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Athens, GA (Mar 31, 2009, originally published on AthensWorld on March 18, 2009) - Even though Atlanta lost their spot on the PGA Tour with the elimination of the AT&T nee Bellsouth Classic at Sugarloaf, Athens is gearing up for next month's Nationwide Tour event, the Athens Regional Foundation Classic at Jennings Mill Country Club. Contrary to the rumor mill, Jennings Mill is open and running under new management, and the tournament will take place from April 13-19, 2009

However, this is the last year of the four-year contract between the tournament and the Nationwide Tour. The community can do its part to keep the tournament here by volunteering to help with the event and/or by coming out to support these golfers. At $25 for a week long clubhouse badge, or $10 ($5 for students) daily grounds ticket, there is not a better sports entertainment value in Athens, especially at this time of the year.

Unlike the PGA Tour, most of these players are young and hungry, and nationwide Tour events are more fan accessible and friendly. Players routinely stay with local families, and you will see many of the players (and their caddies) enjoying the Athens nightlife.

Yesterday was media day for the event, and the four sponsor's exemptions for the event were announced. Three of these players have local ties.

Kevin Kisner was a member of the 2005 UGA national championship team and a four-time honorable mention All-American during his collegiate career. He was named the SEC’s Freshman of the Year in 2003.

He also excelled off the course as a two-time Cleveland Golf Scholar All-American. Kisner had victories on both the Tarheel and Hooters yours last year and finished in the top-20 in the year-long money list on both of those tours.


Blake Adams graduated from Gatewood Schools in Eatonton and played for three seasons at the University of Georgia before transferring to Georgia Southern University to complete his collegiate career.

While at Georgia Southern, Adams earned First Team All-Southern Conference honors and led the team in stroke average as well as top 10 finishes. He has four professional victories, with the most recent coming at the Columbia Open on the Tarheel Tour in 2008.


Keith Guest is a 2003 graduate of Athens Academy. He played collegiately at Augusta State University, where he is now the assistant coach.

He was named a Cleveland Golf Scholar All-American in 2007 and named to the PING All-South Region team in 2008.





Ben Bates is a two-time winner on the Nationwide Tour, capturing the Wichita Open in 1997 and the Reese's Cup Classic in 2004.

He was a member of the PGA TOUR from 1998–2001 and is the all-time leader in starts and cuts made on the Nationwide Tour.




This tournament is known for the amount of local and regional media coverage the event receives. This year, they are exploring new ways of reaching fans, both serious and casual, through the use of social networking tools and sites like Facebook. In fact, you can visit the event's Facebook page and share it with your Facebook friends. They are also exploring creative ways they can use Twitter for the event.

Photo Credits

• Kevin Kisner photograph courtesty of the University of Georgia Athletic Department
• Keith Guest photograph courtesy of the Augusta State University Athletic Department
• Blake Adams photograph Copyright 2008 by Stan Badz/PGA TOUR/Getty Images. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.
• Ben Bates photograph Copyright 2008 by Dave Martin/Getty Images. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

Related Link(s)

• Athens Regional Foundation Classic Web Site

Athens, GA (Mar 31, 2009) - Working with the fine folks from Jackson Spaulding, a public relations firm based out of Atlanta (with an office here in Athens), I have been credentialed to provide coverage from the Athens Regional Foundation Classic. This is the fourth year for the Nationwide Tour event here in Athens, which will take place at Jennings Mill Country Club from April 14-19, 2009.

Because of scheduling conflicts with University of Georgia baseball games in Athens, I will be out at the course from Sunday of the Masters through the morning/early afternoon of the second round on Friday the 17th.

What I would like to know from my readers who are golf fans is what kind of stories you would like to hear from the event? What is it you would like to know about an event like this that you normally do not get to read or hear? For example:

• Would you like to read a backstory on a former PGA Tour winner like Tom Byrum, who is now toiling on the Nationwide Tour? One personal backstory is that I caddied for his twin brother Curt at the Greater Milwaukee Open back in 1982.We made the cut only to play one of the weekend rounds in a driving rainstorm.
  
  
• Would you like to hear stories about the Nationwide Tour caddies who are out there hoping to get a bag with an up and comer that will take them to the big show one day?
  
  
• Would you like to read about Jeff Curl, son of former PGA Tour professional Rod Curl, who is trying to follow in the footsteps of his father?
  
  
• Should I break out my caddy shoes (oh how I long for those FootJoy sneakers) and loop for a player in a practice round, perhaps twittering as we make our way around the course?

Any and all ideas/suggestions are welcomed and encouraged.

Related Link(s)

Athens Regional Foundation Classic Web Site
Athens Regional Foundation Classic Hitting Full Speed (from AthensWorld)
Playing Golf In The Shadow of The Tour Championship(from nowPublic)
Jackson Spaulding

Athens, GA (March 30, 2009) - Oklahoma may have been knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by North Carolina, but it is the Sooners' sophomore superstar Blake Griffin who has been named the winner of the 2009 Oscar Robertson Trophy.

Griffin has been considered the frontrunner for men's basketball national player of the year honors for most of the season. When came for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, members of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) left no doubt who their choice was for the best college player in the nation.

The 6-10, 251-pound Griffin was a unanimous choice by voters in all nine geographical districts of the USBWA to give the University of Oklahoma the school's first-ever player of the year award winner. He was chosen from a group of 15 finalists.

After leading the Sooners (30-6) into the South Regional Final before losing to North Carolina, Griffin finished the season averaging 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds. He shot 65.4 percent from the field for the year.

During the regular season, Griffin led the Big 12 in scoring (22.1), rebounding (14.2, which led the country) and field goal percentage (.634) while ranking fourth in blocked shots (1.3). He also averaged 2.4 assists per contest, more than any other Big 12 player taller than 6-5. He was also second on the team with 1.2 steals per game.

At the end of the regular season, Griffin had set a single-season OU record with his 25 double-doubles (tied for the national lead and three shy of the Big 12 record) and a Big 12 single-season mark with 425 rebounds. The Oklahoma City native also had 13 games of at least 20 points and 15 rebounds this year, eclipsing the previous league record of seven.

With the help of the only 40 point/20 rebound game in Big 12 history (career highs of 40 points and 23 rebounds Feb. 14 vs. Texas Tech), Griffin entered postseason play averaging 27.3 points and 19.0 rebounds over his last four full games.

The Oscar Robertson Trophy will be presented by Oscar Robertson on Friday, April 3 at the USBWA's annual awards breakfast at the downtown Detroit Athletic Club in conjunction with the Men's Final Four. The breakfast will also honor Kansas coach Bill Self, winner of the Henry Iba Award as the association's coach of the year, as well as the 1979 Michigan State national championship team that was led by Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo will also receive the USBWA's Good Guy Award.

The Oscar Robertson Trophy is voted on by the entire membership of the association, which consists of nearly 800 journalists. It is the nation's oldest award and the only one named after a former player. The legendary Oscar Robertson was the USBWA's first player of the year in 1959. The USBWA renamed its player of the year award the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 1998.

Related Link(s)

Blake Griffin (from Oklahoma Sooners Web Site)

Athens, GA (Mar 29, 2009) -The gods were smiling on NBC Sports today as Tiger Woods pulled out yet another stunning victory, winning at Bay Hill for the 3rd time with a birdie putt on the 72nd hole. Despite throwing a club in anger, as well as three plugged lies, Tiger pulled it out.

Here is the transcript of Tiger's post victory press conference as provided by the PGA Tour and ASAP Sports.

MARK STEVENS: I'd like to welcome Tiger Woods to the interview room. Tiger Woods has now won two straight Arnold Palmer Invitationals presented by MasterCard. If you'll just start off and give some general comments on picking up your first win since your injury and surgery, and then we'll take questions.

