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NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOUR

April 6, 2019

Minneapolis, Minnesota

PAUL LAMBERT: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today, welcome. On behalf of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, thank you all for joining us today to welcome the newly named class of 2019. My name is Paul Lambert. I'm the vice president at the Hall of Fame, and I'll be acting as the host today.

To begin with, we have five members of our newly named class who are not with us today for a variety of reasons. We'll first introduce those folks to you so you get the full roster of who's in the class.

Two of our class members will be recognized posthumously. Our first member, this Brooklyn native played his collegiate ball at Colgate before joining the New York Knicks in 1947, where he led the team in scoring for seven straight seasons, was named a five-time All-Star and recognized as one of the league's premier guards throughout his 13 years in the league. Ended his career helping the Boston Celtics win the NBA championships. He's now elected as a player by the Veterans Committee. Please join me in recognizing Carl Braun.

(Applause.)

Next, this gentleman had an outstanding collegiate career at Duquesne before joining the Harlem Globetrotters. He made history by being the first African American to be drafted by an NBA team, the Boston Celtics, and entering the league breaking the color barrier with Hall of Famers Earl Lloyd and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton in the 1950 season. He's a gentleman of quiet dignity. He followed his successful playing career with a very successful business career in his native Pittsburgh. He's now elected by the Early African-American Pioneers Committee as a player, Charles "Chuck" Cooper.

(Applause.)

Two gentlemen could not be with us due to a variety of scheduling issues. First, this New Jersey native followed his collegiate career at North Carolina A&T by joining the Warriors, then in Philadelphia, now Golden State. This began a relationship that has lasted to today, first as a player, then as a player coach, head coach, team executive, and ambassador to the community.

A hard-nosed player, he transitioned to coaching and led his Warriors to the NBA championship in 1975. One of five Warriors to have his number retired, he became a leading executive and beloved community representative for the team. Received the John Bunn Lifetime Achievement award from the Hall of Fame in the 2014. He's now elected to the Hall of Fame as a contributor, Mr. Al Attles.

(Applause.)

This Iowa native followed a stint as a marine drill instructor with a successful collegiate coaching career, qualifying twice for the NCAA Tournament and moving to the -- sorry -- moving to the NBA coaching ranks, he began a remarkable career taking over franchises in transition and always building winning programs. He finished his career ranked fifth among all-time NBA coaches with 944 wins, including three straight 60-win seasons. A two-time NBA Coach of the Year, he led the Boston Celtics to an NBA title in 1981 and subsequently won the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award for coaching. Elected by the North American Committee as a coach, Coach Bill Fitch.

(Applause.)

And last but not least, we elected two teams this year, one of which could not have a representative here today. Led by Hall of Fame Coach John McLendon, this remarkable team from a small college made history by winning back-to-back-to-back championships, a first on any level of collegiate play.

Known for their fast breaking, extremely disciplined play, the team dominated their opponents with a high scoring and smothering defense. Led on the court by John "Rabbit" Barnhill and Dick Barnett, the team broke important social barriers as they traveled to national tournaments, helping break down the walls of segregation. Now renamed Tennessee State, they are elected to the Hall of Fame as a team, the Tennessee A&I championship teams of 1957 to 1959.

(Applause.)

Now, let's meet the folks who are here with us onstage, beginning with this gentleman who has crossed many borders in his remarkable career. He played first in his native country of then Yugoslavia, where he became recognized as one of the most talented, versatile big men in the game. He joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 1989 and continued his 16-year career with the Hornets and Kings before returning to the Lakers.

He found time to lead his national team to great success through FIBA and international tournaments. He was recognized as one of FIBA's 50 greatest players in 1991. His number was retired by the Sacramento Kings, where he now serves as the vice president of basketball operations.

A great teammate, he won the NBA J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 2000 and is now elected by the International Committee as a player, Vlade Divac.

(Applause.)

