John Calipari joined Fox Sports Radio with the Loose Cannons to talk about his players leaving for the NBA Draft, whether a weight has been lifted off his shoulders after winning a National Championship, on the added pressure coaching in a basketball state and now it shifting to Rick Pitino at Louisville, and what he thinks about Larry Brown possibly returning to coaching.

On the feeling of his players leaving for the NBA Draft this week:

“I loved it. What a great thing. You think about it as if that’s your child. They were scared to death up there. The one kid said ‘I was shaking.’ It’s a big thing for them! Here’s the thing that got me mad ‘this is bad for college athletics and student athlete…’ What are you talking about? You had these players at a young age playing for each other and not themselves, sharing the ball, sacrificing their game for the good of the team and every young player on the planet got to see it, including NBA players that thought that is neat. We all learned. Yet some nerd has got to say ‘well it’s bad for college sports.’ Why? Because they’re talented? Was it bad when Tiger Woods left Stanford? (Sarcastically) He ruined that University by leaving early! I mean what are you talking about?”

Whether a weight has been lifted off his shoulders after winning a National Championship:

“I’m walking back to the hotel or off the bus in the hotel lobby and we just won the National Championship and as I’m walking up the steps two guys say ‘we need another one next year coach! We need another one next year!’ I stopped, turned around and looked at these two and I said ‘are you two out of your mind? Are you out of your mind?’ But you know what? It makes it neat. We did a tour with the trophy and let me tell you something, it was unbelievable. Every person on this tour, this is 18 or 20 thousand people, we went to nine different cities, probably more like 20 or 25 thousand people, all of them got to take a picture with that trophy and my wife and I. It’s just a unique place that way. There’s no pro teams here and it’s all about basketball. We’re the commonwealth’s team. Louisville has a great thing going but it’s just that everywhere across the state they talk about this program.”

On the pressure of coaching in a basketball state and it shifting over to Rick Pitino now at Louisville:

“Let me say this, he’s got it on him his year. He’s got the best team, he’s got NBA players, and he should be able to do what we did this year so it’s on him. That coat just went from me to him. We did it. He’s wearing that coat this year but let me say this, when you’re coaching, I went 20 years in non-BCS basketball programs and I had a ball, but you strive for this. The only issue is be careful for what you wish for because when you get it, it’s on you 24/7. I’m telling you I’m loving this, I’m loving it. I love that kids want to come and play for us, I love that the senator from our state, Mitch McConnell, grabbed me before this season and said ‘how many players do you think you will lose this year’ and I said seven. We’re going to lose seven. Two seniors and five underclassmen. He said ‘oh my gosh, you are creating more millionaires than a wall-street firm.’ Think about that. For me, where I come from, grandparents came through Ellis Island and didn’t speak the language, parents were high school educated, my sisters and I, the first college educated in our family, we’re now in a position to change the cycle in a family’s life? For them to go onto professional careers, it’s great stuff.”

On Larry Brown possibly returning to coaching:

“He wants to coach. He’s a coach. They’ve got a great AD, they’re moving into the Big East, they’ve got to get some players, good players, but they’ve got to get Big East level players, he’s putting a great staff together, and Pat (O’Brien) you know Coach Brown. Coach Brown’s age, they say 71 but Pat how old is he really when you’re with him? (Host: 40.) Is he 55, 56, 40, you know what I’m saying? He’s not 71-years-old. When you look at me I’m 71 and he’s just a disciplined person. I’m not and so what happens is the old 71 is now 51 and if he wants to coach why not? Why not enjoy himself? He wasn’t enjoying not coaching and I will leave you with this he came to our practices and saw this team respond to coaching and he was with Kansas and saw coaching and said I want to do this again and I want to do it in college so hats off to him right?”

Listen to John Calipari on Fox Sports here

Calipari says in the following interview, however, that he’s not going anywhere. He says very bluntly that he doesn’t need the money that he would make if he went to the professional ranks, but also talks about an interesting goal. The Wildcats are now three national titles shy of UCLA’s top mark of 11, a number the Calipari dreams of challenging.

John Calipari joined ESPN New York with Mike Lupica to discuss winning the championship, rumors of him going to the NBA, challenging UCLA’s 11 national championships, why he would stay put in Lexington and the surprise of how good Anthony Davis became this season.