TIGER WOODS: Obviously delayed today, and the whole goal today with being five back was to try to cut it to two or three at the turn. I had it down to one through 8, made a great birdie at nine, so I thought I accomplished my goal on the front nine, and then got to two, and how fast could I get it to even was the next accomplishment on the back nine, and it didn't take until 15. I made a putt there and I made a good save at 16, Sean made a mistake, and I took the lead there.

I made a mistake at 17, and I gave the lead right back up, and then we went down 18, and just like Sean was saying earlier, the ball wasn't flying as far. When I hit that 4-iron on 17, I hit it perfect. I flushed it, and it obviously didn't carry. Again, like Sean said, I took one more club, too, as well on 18. I only had 160 yards, 161 yards to the hole, and I hit 7-iron in there, just a little cut 7-iron, because obviously the ball wasn't flying. I carried it up there and spun it back a little bit and made a putt.

Q. Just talk about the emotions of going through the 18th hole, how they were different last year than they were this year considering all that's transpired since then.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, you know, last year was -- I was competing and it wasn't any big gap. I was competing and there wasn't any big comeback or anything. I was out there just competing as usual. This time it was a little bit different. I hadn't been in the mix since the U.S. Open, so it was neat to feel the heat on the back nine again, and got myself into the hunt and into contention. It felt good to make a putt like I did at 14 and again at 15.

Q. Did the heat feel different?

TIGER WOODS: No, it didn't. It's like Stevie was saying out there, this feels like we hadn't left. You can understand sometimes when some of the older players haven't been in contention in a while and they come back and then all of a sudden they put themselves in contention and then they win. You just remember how to do it. It hasn't been that long for me, but you just have that feel of what to do and it's a matter of getting it done.

Q. Can you put in context this win? I know you've won a lot of times obviously, but just put it in context what it means to you just personally, just to come back and win your second stroke play tournament back.

TIGER WOODS: It feels great. As I look back at my three tournaments I've played this year, I've gotten better at each one, and that was the whole idea was to keep progressing to Augusta. I was hoping I could get my game where I could feel hitting shots again because I'd been only on the range and putting at home.

Doral was great for that because I got better each and every day with my feel, and this week I came right out of the gate and I had it just because I had basically got it down at Doral. It feels good to be back, to feel the heat on the back nine on Sunday like that. To have to make a putt at 14 and to make that putt, those are good times.

Q. I guess you didn't really want to come back tomorrow because if you miss that thing we're probably back at dawn patrol and doing all that.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, some guy yelled out "playoff," and --

Q. Before the putt?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah.

Q. Is that when you backed off?

TIGER WOODS: No, some lady yelled out across the lake. I don't know what she yelled. And plus there were flashes going on, too.

Q. Knowing that you had done it on that green two different times on the 72nd hole, does that give you any good mojo?

TIGER WOODS: I tried to think about that but I couldn't because this putt was so different. This putt was uphill. The other two were downhill left to right. This one was uphill; not only that, it was into the grain left to right. The other two putts were kind of similar, but this was totally different. I kept telling myself obviously with the temperature getting a little cooler, this putt is going to be a little bit slower because of that. On top of that, the putt is uphill into the grain left to right, make sure you hit it hard to get it up to the hole, and if anything, if you make any mistake, miss it -- over-release the blade and miss it left so at least it has a chance with all the dew on the ground with the grain that it could snag and come in. I hit a pure putt. I hit it really solid and it held its line all the way there.

Q. Easiest of the three, that one?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, by far.

Q. You've been saying that you expect to win every time you play, but could you have imagined this on January 1 or February 1? Has this been faster than you would have thought you'd come back?

TIGER WOODS: If you said January 1, yeah. I was just kind of hoping I might be able to get back to the Match Play. I just started hitting most of my bag then. I still hadn't hit all of my bag yet. Yeah, if you would have said that on January 1, yeah, this has been a little bit quicker.
But after I started competing at Accenture, you know, I felt like my leg is good, now it's a matter of getting my feel for the game. Doral was just a huge turning point for that, for getting my feel, because I got better each and every day with my feel for different shots, and this week I just came out there and played.

Q. Three plugged lies today?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, four for the week.

Q. How frustrating was that?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it's a little frustrating, no doubt, because they're not easy shots. Not only are they plugged but they're underneath the lip. Three today, and the other one was I plugged it on the fairway bunker on 1 underneath the lip.

Zach plugged it today on 14, as well. There's a lot of sand in the bunker. So if the ball is into the wind then it's probably not going to come out of its pitch mark.

Q. As a segue, you looked pretty upset after the one on 14 despite hitting a superb shot just to get it down 15 feet past the hole. Would it be fair to call that sort of an emotional jump start to the home stretch? You just looked a little agitated.

TIGER WOODS: I was, no doubt, because I just kept saying this is my third plugged lie for the day, and it's just a foot. If it hits a foot higher then it hits in the grass, rolls back and it's an easy bunker shot.

The same thing at 4, if it hits just a foot higher then it's fine, but both of them happened to plug underneath the lip, and obviously I was hot because if I was going to miss it I had to miss it on that side. You had the slope, you had into the wind, you had all the different things that you could get away with, and this is the only lie you didn't kind of prepare yourself for.

Q. I guess you were standing in the back of the room at the end of Sean's press conference. You probably heard his comments about the perceptions of how other players deal with playing against you. Your take on that?

TIGER WOODS: I'm in the wrong position to answer that one because I'm actually the one out there competing, as well. I'm trying to beat them just how they're trying to beat me. It doesn't change. It's just about being there and somehow timing it right and making putts at the right time and pull off shots at the right time. We're all trying to do it. It's just fun, some guys put themselves in contention more times than others, but still, we're all trying to win tournaments.

Q. Two questions: On 16, could you have gone for the green?

TIGER WOODS: No.

Q. Did Sean know that do you think?

TIGER WOODS: I don't know. I don't think he ever looked over there.

Q. Secondly, how much does that jacket help you toward the other one?

TIGER WOODS: It does a lot, because it's a validation of what I've been working on from the physical standpoint of all my lifting and preparing physically but also the work I've been doing with Hank and getting all of that organized. Certainly this win definitely validates all the things I've been trying to do.

Q. At Doral you were hitting the ball really well and didn't make many putts. In many ways, I know you won here so that helps, but in many ways was this more important in that your long game was good but you somehow scored? Going into the Masters, is that the more important thing you to have accomplished?

TIGER WOODS: Well, at Doral I didn't get anything out of my rounds. This week I got probably -- two of the rounds I got probably the max I could get out of those rounds, and that's what you have to do. I didn't do that at Doral, consequently I didn't win the tournament. This week was different. I got a lot out of my rounds of golf, good saves, big putts at certain times, and that's what you have to do in order to score, and I was able to score this week.

Q. So in terms of Augusta, is that more important in a way than hitting the ball nicely off the tee?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I'd like to hit the ball like I did at Doral and putt like I did this week (smiling).

Q. Being greeted by Mr. Palmer on the 18th, what was going through your mind?

TIGER WOODS: It's great to see him. I hadn't seen him all week except for on TV and in interviews. He's busy. He's hosting an event, so it's actually the first time I got a chance to talk to Arnold, so that was awfully nice. He always has something pretty funny to say.

Q. Such as?

TIGER WOODS: Uh-huh (laughter).

Q. What did he say last year? He said, "Remember what I said to you last year?"

TIGER WOODS: He said, "I think your dad would have been proud of how you competed and came back and won the tournament."

Q. Did you really work out twice this morning before the round?

TIGER WOODS: Mm-hmm.

Q. You mentioned that to Sean and I think it blew his mind.

TIGER WOODS: Well, I had a lot of time, plus I get up early. Nothing else to do.