This North Carolina native built a career as one of the most respected defensive players and athletes of his era. He followed a successful four years at the University of North Carolina, joining the ABA and the then NBA Denver Nuggets before moving to a remarkable career with the Philadelphia 76ers. Between the two leagues, he was a five-time All-Star, a ten-time First Team All-Defensive player, the NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 1983, and a vital member of the 76ers championship team in 1983. His No. 24 has been retired in Philadelphia.

One of the most respected players, teammates, and gentlemen in the history of the game. He's elected as a player by the North American Committee, Mr. Bobby Jones.

(Applause.)

This gentleman was a major contributor to the resurrection of the University of Arkansas basketball program, helping lead the Razorbacks to the NCAA Final Four in 1978. The following year, he was drafted fifth overall by the Milwaukee Bucks and would go on to become an impact player for the next decade. He was one of the fiercest defenders in the game. He took back-to-back NBA Defensive Players of the Year awards and was selected four times to the NBA All-Defensive First Team.

He was also a potent offensive threat, averaging over 20 points per game in four consecutive seasons. Five-time All-Star, he's now elected as a player by the North American Committee, Mr. Sidney Moncrief.

(Applause.)

This gentleman started Illinois Wesleyan University, where he was a three-time NAIA All-American and two-time Academic All-American. Drafted eighth in the '77 draft, he went on to a historic career with the Seattle SuperSonics, where he was named to seven consecutive All-Star teams and helped lead the Sonics to the 1979 NBA championship. Finishing his career with the Milwaukee Bucks, his number was retired in Seattle, and he was named to the NAIA Hall of Fame. An extremely versatile player on both sides of the court, he's elected by the North American committee as a player, Mr. Jack Sikma.

(Applause.)

Our second team in one of the great hidden stories in basketball history from a tiny conservative school in west Texas, long before the birth of NCAA women's basketball, a series of teams pulled together by an innovative coach built a remarkable record, unsurpassed in basketball history. These remarkable young women under the tutelage of Coach Harley Redin, a retired World War II bomber pilot, won 131 consecutive games in a streak running from 1953 to 1958, combining great skills with a sense of fun, including warmups learned from the Harlem Globetrotters.

The team would also win 19 National Championships and have 130 All-Americans between 1948 and 1982. Elected by the Women's Committee as a team, the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens.

(Applause.)

They're represented today onstage by Ms. Linda Price.

This Texas native was a two-time All-American at Louisiana Tech, where she helped lead her team to the National Championship in 1988. Following outstanding international career in Italy, where she was a six-time All-Star, France and Russia, where she won two championships, she became one of the original stars of the new WNBA playing for the New York Liberty.

She was a five-time WNBA All-Star, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, she led the league in steals twice in assists in 1997. She also found time to play for USA Basketball, winning a gold medal in 1988. She was the first player to tally 1,000 points and 1,000 assists in the WNBA, and she was voted one of the top players in league history in 2011.

Always a fan favorite, she was enshrined in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 and is now elected as a player by the Women's Committee, Teresa Weatherspoon.

(Applause.)

And finally, this California native followed an outstanding career at USC, where his number is retired by being selected by the Boston Celtics as the tenth player in the 1972 draft. After winning a championship with the Celtics in 1974, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns, where he helped propel the team to their first NBA Finals.

An outstanding all-around player, he was a five-time All-Star and a three-time all NBA First Team select. He followed his playing career with a successful coaching career, and his number is retired with the Suns. He's a member of the Phoenix Suns Ring of Honor, and he's now elected by the North American Committee as a player, Mr. Paul Westphal.

So, for the members of the media, we're going to do a couple of questions up here for the group, and we'll have breakouts for those of you who have individual questions.

We'll begin at the other end. Mr. Jones, first question, when did you first fall in love with basketball?

BOBBY JONES: That's an interesting question. I didn't really fall in love with basketball. My dad made me play when I was in middle school. I was very uncoordinated, had big feet, and I just didn't like the game, but he had played, and he got me to go in the backyard and start doing some drills. Through that, I started to enjoy the game because I started to have some success at it.

