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NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOURMarch 29, 2010Brad StevensINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA DAVE WORLOCK: Welcome, everyone, to this afternoon's teleconference featuring the four head coaches of our Final Four teams that have advanced to Indianapolis and will play Saturday starting at 6:07 Eastern Time with Butler taking on Michigan State followed by Duke playing West Virginia. We'll go right into our calls. Today we first start with Brad Stevens of Butler university. First of all, Coach Stevens, congratulations on a great run through the tournament so far. We appreciate you taking the time to take calls right now. We'll take our first question for Coach Stevens. Q. The three sophomores in your starting lineup weren't necessarily highly touted prospects during the recruiting prospect. What did you see in them? COACH STEVENS: You know what, I saw them all at different times. I saw Gordon during his junior year some when I was an assistant. He was the first kid that actually visited campus when I was the head coach, when I was named the head coach. We recruited him really hard for the next couple months. He decided to come to Butler. What you see in him is what you're seeing now. I was blown away with him. And what really stuck out to our staff was no matter what he did in high school, it looked like it would translate right to the college level. He could pass it, shoot it, make the right decisions, he's tough, and he rebounds. That was fairly obvious from the get-go. Shelvin I got chance to see some that summer and really watched him throughout the fall and into the early part of his senior season. I just loved the way that he played. I felt like he could not only put the ball on the floor, but shoot the ball as you've seen. Always makes good decisions. If you talk to either of those guys, the people around the school, everyone loved them, every single person that came across those guys loved them as a person first and foremost. That means a lot. Ron's recruitment was unique. I watched him play the summer before. Probably didn't realize that we were going to recruit that position for the following year. So he signed with Western Kentucky. When he was released by Western Kentucky, he actually called us. So, you know, it was one of those things, that was more fortunate than anything else. But same thing. Loved the way he played, loved all the things he could do. Character certainly stands out above all else. Q. Could you retrace briefly your decision way back when to leave the business world and go into basketball. COACH STEVENS: Well, now it looks like a great idea. At the time I just thought it was something that I really wanted to try, really wanted to do. I was really fortunate at 22 or 23 years old not to have any responsibility beyond myself. I didn't have a family. I wasn't married up to that point. My long time girlfriend at the time and I both decided to kind of chase that dream. We ended up getting married her second year of law school. She moved to Cleveland, went to law school, lived at home for two of the last few years of her mom's life while she was the battling cancer. It has really worked out well for us in a lot of ways. We're incredibly blessed because of that. Q. What was it like going back to Indianapolis, just the response from fans and supporters? COACH STEVENS: You know, it was unbelievable. I was here in 2003, we went to the Sweet 16, and when we got back, it was packed. It was about triple that at 3 a.m. on Saturday. So it was certainly special. It was interesting because comparing the first time we came back from the Sweet 16 to the third time, it wasn't quite the same. But that probably is an indicator that there's a sign of growth in the program. But I think everybody recognizes how big of a deal this is. And most importantly, it's a big deal for our school. My job is to help Butler, to promote Butler in a positive way. Our guys are doing my job for me. Q. Kind of going back on how you decided to get into the business. When you get into it at age 23, do you set any timelines on how long you're going to give yourself to try to make a big step up? And when in your life as a player or as a kid did you realize that coaching was for you? COACH STEVENS: I started to think about coaching when I was a senior in college, ironically not too long after I accepted the job as a marketing associate at Lilly the following year. To answer your first question, I think that more than anything, I was told by a person at Lilly early on in my time that the secret is just do your job to the best of your ability and don't worry about anything else. That's what I've tried to do. So I've never put a timeline on anything. It's always just been about trying to do whatever job I'm assigned well. Q. What did you pick up from your father? He said he took you to IU games as a youngster. How much of an impact did that have on you? How much did you learn