Q. Can you express how gratifying it is to return to the winner's circle after the pain of an operation and months of rehab and being away from the game for the length of time that you were?

TIGER WOODS: It feels great to be -- well, one, it feels great to be in contention again, to feel the heat on the back nine. And then obviously the big bonus is to win a golf tournament. It's always nice to win a tournament pre-Augusta, and I was able to do that again this year.

Q. Will you play this year some tournament in Europe except British Open?

TIGER WOODS: In Europe, no, just the Open Championship.

Q. I just wondered about obviously the green speed was totally different after the rain. You made the adjustment in speed better than he did. Talk about that.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I hit a lot of putts on the putting green that were uphill into the grain to make sure I hit them hard enough. I kept leaving them short, and most of them were lag putts, and I said, all right, I'll drill putts uphill for a while and make sure I get my pace so when I go out on the golf course it won't seem like such a big shot. It worked.

But then again, just like when the greens were dry before the rain, all the greens are different speeds, and I think that's the adjustment that Sean had a hard time making, and we all did. They're all slightly different speeds, and yeah, just kind of had to figure it out and hopefully see the grain and hit your putt accordingly.

Q. With your stance on the 17th bunker shot, were you worried about your knee?

TIGER WOODS: No.

Q. Aside from the 18th hole what was the most significant shot you hit?

TIGER WOODS: The putt I made at 14. Sean looked like he made his putt, and if he makes, I miss, all of a sudden there's three shots. To go from potentially three down to still only one down, then I birdie 15 right back, so that was a huge putt in the whole scheme of things.

MARK STEVENS: Congratulations, Tiger, and good luck at the Masters.

Fast scripts from ASAP Sports...

Athens, GA (Mar 29, 2009) - In Elite Eight action from the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament on Saturday, UConn held off Missouri 82-75 to win the West Region. This is the transcript of the University of Connecticut post-game press conference as provided by the NCAA and ASAP Sports.

THE MODERATOR: We will stick to the same format. We will ask Coach
Calhoun for a few opening comments and then questions for the student
athletes and then questions for Coach.

Coach?

COACH CALHOUN: I'm ecstatic. I have had the opportunity now, this is
our third time going. Quite frankly, the first one was emotional. The
second one was actually wonderful because we had the best team in the
country, in my opinion, when Emeka was healthy. I'm going now with a
group now who found a way, found a way to get to a Final Four. That's
a hard, hard, hard thing to do. It is a very difficult thing to do.

When Jerome went down, we had to adjust so much with so little time
left in our schedule. And to have A.J. pick up the pace, to average
almost 20 points a game. When Jerome went down and to have Stanley
become a special player, some of the things he did today, blocking
shots, rebounding, to have Kemba come off the bench and do some of the
things he was doing today, was really, really, special.

I couldn't be happier. As far as Mike and Missouri, we really gave
them great credit for their full court defense. And it bothered us
obviously up to 17 turnovers. The remarkable thing to me is when we
got into the half court set they disrupted us between traps and other
things. We went nine out of ten trips, couldn't score.

The good news is they went nine out of ten trips and couldn't score
and that's why we are sitting here with smiles on and feeling elated,
in all honesty. Because our defense was the thing that did it. And
then we had big plays by Kemba, a dagger shot by the MVP of the
Western Regional. I just reminded him that the guys before him who
were MVP in this regional were Richard Hamilton and Emeka Okafor and
now A.J. Price.

For freshmen to come off in a game like Kemba did is really, really
special. Missouri is really good. They are relentless. They are
talented. The way Mike has taken that program to where it is right
now, where it is a national program, is, I mean they certainly could
be sitting here. We had a little something extra. Someone asked me
yesterday about grit of a team, how do you measure that, you measure
it by what you saw today. Our offense, we shot 70 percent in the first
half, 30 percent in the second half, yet still found a way by making
11 straight foul shots and making big defensive plays.

I'm as happy as I possibly can be about the basketball situation.
I'm so proud. I said to the kids, so happy for this group. I mean, I
feel like busting out just because I just think they are really
special, what they did once they get dealt a real tough blow. It took
some bounces, it too many some bruises. Here we are going to the Final
Four and, once again, I'm just elated.

Q. A.J., such a frenzied game watching Mizzou play. Could you just
talk about how Kemba fit into that and how he excelled today during
that?

A.J. PRICE: You know, they applied so much pressure. They make you
play at a frenetic pace even though you try not to get into that type
of game with them. They almost force you to do that.

You know, I told Kemba around the ten minute mark, he's growing up
today. He grew up. He played like a man among boys. There was times he
dominated the game. They couldn't pressure it. He was breaking the
press and dribbling through two or three guys and still had enough in
him to go down and finish the play off. He played phenomenally today
and I couldn't be more happy for him.

He definitely helped us get over this hump today.

Q. Talk about the constant pressure, what it does to you mentally,
how you can't relax for a minute.

KEMBA WALKER: It makes you play at a fast pace. That's something I
like to do very much, play at a fast pace. I was able to keep my
composure out there and just play fast and just either get a basket or
get it down.

Q. Talking about how emotional it was for him these last couple that
he won, can you talk about your emotions after the game. Obviously
very happy. Was there a mixture? Did you want to cry at any point?
What were the emotions for you two?

KEMBA WALKER: I can't lie to you, after the game I actually I kind
of did cry. I know tears came out of my eyes because I never thought I
would get this far. We went to the Final Four now. I'm happy.

Q. Kemba, can you take us through that shot that banked off. Did you
call the bank? Just tell us what was going through your mind.

KEMBA WALKER: Time was running down. The ball was in my hands, and
Jeff was there about to set a screen. I told him to get out of my way.
I kind of just took over. The guy actually played me kind of well. I
was turning and turning and I had to get it up. I just threw it up,
God help me, and it went in.

Q. A.J., you just talked about how you kind of took over defensively
when you guys weren't scoring in the second half for a little while
and how much you have embraced defense in this tournament.

A.J. PRICE: We say it all the time, everything starts with defense
with this team. We had a good stretch where we couldn't really put the
ball in the basket, but we told ourselves in the huddles and things
like that, if we rely on our defense and keep stopping them, we will
win the game because we got the lead. That's exactly what we did.

We weren't able to score like Coach said nine out of ten times, but
we held them scoreless nine out of ten times. That really helped us
win this game.

Q. Kemba, when you made that bank shot, did you sense that you kind
of took the wind of their sails a little bit and deflated them a
little bit?

KEMBA WALKER: I think so because if I would have missed that, I
think they would have had I think we would have been up two points.
And it was definitely a big basket. So I think it was a heartbreaker.

Q. Matt Lawrence got really emotional after the game, not so much it
seemed just because of the loss, because he won't be spending time on
the court with people he had grown so close to anymore. Can you tell
us about the journey and bonds that are formed with guys that you put
in so much work with and what it means to accomplish something like
this with people you are close with?

A.J. PRICE: This is a time in your life you will never forget. You
will always remember these big games and these big trips and things
like that. You go to war with these guys.

30 some odd times throughout the year, it is no different. When you
lose it is very gut wrenching. It can be heartbreaking. I'm sure it
was for some of the Missouri players.

On the other end, we are just elated that we are able to move on and
advance. We feel delighted about it. Like I said, these bonds will be
formed and strong for the rest of your life. You won't ever forget
these guys. Just happy that we continue to have this journey to keep
going.

Q. Kemba, Zaire Taylor said he knew from just playing against you,
what you said on the court, that you were from the Bronx. He is from
Staten Island. What do you think that means?

KEMBA WALKER: Well, a Bronx guard? Speed, handle, just a tough
player.

A.J. PRICE: And moxie.

