NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 1, 2001

Eugene Edgerson

Richard Jefferson

Lute Olson

Michael Wright

COACH LUTE OLSON: We're happy to be playing on Monday night. I thought our guys played really, really well yesterday. Any time you have one day to turn around and get ready for another club, especially someone as talented as Duke is, it's a challenge; but they have the same challenge that we face. I'm sure the question is there about Gilbert, and Gilbert is being treated this morning. He should be able to play. We don't envision any problems with it. He got a blow to the chest area in breaking through a screen. And as you've already been told, I'm sure, that he had it X-rayed immediately. No problem with that. That's why he came back on to the court as soon as he did. Beyond that, I think Duke is outstanding. They create a lot of problems. The biggest one is dealing with the three-point shooting. And the fact that they have three-point shooting from four positions creates a lot of problems, because that means somebody that defends inside is going to have to be defending on the perimeter as well as inside. But we have faced this with other teams where we've had to have Loren go out and defend on the perimeter. And I think as the year has gone on, he's become more and more comfortable out there. Obviously, not having played against anyone that's as good as Battier is, but at least it's not like, "Well, we haven't done this before," so... It's going to be, I'm sure, a very interesting 40 minutes for everyone.

EUGENE EDGERSON: Well, I don't think you could have made a better game, classic East-versus-West matchup. For a guy like me, I love this type of game. You know, it's another game to gain some more respect for the West Coast. You know, a lot of people don't get to see our games due to the time differences, and, you know, it's just a great opportunity to play against one of the leading teams considered on the East Coast. So as far as East-West goes, I think it's time, you know, to show, you know, what we're capable of -- show them the way we're capable of playing.

RICHARD JEFFERSON: Yeah, I guess you want to play Duke. You know, I think you'd be -- I don't know if you want to play Duke, but if you want to win a national title, if you want to say you're the best team in the country, then you want to go through the best teams. I think for us, Maryland's a great team. But I don't know if you'd get as much satisfaction if you could beat a great team like Duke. They are the best program on the East Coast, you know, we're one of the better ones on the West. Like Gene said, it's an East-versus-West rivalry. This is basically everything that it's meant to be.

COACH LUTE OLSON: That was Gilbert you're quoting now, so... (Laughter.) I haven't seen any real fear. I'm not sure, I know Jason gets frightened a lot, but I don't know where that one is coming from. But a lot of things Gilbert says I don't know where they're coming from, so... (Laughter.) But, you know, the thing, it's not like we haven't played against the best teams in the country, and we'll be facing our third consecutive No. 1 seed. '97 we did and became the only team to ever beat three No. 1 seeds. So I don't think it's anything that's different for us in terms of what Richard said about facing Duke. You know, there's no question about how good Duke is. And I think just as has happened with us in '97 where we had Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky, certainly what we've gone through now with Michigan State having been the defending national champ, and Illinois who we split with, so it's just -- I think it's something that should be done if you're going to win the thing. You should have to go through the best teams to do it.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I think their tremendous three-point shooting. You take a look at having taken over 1,000 threes, you better be able to defend on the perimeter. We've done a great job during the course of the year in defending threes. I think teams are hitting somewhere around 28 percent against us from three, so it's not that we haven't done a good job defending. The problem is when you have four positions, all of which are positions that they shoot threes from, it creates a lot of problems. The other thing, they go to the offensive boards probably just as hard as Michigan State, or nearly as hard. But in preparing for that game, that was critical, and the boards will be critical again. I think I believe they had 20 offensive rebounds last night against a very, very talented Maryland team. So three-point shooting and offensive boards, us having to work hard to make sure they're not getting a lot more shots as a result of their offensive boards. They do a tremendous job defensively in terms of forcing turnovers and, you know, we had -- that was one of the challenges we faced last night. And the guys did a great job with just four turnovers in each half. So I'd say those three things, the three-point shooting, the offensive boards, and taking care of the ball.

MICHAEL WRIGHT: It was, I mean it was a good -- (laughing.) It was a good one that he read to us the night before the Michigan State game. While it was true, you know, when you, like, are under pressure to carrots, I mean they become soft, and the eggs, they still be hard, and they just... (Laughter.) The coffee bean, it was strong when the times got rough. It just got more strength, you know. I mean, it was a funny tale, but it was very inspirational. (Laughter.)