from Lickliter to get to this position? COACH STEVENS: First of all, you absolutely -- I wouldn't be here without Thad Motta and Todd Lickliter, and not just here in this spot, but also I wouldn't be able to do what we're doing. Like I said the other day, this is not about me. This is not about our staff, although they have done an unbelievable job. They all deserve their own opportunity to run a team at some point soon. I hope they get those opportunities if that's what they want. But I think this is about the 10 years and the 15 years of people that have poured sweat into this. It's been great to get emails and texts from all the former coaches and players who came really close and how much they care about this. To me, that's been the most fulfilling part of it. Again, I can't overstate what Todd has done for me, what Thad has done for me, not only me, but Butler. They're every bit as big a part of this as I am, if not bigger. Q. Also your father early on, did he instill the love of sports more than anything else? COACH STEVENS: My dad played football at IU for John Pont. Was a registered freshman on their only Rose Bowl team. I think more than anything, I just loved the game of basketball. It was kind of unique. I never played football. He never really steered me in that direction. My parents, whatever I liked to do, they supported me. Basketball was always my first love. It's hard not to be when you're a kid growing up in Indiana in the '80s and '90s, because basketball in this state was pretty darn good at that time. Q. You mentioned in Salt Lake your kids would go to class. What is that schedule this week? COACH STEVENS: We obviously will do everything mandated by the NCAA. So we won't be in class some of the time on Thursday. We're probably going -- we're going to have to figure out if we're going to stay downtown on Thursday and Friday. Obviously, campus is a live environment right now, which is a great thing. Anytime that we can, we will be shuttling our guys back and forth to classes on Thursday and Friday. But they'll be in class all the way up until that time. Q. What do you think your life would have been like if you didn't take a shot at coaching? If you could have lived with that regret, knowing you didn't take the shot? COACH STEVENS: If everything else remained the same, I would have been as happy as heck. I have a wonderful wife, great kids, tons of friends in Indianapolis that I've grown up with in high school and went to college with. You know, it's not like life was bad. It was just one of those things you wanted to take a shot and see what happens. But I think now as I've grown older, I appreciate what I had at Lilly even more than I did then. So I'd be perfectly content. Friends and family and faith, they're going to take the cake over all this stuff. Q. I wanted to go back to the scheduling question for the week. Given you're running into family and friends you never knew you had, how difficult is it going to be for you to keep a normal schedule this week basketball and class-wise? Have you turned to any older coach that might have gone through it for any advice? COACH STEVENS: I've obviously picked Thad's brain because he's been through it a little bit. Obviously, nobody, since 1972, has been through it in your hometown. It's a little bit different. But I thought that it was going to be pretty normal until I watched some film at home this morning, then tried to sneak in the back door at Hinkle. I walked in. The lines were all the way around the building to get tickets, or be in line to just get a chance to get tickets. Obviously it is unique. Campus is a buzz. I think that will settle down once ticket sales are done and we'll go from there. I told our guys, and myself included, we're not going to focus on tickets or anything else after Monday. It's Michigan State that's a daunting-enough task. Q. For people who haven't been to your campus, how much of a hold do you have on the City of Indianapolis the last couple years? Are you considered the city's team now or do you still fight Indiana and Purdue for interest? How much of an advantage is that going to be for you? COACH STEVENS: I hope we can continue to raise our attendance and raise everything else. We haven't sold out very often. That's just being honest. We have unbelievable fan support. Our people here that have been coming and that have really joined on have just been terrific. Even when it's not sold out, it is a loud, lively environment. Hopefully this run helps continue to spear that to the direction where it is that atmosphere every single game. But certainly there are a lot of IU fans, Purdue fans, fans all across the Big Ten, Midwest. Just like me, I'm a huge Pacers and Colts fan, too. Our fans that we do have, have been terrific. And hopefully we can raise our average numbers by quite a bit. If this run helps us do that, that's a good thing. Q. Do you think Michigan State had a big advantage playing in Detroit last year? COACH STEVENS: No, no. It's the same