Q. I apologize if this question has already been asked. Can you talk
about can you describe why you guys decided not to cut down nets today
and what is the philosophy behind that?

KEMBA WALKER: I have no idea.

A.J. PRICE: We just chose not to cut down the nets. Hopefully we
will have a chance to cut them down somewhere else.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach?

Q. Can you talk about what Jeff Adrien gave you. He had to play
probably more than you wanted him to, 39 minutes, because Hasheem was in foul trouble.

COACH CALHOUN: As you know, he was coming off probably one of his
poorest games total package wise against Purdue. It was really kind of
funny because the guys around him at halftime not tonight but the
previous game. He and I talked about, once again, it wasn't complex
and so on, but Jeff, I call you the rock for a reason. We are 40
minutes away from Detroit. If there is a shuttle or something, but
regardless we are 40 minutes away from Detroit and you are going to be
the guy that gets us there. You were the one with the team that should
have maybe got someplace and didn't.

Now you can lead us to that place. He was important. He played
Lawrence, the jump shooter, did a great job on him, rebounded, scored
early.

Jeff was really good today. The things we had problems with was
matchups. Quite frankly, as much as we scattered them and were still
doing things early this morning, Missouri Mike did a terrific job of
playing both big and small against us and made it more difficult and
Jeff had to play a free man. He had to play different kind of people,
and he was just great. The trip that maybe in his freshman year he
thought we were going to get and we didn't get because we really
thought we were the best team that year.

I don't know what we are this year, but I know we're really, really
good. We're borderline to tremendous, tremendous basketball team. If
you make the Final Four and win 31 games you are a terrific basketball
team. I felt incredible for Jeff. He and I embraced on the court. It
is four years through a lot of different things. I couldn't be happier
for him.

His performance more importantly for him was part of the journey.
Ten rebounds, 12 points. And really probably three blocked shots,
probably one probably maybe his best defensive games in 10, 15 games.

Q. There is a lot of basketball left to be played this weekend, but
it seems now back to back years that the top seeds are almost
invulnerable after that never happening before. What do you think some
of the reasons are? And are you surprised about it?

COACH CALHOUN: I think there are particular teams we may be a little
bit of exception by the fact we had an injury at a particular point in
time that, as I said before when we went to 24 1 by beating Syracuse
when Jerome went down in that game I thought we were the best team in
the country. We had just come off a great win over Louisville. Bottom
line, we were playing great.

It seems to me that there are probably six or seven teams that could
win the national championship, and I felt that way coming into the
weekend. So I'm not just saying being 1s. I think after that it starts
to separate itself. They either don't have size even though people
aren't going to give Hasheem the credit for some of the things he did
tonight, 13 rebounds, no blocked shots, but his presence causes
problems.

And we have that. UConn has that. We got they did a great job of
double teaming, and two teams in a row now who double teamed A.J.
Kemba picked up the ball. Those are the kind of teams. So it seems to
me that we are picking obviously the right ones. The seeds I mean, the
seeds seem to be playing right out as they kind of I think is it a 1 3
that's playing now, Pitt, and this is a 1 3. It just seems to me the
people at the top have become definitively, clearly the people at the
top.

In that range, I don't know I'm not sure that one seed and one
second seed, fifth team, there is much difference of a six I don't
think there is much difference between any of those teams. That's why
it's happening.

I think there is a gap in given years. The one thing I noticed, and
I haven't been through every single team. But I went through enough of
the teams, all the teams are starting seniors. We started three. They
started two or three. That seems to be where you couldn't we went
years where you couldn't because we had so many kids leaving for the
NBA.

Maybe that's the reason. More kids are developing and that would be
a Craig Austrie, A.J. Price, Hasheem, Jeff Adrien a Hasheem is a third
year player. Normally Hasheem Thabeet now, not then, is gone after his
freshman year because he is 7 foot 3, because it took him time to
develop. I always thought that about the Gray kid; it took him time to
develop at Pittsburgh, and he was a great player by the time he became
a senior.

I think more kids are staying around. I do believe I would like to
see it longer. The one year rule does work that some kids are exposed
a little bit and don't go out quite as quick and they are juniors and
seniors and are still playing.

Q. Can you describe Kemba Walker's development from the time you
recruited him? And, also, did you have a feeling this could be his
type of game because of style?

COACH CALHOUN: We felt that if he didn't play close to 30 minutes
tonight we were doing a poor job as a team. There isn't many quicker
guards in the United States than him. And we played him 25 minutes,
and he was that spark we needed to break pressure, to try to take them
we actually did take them out of some pressure. Actually we got into
the half court defense and they played much better half court defense
than I had seen them play before.

This is a perfect game for Kemba. When we get to a slow down game,
as his shooting develops, any game will be great for him. But a full
court game, just as he said, he wants that 95 feet. When he gets going
59 feet, you saw him going through two, three people at a time and get
to the rim. He is a pretty special player. It was a perfect game for
him, yes.

For us to get in a Final Eight game to get a team that will run for
Kemba Walker and A.J. and some of the other kids we have, it was a
good matchup for us in many ways even though they are a very, very
good basketball team.

Q. How important even though they made the run at you, how important
was the quick start and what did you see in the first few minutes?

COACH CALHOUN: After I saw what they did I thought that the two
nights ago hit Memphis so hard that they get up by 22 points. I don't
think Memphis was expecting that. They were just so good. It took
Memphis so much time to come back that and I think they used all their
energy up and then Missouri put the game up. I was incredibly
impressed by them obviously.

But we talked early I was talking about a delicate balance before
the game, run and then set up half court and we did some of that. But
in the first five minutes, we were bound and determined we were going
to attack their pressure and go speed for speed with them to try to
get some of the separation early so it wouldn't happen what happened
against Memphis where they could jump on top of you.

Q. Kemba's body get ahead of the ball and he had a turnover and you
looked at him and asked him where he was going

COACH CALHOUN: I didn't get an answer.

Q. Are you pretty confident most of the time where he's going and
when the ball is in his hand? Or is it still a process?

COACH CALHOUN: It is a little bit of a process. But when you ask a
freshman to step up in a Final Eight game and get 23 points and do
things he did, there are going to be times when reverts back. When
they talk about Bronx guards and New York City guards, they are
fearless. At times, 90 percent of the time it is their greatest asset.
It is that 10 percent of the time it becomes lethal for you as his
coach. But I like the 90 percent time, because he certainly gave us so
much and was just a great player today.

Q. Was there a time especially maybe when you were at 17 14 in '06
'07 that you thought maybe you would never get back here?

COACH CALHOUN: Did it cross my mind? Did I leave the season with my
head down a little bit? Yeah. A tad bit. Just like had we made the
right judgments on some of the young kids we had.

I started to realize just how young they were, just by the fact we
thought Josh was coming back, Rudy could have come back. Marcus
Williams could have come back and we lost three other pros. We lose
three pros on a team, it is very difficult. I never thought Josh was
going to come out and Rudy did want to come back. He prematurely said
he was coming. By the time he tried to come back, he couldn't. We were
left to fend with Jeff as our, quote, experienced guy at 16 minutes a
game.

Times during that season, I'm saying but they should be doing these
things. I have been spoiled by Caron Butler, Ben Gordon, by Emeka, by
Hilton, by Josh Boone, Ben Gordon, et cetera. For me personally it was
more difficult maybe even more so than the kids.

Last year's 24 wins and the ten game win streak to me was very
special because it told me that we were back on track. This year's
team, to do what it has done on the road and do what it has done in
good games when they haven't played offensively as well, I really wish
and I don't run out of words. I just run out of really good words to
express to you just how I feel about this team.

I'm very emotional about this team getting to a Final Four, I mean,
really emotional because I think they have been through things where
you're right, maybe at a particular point in time I'm saying "are
these the guys to get us there." One of the guys I thought we needed
to get us there was Jerome Dyson. Yet, if you keep working at things,
good things happen to you.

