Head Coach Lute Olson – Press Conference – Selection Sunday
"I looked at the brackets for the first time just a couple of minutes ago,
so I haven't had the chance to consider (the Midwest bracket) as opposed to
the other brackets. One thing that you learn in a hurry about the NCAA
tournament is that it doesn't make any difference. There are good teams in
every bracket."
"A lot of outstanding teams took hits this week – Stanford, North Carolina,
Michigan State, Illinois – a bunch of good teams. There are good teams in
every bracket, so there really is no way to compare between all of them.
There is no question in my mind right now that Duke is probably playing as
good as anyone in the country. Kentucky is looking very strong if you look
at their scores from the last few weeks."
"I thought that we had to win both (games this weekend) to be a two-seed.
Even if we beat Stanford, but dropped the game at Cal, I think that we
would have moved from a two to a three. Look at UCLA. They went from
being a two to a four-seed because they lost the last-place team in (the
Pacific-10) Conference.
"It is not surprising that Illinois was a No. 1 seed. I thought that they
and Michigan State both were very deserving of that. There was a lot of
hype that North Carolina was going to get a No. 1 seed, regardless of if
they lost today, but I think that it was the manner in which they lost (to
Duke today). They have lost four of their last eight, so I was a little
surprised when the TV commentators were saying that they were going to
still be a one-seed."
"We'll start preparing (for Eastern Illinois) tomorrow, but for the most
part we are going to be working on the things that we thought that we
needed to work on as a team. We will then start in on Tuesday with the
game preparation then and Wednesday."
On the Pac-10 having five teams in the NCAA tournament:
"I think that it's great. It was very deservedly so that the Pac-10 would
get five bids. I think that we have five very good teams, and all five of
them won more than 20 games. The conference, especially those five teams,
have been held in very high regard this season."