On winning the national championship:

“Before the game, one of the guys, one of your brethren, said to me, ‘Right now, Coach, you’re known as the best coach to never win a national title, how do you feel about that?’ … I will say this, they are not stealing the joy. No one will. It doesn’t matter what is written, said, done, too much joy. And the sadness I have is I’m not coaching this team anymore.”

Were you surprised when the wheels had barely touched down in Lexington and rumors had already begun that you would coach the New York Knicks?:

“It’s amazing. You know what? This is the greatest thing. People are writing as though they know me. Now, if you wrote it, people know Mike knows, because he knows him. But there are people that I wouldn’t know them if they walked in my office. … Yet you’re going to tell people you know what I’m doing. I’ve got the best job in basketball. Why would I leave that? They want to say, ‘Well, he’ll go for money.’ I can’t spend what I have right now and I’m not sure my kids could. No. We just won a national title and we’re chasing UCLA.”

Kentucky has eight national titles now and UCLA has 11. Are you really wanting to go for that number?:

“You know what, it’s like dreaming big dreams. A guy hit me this morning with an unbelievable text and kind of teared me up a little bit because my mother passed away last November. ‘Thank goodness for your parents who taught you to dream big dreams.’ … But here’s the thing, isn’t it neat that, yeah, I’m not afraid to dream? I said after, I still want to coach a team that goes 40-0. Obviously it was done last night by Baylor, but I still want to coach a team because they say you can’t do it. … I’m not sure we can catch [UCLA], but I’ll tell you this, it’s fun dreaming about it.”

So you’re not going anywhere?:

“No. Well, I go recruiting and I leave tonight. And here’s the other thing, I’m not changing my lifestyle because of rumors. So I’m going to NBA games. You know how many of those coaches are friends of mine, how many players played for me and I know. I’m going to NBA games. And guess what? I’m going to one tonight. … It doesn’t mean anything. It means that I enjoy watching basketball. But I’m coaching at Kentucky.”

Did you know how good Anthony Davis could be?:

“No. And let me tell you why. His high school team his junior year won six games. His senior year, now, he knocked it out of the park. They won seven games. How can a kid that won six or seven games go dominate the sport, be the number one pick, be the next Bill Russell, what? He won seven games in high school. Well, he played on an unbelievable team where he could do what he did well and everybody else would do their thing and no one was held back and they all played to their strengths and they fit together. … But, when you’re a 6-3 guard and you go to 6-9, you have guard skills, and that’s what this kid has.”

Listen to John Calipari on ESPN New York here (Interview begins at 14:00)

Whether it was Doron Lamb hitting daggers, Anthony Davis blocking shots, Terrence Jones diving for loose balls, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at 6-7 guarding point guards, Darius Miller with key buckets to stop runs, or Marquis Teague hitting three-pointers late in the shot clock, every player on the roster stepped up and contributed to the win. The Kentucky Wildcats were more than just a collection of great talent. They were the best team in college basketball and they played the game the right way all season long.

John Calipari, Anthony Davis, Doron Lamb and Marquis Teague joined The Dial Global Radio Broadcast Team to talk about winning the National Championship this season, on the comeback that Kansas made in the game, how nice it was to get contributions from every player in one way or another, what it means for Calipari to win his first title, whether Anthony Davis will be back for his sophomore year, Doron Lamb and his great shooting night, and the players picking up the offensive slack for Anthony Davis who struggled shooting.

On the comeback that Kansas made and throttling it back last night:

John Calipari: “They looked at me at one point and said ‘coach let us go’. You get in these situations and you don’t want to give Kansas an opportunity. We kind of pulled the reigns back and then I knew I was wrong. I said ‘go again’. Then we stretched out that lead again and then we finished it off. You have to make free throws, you’re going to have to make a couple of plays and you’re going to have to stop them down the stretch. They’re a team that has been down double digits almost every day in this tournament and came back.”

On getting contributions from every player last night:

JC: “It’s all who has it going. That’s the greatest thing. No points in the first half for Anthony Davis, but he had the biggest impact on the game. I told him at Halftime ‘don’t come out here trying to score now. If you have opportunities you do it. You have proven you can play without scoring’.”

On the players sacrificing their egos:

JC: “Because that is what their makeup was. Part of it is when you’re recruiting these kids I tell them if you want to take 30 shots per game you can’t come here because we’re going to have seven or eight other guys like you. Do you want to win a National Title? Yes I do. Can you do it by yourself? No I can’t. Then you’re going to have to share the ball with other guys.”

