The UConn Huskies men’s basketball team met with the media on Friday before Saturday’s matchup with the Arizona Wildcats in the Elite Eight. Head coach Jim Calhoun, Kemba Walker, Alex Oriakhi, Jeremy Lamb and Roscoe Smith all took questions.
Below you will find the transcript courtesy of ASAP Sports. And here’s what the Arizona Wildcats had to say.
Q. Coach, before the San Diego State game you suggested that Mr. Leonard would have you up at 4 a.m. What is Derrick Williams going to do to your sleeping pattern?
COACH CALHOUN: I’ve just booked no sleep at all and I’ll combine that with the fact that I left at the end of the first half and the kids from Arizona just made the three, but it looked like the game quite frankly was slipping away.
We got back and I witnessed the 19-2 and I talked to a friend of mine who went to Arizona and said it’s the best basketball half he’s ever seen in the history of Arizona basketball. I don’t know how it ranks in Arizona basketball, but it’s probably as good of a half as you’re going to see any team play.
Obviously, Duke has a terrific basketball team, clearly one of the best teams certainly in America, and quite frankly, Arizona just — they made it look easy and I know it wasn’t. Therefore, obviously, Williams is a special player, but they have a lot of good players and I think that sometimes concerns you more because you think about taking away Leonard and taking away their post-up game, with them it’s 3 points and they’ve got eight guys that can shoot 3-point shots.
Bottom line, the diversity and the flexibility of their team in many ways give us you grave concerns. The most remarkable thing to me, actually was that Williams had 25 and only 6 in the second half and that’s what scared me, that scared me — the 25 was frightening. The scary part was that he had 6 in the second half.
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Q. Kemba, MoMo was in here earlier, he said he has been speaking to you throughout the weekend, and what did you say to him after he did what he did yesterday, and do you expect it to be special tomorrow given your histories?
KEMBA WALKER: I didn’t say anything to him. I’m happy he’s playing great basketball. It’s good to see how much he matured as a player, but it’s definitely going to be a special game tomorrow playing against him and Arizona, even more special because me and him grew up playing together and went to the same high school and we are good friends. So it’s going to be a lot more special.
Q. Coach, what are the challenges of defending Williams? He’s been shooting more lately, but the inside/outside, is it a question of who you put on him or change it up?
COACH CALHOUN: Well you know he leads the nation in — Kemba is at 296 for number of foul shots and I’ve had a lot of great players, and he has more than that. He gets to the foul line, he can make foul shots, actually I’m surprised he only takes a few during a game because he looks good doing it and he looks very comfortable there. We’ve faced a lot of kids — I’m not going to say kids like him.
But during this tournament, people say well, we’ve faced guys like him before. No, you haven’t. We’ve faced guys like him, but we hope to stop, not stop, but limit his touches, and the second half might not have occurred if he hadn’t been around during the first half, he was that good.
We’ll try to do as many things as we possibly can, what we can do with him in the post to try to get others to help and secondly if we could ever make him a pure outside player we’ll be happy with that, even though he will make some shots we will be happy with that. It’s where he is on the floor depending upon what we do with him.
Q. Jim, you’ve taken nine other teams to this point. But is this one of the more unexpected journeys for you to take this team here?
COACH CALHOUN: Bob asked me that the other day. It’s never unexpected to me, it’s joyous to me. It’s great. For me, it’s always going to have a special place for me because of the group, because of the way we started the season, with as I said, “Sports illustrated” didn’t have us in the top 68 to make the field. That’s one less pitch I’ll have in any paper, I guess, “Sports Illustrated!”
But regardless, I think from once we came and how they handled everything, I keep saying that the resiliency every day, go back to us losing 3 out of 4 after losing to Notre Dame, at home, and the exuberance they brought to the practice on Sunday morning.
But it typifies the type of season they’ve had. Nothing seems to get them down. So it’s verification that you need occasionally that this — the kids are the same, the times have changed and the kids really do want to win and really listen and this group has done as good a job as any team I’ve had in a long, long time.