Q. Free throws, sometimes they go in down the stretch, sometimes
they don't. Tonight they did. Do you ever get a sense whether they
will and what's the reason for them going in sometimes or is it just
one of those things in basketball?

COACH CALHOUN: Over the years except for a couple games, Notre Dame
and a couple other games we shoot about 79 percent in the last three
minutes of games. We shoot a lot of those 9s in a row and you guys are
at practice and see the things we try to do. Generally speaking. Have
we had a couple of games where we haven't made them down the stretch?
Yeah. But it hasn't cost us a basketball game.

The only game I would think of is the six overtime game at Syracuse.
Beyond that, it hasn't cost us a basketball team. We seem to find a
way to win basketball games. Tonight because we couldn't score we made
foul shots. That seems to be the one ingredient that's very difficult
to describe. It is the grit of this team, and it is will to find a
way. Some teams have it. You can describe it. You can talk about it.
But it is there, quite frankly, and it is not there. With this team at
31 4 going to the Final Four, it definitely is there.

Q. You have addressed this before, but here you are again winning in
the state of Arizona. There's is it just coincidence? Is there
anything you can point to? What are your feelings of this area now?

COACH CALHOUN: I'm buying a house. I purchased land yesterday
afternoon that says tentative unless we win today I will come out here
once every five years.

No. For us I'm not sure it didn't exactly work out quite that way,
but I think for the kids it did. As a matter of fact, it probably did
for the kids. I like being out West because we are away from
distractions. It really didn't work out for me personally quite that
well. But John Thompson, who is a dear friend, Sr., as well as his
son, but John said to me and John twice came from the West to go to
the Final Four. One of the times he won it. He said you get your kids
away from all those people who tell them how good they are and all the
people that will put pressure on them about tickets and all that kind
of thing.

It is a great area. The people have been absolutely fantastic. This
is not like playing at the Meadowlands, trust me. The guys at the
Meadowlands tell you get your stuff in the locker room and move. We
got hockey tonight. This is not I certainly they are going to tear the
Meadowlands down. If they weren't, I wouldn't say that.

My point being the people are incredibly gracious. And really from
our team standpoint, we are away. They're away. Last night we went to
a Mexican restaurant. Two nights ago we went to Chase Field and sat
out in left field and it really is enjoying the experience. Yet, being
focused on what we have to do. Having very little around us to really
detract from the experience.

We did everything humanly possible to keep them busy and to keep
them focused on just one thing, and that's beating Purdue and now
fortunately beating Missouri.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.

COACH CALHOUN: Thank you. Just quickly, we do love coming out here
and, once again, if they want to send us out here again next year, we
would be more than happy to have it. Thank you.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports...

Athens, GA (Mar 29, 2009) - In Elite Eight action from the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament on Saturday, Missouri lost to UConn 82-75 in the West Region final. This is the transcript of the University of Missouri post-game press conference as provided by the NCAA and ASAP Sports.

THE MODERATOR: We have been joined by Coach Anderson and the Missouri student athletes. Again, we'll ask Coach for a few opening comments on
the ball game, go to questions for the student athletes, and then
questions for Coach.

COACH ANDERSON: Obviously I hurt for our guys. I thought I could get
them to that magical place, and we just came up probably a couple of
buckets, a stop here, a stop there. Maybe we just ran out of time, a
couple minutes.

Hats off to Connecticut and congratulations to them as they get
ready to move on to the Final Four. They are a great basketball team.
I thought our guys came out with the understanding and mind set that
we wanted to certainly try to survive and advance. But credit to them.


But I tell you what, if our guys came with what they came, they went
out the same way they came in to this season. They came in fighting,
scratching and clawing, and if you are going to go out, that's the way
you want to go out, fighting, scratching and clawing, giving yourself
a chance.

Q. Matt, Leo and DeMarre in particular, toward the end of the game,
you guys were on the bench as the reserves were coming back. How
difficult was it to sit there?

MATT LAWRENCE: It wasn't difficult at all. They were playing great
basketball, and they got us back in the game. They were getting stops
on defense so they should have been out there.

LEO LYONS: Same thing he said. Those guys deserved to be out there.
We are not that type of team to just force something. The guys who
were sitting on the bench didn't have it going and they did. Plain and
simple.

DEMARRE CARROLL: The same thing Leo said. Our bench has been our key
all year. They really stepped up tonight. They were playing some
better basketball tonight. Give credit to them guys. They really came
out and played tonight.

Q. DeMarre, can you talk a little bit about the start. Connecticut
seemed like they hit you in the mouth in the first five minutes of the
game.

DEMARRE CARROLL: Yeah, they came out, threw the first punch, and we
tried to throw a punch back but we just couldn't get over that hump.
We tied the game plenty of times but we just couldn't get over that
hump. Give credit to Connecticut. They got some great guys. Hasheem
Thabeet, he really made a difference in the lane.

We just couldn't get over that hump.

Q. Matt, can you it is early on, I realize, but can you try to put
in perspective from your own standpoint where this team came from and how it got here and what it feels like right now?

MATT LAWRENCE: Well, we came from nothing, and I'm pretty sure no
one expected us to get here except for the guys in our locker room. I
have never been a part of a team that was more cohesive than this one.


When you got guys doing whatever it takes to win, you are going to
get this far. I know we wanted to go further, and I think we had a
team that was able to. Just didn't get the buckets we needed tonight
and the defensive stops. Connecticut is a very good basketball team.

But I think the future looks very bright here for Missouri.

Q. This is for J.T. I think there were a couple of minutes left. You
guys were down by three and shot clock winding down and Kemba Walker hit that shot. I don't know how you describe it. Kind of threw it up
there. How damaging was that at that time?

J.T. TILLER: You know, sometimes you got to make plays, and that was
just one of those plays that put us back on our heels a little bit
after we played, I say, great defense for 35 seconds on the shot clock
and he put it up there. Just described what kind of day it was, you
know?

Q. Matt, could you talk about the tempo. Did you guys get the tempo
you wanted? If so, sort of just talk about whether that part worked
out for you. Were they able to play more at your tempo?

MATT LAWRENCE: We were trying to force our tempo upon them the whole
game. They are a very good team, though. They did a good job with our
press. Usually our press wears on teams in the second half, and I
think it started to. Towards the end you saw they never really could
get away from us. We just didn't have the stops that we needed at the
end.

I think every time they kind of looked like they were about to break
out and go up by a lot, we would fight and scratch, like Coach said,
to keep it close. We just couldn't really get over that hump. I think
we might have settled for some jump shots in the second half when we
should have been attacking a little bit.

As far as the tempo, though, I think we got it to where we wanted to
but just not quite there for 40 minutes.

Q. Along the same lines, J.T., do you think UConn handled your press
like you expected them to? Was it not as effective as it has been in
the past?

J.T. TILLER: Really, I think a lot of people think that our press is
set up for steal the ball. And they base the success on that. But
really, our press was pretty successful because it was meant to slow
them down and get them out of what they were trying to do, which was
run plays. It was pretty much successful. They just withstood it for
40 minutes, though.

Q. Leo and DeMarre, are you guys feeling like you had something in
your hands and it just somehow slipped away? What's your mind set as
to the suddenness of a season ended?

LEO LYONS: It does feel like it slipped away, that game right there
was the game that we could have won, that we should have won. Like
Coach said, it was a couple baskets, missed a shot here, turnover
there that could have changed the whole aspect of that game.

For us to lose like that, it is tough on our guys. But I think these
guys that we got back there in the locker room, they got to come in as
freshmen and see a lot of success. Hopefully they ride it on for the
next three years.