COACH LUTE OLSON: I can see you took that very seriously, Michael.

JASON GARDNER: Well, I just think that, you know, Duke, they, you know, they're the No. 1 team. You know, they're the No. 1 seed. They've been, you know, they was down 10 to Maryland like a minute left. So I think, you know, they're a great team. So, you know, great teams do that. I think, you know, Maryland was making good runs, you know, Duke, it was just a chance to, you know, when was they gonna make their run? I think they made their run. It was kind of hard for maybe Maryland to kind of get it all back together.

LOREN WOODS: You know, it's -- I don't know. It's difficult, you know, to answer that question. You know, seeing the certain situations I was in; Shane Battier, the same. You know, two good players last year, I guess we could have left or whatever. But both came back. More importantly, I think for the teams. You know, it's something that I know he said last year, you know, big piece that he was missing out of his career was winning a national championship. And I definitely said last year I wanted to come back and help my team, you know, try to win a national championship. So I think it's just more pride than anything. You know, just two competitors. You just want to win as much as possible. You can't do it better, I don't think, in two programs, Duke or Arizona.

JASON GARDNER: Well, I just think that's more of a, you know, coaching. After the coaches watching the films and stuff like that, I think they decide Jason Williams. He's more of a good player. I think, you know, he can get his shot off. He's a quick player. I think it's more, you know, just staying in front of him, putting a hand up on his shot, and just trying to contain him.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, he's just a great player. I remember when I saw him in high school, there was no comparison between him and anyone else that you wanted to mention that year. And the great thing with Shane is that he's gotten better every year. He was the outstanding high school senior, the outstanding freshman in college, sophomore and junior, senior. So it's been a case of where he has really worked hard to continue to be the best player. He creates so many problems. He can take the ball to the hole well. He shoots the three, he sets great screens for his teammates, he gets to the boards, he blocks shots. There isn't really anything that he doesn't do. And I think one of -- you see all of the physical strengths that he has that he brings to the team, but I think mentally, you know, he's a tremendous leader. You can just see that on the court when they get together. At free throws or any other time, you can just see the leadership that he displays, and I'm sure that that's in every practice session. And he's -- I mean, I don't know who could create more problems for you than he creates.

LOREN WOODS: No, not really. It's the fifth or sixth time playing against Duke. I know what pretty much they're all about. They come out, and they just try to kill you for 40 minutes. You know, that's what we're going to have to be ready for. You know, we thought these last two games against Illinois and Michigan State were a war; and, you know, this one right here is the biggest war that we're going to face, you know, probably some of us are going to face in our careers.

COACH LUTE OLSON: No, I think, you know, as far as this team is concerned from the very start of the year, their focus has been on getting to this Monday night game and having a chance to win the national championship. And there have been some difficult times along the way, but I think, you know, enough has been documented enough. And I think just when you're having a chance to play for the national title, it's a special situation. And I think we've looked at that from the start. It's interesting in preseason polls, either Duke was one or we were one. And it's interesting that it gets down to that point now at the end of the season, the two teams who were No. 1 in, I guess, every poll you looked at. It was either Duke or ourselves. I think it's a great way for another outstanding college basketball season to end with. But any time you're playing for the national title is special, and we're going to -- I think you're going to see two teams that are very competitive. You wouldn't be here if you weren't competitive.

EUGENE EDGERSON: We just have to see. You can't pretty much predict your emotions. We want to win; it's as simple as that. We didn't come this far to come in second place. You know, I've never played to come in second place anywhere in my career. But it will be a very special game, a special time. I'm sure somewhere during that game all the hardships we've had to endure will pop up in everyone's minds; and, you know, hopefully, you know, we'll win. But, you know, it's kind of hard to say how, you know, you'll actually feel until, you know, that buzzer goes off at the end of the game.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I think it's pretty obvious with Gene in terms of the role that he plays. He's tremendously competitive, and that's not just in game situations. It's in every practice situation. The intensity that he brings to the court has not only made him better but I think made his teammates better as well. It's comforting from my end of it as a coach to be able to know that we put him in, and it's not like you have to jumpstart him; he's on the court, he's full speed ahead, and he's going to give you a 100 percent effort. But I think the competitiveness that he displays and the intensity is really key for us.