For me in high school, as a quiet person, it was kind of my way in to be a part of a group. So I concentrated on that and had good coaches, and I think the love of the game developed in high school.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Paul, same question.

PAUL WESTPHAL: I'm the opposite of Bobby. I loved it before I was able to throw the ball all the way up to the basket. I had an older brother, and my dad would play in the backyard, and I begged them to let me play. They would give me the ball and say, look, kid, you can't even throw it up to the basket. One day it went in, and they could never stop me from playing after that.

I just loved it. Grew up in L.A. when Elgin Baylor came to town, and it was so great to watch him lose every year to the Celtics. It's a game I've loved since the day I've known what it was.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Vlade?

VLADE DIVAC: Well, as every European kid, we start playing soccer when I was young, and I was a goalkeeper. It was a rainy day. I was the goalie, and I didn't want to dive for the ball and get dirty. So Coach told me to find an indoor sport, and I switched to basketball and fell in love from day one.

Still love basketball the game, and it's a beautiful game. We talked about it today. It's a game that brings people together all around the world, so happy to be part of it.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Teresa?

TERESA WEATHERSPOON: Growing up where I came from, I had to fall in love with something. It was such a small place where I came from. It all started in my family and seeing the athletes and just the way that my mom taught me to enjoy everything that I do, to love it, and she supported everything that I did.

Without her, there would be no me in this position at this time, but basketball was something that gave me an opportunity, that round ball gave me an opportunity to do so many things. You couldn't help but to fall in love with something that was so special.

So many people play this game, but it's not just about playing this game, it's all about what a lot of us out here have spoken about. It's about what you do in the communities and how impactful your life is as you're playing this game, and to fall in love with it was simply so easy because it did so much for me.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Jack?

JACK SIKMA: I grew up in a small farm town, resembles -- the whole "Hoosiers" movie is basically where I found myself. Anyway, Friday night the whole town was out watching the high school basketball team, and as a young boy, my dad would take me to the games, and fell in love with it.

That's what I wanted to do. That's where I wanted to be. I wanted to be out on that basketball court. It's a process of putting the hoop up in the garage and being out there shooting until dark, and most of them started to go in. So everything went well from there.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Linda?

LINDA PRICE: For me personally, I grew up in a very rural area in a little community in south central Oklahoma. There wasn't a town. My family, of course, influenced me. My older brothers and sisters played basketball, but most of all, Wayland Baptist College at that point, now University, I heard about it from my brother-in-law.

I grew up in a fairly impoverished environment, and when I heard that they were giving girls basketball scholarships, so as early as, I guess I was 6 or 7, I knew I was going to be a Flying Queen because that was going to be my way to go to college and to improve my life.

I loved the game, so that hoop went up in the backyard on a tree. It was made by a local blacksmith. My dream came true. Wayland -- who the president is here today, Dr. Bobby Hall, I'd like to acknowledge him. Wayland made it possible, and I think that's true for a lot of Flying Queens.

We grew up in small rural areas. Basketball was basically the only thing to do, so you learned to play, and you learned to love it. It taught us a lot of lessons, and I think basketball is -- it enriches your life, but it also teaches so many lessons. I think youth today can learn a lot from that, and I hope they do.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Sidney?

SIDNEY MONCRIEF: I grew up in the projects in Little Rock, Arkansas, so I loved football actually because we had wide-open spaces where we could play football. They had zero basketball goals. Part of my toughness in basketball was because I was aggressive in football. We played tackle football.

And one day we noticed they were building something close to the airport. When it was completed, we went and said, wow, this is unusual. It was a basketball court. And they had chain nets. I don't know if you remember the basketball courts with chain nets because we would steal the nets if they were regular nets. So they had the chain, and when you made a shot, it had a very distinctive shot, like "ching, cha-ching." I didn't hear that much because I wasn't a very good player. It didn't go through the net a lot.