I keep calling them an “old-fashioned” team, and they don’t play old-fashioned basketball. But they do have values. They want to win and they want to help each other.
Q. Jim, Sean Miller was up there and said Kemba aside he thought rebounding was the key to the game, they have to keep you all off the glass. What does that mean for you, and what does that mean for Alex?
COACH CALHOUN: Every single game Alex needs help and the second leading rebounder, is Kemba and Roscoe, they were tied, Jamal plays a junkyard dog role for us, he does everything we ask of him. He’s got 4 men, twos, he does everything we ask of him, and he rebounds. He got a couple of big-time rebounds yesterday, bottom line is we need guys to step up and help Alex, and I have no question, you’re probably not going to beat Arizona and you’re probably not going to beat us unless you rebound the basketball.
You can’t give good teams a whole bunch of second shots. You can’t have that happen. I would agree that is a key component of the game without question.
Q. Alex, yesterday Arizona just completely dominated the boards in the second half against Duke, and Coach K. said afterwards that was the thing that kept their momentum going. When you saw that happen or heard about it happening, how does that make you feel about what you have to do tomorrow?
ALEX ORIAKHI: I think I know what I have to do and that’s rebound because that’s what this team needs from me, but I’m not the only rebounder on the team.
I think we do a great job of game rebounding. Kemba is able to get the long rebounds, and Roscoe does a great job of rebounding and so does Jamal. So I feel if we can rebound tomorrow we’re going to be fine.
Q. Kemba, you seem to be fairly confident, but can you talk about this month of March, the Big East tournament and the three games in this tournament and the zone you’re in? Jim, have you ever seen anything like this, the performance he’s put on this month?
KEMBA WALKER: I’m just playing good basketball. I’m just playing within with the offense, that’s really it. My teammates are doing a great job at getting me open and, you know I don’t know, just as the team flows, I flow. We pride ourselves on, you know, getting rebounds and runin’ and I think lately we’ve been doing a great job at that so I’ve been able to excel.
COACH CALHOUN: I’ve had a lot of great players can and they’ve put on great performances and I think the separation here — and I think we needed it, in having so many young players is for Kemba to lead us verbally, which he does a great job with, but also by example.
I think when he makes shots or makes place — I think Jeremy said that yesterday, too, it makes everybody else feel sophomore confidence. I always said in ’99 we had a great player in Richard Hamilton, great player. And there was a kid, Khalid El-Amin, that made us feel better about ourselves and we went on to be 34-2 and win the thing, and he did well with Richard.
But Kemba’s ability to make plays when it’s tough, yesterday, when he fell down, after having the lead and looking good in the first half. Kemba has been able to take his competitiveness, his intensity, and as I said, transmit it to other players. That’s a very unusual gift. I don’t remember an 8-game period where any single player has been able to do that.
Conversely, when Emeka did great things he had Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon, Josh Boone all guys who played in the NBA, so we think we have some young guys here who will be playing in the NBA.
But right now they’re not at that stage and I guess the point I’m making to you is I’ve never seen anybody take the burden, a nice burden with the players we have and help 9 guys through the ropes as we go through postseason play.
Q. Roscoe, Jeremy, as freshmen this being your first time in the NCAA Tournament you seem to be poised and relaxed. Have you been poised and relaxed? Have you been nervous at all? What’s it been like for you?
ROSCOE SMITH: For this being my first NCAA Tournament, I’ve been poised and relaxed because of the leadership and the comfort level of the team that’s — just being around them, spending a lot of time laughing and joking, so it’s been real level and it kind of — it’s feeling normal because it’s basketball. I really try not to think of it too much.
JEREMY LAMB: For me, I’ve been, you know, watching the NCAA Tournament for a long time, ever since I’ve been growing up. So once we made it, I just looked at it as an opportunity and, you know, it’s game of basketball, a game I love.