EUGENE EDGERSON: I kind of forgot exactly what I said, you know, the other night before the Michigan State game. But basically I was just trying to motivate the guys to come out and play well. I really hadn't talked to them, you know, the entire season. I pretty much let them go as they did please. I didn't really want to intrude on anyone's experiences; I want them just to experience everything and take it all in, because that's how I was, you know, my freshman year when we won it. No one really talked to me until, you know, the semifinal game. But basically, you know, I just read the little E-mail that was sent to me and also, you know, added my comments here and there throughout the E-mail. A good friend of mine had sent it to me. He told me that I should share it with my teammates, and I did. And they responded well by just going out and playing hard. And hopefully, I can find something else, you know, to motivate them for tomorrow's game. But realistically, I don't think, you know, the fellas need any motivation. They pretty much know what's at stake. I don't expect them to give anything but 110 percent.

EUGENE EDGERSON: Well, you know, from me being down South, I had a good opportunity to talk with people when I was growing up playing basketball before I made my decision to go to college, and I would always get input on, you know, the way the East plays and the way the West plays. I was always told that the West was finesse and more tempo; whereas East Coast was power basketball. You have bigger and stronger players. But, you know, when it all comes down to it, I don't care if you're strong or if you're, you know, you're finesse, competitors always rise to the top. You know, we consider ourselves competitors even though, you know, we play on the West Coast. Like I tell everybody, we're not the big, brawny guys; we get the job done. When there's a challenge, we don't back down from the challenge.

RICHARD JEFFERSON: Well, I think now if you look at, you know, a lot of the AAU basketball and all the traveling teams, a lot of us, you know, like I'm from Arizona but I've been playing against New York players since I was 12, 13 years old because you play in AAU and because there are so many different traveling tournaments. I've been playing against guys like Quinn Richardson and Corey Maggette since we were 13, 14. They're from the East Coast. Now, I don't think there's that much of a difference between the East and the West other than the way I think that the referees allowed to be played. In the West Coast they play it a little bit closer, so we have to play without reaching; we have to play a little bit more finesse. And I won't say the way the game's supposed to be played, but there's a lot less contact. In the East Coast and Midwest, they allow more contact and more physicalness. So when the two meet, all of a sudden one's smarter than the other, instead of one playing tougher and one playing smarter. You have to make up your mind.

EUGENE EDGERSON: We play as hard as our conference will let us play. There was times yesterday when we were battling against Michigan State, I would have did some things, but I wasn't allowed to do it in my conference. So since I'm not allowed to do it in my conference, I'm so used to not doing it that way. So I just played the way my conference would let me play. Michigan State, I felt, got away with a little bit more than what we would get away with in our conference. But when it all comes down to it, it's about who wants it the most. I don't care if you're from the east, the west, the south, or the north. The competitors and the people who's the hungriest will get the championship.

MICHAEL WRIGHT: Kind of what?

COACH LUTE OLSON: Picks, screens.

MICHAEL WRIGHT: They're all right in practice. In a game, you try to take somebody's head off. (Laughter.) He's a pretty solid person in practice and things like that. When we get in the game, he goes all out for the team. Whatever it takes to win, he does it.

