NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 30, 2001

Cheryl Burnett

Carly Deer

Tara Mitchem

Jackie Stiles

COACH CHERYL BURNETT: Our team started with a tremendous mission from the very first of the year. They had a goal. They wanted to develop a legacy, and we feel very proud of where it has taken us, but yet, I'm just as proud because our team is extremely disappointed that they didn't get to the level and to the ending game that they wanted to get. I know as a coach, it has been a tremendous privilege to coach this group of young ladies. They are extremely determined. They have hearts of competition. They will put everything out on the basketball court, and it's not just for every game, but it's also every day in practice, and as people, they are unbelievably passionate, classy women off the court. And I know their tears are because we lost a game that they knew that we could have been capable of winning. We simply didn't play well. And my tears have been when the game is over that I no longer get the privilege of coaching this fine group of women. It was fun coaching them every single day.

JACKIE STILES: Well, give Purdue credit. They did a great job defensively. Made our team work for everything. Made myself as an individual work for everything; work for every time I caught the ball. They made me work so hard the first half, the second half sort of just ran out of gas towards the end. Didn't quite have my legs under me. But that's no excuse. It's the Final Four. You've just got to go for it with everything that you have.

JACKIE STILES: You could never prepare yourself for this moment, knowing it is the last time you'll be playing as a Lady Bear. You know, playing with these wonderful teammates, playing for a wonderful coach, Coach Burnett and the rest of the coaching staff. Just had so much pride playing for Southwest Missouri State, and you never want something as good as that experience I've had, to end. It's just tough.

JACKIE STILES: It was definitely a great defensive effort. They did a great job. They are big, athletic, and made it very tough for me to catch. So, yes, it was definitely one of the best defenses all year.

JACKIE STILES: It does make a difference. We had an experience against Rutgers, they have a pretty big athletic -- kind of reminded me a lot of their defense. Just, again they did a great job and give them credit. They deserve to be in the championship game. They outplayed us, and I wish them luck tomorrow.

JACKIE STILES: Well, I can't say enough about our support, you know, from family, from our fans, Southwest Missouri State, they have just been tremendous. I take back many memorable moments that they have given me, playing at Hammond Student Center coming here and playing. We have just had an incredible following and I just want to thank them for everything that they have given me. You know, we wanted this game more for them than for ourselves because they have just been an incredible support. But unfortunately, we were unable to give it to them.

CARLY DEER: We knew they were going to be tough offensive rebounders, and our game plan coming in was to face them and get them out. We kind of threw that out the window. They were very tough. They are big and athletic, and, you know, we just didn't execute the blocking out that we would have liked to have, but also at the same time, they were just flying and getting their hands on everything. They are tough, and you can tell why they are in the National Championship game.

TARA MITCHEM: Katie Douglas is an amazing player. It was a total team effort tonight that we wanted to stop her, and unfortunately our defense just wasn't there. But we have played against great players all year. You know, we wish we could have this one back, because we didn't play to our potential.

COACH CHERYL BURNETT: They did disrupt us. You know, we always feel that at the defensive end, we want to be disrupting people. At the same time -- which I'm not saying this maliciously and I'm not saying this other than factually. I think one of the big factors for us, and this is me as a coach, understanding what we look like just in shoot around -- we're tired. And I'm not saying that as an excuse by any means. But I think the first and second-round games now catch up with us, going all the way out East, going all the way out West, having just a very short turnaround, and coming then -- you get to kind of come back home, but we basically have been on the road for three weeks. So I think it made their defensive effort -- give them credit -- look a lot better when we are missing easy shots and don't quite finish things. I know I'm really tired. The players have to be just as tired.

COACH CHERYL BURNETT: Yeah, we knew coming into the game we would have to do a great job of blocking them out and as you can see by their offensive numbers they did a great job of offensively rebounding. Any time that we would muster enough defensive pressure, then we would give them a second shot. And certainly, we felt like their post play was a very big key for us, and Katie Douglas, and it does end up that that comes through; that their post play made a major difference because of their great rebounding. And certainly, Katie Douglas, we really didn't stop her all night.

COACH CHERYL BURNETT: You know, I really don't feel like it was. We felt like that was a big positive. We did think it was an advantage getting out of Springfield. I know our players were just getting phone calls and visitors and they got no rest while they were at home. But it's a great thing, to have all of this attention. What a wonderful thing. You know, the thing that is hard, and it's also great for Jackie, is, you know, she's flying to Minneapolis in the middle of when she needs to be getting some rest, and getting some individual awards and things, and probably that was a distraction. But what a great thing for her. I don't know if I would have done anything differently, but I think that did affect our game.

COACH CHERYL BURNETT: We felt like in the first half that we needed to do a better job of what we call, "Helping on the dribble and rotating" and forcing them to do something other than just go catch passes; that we didn't feel like we were executing and defending the way that we wanted to. At the first of the second half, I thought our players did a great job of trying to muster all of the energy and all of the mental toughness and all of the disciplines, to make some things happen, and then sure enough, we do something and then give them an easy offensive rebound or put them at the free throw line and try to take a charge. And it didn't end up being what we would want for it to be. I thought maybe we were going to make a charge there, as in, some momentum, in the second half, but I thought Purdue just did a great job of hitting the big shots, getting the big rebound, and then stopping what we were trying to do offensively, as well.

COACH CHERYL BURNETT: Yeah, it really is. And just to reiterate what I said before, this group's leadership -- and just for a coach, to have a team that listens, you know, one of the things about this team, they concentrate on detail. You know, you tell this team anything, and they are going to listen and retain it. We are losing so much experience and so much greatness, that there's no way to replace either one, the greatness nor the experience. We do believe that we have a good core group that now has experience playing all the way into a Final Four, and gives them a standard that we now need to live up to.