DEMARRE CARROLL: The same thing Leo said. We had the game right
there, like we said before, we just couldn't get over the hump. You
know, we lost the game, but throughout the whole season it was a great
season. To come from rock bottom and to be where we're at now, you
know, it is just I think it is a success.

So, you know, we stood and gained some positives from this our whole
year, but, at the same standpoint, we lost the game. It hurts. But
from the same standpoint, we gained some success for the year.

Q. Matt and Leo, I don't know if you can figure this out exactly,
but how much of the difficulty right now is about losing the game and
how much of it is over not playing with these guys any more?

MATT LAWRENCE: Initially it was definitely about losing the
basketball game. After you put so much into it, so much time outside
of basketball I mean, we're out there working hard, it seemed like for
a long time to get this program back to where it was. I know for
myself and Leo it has been four years, and this is a great way really
to go out, I think. But as we got back in the locker room, it was more
about it was more about those guys that I will never get to play with
again.

LEO LYONS: When the buzzer went off, it was tough. It was more of a
loss standpoint because these guys really wanted to win that game.
Very competitive on this team. For us to lose that game, I mean, it
hit everybody in the heart.

But right now it is about us staying close. I mean, our career is
over with. All we can do is be mentors to the other guys and help them
keep a good mind set and keep working out with them until we do
something else.

Q. J.T., how much are you going to miss playing with these guys
right here and just their presence in the locker room?

J.T. TILLER: Having these guys on the team has been having a great
honor because these are some great players. We grew as a family these
last three years, especially coming from what? Three years ago, their
sophomore year, until where we're at now, we just grew together as
brothers.

I'm going to miss these dudes something serious, you know what I
mean? Because without them, we wouldn't even have got this far. They
built this program up. I'm just following their lead, so I'm going to
miss them.

Q. Leo and DeMarre, can you talk about the difference Thabeet made
and their other shot blockers, how tough it was to get anything inside
today.

LEO LYONS: Of course it was a little bit tougher because they had
Thabeet in there. He is very long. I don't think that changed the
aspect of the game, though. I think we lost that game more as a team
effort. We stayed on attack. Nobody shot away from attacking. They got
a lot of blocks, but everybody kept going in there. That has been the
tale of our team, to stay on attack.

He is a great player. He did change a lot, but it wasn't just him.
You have to tip your hat to the whole team for playing great defense,
like Stanley Robinson and Adrien. They rebounded and blocked shots as
well. It was just the better team showed up today.

Q. Talking about the future, Justin and Keith both had big offensive
games today. Is that a sign of things to come for them?

LEO LYONS: A lot of people don't get to see what those guys can do
because they come in the game with the defensive mind set. Our team is
very unselfish, so nobody goes out there and tries to get it. But this
program is going to be the same or even better. I think they will be
better because these guys, like I said, came in on their first year,
second year and now they're in the Elite Eight. Now they know success
and hopefully they will keep it up. J.T. is captain. He will be the
leader of the team next year.

With somebody who works hard like he does, the rest of the team will
follow. Everybody better watch out for Mizzou basketball next year.

Q. J.T., midway through that second half, you guys seemed to be
playing with a lot of confidence. Did you sense that they were playing
on their heels at that time? Did you really feel like you had the game
where you wanted it at that point?

J.T. TILLER: Like, we came in the game knowing we could win this
game no doubt, you know what I mean? Especially in the second half
when we started making our runs and actually getting them on their
heels. When we tied the game up I don't know if we went up one or tied
the game up.

COACH ANDERSON: One.

J.T. TILLER: We could sense they were on their heels. We are used to
that, you know what I mean? In the second half, we like to get them
worn out and going at our pace. We felt like it was going our way at
that point in time, but it just didn't didn't come through in 40
minutes like we wanted it to.

THE MODERATOR: We will excuse the student athletes and keep Coach
Anderson. Questions for Coach?

Q. Can you talk about what you tried to get across to the players
when you talked to them in the locker room about the season and where
they came from.

COACH ANDERSON: First, I told them it was a phenomenal season. These
guys came out of nowhere. Even as we played today, no one gave us a
chance. Here we are, scored tied up, we are up one or tied. We got
stuck on 52, and we gave ourselves a chance to advance to the Final
Four.

I think all the hard work they put in, all the dedication, they
brought back a sense of pride at Missouri basketball that hadn't been
there for a while. For that, I thank them. For them, especially a guy
like Matt Lawrence, Leo Lyons, as a coach that did not even recruit
them, I opened my arms to them and they took me at my word that we
were going to win a national championship. I don't know when. Here we
are right on the cusp of a Final Four.

They left it on the floor. That's a locker room where some guys are
in hurt in there. There are tears. They expected to win this game.
That's okay. But hopefully we can we've had an opportunity to taste
some of it, and I think our guys can the younger guys that experienced
it, as these guys talked about, they can pass that tradition on, that
feeling, they have tasted it. Hopefully they want to work extremely
hard to have an opportunity to get back.

It is going to hurt them for a while because they were right there,
I thought. A lot of emotion in that locker room. You got some seniors,
man, blood, sweat and tears, they left it all on the floor. With the
season coming to the end the way it did, but we lost to a pretty good
basketball team in Connecticut, very good basketball team.

I thought the game went the way we want it had to go. I thought we
had the rhythm. But Connecticut probably shoot free throws like we do,
and they shoot 26 32. That's pretty phenomenal. You got to have some
phenomenal things to happen for you in this setting. The bank shot by
the Walker kid, he has a career game. Somebody had to step up for
them. We did a tremendous job on Thabeet. I thought we did a great job
on him.

You look at the stat line, I thought we did some good things. We
turned him over 17 times. We had six turnovers, 21 I mean, that's
pretty good basketball. But we just couldn't make those plays. Seem
like we just got stuck on 52 and never quite got over the hump.

But it wasn't because our guys weren't trying.

Q. How hard was it on you the last five minutes? I know you
mentioned that the bench is so important all year, but to look at the
seniors. You knew those guys were hurting. How hard was it on you the
last five?

COACH ANDERSON: We were trying to win. We were trying to win. It is
not about hurting. It is about winning. That's what we were trying to
do.

Those guys that were out there playing, I thought they had it going
on. They were playing well, and they were going to give us an
opportunity to win. So some days, you know, guys don't have it so you
got to go with the guys that had it going on.

Of course seniors, you expect them to really step up and really
showcase what they are capable of doing. But we have some other guys
that were playing Justin was playing probably one of the best games of
his life on the biggest stage. Keith Ramsey playing extremely,
extremely good basketball.

And so those guys that were out there, they were doing their job.

Q. Connecticut took your best shot today and they took Purdue's best
shot the other day and real different approaches. Just talk about how
they're able to survive and advance, to use the phrase, just sort of
the versatility that they showed this weekend.

COACH ANDERSON: I think they got some guys that wouldn't get
rattled. I think they got some experienced guys that wouldn't get
rattled.

At the same time, I thought we didn't do a very good job defensively
in the first half. I thought the first half was even though they got
off to a big start, I thought we made the run back. But I just thought
we didn't do a very good job on dribble penetration. I thought we did
a better job in the second half. We did a better job in terms of
rebounding and make them work a little bit. They shot 70 percent.

But they are an outstanding team. They rose to the occasion. They
made big plays. A.J. Price goes out and makes a big, big shot going
down the stretch. I thought the biggest one is where we had great
defense and is it Kemba Walker? He banks one in. And you go, whoa,
what is taking place.

But to our guys' credit, it wasn't over until the clock said 0:00.

Q. Mike, you did come back but the first few minutes of the game,
did you feel like your guys were tentative or was that Connecticut
playing great?