COACH LUTE OLSON: You know, when we first came to Arizona, it's been well-documented, but the team the year before we got there was 1 and 17 in the league, and the game they won was a disputed situation. Stanford hit a basket at the buzzer that was disallowed, otherwise they would have been a perfect 0-18 team. So we had a lot of work to do. But the one great thing about Arizona with the university and with the climate and the rest of it, we felt we could recruit all over. But to be realistic, for us to establish our program, we had to recruit in the west. I mean, there aren't a whole lot -- there weren't a whole lot of kids from around the country that had dreamed of playing for a 1-17 team. So our roster initially was pretty much filled with California guys that UCLA didn't want and SC didn't want. But now, you know, what's sort of funny, the discussion is West Coast versus East Coast. Michael is from Chicago; Gene's from New Orleans; we've got Loren from St. Louis; Richard is from Phoenix; but Jason is from Indianapolis. So we have, as our program has been established, we've been able to recruit from all over. As far as expectations when we came in, the whole point that we tried to make was that we wanted to develop a program as opposed to one team. We didn't want the ups and downs; we wanted to try to be consistently good. I don't know that we could have ever envisioned that we would go to 17 consecutive NCAA playoffs, and nine PAC-10 titles and the rest of it. But, you know, we lucked out on some things. Sean Elliott was from right there in Tucson. When you have a guy who ends up going on to be the college Player-of-the-Year right in your hometown, that -- there's definitely a luck element. Steve Kerr was not recruited by anybody. So there were lucky things that happened along the way, but I've always been a believer that the harder you work, the luckier you get, too.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, the thing that has made Richard into the kind of defender that he is this year is just hard work. He's, I think he enjoys the role of being the defensive stopper. He has great quickness and athleticism. With a work ethic, now, I don't think we would have necessarily envisioned Richard as a defensive stopper when he came in as a freshman, but he's worked hard and has used the tremendous physical abilities that he has along with the work ethic and the fact that he does a good job of studying the guys that he's going to play against. As far as who we match him up with, you know, the good thing with Richard, because of his size and strength and quickness, we feel we can match him pretty much anywhere. But as to whether he'll defend Battier or not, we'll have to see about that.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, it's really, it's been a work in progress, I think, all the way through. But the middle of January you could see certain things happening, and I think the primary thing there was just that -- getting a stable environment for them where they knew the staff was going to be there and all the players were there. But at that point, we were not a good rebounding team; we were making too many mistakes with the ball. We were not getting enough touches to get good shots. So we tried to focus on those three areas of the boards, taking care of the ball and getting touches to where we got good looks at the basket every time down. So I think that got better almost game by game. We had, through that whole stretch, only maybe four halves out of that whole time period where we weren't making progress. But I think it was obvious at that time that if we worked hard at those things, we were a team with enough talent and enough depth to make a run at it.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I think initially guys got carried away a little bit, you know, talent. If you want to talk talent, how many McDonald's All-Americans are on that other side of the court tomorrow? You know, we had Richard Jefferson and Loren as a transfer and Jason Gardner, I guess, as our three. But I think people get carried away sometimes with talent. They look at somebody, and they say, "Well, he's got good quickness and he's a jumper. Is he a basketball player?" I think there was a lot to be done in a number of positions in terms of consistency. But I think a key thing with any team is that you play as a team. You don't care who you have, you look at the array of talent at Duke, but they play as a basketball team. I think that was something that was necessary from our end of it. We needed to be able to walk the walk. You look at starting the season and having the situation like Loren's, where for six games -- and it's not just six games, it's in the practice situations where we had to be getting ready for games so we couldn't get him really worked in like we needed to have him work in. But I think the key thing was, with them, understanding that if you're going to be a good team, you have to play like a team both offensively and defensively.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, nine years before that when I went into Iowa, they had been in tenth place in the Big Ten, and that was a whole lot tougher than Arizona, because there was no reputation from the standpoint of our staff, you know, one year a Division I. Their team is high school and four junior colleges. Plus the climate in Iowa isn't as conducive to recruiting as it is in Arizona. So when we went to Tucson, it was a case of where we could at least go into kids' homes and say, "Look, we've been there before, and we've taken -- we took the program at Iowa a pretty consistent Top 10 or Top 15 program," so we had that on our side. We had climate on our side. A lot is said about, you know, the guys that really got it going, but I would say the guy that really got it going was Pete Williams. A center who couldn't shoot. That was as great a competitor as you could ever see, and a tremendous recruiter for us. So when could we see it starting to happen? Actually, the second round of the conference, that first year Oregon State won it with some very good players. That was the only team that had a better record the second round than we did, and we actually beat them the second round of league. So you could see it happening then. We were going to have all of the main elements back the following year, and we did go to the playoffs that next year. So I would say by the time we got through -- midway through the second round of our league, that we felt we had it going in the right direction at that point.

