NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 30, 2002

Mike Davis

Dane Fife

Jared Jeffries

Jeff Newton

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Again, I thank God for this opportunity. This is just unbelievable for us to be playing for the National Championship. They gave us -- I mean , Oklahoma's a really good basketball team. We took their best punches. At one point offensively they just kind of took us out of everything we tried to do. We tried to space them out. We thought that would help. But they were so aggressive and physical. First of all, I think Don Perry played a great game. There were a lot of people talking about Donald Perry this week. He stepped up, hit some big free throws. My man, Jeff Newton right here, was big. The best game I've seen Jeff play. He's been playing great for the last month and a half, but he was really big tonight for us. We just are fortunate to be here. It's like coach said from Illinois, you don't have to be the best team, but you only have to be the best team that day. I felt like we kept it close, we kept it close. Once we got down the stretch, McGhee, once he fouled out, heck of a player, we knew they only had two scorers in No. 2 and No. 10. The only other thing we had to do was keep them off the offensive glass. I think our guys did a great job. Fife was great tonight against Price. I think Price only had one point in the first half. It's a team effort. These guys deserve all the credit. Sometimes I just sit over there, don't say a word. They go out, play their butts off, fight, go for loose balls. In basketball, coaches get too much credit. I mean, I've proved that this year. I mean, here I am, second-year coach, no experience, and sometimes I have no idea what's going on on the court - I mean, no idea. And they fight. It's true. It's true. You got to give these guys credit because they out there getting loose balls, blocked the shot. The shot Newt blocked against Price on the breakaway, I'm happy we're playing for the National Championship. Thanks.

DANE FIFE: Mainly I just wanted to keep in front of him. Probably we had a pretty good scouting report on him. I wanted, if anything, if I couldn't stay in front of him, I wanted to make him go right because I felt the only way -- what he would do going right was he would shoot a layup. It's tough for him to pull up for a right-handed jump shot. It's just tough for right-handers to do that. I think he missed his share of open shots, which really had nothing to do with our defense. Maybe it did, but... Our big guys just did an outstanding job when they drove the lane. We had a handful of blocks. We misdirected a lot of shots.

JEFF NEWTON: All I was dreaming about was coming in and winning both of these games in front of the home crowd. I didn't really have too many personal goals. I just wanted to win.

JARED JEFFRIES: That's what Donald has worked for all week. Everybody told him all week to be ready to play, the players, the coaches. I think he really did a good job preparing for this weekend. We knew that Coverdale would probably struggle a little bit because it's tough to come back from an ankle injury. Donald did an unbelievable job. He played only 11 minutes and had 10 points. With that kind of effort, it's going to be tough to beat us.

JEFF NEWTON: Yeah, that was the plan, to try to go at those guys and be aggressive and try to get them in early foul trouble.

DANE FIFE: Well, I think Newton came in early in the game and struggled a bit right at the beginning, and then I think I remember coach getting on him, then all of a sudden Newt just took off from there. He's probably my player of the game, if I had to give it up (smiling). He's just been outstanding this whole NCAA tournament. Our three guys off the bench, Moye, Newton and Perry, have probably been the reason that we are where we are because they have come off the bench. For example, against Duke, these two guys, Newton gets huge rebounds and Moye, he gets 15 points, I think. They've just been outstanding.

JARED JEFFRIES: I mean, enough can't be said about how Newt has been playing, especially this whole tournament, but especially tonight. Coming in, it meant a lot for him to come back to Atlanta, play in front of his home crowd, his mother, his family. Whenever a player can come in and focus on this, he'll have a big game, and he'll continue to do that.

JEFF NEWTON: Well, I don't really -- it doesn't really matter what people consider us because we know what we can do as a team. When people say we are underdogs, we've been getting it all year, so it's nothing new. But we're just going to keep fighting every team, just like we're the best team in the country.

