NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 30, 2002

Aaron McGhee

Hollis Price

Kelvin Sampson

COACH KELVIN SAMPSON: I'm very proud of our basketball team. I thought we gave a great effort today. I thought we played extremely hard. This team won 31 basketball games. You know, when you're lose or don't make the tournament, lose in the early rounds, when somebody says only one team's going to go away happy, that's kind of a hollow feeling. When you make it to the Final Four, that has a little bit more meaning because I understand what it means a lot more now, that you get -- your a Final Four team, you realize you're 80 minutes away from possibly winning the National Championship. When you get this close, when you get this close, you lose, I think it hurts a little bit more, but this is a big picture moment, too. The little picture is we didn't play good enough to win today. My hat's off to Mike Davis and his team. I thought Mike did a great job. His kids, they're very good basketball players. Sometimes we get carried away with athleticism. But they're really good basketball players. They went six for six from the 3-point line second half, got a little separation, I was really proud of our kids for coming back and tying it at 60. When it got to 60, we'd been there before. Thought we'd win the game from there. But just give Indiana a lot of credit. Big possessions, big plays, they made them all down the stretch and we didn't. They win and go to Monday, we lose and we go home.

HOLLIS PRICE: Fife did a great job. He was so physical. I usually get around that. But tonight I just didn't overcome it. But he did a great job defensively.

AARON McGHEE: Yeah, they were playing pretty good defense at the posts. They were kind of faking the double team, bluffing. You know, they're a lot taller than I was. So, I mean, I just had to make some shots over them.

AARON McGHEE: When Coach Sampson recruited me, he had this vision. You know, I think with the help of Hollis and the rest of my team and coach, we got here. This was the goal of ours all year long. To finally get here, it was great playing in a Final Four.

AARON McGHEE: Yeah, I think their bench did a great job. You know, I think Jeffries was in foul trouble, and their guys came in off the bench and made some big plays.

HOLLIS PRICE: No, it didn't surprise us. You know, we knew how good he was. We watched film on him. He did a great job against Duke coming off the bench. He's a good player. You can't overlook anybody. He did a great job coming off the bench, giving this team a lot of energy.

AARON McGHEE: Yeah, I think what Hollis said is true. You can't overlook anybody. He came in and made some great plays for them.

HOLLIS PRICE: I don't know if it played a big role. I've been playing point guard for two years at the school. You know, there's no reason that I couldn't do what I did in the past few games.

HOLLIS PRICE: Yeah, I got hit on the elbow. It bothered me a little bit, but that's not an excuse of why nothing else didn't work for me tonight.

COACH KELVIN SAMPSON: Well, I thought we had a lot of good looks. Some of the guys said we made some hard shots, and we did. Indiana's a team that doesn't get out and force you to turn a ball over. But they're very good at containment and position. But usually when you shoot a 3-pointer, usually it's a pretty good look. Somebody may come at you and contest it after it's released. We went 2 for 18 from the three tonight. That's a little bit disappointing. Indiana hit theirs. So you have to give Indiana credit. Second half I think they went six for six. I remember a big swing was - I think we tied it at 60 and Selvy went to the free-throw line and missed a one-in-one. You guys correct me, but we may have gone and got a stop. Quannas penetrated and kicked it out, Hollis had a wide open look at the top of the key. That's just the tournament. That's the thing you realize, that was a big swing there, because I think it might have been 62-60. I may be wrong. I'm trying to remember correctly. I think it might have been 62-60. That shot may have put us 63-62. That was a good-looking shot. When we got open looks from the three, we struggled from that area tonight. Indiana kids knocked theirs down. They're good at that. That shows that 15 for 19 the other night wasn't a fluke. They're excellent 3-point shooters.

COACH KELVIN SAMPSON: I don't think anybody should be surprised what anybody does when you get to the Final Four. These four teams are excellent teams. They have excellent benches. I thought Jeff Newton was excellent against Duke. We do a highlight tape on key players before each game. One of the kids that we did a highlight tape on was Newton. We talked about his offensive rebounding. We talked about his shot blocking. Tonight, he was making his shot. I thought that our post defense could have been better, better decision making there, about some of our doubles, things like that. But Jeffries posts up a little bit further out than most people. I think you have to give Coach Davis credit for making some adjustments. He's an excellent coach. They did a good job tonight. But our kids, we could have played better because we could have shot better. Didn't knock our shots down. We won a lot of games where these kids didn't shoot as well. Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. I just want to make sure that I congratulate Indiana for a great game and wish him well on Monday night.

COACH KELVIN SAMPSON: That was a big swing. But right after that, we also came back and tied it. I thought some of our judgments tonight, I thought some of our decision-making, especially around attacking Newton, there was a swing there where he blocked about two or three shots in a row. You know, maybe we could have attacked him and kicked it out, made him react to the dribble, then passed it. We've been so good at that this year. Didn't do as good a job with that as I would have liked. When Aaron's on the floor, we're a lot harder to guard because you've got to react to him. He did make some tough shots, but he's made tough shots all year. He didn't get here, all of a sudden start making tough shots. Those are shots that he makes pretty good. But Jeffries is long, Newton is long. IU does a good job of staying in front of you off the dribble. They're a good team.

COACH KELVIN SAMPSON: I thought Jabahri got a little less aggressive. You know, Jabahri didn't start playing basketball till he was 16. Being a sophomore, when we're one-on-one in the post, sometimes we teach our kids to gap, get some space between them and the postman, just stay between them and the basket, don't give them an angle to the rim. I thought when Jabahri got his third and fourth foul, he wasn't as aggressive, didn't move his feet, stay between him and the basket, allowed Newton to get some angles. I think that had to do with his foul trouble, not being as aggressive.

COACH KELVIN SAMPSON: I thought the key play was the last play of the first half when we had a seven-point lead. One of the things I checked with one of my assistant coaches during the time out was whose ball was it to start the half. If we could have got a stop there and scored the first possession, I would have said, "Now you have a nine-point lead." That's where we had some good looks. Jason Detrick had a couple wide-open threes there during that stretch. Selvy had some Selvy-shots during that stretch (smiling). No, you're right. Our seven-point lead could have been ten. That wouldn't have meant we were in control. I remember Duke was up 17 on them. I'm sure people thought that Duke had it under control. Indiana came back and won that game. That's a tribute to Indiana's heart. Their kids are tough kids, just like our kids are. Doesn't matter who is up in the games at this point in the season. When you get to the Final Four, all teams have the ability to come back. You know nobody's going to give up. Our kids fought their hearts out today. We just couldn't make enough shots to stay in it down the stretch and Indiana could.