COACH LUTE OLSON: No. There's no thinking about the season being over. We know it's over tomorrow night about 10:30. But you know, I think every basketball coach, when you get to the end of the season and the adrenaline stops pumping, you're very tired. I assume I'll probably be that way just like Mike will probably be that way tomorrow night when the game is over as well. But right now, there's no thought of that. We'll try to take care of business first, and then see what we do. There isn't any doubt from, you know, it's obvious from my situation that it's -- there will be -- if I would allow myself to be, I probably would be more exhausted now than I've ever been in any of the years of coaching. But I don't feel exhausted now. I'm excited about the opportunity to play tomorrow night.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I think the No. 1 similarity is they're both tremendous competitors. And, you know, Jason Williams to his team is as great a player as Shane Battier is, while Jason Williams is just as important to Duke as Shane is probably. Because the point guard has, I mean not only is he a great scorer, he's a great penetrator, he's a great passer, he's a great defender, he's considerably bigger than Jason Gardner. But I think you take a look at what they do, like right now, Jason Gardner, I don't -- his scoring average is down from last year. But he is a much better basketball player now than he was a year ago, because he involves everybody, he's more selective with his shots, defensively he's better. He needs to continue to get better in that area, but he's working very hard at it. But they're both -- you don't get to this point without great point guard play, and I think both of us have had that.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, you know, it's interesting. I think all of us, as coaches, get this question a lot during the course of the year. You know, guys leaving early really hurts the college game. I think the college game is beyond five or six or ten individuals. You take a look, what makes college basketball so great is the enthusiasm of the players, the fans. And in a lot of cases, it's not college basketball that's being hurt, it's some of the kids that miss the experience that a Shane Battier has had. You ask him whether he would have been better off taking the millions and not coming back to Duke, and I mean, there's no question what his answer would be. For him to have the experience that he's had, for him to be playing for the national championship, for him to have his jersey retired, for him to be the national Player-of-the-Year. But as far from the coaching end of it, you take what's out there, what you've recruited, and you get after it. You're going to have some guys leave. We've been fortunate at Arizona, we have not had that happen. Only, you know, with Mike Bibby leaving after sophomore year; but otherwise, we haven't had anyone leave before they've gone through four years in college. But I, you know, I'm enthused about coaching and teaching, and I'm enthused about the atmosphere that's present in college basketball.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Yeah, well, I think when you look at our program through the years, the key to our program is we've had great kids in the program. And character is so vital to anything. I'm not just talking about athletics; it's key to everything. We've been blessed with a lot of great young people. And I think in recruiting, that's such an important thing when you get a program started is you get good kids. Because good kids want to be with good kids. Bad kids want to be with bad kids. They don't want to have to follow all the rules and regulations. We were fortunate to recruit really good kids in our first recruiting class, and it's really continued that way.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, USC has guys who play the perimeter really well. Scalabrine, and actually Loren shut him out totally, did not score at Arizona. But then he, you know, he hit us for 20-some at his place, but he shot under 40 percent. So, you know, I don't care if a guy gets 70 if his percentage is not better than the percentage we shoot as a team. But he's, you know, Gonzaga, Butler, certainly not, you know, as good as those teams are out in the talent class that Duke is, but SC's a pretty talented team. He did a great job on Scalabrine. He took Bracey when Bracey, from Oregon, was either the leading scorer in the league or second or third and did a great job on him at our place. So he feels very comfortable out there right now, which is, I think, has been a great thing for him in terms of his development as a player, is that he can go out and play. He's intelligent; he's long; he has good feet. Big guys don't move their feet like Loren does. He has good quickness. He can use his size, he can keep a bigger gap and still get pressure on the shot.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I don't think that either one of us, Duke or Arizona, would look at this -- you know, it's not a case of where we can end in a tie and stop it at that point. So somebody's going to lose the game. Whatever perspective that gives, you know, is ridiculous in my opinion to -- you talk about, people say, "Well, they don't win the big one." Well, how many big ones do you have to win to get to the big one? So you can't worry about what other people's thinking is there. I think Duke has been -- this will be their ninth championship game. And they have two wins, right? Am I correct in that?