So that started my odyssey of liking the game of basketball. I was really a pretty good kid and strong, but when I started getting taller and skinny, I decided I needed to not play football because I was not the biggest kid; that I would need to switch to a more finesse sport which happens to be basketball. So that's the story of how I started loving basketball.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Bobby, back to you. That Philadelphia 76ers team that you played on, the championship team, there were some pretty strong personalities on that team. As you look back on those teammates, what was special? Who comes to mind as you sit here tonight, and what was that team like with all the diverse personalities that made up that squad?

BOBBY JONES: I think the one thing that stands up in my mind about that team was that everybody wanted to be a winner. They wanted to win a championship. And we came close twice, losing to the Lakers, and finally on the third try in The Finals we won.

But the personalities, as you said, were so different. Julius Erving, regarded by one of our teammates today, we called him The Senator because he was so articulate. And on the other extreme, Darryl Dawkins, who would just say anything he wanted to.

I've never been around a group of guys that I enjoyed being around as much as those guys. When I retired, the thing that I missed most was the camaraderie of those players -- Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney. Charles Barkley my last two years was there. Just knowing that we were all striving for one thing and that we pushed aside any individual goals that we might have to try to accomplish that final championship push was special, and that was my fondest memory of winning in the championship in '83.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Paul, you had the honor or the challenge of joining the Boston Celtics when they were a pretty good team surrounded by a lot of Hall of Famers. Was that intimidating for a young man joining that particular team?

PAUL WESTPHAL: I don't know if I was smart enough to be intimidated, but it was a spectacular experience. Red Auerbach drafted me. He's probably the smartest guy ever associated with professional basketball. He was a complete genius at understanding personalities and molding them together. To play with some of the -- there's so many Hall of Famers on that team -- Dave Cowens, the iconic small center who could guard anybody, and John Havlicek, who's got to be one of the greatest -- on any greatest team of all time, John Havlicek has got to be on that team. Jo Jo White, the great Jo Jo White. Satch Sanders, we called him The Geezer, but he was like 32 years old. He was just a great basketball mind and a great person. Don Nelson, so innovative, taught me everything he could. Everything was always to his benefit, though. He'd say, I'll set a screen to you, and I was like, yeah, I'm going to get a shot, but he knew they would switch and I'd have to throw it to him.

It was just a brilliant, brilliant team to be a part of. Every young guy should play with great players who put winning first. Tommy Heinsohn, who completely put winning first as a coach. It's the best way to start in the game. I just can't get over what a great first three years I had playing with the Celtics, even though I didn't get to play very much.

PAUL LAMBERT: Vlade, talk about the Sacramento Kings a little bit, what it meant to you, your life with this organization, first as a player and now the executive, building a wonderful young team. Memories as a player and now how you feel about your time in Sacramento.

VLADE DIVAC: Coming from Europe, my first town I made my family, my kids were born in Los Angeles. It was very difficult to move on from L.A. I went to Charlotte, circled back to California, signed with the Sacramento Kings, and I really felt from day one the chemistry, what Paul was talking about, the chemistry between the teammates, and we created something special there the first day of training camp that led us -- for six years we were the most exciting team in the league and really played basketball the right way and really enjoyed it.

I will always say I had many teammates, many teams I played for, but those six years were my most memorable and enjoyable as a basketball player. Obviously, I came back to the same organization as an executive, and putting those pieces together and see them develop and grow, it's exciting time for me, for Sacramento Kings fans, and basketball generally.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Teresa, you came from a very small town, and you, luckily, blessings of life, you end up going to Louisiana Tech and having a wonderful career. There was no WNBA. There was no place to play in the States for women at that point. You ended up going overseas to play in several different countries. Was it intimidating? What did it feel like for that young woman from a small town to be suddenly in new cultures overseas?

TERESA WEATHERSPOON: Not very intimidating at all because it was a dream. We didn't have anything to look forward to in America to play professionally. The ultimate at that time was the Olympics, and if you got a chance to play on an Olympic team, it was absolutely amazing.

