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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 14, 2009

Paris Johnson

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Utah Â– 63
San Diego State - 58

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by San Diego State student-athletes JenÃ© Morris and Paris Johnson, and coach Beth Burns. Coach, if we could start with you with some general comments about the game.
COACH BURNS: Well, I think it was a great game. You know, I told our team, how cool was it that they were 13-3, we were 13-3. We split with each other. It's like you're on the playground and you both have H-O-R-S. We have a chance to find out who gets 'E' before it's next season.
They are a great champion. I thought we gave them everything we had and then some. They really made it difficult for us to get inside the paint, to get anything through the paint. They played to our weaknesses, obviously. We just weren't able to get enough from the perimeter to match them.
With that said, I thought defensively we did a fabulous job. They made some great plays in a spurt that, as we just talked about in the locker room, I think affected us a little bit because we'd been able to maintain that lead for a majority of the game. We reacted a little bit I think when Warburton hit that really big three.
I couldn't be prouder of our team. Stranger things have happened. But I think our season is going to continue forward. So we will regroup after this and be excited to see what happens on Monday afternoon.
THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll open it up for questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Paris, how did you think you reacted after that three that Warburton hit? Seemed like things got maybe a little tight for you.
PARIS JOHNSON: When that three was hit, you know, we couldn't let that get us down. We knew we still had a chance. We just got to keep fighting back, don't let anything stop us from what we're trying to accomplish.
I mean, it kind of gave us a little shake, but we still had to push forward.
THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes at this time. Thank you, ladies. We'll open it up for questions for Coach Burns.

Q. Postgame I'm sure you look at the stat sheets, the free throws stand out to you?
COACH BURNS: Free throws always stand out to me. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?
You asked; I answered.

Q. It seemed like you had a problem with their set stuff underneath. Talk about that a little bit.
COACH BURNS: Well, they're real good at it. You know, we usually have two full days of preparation. Everybody's teams are different. Our team is a physical rep team. We came over here this morning. Some people don't. It is a very mental time of year. But if you have a physical rep team, you have a physical rep team. We need to walk through things. It helps us more to walk through things and talk through things.
Anytime you're in a tournament setting, it makes it that much more difficult. If something new is in, we have to try to adjust in a timeout.
But without question, I wouldn't disagree with you. We did our best on the fly with some stuff that was new stuff. We adjusted to it in a timeout, but not until a couple had gotten away.

Q. Kalee Whipple had no points in the first half. What did she do so differently in the second half?
COACH BURNS: Just kind of Kalee Whippleized. She's a great player.
You know, I think I've seen just about everybody play Utah this year. I don't know that we haven't played Morgan and Kalee as well as anyone in both of our contests.
What hurt us was Katie King. What hurt us was Badon. What hurt us was such an inordinate disparity on the free throw line. We don't generate enough offense to be able to combat that. She was 20 minutes away from scissors and a net. That's what we do this all for.
I don't think we didn't not do something. I'm not being disrespectful. They may have adjusted. I'm not saying they didn't. It's nothing I hadn't seen her do that much before. And that's what I told our team.
Obviously the people who were responsible for her are inconsolable. When great players make great plays, great players make great plays. You've got to live with that.

Q. Are you nervous at all about Monday?
COACH BURNS: You know, we've done our work. I think we've really done our work. I don't know that you could say, you know, in league a road loss at Utah, a road loss at TCU Round 1, we had a road loss in Wyoming early, but they proceeded to I think finish 8-8 in the league. We're on a run of about, I don't know, probably 8-2 over our last 10 games. We obviously had a non-conference rÃ©sumÃ©.
But who knows. You know, until they call your name... Obviously, you're here, you're absorbed. I have no clue what's happening across America at other places. I think I've said this before: I am all about No. 1 seeds winning their tournament because stuff happens. If somebody has a better rÃ©sumÃ©, then...
But I believe we can compete in the NCAA tournament. I believe we've done enough to compete in the NCAA tournament. But usually more than 64 voices are saying that at this time of year.

Q. How hurt was Paris? Was she limited in the second half?
COACH BURNS: No. I mean, I don't exactly know. I haven't had time to really revisit.
I think, you know, she got the ball. She got swarmed. Don't believe there was a call. She got swarmed, went up, and somebody had a body part. So she went up and an arm stayed down. It just was the pain. You know how that happens, when you go one way and another way. It was that shooting pain.
I didn't know at that time, and obviously then they go on a run. We have to have two freshmen bigs in there. You have to do what you do. Then I got the word she's okay, she's okay. It was kind of a stinger, I think.
I thought she was fine in the second half. I just think they aren't going to give us paint points. Our only paint points were run-outs. They're not going to give us anything easy in the paint.

Q. I know you're probably not going to answer this question, which is unusual for you, but is there anything that can be done about the traveling in this league?
COACH BURNS: Meaning?

Q. The non-calls.
COACH BURNS: I thought you meant because I have to fly, I look that bad and I'm so fatigued. One plane ride too many. A lot of years of flying those planes (laughter).
You know, I'm consumed. I've got a full-time job. I think we have to revisit the tournament. By doing the things that we did, I was told, hurt ourselves relative to there's other tournaments that are going on. If you have a tournament to work as an official and there's no bye day, you're going to make more money. Some of the other leagues put exclusivity into their leagues. So that's really hurt us.
In other words, before they could go Big 12 on Wednesday, Mountain West on Thursday... Now there's been a problem and people are gonna stay where they're gonna stay. Because we have that gap day, people don't want to work this tournament because they're going to lose money.
I don't know how that changes unless you go to a different venue.
But I think this spring will be lively with people's interpretations of what this structure means for the league. I mean, you could argue that it worked the way it was supposed to work, if that's the way you intended it to work because the two top seeds ended up playing one another. But I think there's going to be a lot of discussion on that. One of the, I think, big deals is because of how it affected which officials you could get to come to your tournament.
Everything's on the line in this game, everything.

Q. Did you feel like you started to rush things a little bit after Warburton's three?
COACH BURNS: No question. No question. And, you know, they're such a good team. I only had two timeouts at the time. There's a lot of game left, and you don't want -- you know you might have to score and call one.
I just think it's -- if it had been a back and forth, I don't think it would have been. But we'd been able to get the most minute of separation and maintain it for about eight trips, whether we came up empty or not, came up empty, got a stop, came up empty, got a stop. For us with a breakdown, we don't usually give up threes. We'll give you twos before we give up a three. I think that hurt psychologically, too. That's something we don't really like to do.
And I tried to get them back. We're not a three-point shooting team, obviously. But we sure can put it on the floor and get around you. I think we just got a little panicked. That's what I just talked to our team about, how wonderful it is that we can still learn this lesson and apply it next week, 'cause that's what we've got to take from this. Nobody wins a NCAA tournament game by 15.
What's three with two minutes to go? It's nothing. But I thought it shook us up.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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