COACH LUTE OLSON: Yeah. Yet would anyone dispute the fact that Mike Krzyzewski is as good a coach as you're ever going to see? So what does that tell you about what happens in that final game? I think our programs are both outstanding programs with outstanding young people, with great support, and I think we'll both be very proud of our teams.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, this is not our first matchup, Duke and Arizona. We have played, I'm not sure, three times maybe, four. Three, four. We played at Arizona, at Duke, at the Meadowlands, we played them twice at Arizona. So I mean, Mike's impact on the game is way beyond the coaching of his team. He's been a great leader in the NABC. He's been a great spokesman for college basketball. I guess if you think of coaches through the years, I'm not sure that anyone has had a greater impact than Mike has had.

COACH LUTE OLSON: It was scary a year ago for us. When you're looking at two freshmen guards facing the kind of schedule that we were facing. My biggest concern with freshman, when they're thrown into that situation, if you get hit on the head too many times and lose games, you can lose confidence, and that was a concern. But these two kids are tremendous competitors. We weren't sure with Gilbert, because he came out of a smaller conference. His team was not very good, so it's hard to assess how good is a kid going to be when the pressure's really, really on. If you're not in a winning program, you're not faced with that same kind of pressure that, say, Jason Gardner was. There was no question in my mind about the competitiveness of Jason Gardner, if anyone followed his senior year where he carried his team to the state final and had big shots all the way through, that he was going to be a good one. But they immediately clicked as a pair. We put them together as roommates, and they've been great for one another, because Jason, as you can see, is quiet and serious, and Gilbert is not exactly either of those. But they've been great for one another. I think Gilbert has loosened Jason up, and Jason has helped Gilbert see how, you know, that sometimes it's better to listen. So they've been good for one another. But they've done a tremendous job, and they've gotten better, I think. As good as they were a year ago, they're both so much better now it's not even close.

COACH LUTE OLSON: We had raised our five kids in the west, and we were convinced that they were going to end up back in the west. If you're raised in the west, it's usually where you're going to end up. Our family's always been very close, and we did not want to be in a situation where kids were spread out all over the place. So that was a huge factor. Secondly, we had -- Bobbi and I had been to Tucson a couple of times to -- we were recruiting a young man out of southern California who was playing in the BCI Tournament in the spring in Tucson. The weather was a little bit better there than it was in Iowa in early April. We liked the feel of the community. It's a very laid-back and friendly community. I had had a number of opportunities to go back to the Pac-10. I didn't feel comfortable with the opportunities that I had. I wanted to make sure that if I did go back, that we were in a situation where it would be good for the kids. I felt after seeing the university there and looking at the history, that when they had good teams, they did draw really well. So it was a good basketball city, but you had to have a good team, as is the case with most places, to draw people. But the combination of the climate, the family, and a chance, I thought, to be -- to build a competitive program.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Surprising there would be criticism, isn't it?