On getting his first title:

JC: “It’s nice to get it out of the way for my family and friends and now I can get down to business of doing one thing preparing young kids for reaching their dreams and preparing young kids for life after basketball. I can get down to business and I don’t have to read, hear, or all that other crap. In that regard I’m happy it’s done. Let’s move on.”

How he feels after winning a title:

Anthony Davis: “Speechless. Words can’t describe this moment. We put in a lot of hard work the whole season and we knew it was going to pay off. Kansas is a great team, you have to take your hats off to them, they fought back, they kept fighting, and I told Darius at the beginning of the year you’re not leaving Kentucky without a ring. That’s what we tried to do for him tonight.”

On his future with Kentucky:

AD: “I’m not sure. Talking with my family and Coach Cal and we’re going to see what we’re going to do. Right now I just want to celebrate this moment with my team.”

On his shooting night:

Doron Lamb: “Coach Cal told me before the game my shootaround was perfect. I made shots at shootaround and he told me I’m going to have a big game tonight. I just wanted to come out, be aggressive, and make shots. It happened today.”

On picking up the offensive slack when Anthony Davis was struggling:

Marquis Teague: “We have a lot of great players on this team. Other players stepped up and made plays. He had confidence in us to make plays and that’s what we tried to do.”

Listen to John Calipari here

Listen to Anthony Davis here

Listen to Doron Lamb here

Listen to Marquis Teague here

It’s hard for me to see the Wildcats losing this one. They’ve clearly been the best team in the tournament. To Kansas’ credit, even when they haven’t played well — which has been plenty — they’ve found ways to win. I’ve got the Wildcats cutting the nets down tonight, even if Davis says in the following interview he hasn’t even thought about that yet.

Anthony Davis joined Westwood One with Kevin Kugler to discuss his feeling heading into the game, the expectations that have been on this team all year, the best part of his game, blocking shots, the matchup with Kansas’ big men, memories from the first meeting with Kansas this year, his celebration after the game on Saturday night and what he might do if they win again tonight.

What are your feelings like heading into the big game?:

“A lot of rush. It’s going to be a great game and I’m just going to go out there and have fun. We’ve got to come out with a lot of energy. We can’t come out lackadaisical. Kansas is a great team, great inside, great shooters, great shot-blockers, so we know we have to come out prepared.”

What’s it been like playing this year with the expectations that you would have to make it to this point for it to even be a successful season?:

“We don’t think of it as pressure. We let the guys outside of our team and our family think of it as pressure. We just think of it as another game. We knew, in our mind, that we could go all the way. We’ve just got to go out there and have fun and we can’t let nothing get to us. Like I said, just think of it as another game. I think if we do that, we’ll be fine.”

What do you think is the best part of your game?:

“I’d probably say my shot-blocking. I love to block shots. It gets the other team rattled and it gets my team and our fans just going crazy. It brings a lot of energy to the team. It leads my team to fast-break points, leads their team to not scoring. That’s one less possession they didn’t score on and it’s great to just have fun.”

You blocked a 3-pointer on Saturday night. Is there a shot you won’t try to block?:

“I try to block everything. If I think I can get to it, I’m going to jump and try to block it. If I don’t block it, we’ve just got to rebound after. We struggled rebounding against Louisville Saturday night and that’s how they stayed in the game.”

What do you think about the matchup between you and Kansas big men Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey?:

“It’ll be a great matchup. Great players — rebound, defend, can score the ball at will. Robinson is very physical and so is Withey. Withey’s a 7-footer, so it’s going to be hard to try some moves on him, but we’ve just got to get into their bodies on offense and defense, stay low, try to make them catch it not in their comfort zones.”

What do you remember about the Jayhawks from the first time you played, when you guys won by 10 way back in early November?:

“Man, that was so long ago. I feel like we played them last year. But they’re a great team. Robinson got in foul trouble, so he really didn’t play as much, didn’t play as aggressively as he wanted to. So we’re going to try to get into their body, draw a couple fouls and just go out there and have fun. They’re a great 3-point shooting team. They stayed in the game. Both teams kind of struggled. It was kind of the first big game, especially in Madison Square Garden. … I’m sure both teams got better and it’s going to be an excellent game.”

