have. That's not a slight to Kansas. If you want to turn it into something that's not there, you have the right to do it, but I've got really good kids. Q. Obviously we saw the disappointment in Tyler Hansbrough, his emotion. Do you think a loss like this in the Final Four would bring him to come back for another season? COACH WILLIAMS: You know, I have no idea. Tyler and I talked before the season, said we would discuss it after the season's over with. We'll probably sit down Tuesday or Wednesday and try to start making some decisions. Maybe not some decisions, but come up with a plan to give me some time to look into it with the NBA people. Q. There was a point late in the first half, there was a timeout, you took your glasses off. I think you were down 26 or 21. What do you tell a team when you're down like that? How do you keep them together? COACH WILLIAMS: I guess the good news is I haven't had that many experiences like that. But I did tell 'em, you know, I'm corny as all get out, guys. What we have here is every day - again, you can make fun of this if you wish - but what the doctors and scientists do that are trying to find a cure for cancer, they get hit right in the mouth every day because it's not there, but they keep going back to work to try to do it again the next day. And I'm so daggum corny, I even used that with my team. I said, Hey, we don't want those guys to give up. You can't drop your head and say, Woe is me. We've got to keep playing. I know our guys did. I know that's probably melodramatic or overly dramatic or whatever you want to call it. But that is, that's life. It's not all roses all the time. But you have to continue trying to do the absolute best you can do. So during that timeout, that's what I challenged them. I said, We can't do anything about what's already gone on, but we can do something about the way we do it now and have some pride. You know, I really did, guys, down 17 at the half, I still thought we had a great chance, that we would be there at the very end to win the game. Q. What did you tell the kids after a great season in the locker room after the game? COACH WILLIAMS: I told them one of the most inadequate feelings as a coach is what to say at a moment like this that can help them, can remove any of the hurt, that can give them something to grab onto. So I congratulated them on a great year. I thanked them for a great year. I thanked them for being great student-athletes to coach. I apologized to them because some way, some how I didn't have our team ready to play as well as Bill did. That's not easy to say. But I did thank 'em for a great year (tearing up). Q. Can you talk about your moment with Brandon Rush after the game, what you might have said to him, just your impressions of how he played tonight. COACH WILLIAMS: I thought Brandon was sensational. You guys can go back and check. A month ago I made the statement, I thought Kansas had the best team, tremendously quick, tremendous athletes who are very unselfish, who can score at every position, who can defend at every position. I said a month ago they have no holes. I believe that. I wasn't just trying to say good things about a place that I was for 15 years. But with most of the kids, Brandon, Darnell, all of them, I said congratulations to them, told them good luck on Monday night, to play their tails off on Monday night. Q. When you come to the Final Four, each big shot seems bigger, each miss seems bigger to us on the sidelines. None of us have any recollection of your having ever trailed anyone by 28 points, it would be kind of hard to imagine if you played them again five more times that that would happen again. When you're in a one-and-done situation, in a Final Four, does a mistake -- when a shot doesn't go in, is it harder to come back than when you're playing a game during the regular season when you know it's not going to all be over after one game? COACH WILLIAMS: I also think it's harder because you've got to understand the quality of the competition you're playing. We had a couple great comebacks this year of maybe even 20 points or more. Boston College, Clemson. The team we were playing tonight was a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, deserved it during the regular season, won it during the course of this tournament. So you can't spot those kind of teams, those kind of margins and come back. Boston College, I promised my team at halftime we would come back and have a shot to win the game. We won by 10. But, you know, again, you got to give credit to Kansas. Two years ago we were down, I may miss this, we were down 30 or 20, I can't remember which one, in our own building against Georgia Tech, we came back and won. But you're not gonna do that with the teams of the caliber that you have in the Final Four, especially this, maybe the best Final Four in history. Q. Can you talk about what you thought Kansas was doing defensively early that made it so tough? Was there ever a point where you kind of looked around and realized that you were playing Kansas, and did that ever feel weird? COACH WILLIAMS: The second part is easier. I never felt that. I was playing the team that was on the court facing our kids. Now, we all know off the court and away from the game, of course, there's different feelings. But not a second. It felt the same way in '91, '93, when I was playing against Coach Smith, a man that gave me every opportunity in my entire life. And it didn't feel any different then either. Defensively they're really good. We talked about we can't take quick shots. And we took quick shots. We talked about that you have to be strong with the ball. We let them take it away from us twice, just reach in and take our ball. We talked about coming to meet the pass. We threw it to one of our post players inside. He just stood there. The guy came to meet it more than he did and got the ball. We said you can't dribble between two perimeter players because they do a great job of getting back, getting their hands involved. We did that twice and lost it. We said if you're a post player, you have one dribble, that's it. Second or third play of the game, we have a post player that dribbles it the second time, third time they're taking it to the other end. Defensively they're marvelous athletes. They really are. If it were an athletic contest, it would not have been as close as it was. But defensively they are really good. They hold opponents to 37, 38% from the floor. You know, we're the No. 1 rebounding team in the nation, rebound margin. They out-rebounded us by nine. There were a lot of different things. They were just a fantastic club, a club which in my mind has no weaknesses. Bill does a great, great job with them. Q. I know the outcome wasn't what you wanted. You got to play Kansas now. How hopeful are you that the negativity will be set aside that might have cropped up this week? COACH WILLIAMS: I hope it has set aside. I hope it goes away forever. I'm too thin-skinned probably. Those things have hurt. But I don't want it to focus on that. Let's focus on a great, great performance by Kansas. As I say, Bill did a better job of having his team prepared. But, you know, I told my team that I hoped that that distraction didn't bother them 'cause that would be about as bad as anything that you could have as a coach. Q. I know you've said this a couple times, you didn't have your team as prepared. Leading up to this, you said sort of everything was the same, locking them in. Why can't this just be a night where, for whatever reason, your players just didn't play to their potential, it had nothing to do with you? COACH WILLIAMS: It probably could. I don't want my kids to accept all that blame. And as a coach, I just think sometimes that we got to take a bigger bullet, 'cause nobody's got better kids than I have. Some of you that know me, know me very, very well, that is exactly the way I feel. But push comes to shove, Kansas beat North Carolina. But I'm part of North Carolina and I've got to accept the blame, try to make sure that my players know that I take a bigger load of that and share it even more. Thank you, guys, a lot. End of FastScripts |
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