COACH ANDERSON: I thought we were tentative, especially when we
attacked the hole. Zaire attacked a couple of times and they blocked a
couple of shots. You could just see Connecticut came out with energy.
They came out with great energy and they probably had three or four
straight layups. Eventually we settled down and got back into the
rhythm of how we played.

I thought the guys that came off the bench were big keys in doing
that. They actually settled us down. That's why you saw them in even
in the second half, they were playing because they were playing pretty
good basketball.

Q. Coach, would you comment more on Kemba Walker and how difficult
is he with his speed and ability to finish.

COACH ANDERSON: Coming into the game, we knew he was one of those
guys that liked to attack. That's what he liked to do. There are times
when of course in open court I thought he did a good job of getting in
there. We didn't fix it on defense in terms of rotating over or
deflecting passes. I thought we did a better job in the second half.

Again, he just made some big plays for them. He is a good player.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports...

Athens, GA (Mar 29, 2009) - In Elite Eight action from the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament on Saturday, Villanova stunned Pitt with a last second shot to win the East Region 78-76. This is the transcript of the Villanova University post-game press conference as provided by the NCAA and ASAP Sports.

COACH WRIGHT: This is a tremendous thrill. I want to start by saying I
got to see some of the coaches. We have so much respect for Pitt's
program. We battle them all the time. We battle them in recruiting and
it never gets personal. Those kids play their butts off.

Before the game DeJuan Blair came over and hugged me during warmups.
Yesterday doing this, Levance Fields and I walked down the hallway
with arms around each other.

They'll kill you on the court, but they're classy. They're a Final
Four caliber team. Anyone could have won that game. We're proud to be
a part of the Big East with them. We feel for them, because we could
have been in the same spot very easily.

Everybody in Boston, Gene DeFilippo, his people. This place was
awesome. We had a great time in Boston. Everybody was great to us. We
love this town. Thank you for everything you all did here.

Now, we've got four seniors and we've got Scottie Reynolds, and it
is what it is. We have great players, we really do. And you saw it
tonight. A lot of guys making big time plays. Corey Fisher's free
throws, we've got really good players that really play well as a team.
I'm so proud for them and for Villanova and this great tradition that
we're all a part of.

Q. Scottie, please describe the last play, what you saw.

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: It's something that we do every day in practice at
the end, when it's an end of the game situation. They face guarded me,
and when that happens, Dante makes a flash to the middle of the floor
and I make a second cut away from him, going towards the basket. We
have a stagger going on the opposite side

COACH WRIGHT: That's (laughter). You can coach with me when you're
done playing. You got the job. You don't have to interview.
(Laughter.)

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: Oh, my goodness. Well, I just made a layup
(laughter) no, but it's just when Dante gives me the ball, I just make
an instinct play, and it's just whatever I decide. Basically I can
pass it and I just have to know how much time is on the clock and I
got lucky with one tonight.

Q. For Dwayne and Dante, in less technical terms, how did you see
the play unfold, what was your reaction?

DWAYNE ANDERSON: Basically we know the play, we always run it in
practice. On film I probably would get a little heat from the move I
made. But Reggie hit Dante, Dante hit Scottie. That's just how we draw
it up.

DANTE CUNNINGHAM: Once I saw that they left me open it was either up
the court to Dwayne and Shane or Scottie flying down the court.
Scottie was just open. He's a jet. It's kind of hard to catch him with
the ball.

Q. Can you talk about Sam Young and the intangibles that he brings
that make him tough to defend.

DWAYNE ANDERSON: He can score inside and outside. He's tough to
defend. He plays defense, as well. He attacks the rim. He's very
aggressive.

Q. Is that the rock you're holding and did you ever give it up after
you made the layup, did you retrieve it? How did it find its way back
into your hands?

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: They said this is it. They could be lying to me,
because I was asking everybody after, but they said this is it.

Q. Who gave it to you?

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: The athletic director, I believe, Bob Steitz.
Thanks. Is he here?

Q. Dwayne, the steal you made that led to the three point play
coming out of the timeout, was that anything you had seen the guy do
before or was it total spur of the moment?

DWAYNE ANDERSON: It was definitely spur of the moment. We were down
and we needed something to get us going. We had a great trap and
somehow I deflected it and won, and it kind of changed the momentum of
the game, which was great for us.

Q. Dante, can you talk about receiving that inbounds pass. It looked
like it was a pretty tenuous situation, Jamie Dixon called it a jump
ball three or four times. Can you talk about getting that pass. It
looked like Reggie was thinking about calling timeout, and how that a
great moment was led to by an unsettled situation?

DANTE CUNNINGHAM: Honestly, it's something that we go through almost
every day in practice, just allowing ourselves to not have timeouts,
end of the game situations. And he trusted that I was going to go get
it and he threw it up and I went and got it.

Q. Scottie, can you kind of take us through the roller coaster of
emotions from you guys being up two and Fields hitting a couple of
free throws, and the game winning shot?

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: I told somebody the last two minutes was exactly
like practice, basically like we always turn the ball over somehow in
practice, to lose the game. Somebody always hits big shots on the
white team, and Coach is yelling at us.

The last two minutes were exactly like practice. And I think
creating those habits in practice and losing some and winning some
helped us prepare for the end of the game situation and keeping good
attitudes throughout anything that happened, whether it was them
making big plays or us turning the ball over, it didn't matter, we
kept great attitudes through the whole situation.

Q. How big was Corey as far as hitting a couple of free throws, and
how much has this experience, I heard you guys talking about it, how
big was Corey?

DWAYNE ANDERSON: He's been like that all year. He was the Big East
6th Man of the Year. He's showed it tonight. He's always explosive
when he comes off the bench. Anytime he comes in the game his
objective is to change the tempo of the game. He does that night in
and night out.

Q. Scottie, following up on a question about your emotions, seeing
that thing go through, did you feel like it was good enough to get you
to Detroit or when Levance Fields let go of that ball with that last
shot, did you have to kind of clutch your heart a little bit?

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: When we made the shot, or I thought I made it,
everybody just rushed the court. I just felt like I didn't even see
the ball go in, actually.

Then Coach is pulling everybody by the neck, saying, The game is not
over, there's time on the clock. And then something crazy could
happen, we've seen it before.

When the ball left Levance's hands it was right on target to go in.
And I guess a little less off of that shot we could be in another
position right now.

Q. Scottie, obviously you never got the chance to make that shot if
Dwayne doesn't make some of those plays he made. Can you talk about
how important the steal was and the three pointer he made late?

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: It was very important, and something that we
talked about at halftime, saying that if we're going to go down, we're
going to play our style and leave it all out there. And Dwayne and
Corey actually did a great job of just playing off of each other and
Dwayne stepping in the shots, even though some of his shots in the
first half didn't go, him having the confidence and him knowing that
he had to step up and make big plays, that's what the senior is for,
and we love him for it.

Q. Dante, did you say anything to Reggie after the one inbounds pass
that went a little long and just a few seconds later you're counting
on him hitting you with a pretty good one?

DANTE CUNNINGHAM: Actually I did. He said, My fault. I said, What
are you talking about? When the play is over, we've got to get back on
defense now. So we won't worry about it.

Q. I mean before the inbounds.

DANTE CUNNINGHAM: Like a second before the second one?

Q. Yes.

DANTE CUNNINGHAM: No, we forget about it. I didn't know what
happened, I don't even know what pass you're talking about (laughter).


Q. Scottie, you hit one of the shots today that will be replayed
over and over and kind of live on in NCAA tournament lore, talk about
that?

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: Oh, man, it's so many emotions going through my
head. It's something that you think about as a youngster, advancing
yourself to the Final Four or winning the championship. And to do it
with these guys on my back, and the players that came before us, I
think that that contributes to our program. I think everybody that
played before us got us in the position to where we are now and we
take great pride in that and continuing the tradition.