But we did have the opportunity to play overseas if you chose to, and it was a huge sacrifice. And to play overseas was probably one of the best things that all of us decided to do because then all of a sudden the WNBA comes into existence. And we had an opportunity to play in the WNBA.

I don't have anything but great things to say about my experience overseas. Learned about a lot of different countries and their culture and how things work over there compared to America, and learning to live the way they live and respect how they live. Learned so many different things playing overseas, but nothing but great things to say because it was a huge sacrifice for what has happened today.

PAUL LAMBERT: Jack, I used to work for the NBA before coming up to the Hall of Fame, and one of my favorite times was to go to Seattle whenever we did events or visited the Sonics team because they were a wonderful organization. I don't know if folks remember enough about that particular team. Could you share some memories of the remarkable makeup of that Seattle squad and the great coach and your memories in Seattle.

JACK SIKMA: Yes, I was drafted in '77, and Seattle had made the playoffs before but hadn't established themselves. I just remember coming into the organization and focusing on basketball. We started off 5-17 my rookie year, and they made a coaching change to Lenny Wilkins, and, of course, Lenny's record speaks for itself. One of the greatest, both on the court, off the court, and what he's done for the game.

Anyway, he grabbed a couple other young guys and put them in the starting lineup with myself, Dennis Johnson, who's a fellow Hall of Famer, Gus Williams. Anyway, Marvin Webster was a new guy, and all of a sudden, we figured it out, and we finished the season 12 games over .500 and won a couple playoff series and found ourselves in The Finals.

Unfortunately, we didn't get it done then. Marvin left to New York, and we got Lonnie Shelton in compensation. So I moved from power forward to center. So instead of having to guard Bobby Jones and Jamaal Wilkes and all that, now all of a sudden I've got Kareem and Moses in my face, so I had some more adjustment to do.

But anyway, that team was very focused to get back to it, and fortunately, we got to play the same team who beat us the year before in the Bullets. Once we got to The Finals there, really, we felt there was nothing denying us. It was ours to get. Fortunately, we were able to win that in five games. Now, that is the only championship won in Seattle. We came close a few other times. Now we're a long way away from a championship in Seattle, and we hope that that changes soon.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you so much. Linda, you represent generations of Queens sitting up here today, and you played for a remarkable man who won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hall of Fame, Coach Harley Redin. Could you tell folks who might not know Coach Redin's style, what made him so effective to build that team and create remarkable success for many years?

LINDA PRICE: Coach Redin is a remarkable man. He coached for many years. Basketball at Wayland did start in -- it was the first one in the U.S. and colleges to start in '48. Coach Redin started just a few years after that. We had one coach, Coach Matthews, before him, but Coach started -- I call him Coach because he coached me. I graduated in '69. And so his style is very, very different. I mean, he was like, it was discipline. It was all about fundamentals, and that's what we practiced.

He was a quiet man. In fact, never once in my career and never once when I was seeing him coach other teams did I see him stand up and yell. You knew he was upset with a call, his emotion was he would stand up, and he would pull his pants up a little, and that knew -- then you knew he was upset. That was it. He never yelled at us in practice.

But he was very innovative. He pushed for -- I mean, you have to remember that women's basketball in college went through a lot of changes and before NCAA. First, there was the very, very first, there was the three-on-three half-court. Then came a system called the rover system, which there was still six players on a team, but there was two guards, two centers, and two rovers, and anybody could rove. So whoever, if you were out front on a fast break, then you became a rover, and you could cross the line. So it was a very fast pace, but then you had four-on-four on each end. So he coached through all of that.

Then he pushed always, though, for changes in rules. Even in the '60s, we had the 30-second rule, the women did, before, prior to the men having a time limit on shooting, so it was a quick game. It was not a boring game. Then he pushed for full court for women, and, of course, when we were playing in the '60s, for instance, we were playing primarily semiprofessional, basically the industrial teams, places like Nashville Business College, who it was more of a working environment then and they played basketball. I mean, they did work, and some went to school, but they did not have scholarships.