On his celebration on the court as time expired in the victory over Louisville:

“I was very excited. I don’t remember. Everything was just going crazy. But when you come to Kentucky, Coach Cal prepares you for this — go out there on the biggest stage and just go out there and have fun and do what you do.”

Have you allowed yourself to think about what it might feel like to cut down the nets tonight?:

“I haven’t even thought about it. We still have to play the game. If we win, I’m not going to know what’s going to be happening. I’m not sure what I’m going to do … but it’s going to be a fun experience.”

Listen to Anthony Davis on Westwood One here

All that said, and the crazed rivalry with Kentucky aside, Crum believes Wildcats freshman Anthony Davis ranks among the best college players to ever play the game. That’s high praise, but Davis’ season is backing that up. He’s averaging 14.3 points, 10.1 rebounds and 4.6 blocks per game and has helped Kentucky to a Final Four date with in-state rival Louisville on Sunday.

Denny Crumjoined 790 The Zone in Atlanta with Mayhem in the A.M. to discuss his relationship with Rick Pitino, if he and then-Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall were friends when coaching against each other, the pressure to win another NCAA tournament after winning your first, the toughness of the tournament and Anthony Davis’ place in college basketball history.

How well do you know Rick Pitino at this point?:

“I know Rick and we don’t have a lot of interaction. He’s busy coaching his team and I’m busy doing radio shows and working with the university still. … We just don’t see each other that much, but I’ve been friendly with him. I’ve never had any kind of an issue at all. He’s been nice to me. I don’t go to his practices and stuff because when you’re on this radio show, you get asked all kinds of questions and I don’t want to have to answer every question on there because I don’t want people thinking I’m trying to coach his team.”

Everyone talks about the lack of a relationship between Pitino and John Calipari. You now do a radio show with former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall. How well did you guys know each other?:

“When you’re competing, you don’t get to know him that well, because you may meet him on the recruiting trail, but on a day-to-day basis, they’re 70 miles up the road and you’re just not around each other. But when you go to the coaches meetings and all the things involved with the Final Four, you usually see him. … You get to know him a little bit, but not as well as you would if you were in the same city and had lunch together occasionally or something like that. When Joe and I were competing, we were always friends and friendly. Yeah, we had a rivalry. In fact, it started in 1983 in Knoxville, Tenn., we played them in the finals of the regional and we beat them by 12 points in overtime. Since that time, Louisville has been playing Kentucky once every year.”

When you win a first national championship, does the mindset become even crazier about having to do it again?:

“You know, I was an assistant to Coach Wooden in ’69, ’70 and ’71. We had won it all three of those years. I’m not taking the credit, I was just an assistant coach. But I was a part of it. And I thought that was the way it was supposed to be. I took the Louisville job and my first team had a bunch of seniors on it and we went to the Final Four my first year at Louisville. And I thought, ‘Well, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.’ But you find out that you’re a lot better coach when you have better players, and I’m no exception. It’s a funny thing because you win it and you really feel good about that and you think you’ve got the world by the tail. … Pretty soon it’s in the past and now you’ve got to start and do it all over again.”

On the toughness of the tournament:

“People pick their brackets before the tournament and they think it’s about seeding. … Well, that isn’t going to work. There have been 16 upsets in the tournament, higher seeds beating lower seeds, in this particular tournament already. What it’s really about more is matchups and how well you’re playing right now. The beauty of our tournament is you get not only the schools that were best during the year, most of the time you’ll get the schools that are the best at year-end.”

You’ve been around the game for some time. Do you have a best one or two players you’ve ever seen?:

“Well, I’ll tell you what, this Anthony Davis has gotten to be in that category. He is such a dominant player. He rebounds, he shoots, he’s developed an outside shot, he passes the ball, he blocks shots like no one I’ve ever seen. He has great hands, long arms, doesn’t foul hardly at all. He’s probably, all-around, about as good as anyone I’ve seen. There’s a lot of good players, but I think he’s separated.”

That’s some compliment:

“Bill Walton was as good as anybody I’ve ever seen when he was healthy. … When he was healthy I don’t know if there’s ever been anybody ever better.”

Listen to Denny Crum on 790 The Zone in Atlanta here

Louisville Associate Head Coach Richard Pitino joined WQAM in Miami with Curtis Stevenson to talk about the comeback against Florida, how this team compares with some of the other teams his father has coached in the past, on the team’s defensive effort this season, what the team can take from an earlier meeting against Kentucky, what he makes of Kentucky star Anthony Davis, and what it means to the state of Kentucky to have Louisville playing the Wildcats in the Final Four.