DANE FIFE: I think he came from Charlotte, North Carolina (laughter). Coach Davis had his head buried in his hands. I don't know what he was doing. I just said, "Coach, get your head up, man, we're going to the National Championship." He looked up and smiled. That was about it. To answer your question about George, you know, we've been on him a lot as players because we know how much talent and potential he has. He just came in and gave us five great minutes, I think it was around five. He was awesome. I mean, he blocked shots, and he really frustrated them. I think he really prevented their guys from wanting to drive to the hole because he was sending them.

JARED JEFFRIES: The difference was actually they were in a zone, they were in a match-up zone. The first half they were in a man. They did a good job of pressuring the wings. We had a little bit of trouble inside. I think we went into our match-up zone to limit our inside touches. A couple times they lost their man on 3-point shots so we got open looks.

DANE FIFE: We expect Tom to be a day and a half more healthier. One of the things about Tom is that he's such a tough kid. His main problem really wasn't his ankle tonight. His main problem was that he hadn't run much in a week or so. We expect him to be, you know, again healthier and better on Monday.

JEFF NEWTON: I can't think of one right off the top (smiling). That's kind of my plan, to just go out every game and play aggressive. I just try to take what the team is giving me. Tonight I could do a little bit of scoring.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I thought George Leach played great. He blocked two shots. I think the next possession, they had a walking violation called against them. He had the presence in the paint that we didn't have at the beginning of the game. Our big guys played well. You need four big guys to play well, to be good.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: AJ is at home. He wanted the crowd to cheer for him, so he came out of the game. He knew he was coming out. Thought I was going to put him back in. He asked to go back in. I thought Fife was playing well.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Well, I think when he lost his composure on the floor is when I thought he had -- the turnovers were crucial, but when he was talking to the officials and the opposing player, it wasn't really time for that, it was time for calmness. I went with Donald Perry, hoping he could give us a minute or two, then put Coverdale back in. But Don was playing well. So I didn't put Tom in.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I was just thanking God for this opportunity. It's a blessing to be here. There's a lot of great coaches, and they never get here. Like I said before, it's the players. They're playing unbelievable. I mean, they could easily have given up - we could have lost by ten. But they kept fighting, kept fighting, kept fighting. To have a group of guys like this that come out and play tough, and play hard, for 40 minutes, is a blessing.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: Dane has been great all year. I've said this from day one, he's the best defensive player in the Big-10 because individually he will fight you every possession. He's not quick, he's not fast, he doesn't jump high. But it's hard to catch the ball against him. When you catch the basketball, it's hard to get by him. I mean, Hollis Price is a big-time basketball player, big-time basketball player. For him to go 1 for 11 I thought hurt them. I thought Dane had a lot to do with that. He got some open looks, he did. It was just unfortunate he missed the shots.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I can't remember a game like that because normally Jeffries and Coverdale are the main two scorers. We have two really good players coming off the bench in Moye and Newton who I think really should be starting, but they're not, because Odle is playing well and Hornsby is playing well. When they come in, we don't lose anything.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: I think I handled things poorly at the beginning because I was taking things personal. And it's not about me. I said that before, but sometimes, you know, your emotions take over. It's about Indiana. Indiana's a great program, great basketball program, great school, and it's bigger than anyone or anything. I had to get myself to realize that no matter what people say, it's no problem. I mean, I didn't mind people talking about who they wanted to coach at Indiana. And what you have to realize is that I wasn't really a part of the family because I played at Alabama. And Indiana had Steve Alford, Randall Whitman (phonetic), Mike Woodson, Keith Smart. There are a lot of guys that are coaching that won Championships at Indiana. When I heard the whispers, I understood, I did. But my players like me a lot, and so I wanted to be here because it's a great program. I'm blessed to be able to have a team every single day, no matter what, that comes out and plays hard.

COACH MIKE DAVIS: We won't practice tomorrow. We never practice on Sundays. We're just going to take tomorrow off and we'll watch tape on them. It's not really mandatory to do this. We're going to stick with our same routine that we've been doing since I've been here. The guys have a day to rest. It's Easter, they go to church if they want to. We'll come back, we'll win this game, really work hard, as a coaching staff, watching tape tomorrow. But it won't be mandatory for the players. We'll just come on Monday, whoever it is, and just try to play hard against them.