He pushed for those kinds of changes in women's rules, and he brought women's basketball forward. He was very, very visionary. I had only one thing, because it really took some brains to play for him because he had one thing that I was going, Coach, please don't do this, but he would anyway. It was be like you'd play all season, you'd have all your plays down, and then right before Finals, right before you get into finals, he changed every play so that whoever you would come out against, if they scouted you all year. So you had to learn all these other different plays going into The Finals, and that was a toughy. I mean, we had to tutor each other. It took a team to do that.

Coach Redin is to be admired, and he will turn 100 this August.

PAUL LAMBERT: We'll have a big party.

LINDA PRICE: What a legend.

PAUL LAMBERT: Absolutely.

LINDA PRICE: And I appreciate what he taught me and the discipline he taught me in basketball.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. Sidney, the Milwaukee Bucks also had a unique coach and a very distinctive style of play. Share some memories of those wonderful Bucks teams. Very innovative, very creative teams that you played on, some memories of Coach Nelson and some other folks you played with up in Milwaukee.

SIDNEY MONCRIEF: I don't think Coach Nelson gets enough credit for his discipline, his fundamentally based way he coached the game of basketball. When I came into the NBA playing under Eddie Sutton, we had dedication, discipline, and defense. That was like our calling card. And really when I came to Milwaukee, Don Nelson was more of a defensive coach than what people remember. In addition to that, we had an excellent coaching staff. They were very small, but they loved basketball. We worked extremely hard.

All the players, I like to use the word, they were serious about winning basketball games. They came from winning programs -- Quinn Buckner, Indiana, Junior Bridgeman played for Louisville, Marques Johnson, UCLA, and Bob Lanier -- we just had guys who knew how to win basketball games. It was a lot of fun to play under Coach Nelson. He made me an All-Star because he put me in a position where I could succeed. If you watched the tape, I could post-up, I could shoot jumpers. He let me be more like a two guard that played inside, and it helped to expand the ability to do more things on the basketball court.

He assigned me the most difficult player to guard, which I didn't like that a lot, but still. His innovation in how he coached the game from a fundamental standpoint and how he would exploit matchups based on size and based on who we were playing is legendary, and I'm very blessed to have had him as my coach.

PAUL LAMBERT: Thank you. We have time for a couple of questions from the audience. I see a hand here.

Q. Hi, congratulations, everyone. Quite the honor. Sidney, two-part question for you. You played in the Final Four. You played in the NCAA Tournament. What memories does this event bring to you? And looking at how big the Final Four has become -- you're playing in football stadiums, a lot more distractions with social media. Looking in retrospect, do you think you played in a more easier time?
SIDNEY MONCRIEF: One thing I would say is Final Four basketball is the ultimate. It's nothing like it. You could take NBA playoffs, there's nothing like playing in the Final Four. We played at the Checkerdome, St. Louis, Kentucky, Duke, Notre Dame, Arkansas. I just remember going out. It was so much energy in the air and so much smoke because back then you could smoke in arenas. It was a tremendous experience, beyond coughing all the time. But it's nothing like Final Four basketball. I still have memories of those days.

I don't know, it's kind of hard to compare the game now to years ago, if it was easier, tougher. I'm not sure. I just know it was a very physical game back then, where you just felt that players were -- they were leaning on you all the time. The game was very fast, unlike what people think, and it was just a fun game to play. There's nothing like Final Four basketball.

Q. Hi, good afternoon. Congratulations to everyone again. This is really for Teresa and Linda. The women's NCAA Tournament getting a little more coverage this year. The WNBA is getting a little more coverage this year. So women can get scholarships, they can play in college, and also professionally. Still, in your opinion, is women's sports where it should be? Is there more to go? How much more should there be? If you can, how would you hope it would get to where you want it to be?
LINDA PRICE: It's come a long way, baby, that's for sure. I do think it has a ways to go, and I'm very glad the media and the sports organizations, sponsors and everything, are beginning to give more coverage to women. I also think we still have a ways to go in terms of getting equal coverage, in terms of our sports.