On the team’s comeback against Florida:

“Yeah it really was amazing. We certainly went on a run, I think it was an 18-3 run, it was pretty simple, we started playing man-to-man and switching everything, trying to take away the three point shot. They didn’t make a three in the second half and we really chipped away at it. Chane Behanan and Russ Smith made big plays and for us to do that with losing our best player fouling out, Peyton Siva, really was remarkable because they controlled the game really for 32 minutes. For us to find a way to win that game was really unbelievable.”

How this year’s Louisville squad compares to some other teams Rick Pitino has coached in the past:

“It’s pretty similar to his 1987 Providence team. You hate to say it because it’s pretty cliché but nobody expected us to do this and I don’t think anyone picked us. We really, really overachieved. If you look at our roster, everybody always says we don’t have the talent to win games and this and that but you look back and we won 30 games, we won a Big East Tournament Championship, we made a great run to the Final Four, and hopefully were not done yet. These guys have a lot of heart, they just keep fighting through it, keep overachieving, and they’ve been a lot of fun to coach.”

On the team’s defense this year:

“We’ve had a great team this year in the sense of they have really focused on preparing and scouting the opponent. They have locked into that all year and I think that has really contributed to us playing good defense. You look at who we are playing Saturday and going into Michigan State, us and Michigan State were tied for two and Kentucky was one, so something is going to have to give here. We’re going to have to turn it up defensively and certainly we’re going to have to score some points.”

What he can learn about the first meeting against Kentucky:

“We will watch it and we’ve watched a little bit of it already. It’s comforting in a sense because if you look back to that game we really didn’t play well and we’ve become a much better team. They have certainly improved as well but we were not half the team we were back then. Peyton Siva was not the type of player he is now, Chane Behanan was in foul trouble the whole game so we have really improved but they have definitely improved as well. I mean their record speaks for themselves and the talent they have and their ability to get the most out of what they have so it’s going to be a war, they’re a great, great team, and we have nothing but respect for their talent and their coaching staff so it will be a lot of fun.”

On Anthony Davis:

“He’s one of the best shot blockers we will ever see so when you have a guy like that who changes the games it’s going to alter your game plan. He changes it and they have a lot of great players. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is probably the most underrated player out there. The fact that people don’t realize he is probably a top five player in the draft and he plays so hard and competes so hard. Then you have a guy like Darius Miller who comes off the bench who would probably be about 60 of the teams in the tournament’s best player so they have great, great players, they play extremely hard, and they’ve bought into winning and playing great defense.”

On the fans in Kentucky being so excited about this Final Four matchup:

“It’s two very rabid fan bases. I have been on both sides of it and experienced both sides of it. They both love their basketball and there’s no pro sports in here so that’s probably why it’s a bit more unique than Carolina, New York, and places like that. It’s big for Louisville and it’s big for Kentucky and I didn’t realize that until after we won that they had never played in the Final Four before so I think it will start heating up here pretty soon. It’s been relatively quiet but I’m sure starting tomorrow here people will start getting revved up.”

Listen to Richard Pitino on WQAM in Miami here

The matchup puts two state rivals against each other for a right to the National Championship game in New Orleans, LA. Calipari has a young talented squad led by Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Will the master recruiter finally win an NCAA title? The Wildcats must worry about the Cardinals first.

John Calipari joined WFAN in New York with Mike Francesa to discuss keeping his team focused during the week of the Final Four, Terrence Jones getting the ball in crunch time, the 2011-12 Wildcats roster being the best team he has ever coached, Anthony Davis/Michael Kidd-Gilchrist being great NBA players and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist being the leader of this Kentucky team.

Can you keep the kids insulated during the week from Louisville-Kentucky in Kentucky?

“Well first of all let me tell you: None of these kids are from Kentucky. I got one Kentucky player on the team, so they don’t know. Some of them have been here six months. They have no idea about any of that stuff. I don’t think it’s an issue. Really at this time of the year if you win or lose, if the team is 10 miles from you or 1,000 miles you are going to feel the same way. If it’s a team in your league or rival or someone you’ve never seen before it’s going to feel the same way. My thing to them is we are just playing basketball. All the other stuff doesn’t mean anything.”

Why do you want the ball in Terrence Jones’s hand so much in the last minute of the game?

