MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 12, 2005

Elaine Elliott

Lana Sitterud

Kim Smith

COACH ELLIOTT: Well, you know, I mean, a hard-fought game. It was wasn't pretty. Both teams played really, really hard. We competed hard. I am really proud of our team for what we asked, which is just a great effort, you know, great intensity. Those things were there. You know, the offense wasn't. The shooting wasn't. We just -- I love this team. I love these kids sitting up here for what they have given us, a great conference season. We're proud of what we've done. We're proud of the commitment that we've made. We played to compete. I still feel that way after a hard-fought game.

KIM SMITH: Well, I think we were tired. I mean, we're playing three games in four days, so you are going to be a little tired. An explanation for it? Not really. They just weren't falling tonight. I think we did a good job as a team doing the things we could control. We just couldn't put the ball in the hoop tonight.

LANA SITTERUD: What Kim said, you know, we can't have the excuse that we're tired. I am sure New Mexico is tired. They shot well and we didn't. Maybe it was the environment. I don't know what it was. I wish I could tell you.

COACH ELLIOTT: I think in any game, of course there is that point in time where you know who is going to make a play. What turns it is whether it is a big defense or a big board or a put back or just simply who comes down and hits a shot and who can't match it. I think they have done that all year. And that is what that I have done so well. Somebody just hits something and it just sticks a dagger in you. We never hit that shot all night. In that point in time, certainly that is the case. You are just right there, and somebody off their team says, no. That is how you win games. We have done that a lot. We obviously had it done to us tonight.

COACH ELLIOTT: I was surprised last year. I thought I really knew pretty much what was going on after all the years that I have been around. But, you know, they sort of -- they meaning the committee. You learn what it is they want you to do to make their decisions more clear, easier. We did every one of those things. I absolutely, this time, believe and I -- I don't want to even discuss what emotions would occur if I am wrong this time, you know. I am still around after last year. I don't know if I would be this year.

COACH ELLIOTT: Well, I don't know. I don't have the answer. My best theory is that these aren't made for your best teams. These are made for the seven teams that don't win. Or the six teams. That is what the conference tournaments are made for. It's never been made for the your best teams. The best teams proven over two months who they are and where they should go and what should happen to them. That is why you don't see -- it is not usual that the conference winner wins the conference tournament. Like all over the country, how many one seeds don't win their tournaments. New Mexico is doing great. It isn't normal. It is just a testament to them. It is still, I think, theoretically like that just two times in six years. Again, it is not like every single year that happens. It is a grind to win a regular season championship. Your focus is on that every single game for two months. Other teams are here. Their focus has been on the tournament for anywhere from six weeks to two weeks. It is a different mental approach. Perhaps it is a difficult one to do. Perhaps I haven't been good at creating the next step, I guess.

COACH ELLIOTT: The only thing I was not happy with us is that we lost what was happening in the paints. I wasn't concerned about that. We weren't getting shots. We weren't hitting any of them and we needed difficult ones. We needed to get the ball to the post. It was either your guards weren't looking or your posts weren't posting. That's kind of our story. You know, it doesn't matter if it is repleting and cajoling and, you know -- that is the one thing that needed to have happened and it didn't.

COACH ELLIOTT: She is special freshman. When you can put the kind of numbers up and make an impact on the games that she has, I mean, there is no doubt. First of all, Moore and Arndt did there part. That team is about Moore and Arndt. But, yes, that third piece, that other kid, in this case, gives them that different dimension in the post. I mean, a different game with Arndt and Moore, what they do for that team. She is the difference maker within, but without losing the fact that this team is about Moore and Arndt. I don't know. Those two kids have had great careers. They're finishing well. That should happen for any kind of pair of kids that come in to a system, play together with that much talent, and are that successful for their four-year career.