I don't know what to say, coming off of -- you know, it's a changing game. Players, whether they're better or worse than they were in the past, I don't know the answer to that. It's a different game. I don't know how to make it change except to say women keep working. There's just such great players out there right now and great coaches, and we're getting there, but there is a ways to go. I'll let Teresa maybe address the rest of that.

TERESA WEATHERSPOON: I agree totally. As a little ways to go. But I could talk about this a lot and get real deep with it because it's very special and very close to all of us. Now, I would like to say this. The talent that you see when women are playing this game, they're super talented, and every year that goes by, that talent gets better. The league gets better. It's eyes that need to be up on this league instead of every time you turn around, there's something negative being said. But you won't stop us. We're going to keep pushing to get what we truly deserve, and you will see that as this league continues to grow.

Yes, we have a long way to go, but the fight will never stop because we won't stop.

Q. Hi, congratulations. This is for both of the ladies. First for Linda. You're here at the Final Four. Texas Tech is playing. Wayland is finally getting its recognition after years of trying. What does this mean for basketball in west Texas? And then for Teresa, we understand you were familiar with the story of the Queens long before this moment. So if you can both talk about that.
LINDA PRICE: If I understood the core of your question correctly -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- what do we think it means for Texas, west Texas? I think it's going to be inspiring. Basketball in west Texas is still very, very strong. I mean, 45 miles south of Wayland from Plainview, Texas, is Texas Tech University. We've got West Texas University in Canyon. I mean, it's tough basketball. The high schools there all play very, very tough basketball. So I think this is going to be inspiring. I'm hopefully it will be inspiring.

I think Wayland receiving this recognition, that they'll be able to attract and inspire more of that whole area again. So I think that this is a spark that may start a bigger fire out there in west Texas.

TERESA WEATHERSPOON: Totally agree. When you think about your history, I definitely know about the Flying Queens because it means so much. You have to understand your history to know where you're going, and once these young ladies and men hear about Wayland Baptist, I'm telling you, this is an amazing story of how persevering, knowing how difficult it was back in the day, back then for women's basketball, for women's sports, period, and how they knocked down barriers for us to be able to do what we do. So we appreciate it tremendously because they paved a path for us to be able to play in the league we play in today.

Q. For Linda, you've been with Wayland Baptist basketball, and you've been there for the early years of it. How does it feel to represent all of west Texas, between West Texas A&M, Lubbock Christian just won a D-II championship this past year, and how Wayland is performing this current season. How does it feel to represent all of west Texas in that sense?
LINDA PRICE: I'm overcome by gratitude that I'm president of the foundation and get to be sitting here representing so many hundreds of Flying Queens. So I'm grateful for that.

It's hard to answer the rest of the question. It feels great. I think Wayland will continue to do. We're now playing at NAIA. We've got a wonderful coach, young, vibrant coach, and we've been in the finals -- I mean, we've been in the national tournament. We'll be back there next year.

So I think it's coming back. It's coming back at a level that, after Title IX was implemented -- if you remember, that's part of what the Wayland Flying Queens did was help create implementation of Title IX and then went out and started these programs. But ironically, what that did for Wayland and the Flying Queens is probably -- it decreased their national presence because we're this little school, and then after Title IX fully got operationalized in '82 and realized it was for women and it was for athletics, you have then the big universities jumping in, and basically then Wayland is playing at a lower level, but they're playing at the height of whatever level they have, they're playing at that height, and I think they'll continue to do so.

PAUL LAMBERT: Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to stop now for a little bit. We're going to come off the stage. If you folks have individual questions you'd like to come and ask our members, this be would the time to do this. Thank you for your time.

Ladies and gentlemen on the stage, thank you once again. Please join me in a round of applause for the Hall of Fame Class of 2019.

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