“Well what I told him today was if I am not comfortable with you shooting free throws and I am. I am. He has almost been 70% most of the year, which isn’t bad. If I am not comfortable you are not going to be on the floor, so you better be in there making free throws. What I did last night and in a couple of other games is you just take them off the floor, but he’s going to handle the ball because he is one of our best ball players. Hey look we are one of those teams that these guys like each other. They enjoy being around each other. They respect each other’s games. They want to keep the season going and we’ve got a job to do, which is keep them in a great frame of mind and I want people who watch this team play say, ‘Man do they compete. They play hard. Man they have fun. They share the ball. Look at this.’ That’s all I want people saying.”

Is this the best team you have ever had?

“I tried to ask our AD at Memphis. The team at UMass, but let me say this: I’ve had some really good teams. If you are talking talented teams, my team in 95-96 that team was a great basketball team. Last year’s team here was a great basketball team. Not nearly as talented as this team, but a great basketball team. In 2008 that was a heck of a basketball team. Now talent wise probably two years ago with [John] Wall and [DeMarcus] Cousins and those guys and Patrick Patterson and Eric Bledsoe and all those guys and a young Darius Miller was talented, but probably this team is the best team.”

Five years from now who is better pro: Anthony Davis or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist?

“They are both going to be outstanding. You know what it is? I asked this to my team about 2-3 weeks ago. When you are not making baskets what do you do to help us win? When you are not making a shot what are you doing to help us win? Well his list is about nine things. [Francesa: Which player?] Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. The other kids probably seven or eight things. You ready for this: What position do you think Anthony Davis will play in the NBA? [Francesa: Either the 3 or the 4?] There you go. That’s what he is.”

Is Michael Kidd-Gilchrist the leader of the team?

“Yes because not verbally, but he does it by how he practices and how he talks to his teammates. He’s a giver. He’s truly a servant leader. He’s one of those guys that cares how everybody feels. He doesn’t want anyone down. You know what he did when we played Vanderbilt? About 40 minutes before the game he comes in my office and says, ‘Coach why don’t you start Darius Miller today.’ I go why? He said, ‘We need him in the NCAA tournament. I don’t know if he’s not feeling it, but I want to have him in there.’ Darius had scored no points the last two games and I said are you sure? He said, ‘Yeah. You do what you want to do, but I just think it would be a good idea.’ I started Darius that game. Darius took 15 shots. Now we lost the game and Michael got in foul trouble and only played 15 minutes, but look at Darius Miller from that point on. That was Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. That’s the kind of man he is.”

Listen to John Calipari on 660 WFAN in New York here

Kentucky, of course, is the clear No. 1 in the polls right now, and it turns out Rick Pitino believes with some certainty that they belong there easily. Pitino says the Wildcats are in a class of their own, with about 19 teams log-jammed behind them.

Rick Pitino joined ESPN Radio with Scott Van Pelt and Ryen Russillo to discuss the identity of his team, the Cardinals’ success on the road, if he ever believed he had a top-four team on his hands, Kentucky’s dominance, winning in the NCAA tournament and the future of the Big East.

Have you gotten a sense at this point as to the identity of your team?:

“I think so. Sometimes, especially in the Big East — you’ve seen it with Seton Hall, you’ve seen it with West Virginia, you see it with us — sometimes the schedule dictates when you have your streaks and when you have your lulls. If you’re on the road in the Big East and you have a stretch where you play three of four on the road, sometimes you’ll go the other way, then you’ll get home and have a streak.”

On his team’s recent success on the road:

“It was the same thing last year. Since we joined the Big East, the one distinction that we’ve had, we’re the number one road team in the Big East since we joined the league. We’ve won more road games than any other Big East team. I can’t tell you why. I don’t really know why.”

You guys were 12-0 at one point and ranked No. 4. Did you see this team as a No. 4 team in the nation?:

“No, I didn’t, because of a couple factors. We were not healthy. We were winning certainly, but when you looked at how we were winning, we beat Vanderbilt in overtime and we blew out Long Beach State, which they were very hot at the team and very good. … We played some tough teams, but we just executed and did some good things. But I never looked at us as a top-four team so far this year.”

