NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 27, 2002

Gary Williams

COACH WILLIAMS: I didn't come very close. I had just gone to Ohio State and I really, you know, wasn't you know ready to -- I think I was there a year at Ohio State and so that really wasn't going to happen. So I wasn't really a serious candidate. I was flattered that they called and wanted to talk, but other than that, that was about it.

COACH WILLIAMS: I really liked having Steve here. We won 28 games that year. We just played a bad game against St. Johns in the NCAA and go home. That really didn't reflect our year. I will take 28 wins any time. We didn't know Steve was going to leave after one year. We thought he would be here two years because he was coming from junior college. I think you recruit the best players, but you also have to have the nucleus of guys like Baxter, Dixon that when they came in they would probably be described as four-year players. They have played themselves into a point. It just happens, if you stay in school and you have talent and you are with a program three, four years you are probably as good as anybody that might be thinking about leaving early. That's what those two guys have done for us. During that time you win a lot of games because they really worked hard to get better and that just gets through to the other players.

COACH WILLIAMS: Well, I think you have to go through it. As a coach, if you have been through it as a coach then I think you can get it to your players some, but that was my first experience as a coach. You talk to people that had been through that and get some tips from them, you know, people you respect in the business, they certainly help you. But the experience has helped me this year. You know it is going to be crazy this week, but you assign yourself certain times during the day where you are just going to watch tape or just going to think about Kansas or whatever the situation. You can get it done. But the big thing I found last year was you prepare for the game just like you prepare for a regular season game. In other words, whatever you did to get with your team to get to the Final Four, then you have to prepare the same way for that game that you play there or the two games you play there.

COACH WILLIAMS: No, I think you know, you approach each weekend with the idea that you know, you know the situation. If you lose, you go home. So you have to be optimistic and I don't think our guys have, you know, are saying anything different than anyone else. You just get ready to play and we have done that all year. So there's nothing wrong with feeling like you can win the game.

COACH WILLIAMS: We knew about him in high school before he went to Tulane and then after a couple of years at Tulane you see most of the players play around the country. We knew he was a good player. When Byron got permission to contact us, we were certainly interested because he's one of those guys that's a combination player. He can play big or he can play a little smaller. That really helps you in a couple of positions with Byron and he's turned out to be a better defensive player than -- we thought we were getting a guy that would put the ball in the basket. We weren't sure about his defense. He works hard just like the other guys work defensively; he's really helped our team.

COACH WILLIAMS: No, we didn't.

COACH WILLIAMS: Well, there's a lot of things that occupy the players' time during this. In other words, instead of going to a mall, it is a press conference or something like that, so there's more things to do. During the regular season there's really nothing to do the day. You are at the site of when you are on the road. So the only time is any different is the ACC tournament for us where you are there three days or whatever and that gives you a pretty good preview of the NCAA tournament.

COACH WILLIAMS: I think so. You just -- you look around and you watch, you see a lot of people there, you know, excitement that they have, and it's contagious. I think that's great thing about the NCAA tournament. It's not just the games, but it's the event, the actual Final Four has gotten so big that just to be a part of it, it gives you a good feeling.

COACH WILLIAMS: I don't really agree with reseeding. I think you know, the way it's set up it's set up a year in advance; that's the way it is going to be, this region is going to play this region. If it work out that there's two No. 1 seeds playing against each other, okay, that's all right. There's nothing wrong with that; plus you get a team like Oklahoma and Kansas, you know, Kansas fought their way in. They beat Duke to get here and Oklahoma has beaten both Kansas and Maryland, so, I don't see anything wrong with the way it is right now. In fact, I think that's great because as you go along, as it gets down in the NCAA tournament, people start thinking about who is going to play who because they already know the deal.

COACH WILLIAMS: Well, it is a tough thing because there's very few people that ever go through that at Byron's age but his family was -- first of all, he has got several other brothers and sisters and his mom is great, and all those people down there in Louisiana helped him. He has a brother up here in this area that's lived here for about 15 years that really stepped in as the older brother, and especially the night -- it was night after we played Connecticut, the first time during the regular season Byron found out that his brother had been killed earlier in the day, so it was a tough time but when he came back here I think the Juan Dixons that have again been through some tough times, the other players on the team certainly helped Byron because the peer thing on our team is very good. Where players are looking out for each other, and I think that was a big thing that got him through. The other thing was he had basketball and when you have something that you really care about, I think you kind of go back to that when things are tough, and that helps you in that situation.

COACH WILLIAMS: ACC tournament is the oldest, it's still a very big thing, but you know we won the regular season championship, to me the two and a half months you spend doing that, that's the most important thing. The conference tournament is big with the fans. It is a great event. Because there's tradition in each one of our schools in basketball. But if you lose it you forget it quick because it's time to, you know, where a conference tournament is still really important is if you need a win or two to get into the NCAA tournament but if you have secured that before you go there, probably then you know, another team that does need a win or two certainly has an advantage if it's been close during the regular season. We get too caught up in the fact that we lost, in fact, it pointed out a couple of things that we had to work on to get ready to play in the NCAA tournament and so it's really helped us from that point.

COACH WILLIAMS: He's just a great player. You don't see many people that big that have the mobility, the ability to shoot, the quickness and he has got great timing. I have always felt with big guys timing is as important as how well they jump. He's just one of those versatile players that can get rebounds, dribble it out, make the right pass, set a screen if he has to go for a lob pass or maybe a 17-foot jump shot. So he's a problem trying to match up with him.

COACH WILLIAMS: I don't know, that didn't bother me as much as it bothered, you know, fans and things like that because you always judge yourself on how you do with the players that you have, so some years you probably weren't good enough, some years we were good enough, probably didn't win the right game and one-game Playoff situations, some funny things happen. There has been some great coaches that haven't been to the Final Four, but getting there does give you a certain level of attention from a lot of, I'd say, more casual fans than anything else. But I think coaches know who the coaches are and who the best coaches are whether they get to the Final Four or not. That's what is important, the job that you do with your team.

COACH WILLIAMS: Thank you.