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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 12, 2008


Beth Burns

Paris Johnson

Jene Morris


LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you want to just open with some remarks on the game.
COACH BURNS: Well, we have, as well-documented, a very young team. And when we play together and play on all cylinders, we've had great success this season. And I think that we had great confidence coming into the tournament, that if everybody did their job. You know with young teams it's harder to learn roles as quickly. If everybody did their job, then we could do what we could do.
And I can't tell you how much it means to us as a program because of the respect I have for Joe Legerski and his team, and how good, just how good they are and how far they're going to go in the NCAA tournament.
But I thought we set the tone defensively. Their offense is so good and they run such a rhythm offense that we really wanted to use our speed and stretch the floor and get ourselves in passing lanes.
And I told the bigs before the game that they had to be big. Duffy and Paris had to play for us to be successful because they can, and they did.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach. Questions directed to the student-athletes for the next few minutes.

Q. Jene, can you talk about just how big a step this is for this program at this point in time?
JENE MORRIS: We came into this tournament looking to go to the championship. This is a huge confidence builder for our team. You know, we kind of had a little rough point in our season, but we ended on a nice little run. And we came in here with confidence. And, you know, we're looking for the next step, the next game.

Q. And talk about the defense a little bit, particularly from your guards. That seemed to bother them a lot early.
JENE MORRIS: That's what our program is built off of, defense. We're a pressure-type team. Our guards played excellent defense today. You know, they had open looks but our pressure prevented them from getting those open looks. And like I said, we came out ready to play, hungry, and we started off the game great.

Q. Paris, the physical play seemed to be a big factor. Is that the way you like to play and talk about how that carried you guys in the game?
PARIS JOHNSON: Yeah, that's the way I like to play. Physicality is my number one thing to do, is get the rebounds, play tough in the post. I mean, a lot of girls are bigger than me but I don't back down from anybody. I go as hard as I can every night in practice and in a game. You know, I grew up playing around big girls all the time so they punched me around. It just made me stronger, made me a better player.
Just being in this game, it really meant I had to do something as a goal. Me and Allison both had to go in and play as hard as we could, stop their post players. A lot of their post players can shoot threes so we were mainly on the perimeters the whole time playing defense and getting our hands up on those three-point shots and that's all we could do, just play as hard as we can.

Q. Were you guys surprised to see the zone defense tonight or was that something that you guys expected?
PARIS JOHNSON: Well, we went in thinking, you know, they start off in a player. But any team, they always go in a zone. It wasn't surprising. As soon as they went into the zone, we knew we could pull it off. We had many things to run.
It just opened up the middle for us. I like playing against zone actually. It opens up the middle. I thought it was okay.
JENE MORRIS: It wasn't too much of a surprise. The last two nights we played them, we didn't have very good shooting nights. If I was a team playing against us I probably would have zoned us as well.

Q. Megan McGuffey is someone who hasn't got a lot of playing time this year. She had 22 points tonight. Is she someone who was overlooked? Were you concentrating on the other players?
COACH BURNS: She's a tough match-up because really she plays a small forward spot and with us having the lead I just was going to have one of my bigs guard her. And it was asking them to do a lot. We talked about her a lot, talked about the things that she does. But I think it was more her will and her ability to get to the baseline and shoot that pull-up. And they're two freshmen. That's really why when Mick had asked, we really sometimes have to extend our pressure because they run into each other. You know, they're freshmen. And I think it was more Megan making great plays and expecting it.
You know, yes, they knew Podziemska, yes, they knew number 10. But I think she did a fantastic job. We tried to adjust to it and talked about it in several time-outs.

Q. Beth, I know you have continued to refer to these guys as a young team, but they seem to be maturing pretty quickly especially after, you know, almost 30 games. Where are they with that maturity process right now?
COACH BURNS: Well, I think probably the unsung MVP, the locker room MVP right now is Quenese Davis. Jene got in early foul trouble. Quenese never came off the floor. She played full-court pressure the entire game. Last time I checked, bigs can't score unless somebody gets it to them. I think that her evolution -- we did have a tough stretch. Every time an injury hit and we lost a player, it took us down and we had to fight back from it. And it's interesting. I shouldn't say young because I yell at them all the time, Hey, it's March. You all have been playing since October.
It's more the experience factor. It's more the -- when I came in here this morning I have to explain you can't pick up a ball or the clock will start. They've never been to a tournament. They don't know these things. And it's all new and it's all exciting. But they're confident. And as well as our bigs played in the first half, we talked to the guards and said, Hey, they're 8 for 10, get your hands up, it's going in, it's coming back out, you got to knock down shots.
I think they're growing before your eyes. And the more success you have, the more confident you become.

Q. You talked about this team making a run in the tournament, but do you ever think maybe this win by you guys could put them on the bubble and maybe even put them out of the tournament?
COACH BURNS: Wyoming?

Q. Yeah.
COACH BURNS: Oh, no way. No way. With the -- Iowa came in second in the Big 10 and they won on their home floor. K State almost ran the table in the Big 12 and they beat them. They have so many quality wins and so many wins in the regular season. If you ask many coaches, I think regular-season champions are regular-season champions. They do it over the long haul. I don't think this affects Wyoming at all.
You know this is our 17th win. We've had some injuries so I don't think it's as if that it's a quote/unquote bad loss. It's third time on a neutral court.

Q. I guess I didn't mean it as a bad loss. With the upset earlier in the day, if a team other than TCU wins it, that would mean they would have to maybe put four Mountain West teams in the tournament.
COACH BURNS: I would have no problem with that, because that's the only way we're getting a ticket. I think going in, Utah and Wyoming are locks. But crazier things have happened before. It might affect seeding somewhat, what happened earlier today.
TCU has had a fantastic season. This is as good a TCU team as I've seen. Their Oklahoma State win will loom large for them. So if they -- you know, I think TCU has as good a shot as well.
I think the champion, if it doesn't come from those three, could potentially be a fourth. I really do. I have no doubt on Utah and Wyoming.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach. Appreciate it.

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