So I just tried to come out here and play my hardest. Like he said, being around the team, we always call each other. We say we’re brothers, so being out there with my brothers and having fun, really, it keeps me calm.
Q. Kemba, I wonder if Derrick Williams was on your radar at all last year or this year and if you knew anything about him and if you saw the first half against Duke, what your impressions were. Based on where he is now, how does he stack up with the best players in the country?
KEMBA WALKER: Yes, he was on my radar, and I was able to play with him at the LeBron Camp, we were on the same team and stuff like that, and I was able to see the things he was able to do and from there I knew he was going to be a great player and this year he’s showing everybody what a great player he is.
I got a chance to watch the first half and he was unstoppable. You know, my thoughts on that was, you know, the first thing that came to my mind was he might be the best player in the country. The best player I’ve seen this year.
Q. Jim, Derrick Williams mentioned that you guys were one of the schools that looked into him after he decommitted from USC. I was curious what intrigued you about him as a player and how serious that got?
COACH CALHOUN: We try to get serious enough to get kids from our area and he decided after he left — decommitted from USC, he was an athlete. He competed. He was long, and he had skills. So he really wasn’t a hard evaluation. He was hard to get. He didn’t end up in a uniform, but we’re happy about the career he’s had. He’s a terrific player and I would have to disagree with Kemba for once. I think he is probably the second best player in America.
Q. Jim, can you talk about playing a Sean Miller team? Do you see similarities in the way he played a few years ago and the way he coaches?
COACH CALHOUN: That’s a set-up question to date me, but I understand that. I allowed that to happen, I guess, by being around for so long.
I remember Sean when he was at the old Fitzgerald Field House on Pitt’s campus, and we were winning and the crowd was getting unrulely, which is a real surprise at Pitt. It’s a very blue-collar town, and they weren’t happy, they were throwing things; and Sean did something with the crowd, kind of “Cool it. Cool it.” We were up by 12 with maybe a minute to go, and he was talking to him and he said, “Coach, I’ll take care of it.” He’s playing for Pittsburgh.
Now I feel like I have a good relationship with him as a coach, but he’s certainly a quality guy and that moment has never left me because a lot of kids are going to be down, all that type of thing but he showed the character he had and the kind of kid he is and now the coach he is.
He did a great job at Xavier, and he’s done a terrific job at Arizona. They needed to get some pieces going again and to get to a final 8, possibly beyond, because I think both of us think we have the opportunity to go possibly beyond. He’s done an incredible job. I know his dad very well who taught him a lot of the things he did, and I hate to say this, but I did see him on Johnny Carson as a kid bouncing the ball.
THE MODERATOR: We will excuse the student athletes.
Q. Jim, you’ve been the kind of coach that if you don’t have a cause you’ll make one up. When you get to this point in the season, at this stages is it now you just know what’s at stake and go for it?
COACH CALHOUN: Forty minutes to Houston. I know that you must have an awful fast means of transportation to get there, but it’s forty minutes to Houston, and that’s what we’re saying to the kids. Obviously they’ve accomplished a great deal this year, Big East championship, and this run has been phenomenal, and it’s been great.
Roscoe said something interesting, and I was glad to hear the feedback, that we try to make these games as normal as we can. We paint pictures, and tonight we will try to paint a picture about what the Final Four is like and not that we’re going there, but what could transpire if we put 40 good minutes of basketball together.
So you don’t have to pick any one single thing except for the fruits of your labor and what they can bring and for a trip to a Final Four for coaches and players it’s a once in a lifetime experience, we’ve heard of great coaches and players who never get to Final Fours and there is nothing more special in my opinion in collegiate athletics, and the way we do it from 364 down to 4 and when you get there and you’re one of the four there is not much more special feeling to be at that point.
So I think that forty minutes to Houston is probably what we’re thinking of right now.
Q. Coach, you’ve said all along what a joy it’s been to be on this journey with this team and I think even the fan base back home will look back on this season with special memories, but how much would getting to a Final Four put a stamp on this season as something incredible to look back on?
