On the recordOctober 14, 1999
I also want to acknowledge, before I leave the State of Indiana, the presence here of a man who has been my friend for 20 years, the former Senator from Indiana and the father of the current Senator from Indiana, Mr. Birch Bayh. Thank you, Senator. Thank you. I'm glad to see you. Thank you. Now, the Huskies. I watched them all year, too. They won 34 games, and they were supposed to be a big underdog in the championship. They had a team that was determined not to be defeated. Richard Hamilton's outside touch and the tough defensive play of Ricky Moore and Khalid El- Amin gave them a 77-74 down-to-the-wire thriller that will never be forgotten by people who love basketball. I also want to say that I'm glad Richard is coming to Washington to help the Wizards. We need it. [Laughter] Jim Calhoun's achievements as the Huskies' coach are tremendous. He's the only coach in NCAA history to win 250 games at two different Division I programs. He's the winningest coach in UConn history, with the third most wins in all of college basketball in the last six seasons. When I called Jim to congratulate him on the victory, we had a wonderful talk about a lot of things, and I'll always remember our conversation. But I told him, and I thought that the Duke coach, Mike Krzyzewski, gave him and these fine young men the ultimate compliment; you can only imagine how disappointed he was. He has all those great players; they were supposed to win everything easily. It was a fabulous game. The truth is, UConn was better than they thought they were. And it was--at a moment of enormous disappointment, he got before the national television cameras, and he said, ``We did not lose this game. We were defeated by a better team.'' And that says a lot about this coach and these players. So, Coach, the microphone is yours. [Coach Calhoun made brief remarks, and the team captains presented a jersey and ring to the President.]
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