    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [May 20, 1996]
    [Pages 783-784]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Honoring the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Champions
    May 20, 1996

        The President. Thank you. Thank you very much. You can sort of see
    that as far as this announcement today, I'm the Vice President.
    [Laughter] And Mr. Gore is taking the lead, with his justifiable pride.
        I want to welcome the Members of Congress who are here, the
    presidents of these two great universities, all the coaching staff, and
    their supporters. I see the Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky over here
    and many other people who are supporting these two teams.
        It is true that I am a--I suppose ``a fanatic'' would be too mild a
    word for it--basketball fan. And I tried to watch every game that was on
    television, at least part of it, during this tournament. It was a
    fabulous tournament, in both the women's and the men's divisions. The
    people who won should have won. But as the Vice President said, just
    because you're ahead and you're the favorite doesn't mean you always
    win. I hope everybody around here remembers that. [Laughter]
        I want to congratulate the Lady Vols. They were terrific, especially
    down the stretch. Michelle Marciniak, their most valuable player, and
    all the team--they really--to win in the finals you have to play as a
    team. And I saw--I got a note from my staff before I came out here that
    says that there is a sign outside their locker room back in Knoxville
    that says, ``Offense fills seats. Defense wins games. And rebounding
    wins championships.'' That's kind of the way it works around here.
    [Laughter] And I like that.
        And I want to say again, as I did to you on the phone, Pat Summitt,
    we thank you for your winning ways, and we thank you for the values, the
    spirit, and the rules that you have followed all these years. You have
    got a formula for success as well as some exceedingly gifted young
    women. And we congratulate all of you. You've got a lot to be proud of.
        Now, as you might imagine just from Washington, DC's, location and
    the number of people that work from the Federal Government, we've got a
    lot of people around here that went to the University of Massachusetts
    and Syracuse and all those places, you know. And I told everybody that
    the best basketball in America this year was in the SEC. We nearly had
    an all-

    [[Page 784]]

    SEC women's Final Four. SEC did reasonably well in the men's division.
    And if we hadn't had to start all over again two or three times, we
    might have had even more in the Final Eight there.
        And at the end, I remember--we have one of my staff members who
    thinks that there's a basketball waiting for him in heaven who lives in
    Massachusetts. And I said, they really are a team with two great guards
    on offense and defense, but unless Kentucky has a bad day, no one will
    get close in this final tournament. And we all know that Kentucky never
    had a bad day.
        And I think one reason is--maybe the overwhelming reason is that
    even though they had fabulous players, many of which never got the
    individual recognition they deserve, they had a great team. And when you
    can consistently put 10 people out there that can shoot from anywhere
    and that can play defense as well as offense--I read, coach, I don't
    know if this is true, that no one averaged more than 27 minutes a game
    for the University of Kentucky. If that's true, that's a stunning
    statement about the fact that basketball is still a team sport.
        Interestingly enough, I thought about you after I saw the clips from
    the last Chicago Bulls-Magic game because the Chicago Bulls stars didn't
    get many points that day, but the team played like a dream. That's the
    way your guys played all year. And that's why you're sporting that 80
    percent winning percentage at Kentucky. And that's why Kentucky won the
    championship that it deserved. And I hope America will remember a lot
    not only about the stunning play of Tony Delk, who deserved to be the
    outstanding player of the tournament, but also about the teamwork that
    you exhibited all year long. And we congratulate you. Thank you very
    much.
        Now, I would like to ask Coach Summitt and Coach Pitino to come up
    here and say whatever they would like to say and bring whatever players
    they would like to play, because I know all of you really came to see
    them. But they are all very welcome at the White House.
        Thank you.

    [At this point, Ms. Summitt thanked her University of Tennessee women's
    team for its efforts during the season and congratulated the University
    of Kentucky men's team for its success. She then introduced players
    Michelle Marciniak and Latina Davis, who presented gifts to the
    President and Vice President. Next, Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino
    congratulated the Tennessee women's team and introduced players Mark
    Pope and Tony Delk, who presented gifts to the President and Vice
    President.]

        The President. I must say I liked having Mark up here. I was sort of
    standing in the shade back there--[laughter]--away from all the bright
    lights. It was great. What do you think? Hold it up.
        Again, let me say--we're going to take formal little photos now with
    the two teams, and then we will have a receiving line in the next room.
    So we will break up, but before we break up, again let me thank these
    two great universities, these two great States, and the coaches and the
    teams.
        I think that America likes March Madness and likes college
    basketball as much as anything else because it is both an individual and
    a team sport. And it has both rules and creativity, discipline and
    energy. And in that sense, it is sort of a symbol of what's best about
    our country when things are going well.
        And I hope we can all remember that. We all need to live with rules
    and creativity, with discipline and energy, and we all need to remember
    that, however good any of us are, we're all on a team. And when we're on
    the team, the team's doing well, the rest of us, we do pretty well
    individually.
        So thank you all for that, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:45 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Lt. Gov. Steve Henry of Kentucky.