Press conference day

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DALLAS -- Greetings from the bowels of the American Airlines Center, where the Dallas Mavericks' practice court has been transformed into the media center for this weekend's NCAA Tournament games. All eight teams are having open practices and press conferences today, and with that many players and coaches around you can be sure there will be plenty of interesting things said. So I'll try to post the best of them here.

You can also listen to the Penn and Texas press conferences in their entirety by visiting our friends at Basketball U. The Texas players on the podium were P.J. Tucker, Daniel Gibson and LaMarcus Aldridge; Penn sent up an entire starting five of Ibrahim Jaaber, Eric Osmundson, Mark Zoller, Friedrich Ebede and Steve Danley. I suspect that will be the starting lineup tomorrow, especially because Ebede said he is in pretty good health at this point. Remarks from Quakers coach Fran Dunphy and Longhorns coach Rick Barnes are separate files and are included in their entirety as well at the above link.

The Bucknell press conferences are also available in their entirety at Basketball U. Bucknell's players on the dais were Chris McNaughton, Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt. For Penn fans, Bison coach Pat Flannery had some interesting things to say about scholarships in the Patriot League and how his team has improved so much over the last two years.

If you're a Bison fan, thanks for dropping by. You should be warned, though, that the Arkansas folks are talking a lot about how many of their fans are going to make the short trip from Fayetteville to Dallas, and about the large Razorbacks alumni base in this city. Between that and the Texas fans who will jam this place to watch the Longhorns take on Penn, the atmosphere should be quite fun here all day tomorrow.

Personally, I think it would have been great for Penn and Bucknell to play each other this season. The Quakers and Bison played each in each of the last two seasons (Penn won last year's meeting at the Palestra, 65-52, and holds a 4-1 advantage overall), and with both teams' talent this year there would have been some good basketball on display.

So without further ado, the best quotes of today -- from schools other than Penn and Texas, that is, because for those you're going to have to read tomororw's paper:

"Certainly, a part of our fabric is Princeton-based, and we have borrowed or stolen a lot of the concepts that we employ from that family of coaches that comes under the umbrella of 'Princeton.' But we've also tried to adapt to fit our team and certainly run the offense very much different than Princeton does. And they would probably be the first to tell you that."
-- N.C. State coach Herb Sendek on the nature of his offensive system, which has been called a Princeton offense by many observers.

"I didn't like playing against Herb then and I don't like playing against him now."
-- Cal coach Ben Braun on facing Sendek again after doing so in the first round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament. Cal won that game, 76-74 in overtime.

"I'm like a kid in a candy store, just looking around at all these new things."
-- Cal sophomore forward Leon Powe,, who is playing in his first NCAA Tournament. The Golden Bears last made the Tournament in 2003 (and in 2002 they beat Penn in Pittsburgh, 82-75 in the first round).

"I try to compare it to the soccer FA Cup ... They really have no idea."
-- Cal forward Richard Midgely, a native of Burgess Hill, England, on how he tries to explain the importance and atmosphere of the NCAA Tournament to his friends back home.

"English soccer fans, easily."
-- Midgely, answering a reporter's question on whether American college basketball fans or English soccer fans are more passionate.

"They want it as bad as I want it for them."
-- Memphis coach John Calipari, who said that this year's Memphis team and his 1996 Massachusetts team that reached the Final Four are the only teams he has ever coached for which that has been the case.

"They have to say something on these shows. So you look at it and say how can I be a genius, how can I pick an upset?"
-- Calipari on television analysts.

"We're going to go out [and] play like we're a 5 seed, a 12 seed."
-- Memphis guard Darius Washington, Jr., after being asked his opinion who think his team is overrated.

"I would describe our fans as pit bulls -- very loving and loyal people but they can also be very nasty sometimes."
-- Arkansas forward Jonathan Modica on the nature of Razorbacks fans.

And since you've read this far, one good Penn quote:

"The older I get, the better I was."
-- Quakers coach Fran Dunphy responding to a compliment from CBS color analyst Bob Wenzel about Dunphy's playing days at La Salle. Wenzel also knows Penn athletic Director Steve Bilsky well, having played for Rutgers against Bilsky's Quakers in 1970 and 1971.