thing this year. Everybody is talking about us playing at home. Michigan State won a Final Four in Indianapolis in 2000. They won the regional here last year in Lucas Oil where we're playing. They're going to have plenty of fans. This is Butler country, but it's also Big Ten country. It's not like it's going to be an all-Butler crowd on Saturday. Q. You played terrific defense in Salt Lake. Would you comment on the importance of defense for all four teams. COACH STEVENS: Well, you know, the old adage that defense wins championships, it will be the case for somebody. I think we didn't perform at the level that we needed to perform to defensively in the early part of the season. We lost some games because of that. One of the things that I really believe about watching these tournaments, your margin for error decreases, there's no question about it as you play better teams. But nobody's playing perfect. Nobody's even coming close to playing perfect. But the team that sticks to their plan, that does what they do as well as they can for 40 minutes has a great chance of winning. That doesn't mean you're always going to win, but you're in the position to win. I think Michigan State is just an unbelievable example of that. As I've gotten a chance to watch them more from a strategic and analytical point of view over the last 24 hours, they're a joy to watch as a coach and a bear to prepare for. Q. I wanted to know, what is your opinion that makes Hinkle Field House a special place? How do recruits respond and realize that's where they're going to play college ball? COACH STEVENS: I don't think you can generalize it. I think the people that appreciate tradition and history love it. If you're looking for new amenities and flashy things, you know, something that everybody's trying to build to keep up with the Jonses, I think you got to go somewhere else. The good news is the people that usually decide to visit here or have an interest in Butler usually are the former, they really like the place, they really appreciate it. Those things are not going to matter in their final decision. Q. You mentioned when you returned to the campus there was triple the people. Was that the airport? COACH STEVENS: No, it was on campus. We returned to campus at 3 a.m. Hinkle Field House in front of all four gates was lined up five rows, 10 rows deep with students, fans and everybody else. Q. How surprised were you? COACH STEVENS: Well, I heard it was coming. You know, just still it's overwhelming. It's not overwhelming because of the number of people; it's because of how much they care about these guys and this team. Again, my job is to help promote Butler well. To see the excitement that our players were able to bring to some people this weekend, it's obviously a neat thing. Q. I've seen your team play quite a bit in the Horizon League. I was struck despite your great defense and big wins, seems like you could have been playing better offensively and that you weren't making a lot of the shots that you guys have made when you're hot. What do you think about that? COACH STEVENS: I think that has a lot to do with who you're playing. The other team is trying to guard you when you're getting those shots. When you're playing great teams and athletes like Syracuse and Kansas State had, those shots are a lot tougher than they are even when you're playing a guy that's two inches shorter than that and a lot less athletic. Q. Did you deviate much when you took over the program from Thad and Todd? Could you give us one or two traits that when you go out recruiting you have to see in a player to continue recruiting? COACH STEVENS: Well, first of all, the traits, we're going to do our homework with regard to what people in their community and school think about them. So that's a huge part. Then obviously not only being degree-seeking, but an ambitious student. If they're a student that wants to compete in the classroom is a critical, critical component of our recruiting. Then there's a minimum level of athletic ability and basketball ability that you have to have to be considered for a scholarship at this level. Q. Did you deviate much in your program from what Thad and Todd did there? COACH STEVENS: I think the further you go along, the more deviation there is just because you deviated -- I deviated very little, especially with that first team. We had five seniors returning. They believed in what we were doing. Again, we haven't deviated a whole lot from that. But you do have to make tweaks and be creative with your personnel. Our staff has done a great job of that. You know, again, what we're trying to do, and I think what we are at our core and foundation, has not deviated at all. But obviously when you get on the basketball court, it's sometimes dependent on who you have on your team. DAVE WORLOCK: Coach Stevens, thank you so much for your time today. We'll see you in a couple days. COACH STEVENS: Thank you, David. End of FastScripts |
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