COACH LUTE OLSON: Criticism doesn't bother me more than it bothers you or anybody else in here. You get sick and tired of hearing criticism on kids that are working their tail off. You know, you -- we lose one on a three-point shot at the buzzer, and all of a sudden, you know, it's like, "What in the world happened?" Well, what in the world happened to -- you can look through the years. I mean, Gary Williams, as good a job as he does at Maryland, this is his first trip in here. He was at Ohio State, he was at Boston College. I look at a guy like Ralph Miller, who is as tough a coach to play against as you could ever play against, and yet he never got this opportunity. So I think the -- I forget which other coach in the Final Four was saying -- maybe it was Gary -- that it's a shame that it's gotten to the point where people don't look at the total year, and take a look at the total program as opposed to everything gets down to --.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Yeah, I just -- well, I look back, like, at the Buffalo Bills. I mean good grief, for a team to be able to get to the Super Bowl is an unbelievable accomplishment, and only one team can win. So the team that loses is a failure? I think the -- the NCAA Tournament has gotten to the point where league play and everything else, nothing else counts anymore other than get in the tournament, but then win the whole thing, you know. There are 300-some Division I schools, so everything is based on: You've got to win the last game. So that's the MO, and you live with that. That's why I've told football coaches if they ever go to a national playoff system, they're ridiculous to even consider it. And I know there will be a push on it. There's been a big media push already, and the money push is there. That's probably going to happen. But it's going to be the worst day, I think, ever for college football, because right now how is your season evaluated? If you get to a Bowl game and you win that last game, a lot of people win their last game. There are two teams in college basketball, as far as playoffs are concerned, that win their last game: The NIT and the NCAA.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, I think the last part of that is very obviously yes. I think the biggest thing with all that's been said about Bobbi's illness is that I just hope that women will become more aware of the ovarian cancer threat, and that from our family's standpoint, our goal in this thing is to work with Dr. Elbert (phonetic), Bobbi's oncologist, who's one of the top experts in the world, on working towards education and prevention. Because the disease is such that it's hardly ever discovered before the third stage, and the recovery is, I mean, they're few and far between. So, you know, I'm hopeful that we'll be able to have some effect on battling that disease, but number one, trying to come up with a way of educating women, of being able to develop -- I know Dr. Elbert is working very hard to develop some kind, some tests involved that women can go through as they go through tests for breast cancer and that type of thing. But that's the biggest problem, that ovarian cancer poses, is trying to find a way to detect it early.

COACH LUTE OLSON: You know, I think a lot is made of the recruiting, that there's a lot of cheating going on, that kind of thing. I really don't -- I don't think that it's as rampant as what people want to say it is. Now, there are some schools that we know that if some of those schools are after a kid, the first thing we want to find out is what does the kid like, what is his family like, what are the people around him like, is there anyone around him that's going to sell out? If we feel they are, we're not going to recruit him. But I think there's less cheating going on right now than there was 15 years ago, because of the NCAA rule in terms of the penalty. In college athletics, different from in the pros, you don't recycle coaches very often in the college game. If somebody gets fired for recruiting violations, he's going to have a real battle finding another job. And I think that threat has -- I think that's been good. How much has it changed? Probably a lot, because of these kids playing all over the country in the summer. I think we've gotten smarter with our recruiting. You can chase all over the country, but your chances of getting a kid from a long ways away, unless he's really interested in your school, you're wasting your time. I have people from the east say, "Why don't you come out here more and recruit? You know, this kid's really interested in you." Yeah, parents will say right off, "Well, the kid's going to make the decision." Right. Put the red flag up when you hear that one. And, "Distance is not a problem." Both of them are problems, believe me. We found that out pretty close to home here. But I think it's changed a lot because of the summer. I think the NCAA is working very hard to try to get summer basketball under control, and that's probably the thing that's changed it the most. Keeping kids in school, you know, with the five-year rookie salary cap is the worst thing that ever happened to college athletics, because kids now look at, "We've got to get out and get the clock started." It's not a case of looking at, "Well, am I going to play next year?" You look at Tracy McGrady, how much did he play his first year out? That's what kids are looking at now. It's really tough to recruit behind kids who might go. So we could talk about our group here, two recruits. Well, Richard may go. Well, what happens if he doesn't go? Well, he'll sit and watch; you'll practice against him every day. But that is the toughest part of recruiting. It used to be that we could look at it, okay, we've got this class of three guys. We've got a class coming in behind him of three guys. So we generally take three, three; one year we take four. Now, you better take players every year that you can get, because you don't know how long you're going to have them.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Yeah. I think it's spread the talent out more, but the Dukes of the world are, you know, going to get -- they're going to get basically the kids they want to get. In our area, UCLA is going to get the kids they want to get for the most part, or Stanford, if the kid's a great student. The elite programs are still going to get theirs, but I think it spread the talent out throughout NCAA basketball more as a result of scholarship limits.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Yeah, well, I was crazy. I had a lifetime contract at Iowa. It was a state law in Arizona that a coach could not have more than a one-year contract. So it was crazy. I mean, you go and take over a 4-24 program, couple of those wins were Division IIs. You know, but contracts have never -- I mean, length of contracts, either you feel you can get the job done or you can't. But in looking at it, I can see why people had thought that I lost it, including my assistants had thought that I lost it. But --.