Q. Two questions quickly. One, did you call a timeout after the
first free throw because you didn't want to give them time to set
their defense or were you trying to freeze Fields? Second, how much
did it bother you to wear the cap, because it doesn't really go with
your outfit (laughter)?

COACH WRIGHT: It was actually a gray cap. I was very impressed that
the committee here had that prepared to match my suit.

But actually both. We knew what we were going to do. Like the guys
said, we do practice that. So, both. We had a chance to do both. If it
was something we were going to do that was unusual for us, I would
have waited to see what happened.

So I was hoping I would freeze them, but Levance Fields, you should
have known, there's no way he's missing those. And I didn't want them
to be able to get set. We have our best chance of getting everybody in
our spots, we practice it all the time. So it worked out.

Q. You wouldn't tell us what Coach K said to you, but will you tell
us what Rollie said to you when he went over there?

COACH WRIGHT: He said, I'm so proud of you. I'm so happy. He's
emotional, I was emotional. He said, I love you and I told him I love
him. And it means the world to have him here.

I tried to get him down on the court for cutting down the nets, and
I think he was thinking, That's your time.

Q. Can you talk about, you have the seniors and Scottie Reynolds. It
seems like it's been the same guys for you the last three years. Just
the growth of the senior class and Scottie and kind of getting this
achievement, getting to the Final Four with that group?

COACH WRIGHT: This was a group that I told them, they earned this.
We could have lost this game, but they still would have earned the
right to be good enough to play in a Final Four, just like Pitt did.
Pitt is good enough to be a Final Four team. We just happened to win
this game.

They're four seniors that came to college to be a part of the
program, to get a great education, to be a part of the culture at
Villanova. Of all four of those guys, not one of them said to me when
I recruited them, What if I leave early. I want to go early to the
NBA.

They're just old school guys that just came to be a part of
something. And it's so special to be a part of this with them.

Q. Just wanted to ask you about that inbounds play. Did you have a
specific name for it, was it like a Statue of Liberty? And secondly,
Scottie Reynolds getting the ball, did you have any doubts that they
would be able to execute the play? As he said, you guys have practiced
this so often, were you confident that you would be able to execute it
as well as you did?

COACH WRIGHT: That's where, John's question, we could call that
timeout. We have a name for that. I think Scottie gave up most of the
play. Anybody that listened can diagram that now. We have a name for
it. That's all we had to say in the huddle was we're running it.

And the other thing we were concerned is if he missed, we had not
been rebounding free throws really well. That was the other part,
that's why we got Shane Clark in there. I was worried as much if he
missed, them getting an offensive rebound, which they'd done to us all
night.

And, you know, Corey Fisher was playing great there at the end. He
made all the free throws. But like Scottie said, we practice that all
the time, and the white team, the second team, they always stop it.
They know what we're doing, but we want to practice it. They always
stop it. He usually gets fouled, but we don't call the foul in
practice. We do it for that reason. He's done that in games a lot. I
really had great confidence in him. I just had a feeling there. He's
done that a lot of times for us, made shots at the end of the games.

Q. Were you okay with Reggie's first throw?

COACH WRIGHT: I have to be, because we put him in that position and
we really tell them and that's why I talk to the team afterward.
Dwayne mentioned he's going to hear it in film. It's easy to watch
film and criticize and critique, but it's hard to be the guy that's in
the battle and make the decision. So we always tell them in those end
of game situations, we have to trust your decisions. And that was the
point I made to the team. If that would have cost us the game, we
would have applauded Reggie for the guts to make the play.

Now, after you deal with all your team stuff, as a sensible
basketball person I can say it probably wasn't a great decision. But
within our team, and we did talk about that after the game, within our
team he knows we trust him on that and we would have been there to
pick him up if that would have cost us.

Q. You talked the other day about what a crushing feeling it is to
lose a game like this. On the flip side how much sweeter is it that
you can experience the other side of this?

COACH WRIGHT: I think it's just starting to sink in now. It's
numbing when it happens, especially when the game ends like that, it
really is. And you're watching it on TV all the time and you think,
wow, that must be the greatest feeling in the world. And it's just
starting to hit me now. When I was out there I was numb.

And as a coach, I even said to my wife we hugged, we got our whole
family together. She said go out and enjoy this. And I said to her, I
still in my own mind have to get over that play that we just
discussed. Because I wanted to make sure Reggie feels good about it. I
had to stay with him until I could make him feel good about it.

Now it's starting to hit me. It's thrilling. I'm so happy for all
the players. I know the players in our program from back in the '40s,
'50s, know how much they're part of the '60s, '70s guys, they're
always there. It's a great tradition for Villanova. I'm really happy
for all of them.

Q. Two points, first of all, when Dante and Shane pick up four fouls
apiece, how well the team played and how well they played with four
fouls. And secondly, address the Dwayne steal at mid court and how
much that changed momentum?

COACH WRIGHT: You know what, that was huge. For us in a big game we
never have Shane Clark in and Dante Cunningham sitting on the bench
down the stretch. I kept looking and seeing him and thinking: What are
we going to do? That's where Corey Fisher really stepped up, got to
the foul line. We got a turnover. And then the trap by Dwayne
Anderson, senior, it's just seniors just they just get it done for
you, they're invaluable. That was a big part of the game.

Q. You mentioned Corey Fisher three times now. And I saw you kind of
encouraging him on the games and stuff like that. Why is it important
for you to talk to him and how much trust did you have when you put
him in he was going to make it?

COACH WRIGHT: I think it's going to be a great experience in his
life that's going to make him a great player, because in the Duke game
he had a bad ankle. He and Scottie Reynolds, they kill each other in
practice, and they had a major collision and he turned his ankle. So
we were all concerned that he didn't he could play, but he let it
bother him, he let it affect him. He started this game and he was
tentative.

We told him you can't be afraid to foul, you've got to go play. He
was tentative. And he didn't want to be the one that cost us. And it
turns out he was on the foul line and made all the big shots. I told
him, you're the man, you can do this the rest of your life. You can't
fear failing anything.

Q. You have great appreciation for the history of the program. You
just mentioned 24 years since the last Final Four. What does it mean
to you and how hard you've worked to do this to deliver the Final Four
back to Villanova after all those years?

COACH WRIGHT: You know, that's exactly what it is. It's never been a
goal of mine. And actually someone in Philly wrote an article on that,
and I got a little grief from some people that I said it's not a goal
for me, personally. But for our program and all the people that the
players that came before us and still stay in touch and support these
guys, it feels great to do it for them, it really does. And especially
these players on this team.

What you can do for other people is the greatest. And that's what I
feel great about. They're so happy. They're happier than me, way
happier than me. All I was worried about was if we lost that game, I
wanted to make sure Reggie Redding felt good about himself. That's all
I was worried about. I'm so happy for those people and that's what
it's all about, is delivering it for them.

Q. The Big East is on the precipice, obviously the last time was
1985, Villanova won. Talk about the history and sort of the
validation?

COACH WRIGHT: It's kind of eerie how this is playing out. I hope to
God history repeats itself (laughter), because I remember my wife is
here, my wife and I were down there as fans. I worked Rollie
Massimino's camp, I was there like a hanger on. I was part of the
family. The thing with Rollie was if you worked his camp you might as
well have been the top assistant, everybody was in the family. And my
wife was a cheerleader there, she had just graduated.

And it's that was kind of the greatest year in the Big East history,
and we've had discussions whether that year was better than this year,
it's a whole another topic. But that was similar. Villanova was a
great team, but St. John's and Syracuse and Georgetown were the teams
that year. Villanova kind of sneaks in. And then it's all happening
the same. I'm not a superstitious person or anything, I don't care.
I'm worried about the next game. But if history repeats itself, I'll
take it (laughter).

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