Winners Are Lucky - And Good
The Final Four sidelines will be crowded this weekend with coaches who know how to win an NCAA title.
For only the second time in tournament history, three coaches who have won NCAA championships will be coaching in the same Final Four. Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, Arizona's Lute Olson and Michigan State's Tom Izzo have won a combined four titles.
Minneapolis also was the site the only other time three coaches with championship experience have appeared in the same Final Four, in 1992. Krzyzewski, Steve Fisher of Michigan and Bob Knight of Indiana also combined for four titles that season.
Krzyzewski, Olson and Izzo were joined on a media teleconference Wednesday by Maryland coach Gary Williams, who is making his first Final Four appearance.
They said their experience has taught them that being good isn't enough.
"I've always said you also have to be lucky," said Olson, whose Wildcats won the NCAA title in 1997. "Most teams that have won it, in one game out of the six they had to practically pull out a miracle."
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Players run into foul trouble, twist ankles or have days when their shots won't fall. Sometimes they eat bad salad dressing an come up with food poisoning. That was what happened to Arizona's Joe McLean, Olson recalled, when the Wildcats were eliminated by Kansas in the West Regional semifinals in 1996.
The Spartans survived two near misses to win the NCAA title last season, Izzo said.
"We coulda, shoulda been beat by Syracuse," Izzo said. "We coulda, shoulda been beat by Iowa State. We got lucky twice."
Krzyzewski, whose teams won titles in 1991 and 1992 and who will be coaching in his ninth Final Four, rattled off names such as Johnny Dawkins, Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Trajan Langdon and Elton Brand.
"We've had a lot of good players," Krzyzewski said. "So many times, one of those players has to make a big play to push you ahead. I've had guys who have done that."
Maryland is the only team in the field that has had a close call in this tournament - edging George Mason 83-80 in the first round. The Terrapins also had to get by the school's former coach - Lefty Driesell of Georgia State - and nearby rival Georgetown.
"Things have to go right for you," said Williams, who is also taking Maryland to its first Final Four. "We've hit it right to go to the Final Four."
Maryland and Duke, who play in a semifinal Saturday, have met three times this season with the last two decided in the final seconds. Maryland blew a 12-point lead in the final 71 seconds in one of the losses and lost by two to the Blue Devils in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. The Terrapins also won at Cameron Indoor Pavilion.
"When we play Duke, both teams respect each other," Williams said. "There's no trash-talking. Both teams just play basketball. There are no sideshows."
Izzo has a chance to become the first coach to win back-to-back titles since Krzyzewski led Duke to victory in '91 and '92. Before Krzyzewski, the last coach to win back-to-back titles was UCLA's John Wooden, who won seven in a row from 1967-73.
"I think experience is the best teacher," Izzo said. "Unless you've been through it yourself, I don't think anyone can explain it to you, anyway."
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