COACH CALHOUN: It would, but every step has — in life it would be nice to call all the shots as you know, Mike, I try, even if it doesn’t work sometimes, saying, “That’s the way it should be.” But I think very honestly, it would be — I’ll be honest with you. I would love to go, I really would, okay?
But I want them to go a lot more than I would like to go. I really mean that. This has been a terrific group and obviously we would love to go and have the opportunity to win a national championship, but this group deserves for what they’ve done for our entire coaching staff, they’ve rejuvenated in many ways a great fan base, as you mentioned, and I guess — I’m not saying they deserve to go.
They have to play forty minutes of really good basketball to beat a terrific Arizona team, but that would be something that very few people get the opportunity to do. If you play basketball in America, the goal is to go to the Final Four. So I want it for the team and I’m not being oversimplistic about it but for them, if for nothing else what they’ve done for Kemba, for Donnell, and the role he’s played and he’s done it exquisitely, I want it for them, I really do, and I’m sure Sean wants it for his team because of what it could mean, but I’m telling you I want it for my team.
Q. This tournament has become a national obsession because of the story lines. You are one of the most compelling story lines in this tournament, part of your story is the NCAA problems that you had. What do you say to people that say your problems have tarnished the program’s reputation?
COACH CALHOUN: They can say that and we have seven freshmen, so while in the midst of that they trust in us and believed in us and we had secondary violations within our program, I was not found guilty of any of those, and they — biggest thing I found out is I got a chance to find out who I am, what I am and what I’ve done.
As far as I’m concerned, I know what I am, I had breakfast with four of my former players this morning. We know who we are at UCONN. We know what we’ve done at UCONN, and we feel comfortable in our own skin and what we are.
I can’t control what others think. I can only control what I feel, and did I like it? No. You wouldn’t either. But I said that there were secondary violations that happened in our program, I said that I’m the head coach and I’m responsible, and I wasn’t going to appeal it, so be it.
But I know who I am. I know what I’ve done and haven’t done, and we’re going to move on and that’s where we’re going, we’re moving on to hopefully a Final Four and we’ve had a fabulous year and we would love to get to the Final Four.
I don’t think our program will be tarnished by any such reputation, and if you look at the facts, I think maybe people will see it differently. But it’s not things that I liked being out there, but it was out there and I’ll get back to I know who I am and I know what I’ve done and what my program has done and I know what my kids have done and I feel very comfortable in that.
Q. Coach, just wondering, and apologize if you addressed this, but your success in the west regional over the years, do you see any common ties there, anything you would do differently over the years? Is it a flukey thing for you?
COACH CALHOUN: I don’t think a lot of flukey things happen in basketball. A good friend of mine was my roommate and he was friends with John Thompson, and John was on the Celtics, and John said to me, maybe third or fourth year we were in, “Go west, young man.” That’s not exactly what he said, but he said get your kids all away from the distractions so you can have them solely to yourself.
I remember that first year that I was talking with someone on the committee and I said by the way, we’ll go west if you need a team to, and I think we were a 1 or 2 seed and 1999 we went west, won a national championship, ’04, won a national championship.
So we’ve had great success, and I think the reason we like it is we’ve had great treatment by people out there and secondly we’ve been able to keep our kids together without a lot of distractions.
Q. Jim, you’ve had some players in your time have great runs in the NCAA, Caron, Ben, is Kemba the best run you’ve had of any player in the tournament?
COACH CALHOUN: It’s going to be hard to match. The season is going to be hard to match, he has over 900 points, kids try to get a thousand over a career and he’s got 900 for the year. The season is hard to match, and those guys did one other thing, and that’s holding up a trophy on Monday night, so let’s evaluate it after.
But he’s having as special of a run as any player I’ve had, but he’s capable of maybe putting it over the top, and tomorrow or after the tournament I can try and give you a better evaluation. But right now it’s been an incredible 8 games for him and certainly for our basketball team.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach, good luck tomorrow.
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