COACH LUTE OLSON: There are a lot of kids that don't like cold weather. Michael, you know, I think that initially with Michael, you know, he liked the thought of not freezing his tail off all winter. It's a consistent 72 degrees at McKale Center, and they can leave practice almost every day in their shorts and t-shirts. But I think there are a lot of kids that hate cold weather. I think there are a lot of adults, like myself, I grew up in North Dakota, I've had enough of cold weather. So I think climate is something. You sell what you can sell, you know. How does Michigan get the players they get? Well, it's a great university, and they can sell that, even though it's not a place that I would want to be during the winter. Nine years in the Big Ten, fighting icing and icy roads. I mean, it seemed like it was always into cold airplanes or cold cars. So enough was enough for me. I enjoy the climate that we're in.

COACH LUTE OLSON: I don't know. Duke had only what, seven turnovers last night? They're used to facing really tough defensive pressure every day in practice because they play so hard, all of their guys play hard defensively. A team like that is not going to turn it over as many times. But, you know, we're a good defensive team. Duke's an outstanding defensive team. So, you know, I would hope they can't do to us what they've done to a lot of teams. But yet we know you better screen hard, you better come off screens hard, you better come to the ball hard, you better protect the ball when you get it. But we've created a lot of problems for people with our defense, too.

COACH LUTE OLSON: The biggest thing is you have to defend them well beyond the three-point line. I think that's the difficulty that most teams have. It's like, "He's not going to shoot it from there." Yes, he will shoot it from there. What is Jason Williams' range? I don't know. Across half-court and in bounds is what Mike tells him. So, we did face in Butler a team with four guys shooting over 40 percent from the three-point line. And I forget what they hit against us, but it was in the teens I think. So they create tremendous problems, because they spread your defense out. And the other thing is they can put it on the floor once they get you spread out. So they're a difficult team to defend, but we felt Michigan State was a difficult team to defend and Illinois was a tough defensive assignment. But we'll, you know, I think our guys have played well on that end, and we'll just have to count on their instincts. We run motion, also, so it's not like it's something we haven't seen.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Yeah, no, coming back here is -- has not had an impact. It wouldn't have made any difference if I had not even been coaching, what impact that would have. We were married 45 -- 47 years, and dated for two before that. So it's, you know, it would have been difficult. It's difficult for me. I've had a lot of letters from other people in different fields who have gone through this same thing. I've had friends who have gone through the same thing. So it's whether you're in coaching or whether you're in business or anything, it's difficult. It's a difficult thing to deal with when you've been together that long.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, we had one McDonald's All-American on that team, and he was a freshman. So I've said this before, that '97 was really a rebuilding year for us, where everything just went right at the, you know, down the stretch. So I don't know that we could compare that group with anybody other than their determination and great leadership, I thought, out of Miles Simon. But it was -- that team was unique in almost any of the animals you want to make comparisons with. Our most experienced frontliner, inside guy, had nine minutes a game the previous year. So that was -- I don't think we can compare that one to anybody really.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Pete Williams.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Well, the breakthrough guy at Iowa was Ronnie Lester. But interestingly enough, he was the third-rated guard in the city of Chicago coming out. Those were -- I mean, we had to turn over rocks when you come into a program that's that far down. You can't go and bang heads with the elite programs. You need to try to find the Gilbert Arenas and Ronnie Lesters and people like that to get it done. But he gave us the national attention that I think in that 1980 Final Four team brought that -- our program, I think, out into the public view. And recruiting changed considerably after that.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Pete Williams, the guy played as hard as any person who's ever played anywhere, and he had a great personality. Guys love being around Pete; he was an unbelievable recruiter for us. Never really got the credit, I don't think, that he deserves. I don't think that Sean Elliott would have come to school at Arizona, had it not been for Pete Williams and what was happening, when Sean saw what was happening in the program.

COACH LUTE OLSON: Yeah, I indicated at the start that he has a contusion of the upper chest area, and he should be fine. Certainly, I mean we're happy it's a late start tomorrow night because that gives him some more time for his recovery. But he came back, when he came back in the game last night, it didn't seem to hamper him. So he should be fine.