On Kentucky being head and shoulders above the field:

“I think Kentucky is in a class by themselves. Not only are they extremely talented, but they’re well-drilled on defense and the only way I see Kentucky going down is if you somehow do what we did in the first half and get Anthony Davis in foul trouble. Then they’re a very good basketball team … when he’s on the bench. … The rest of the teams, I think 2 through 20, I think we’re all in the same boat. We may not have been three or four, but I don’t know if we’re that much behind Kansas or that much behind Baylor.”

What’s the secret to why you’ve been able to have successful NCAA tournament runs at multiple places?:

“When we’ve played well, I always felt that we were risk-takers. We tried to pick up the tempo rather than slow down the tempo. We tried to gamble a little bit more in terms of changing our defenses. Most people coach in the tournament as if they’re getting ready for social security. Everybody plays it close to the vest. They’re concerned about not making a mistake. I think sometimes your players get a little uptight from that philosophy, so we try to go the other way at times when we’ve been healthy.”

Do you think the Big East will survive?:

“I think it’ll survive and I think it’ll be better in football, because let’s face it, Pitt and Syracuse, they have great tradition in football, but they have not been great the last eight to 10 years. Now you’re bringing in Houston, SMU, San Diego State, Boise State — programs that are now [better] programs in football. Where we get hurt is obviously you lose Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia [in basketball]. … [Syracuse] is the team that epitomizes the Big East. When you go to the Garden in the Big East tournament, Syracuse buys up all the tickets. Their fans are metropolitan-area people, so it’s mind-boggling to me how that happened. That being said, we took a great step in getting Memphis. … I’ve been pushing, obviously … is Temple. … To me, Temple is ideal.”

Listen to Rick Pitino on ESPN Radio here (Interview begins at 13:20)

John Calipari joined 790 the Zone in Atlanta with Barnhart and Durham to talk about the strength of the SEC in college hoops, he youth of his team and how getting tested is helping, on his desire for super-conferences, and Anthony Davis.

On the strength of the SEC in college hoops:

“Right now what you’re finding out is there is no league that is like way beyond any other. I made this statement to a couple of friends, the SEC right now has five teams that are Sweet 16 or better. When you talk Mississippi State goes to Vandy and Vandy was playing great, that went to Alabama and Alabama doesn’t lose there and did what they did, and no one is even talking about Florida anymore. Now you have Arkansas, they go and beat Michigan, and when we played Tennessee, they didn’t have that freshman. So whatever they did before that doesn’t matter. Now you’ve got Tennessee and they go and just womp on Connecticut. All of the sudden you’re going to talk about the five teams but what about Arkansas and how about this team? Mississippi is playing well. Here’s what happens. Our media doesn’t do what the media in these other leagues do but it starts with the coaches. We don’t promote each other so what happens is ‘well a team that loses at so and so.’ Well let me tell you something; go try to win at Tennessee, go try to win at Georgia who beat us a year ago, go try to win at South Carolina who beat us a year ago. Vanderbilt? I mean you’re in the end zone trying to coach and you can’t even talk to your team. The only league that I think has got, the Big 12, those top three teams are really good but our top five are really good and those other being Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi aren’t far back. Go try to win at Auburn right now. This is a very difficult league especially on the road.”

On his team getting tested the way they have been and if he thinks that will help them:

“My team as you know we’re starting three freshman and two sophomores and what happens is every experience for these guys is new. That’s why I liked what Alabama did to us. They basically, one of their players said ‘our coach told us to be aggressive, hit ‘em, and rebound.’ I don’t know what hit them means but they hit us. What happens is every game we play is a different kind of experience. We played Arkansas and they pressed us. We needed that a whole game. We played other teams that played us a whole zone. It’s all a new experience. I have a point guard who has made great strides in Marquis Teague but you just don’t know. You just don’t know yet. The same with Anthony Davis. Anthony wasn’t ready for the body to body contact. Anthony missed three dunks. How can he miss a dunk when his head is near the rim? Well when that body is on you and shoving you into the cheerleaders it’s harder to dunk. You have to figure out how I hold my ground, how I bend over, and hold position as they get physical. All this stuff is new to my team. I like our will to win down the stretch. In all these close games you’re gonna start getting nipped. You know what I told them last night Tony? We met at my house. I said ‘we probably need to get beat so you guys will understand that you cannot let a team come in and kick sand in your face and accept it.’ You can’t do it.”

