Bruce Weber Big 12 teleconference transcript, March 12

How weird will it be playing against Marcus Foster?

For us, it’s just worrying about playing against a good player. He’s a good offensive player. For our staff, he was a recruit we found. A lot of people didn’t recruit him. We helped develop him into a pretty good player. Now we just have to worry about ourselves and preparing for how we can stop him - and their whole team. They’re a very good offensive team. Coach (Greg) McDermott does a great job with offensive sets. We have a tough task at hand.

Greg McDermott said a couple of weeks ago that you recommended not taking him. He’s certainly come a long way - can you comment?

I just told him - we’re good friends - he asked me about the situation. I told him as much as I could tell him. Marcus is a good player. He went through some, I guess, immature behaviors, I guess, would be the best way to put it. I think he said, or I’ve heard, he knew he made mistakes and he’s grown up. I’ve said it over and over - that’s my job as a coach, as a teacher, as an educator - to help young men and develop them. Besides basketball, but to grow up. If some of the things I did helped him grow up and helps him in life, with his basketball career, I’m happy I was a part of that.

Baylor’s Scott Drew and Texas Tech’s Chris Beard would like to expand the field to 96 teams. What do you think?

I said it last night… People ask what can we do to help college basketball with possible FBI, recruiting scandals, and to me, part of the whole thing is the pressure of getting into the NCAA Tournament with coaches, with keeping their jobs. I think it leads to some of the situations that happen in college basketball so I’m totally in favor of expanding it. I think every year there are five or six teams that - to me, yesterday, there were 15 or 20 teams that easily could have been in the tournament. Obviously, the two in our league - Baylor and Oklahoma State. You go through and start rationalizing it, it makes sense why they’re in and someone else is not. Go in the Big Ten - Nebraska, Penn State. Obviously the ACC, the Big East, and that’s not even mentioning the St. Mary’s, the Middle Tennessees… I think it would be a good thing. It would help college basketball. And above that? What’s the best experience for a student-athlete besides graduating? You come to college to graduate and get a degree, but being a part of the NCAA Tournament… The more student-athletes you get in the NCAA Tournament, it’s a no-brainer. It’s a win-win for everybody.

Do you think the Big 12 needs to perform better in the NCAA Tournament?

You have so many teams, not everyone is going to make a run. Kansas was a game short last year. West Virginia had a tough battle with Gonzaga. It’s hard. To get in the tournament and win, just to win one is a hard task. To win two and get to the Sweet 16 and even harder. It looks simple, but it’s not easy to do. We have great balance. I said from the beginning of the year, one through ten we’ll better than any league in the country. But I didn’t know if our top teams were as good as they’ve maybe been in the past. We have some good teams - obviously Kansas is very good, Texas Tech, West Virginia, TCU, ourselves, Oklahoma… Once again, it depends on matchups, playing well at the right time, making a couple of shots, getting a break - that’s the NCAA Tournament. That’s March Madness.

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