On his desire for super-conferences:

“What I hope what this starts moving us to is four super conferences. We separate from the NCAA, we do our own thing, we have a playoff in football, and now if you want to include eight teams or four, each league winner or their winner and runner up, and we have a playoff. The other teams all play in a bowl. We have our basketball tournament and you know what? We will include the other people from around the country. You’ll have to play your way into our tournament. Then we get a National Title and all the money stays within. Instead of having 20 schools vote against, vote against a stipend, a deserved stipend, for these players, vote against it because Tony do you understand now that the player I signed early get the 2,000 dollars? It should be 4,000. The other ones I signed in April will not get that money. How about that on your team? You like that? We need to separate. We need to separate. We need to have compliance go through league offices like it used to. How did you get me talking about that?”

On Anthony Davis and his shot blocking ability:

“He blocked about nine of mine when we’re doing walkthroughs. He’s a great kid. He’s like the kid Marcus Camby that I had. He doesn’t command the ball offensively, will do all the dirty work, he and Michael Gilchrist both do. Dive on the floor, come up with balls, and I get mad at my other guys because I say ‘oh you let him dive on the floor and you shoot all the balls. That’s how this is supposed to work?’ How fair is that? I look at those two and I said if I were you two I’d be walking over to the bench and I’d say hey coach, how about running a play for me? We have some issues we’re dealing with because you have to have a team full of guys that understands toughness isn’t one guy’s responsibility, it’s everybody’s. Either you’re aggressive and tough or you’re not. For us to do anything unique with this team I’m coaching, this young, we have to get tougher both mentally and physically.”

Listen to John Calipari on 790 the Zone here

He looked angry, frustrated, excited and perplexed all at the same time, which I didn’t really know was possible at the time. As he says in this interview, it was a hard look to describe, but people everywhere got it.

Tom Crean joined 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis with Dan Dakich to talk about his reaction to the game-winning shot against Kentucky, the intensity of the moment, where the team goes next, being a studier of late-game situations and the progression of Christian Watford.

Your reaction after the shot went in was pretty classic. You appeared stunned. What were you thinking?:

“I think I was still mad. I really do. I don’t know. My brother-in-law said that night, ‘I totally got what you felt.’ I don’t know. It’s hard to say. Just the intensity of the game and I was happy and when I saw that the basket counted, it was almost like, once they went to the monitor it was, ‘Let’s see here; is it too good to be true?’ … Then it was and it was a lot better. I felt like we almost squandered an incredible opportunity. I was probably mad at myself more than anything. But I’m ecstatic that we won. … You couldn’t have drawn it up any better. It’s beyond belief. In that sense, it’s awesome.”

It’s hard to react in the moment because you’re spending the entire game reacting and figuring out what to do next:

“Exactly. There’s no question about it. We can keep getting better. As you’re going through a game, you say, ‘You know what? I should’ve subbed this guy here, I should’ve subbed here.’ We did a little subbing, got a little quick-triggered when we got up. … That won’t happen again. … But we needed to be better defensively at the end and we wouldn’t even have been in that spot. And I’m not trying to rain on anybody’s parade because it’s been a long three and a half years to have everybody enjoy that.”

With another big game coming up, and finals this week, how will you handle it?:

“I think that the most important thing for this team, for us as coaches and them for players, the individual workout was outstanding. … I think it’s really important for us to control what we can control, which is making sure that the improvement is right, making sure that they continue to build that unity and togetherness, especially defensively. … We started the preparation early last week and we’ll start it again early this week. … We spent more time on concepts and breakdowns than just putting in the main offensive sets and things that they run.”

On late-game situations:

“The one area that [our assistants] do such an incredible job with the preparation and the scouting. The one part that I try to make sure that I’m locked in to as any of it is the situational stuff at the end of games, because that’s what so many of them come down to. Whether you’re trying to climb up, like we have been, or whether you’re trying to keep the climb going even higher and when you’re elite like this, so many of those games are going to come down to the end. You’ve got to understand what you’re trying to do, but you’ve also got to understand that, during the course of the game, that’s where you win or you lose. … All those things add up.”

On the improvement of Christian Watford:

“The thing that really set him back is, from the second day after spring break on … he did such a great job of building and getting better, but he got hurt two days before practice started and he missed a very, very valuable two and a half weeks. All of that chemistry of playing five-on-five together, getting up and down, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of every guy … we lost that with him. … After the second game, when he struggled, we had a heart-to-heart and I’ll give him credit because he bounced back.”

Listen to Tom Crean on 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis here