2005 MWC Basketball Tournament Postgame Quotes

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March 11, 2005

An Interview With: UNLV LADY REBELS

COACH Regina Miller: I thought we played hard. I thought we played very focused. We really competed each possession and I thought, you know, it is something I emphasized with the team.

We are a team of quality and, you know, you look out there ?? and I just heard Don say that 99 percent of the fans there at the game was for the Lobos, but we did hear our percent that was there.

However, we don’t have necessarily have the quantity, but I thought we played with quality. You know, we put a great effort out there. It is unfortunate that we didn’t make enough layups. I thought that hurt us down the stretch when they made their run. They scored two points within the last four minutes; that is going to hurt you. We just didn’t close the game. I thought it was a great effort by the Lady Rebels and a very competitive game.

JIM MILLER: Questions directed to Sheena or Nikki.

Question: Sheena, talk about the sequence at the end of the game where you had a pretty open look, and you have been making them the last couple of days. What was going through your mind? Did you feel you were rushed, or did you feel good about it?

Sheena Moore: I shot the ball with confidence. I did feel rushed. I didn’t have time to look at the clock. I believe we passed it in, dribbled it a couple of dribbles. I believe it was 5.3 seconds left. I guess I didn’t realize how much time we had, and I rushed it.

I felt like it was going to go off the glass actually. I felt like it had a chance.

Question: Nikki, with RanDee on the bench, you really did a nice job stepping up along with Amy Loftus to keep this team in the game. Could you talk about the role you played today, and your ability to keep this team in this game, and in the lead for quite a while?

Nikki Hitchens: My biggest thing was to focus and finish all shots around the basket, rebound and give my team the best opportunity to win this game. With RanDee out, I felt like I just wanted to rebound hard and focus and be concentrate around the basket.

Question: As you guys were executing and making plays, could you sense a growing confidence as you guys were playing this game? You were still in the lead. Was there a sense among the players on the court that you could keep this thing going to the end and finish it out? Did you get a sense there was a growing confidence?

Nikki Hitchens: I think everybody was confident at that point. I think our defense helped us build confidence. I think our intensity, you know, really helps us gain more confidence on offense.

JIM MILLER: Anything else for the student athletes? We’ll let you two guys go and open up the floor for questions directed to Coach Regina Miller.

Question: How tough is this knowing that your kids basically executed everything you wanted them to do? You did a nice job against the zone, you didn’t turn it over that much until late in the game. You overcame the adversity of RanDee being in foul trouble. How tough is this for you personally to know that your kids did everything you wanted and you still came up short in a game of such big magnitude?

COACH Regina Miller: Kind of tough to find the words because I really felt like we competed hard. It was again a game to win. I felt like we had the opportunity. We just didn’t execute well enough down the stretch. You know, we stumped them with a two?white defense. We trapped them a little bit, made them spread out. They got some open looks and they missed them. We rebounded out of our zone. We went to that late in the second half. That also struggled a little bit of our run.

But we had a couple of opportunities to make some layups. We missed them around the basket. And you know, contact or not, it is going to happen. You know, they let a lot go today. The officials ?? it was 15 fouls to 14. It is not like it was 25 to 12. So, you know, you just got to finish those plays and finish with the contact. I think obviously some calls went against us late particularly on Marsh around the basket. She is so athletic, she still jumped and got the rebound.

Question: (Inaudible question.)

COACH Regina Miller: We made our free throws. My philosophy again is you have to make all free throws and layups. We missed to many layups. That is the only way you can control the game. That is all you have in your control, and rebounding the basket.

Question: I’m not that privy to the Women’s NIT as I am to the Men’s. Is your record good enough to permit you to keep playing beyond today?

COACH Regina Miller: I haven’t thought much about that. Our goal has been to make it to the NCAA tournament. Last year we made a great run in the NIT. We played in the championship game. The only thing we haven’t done is win it.

I think in our program our ultimate goal year in and year out is to play in the NCAA tournament. We felt confident today. If we could have beat the New Mexico team, that anything could happen tomorrow. But you know, again, Steve, I haven’t thought much about it. I need to visit with our seniors and see how they feel.

You know, when you think about our team this year, we played with a total different team than we were a year ago. Although we had four returning starters back, the dynamics of this team totally changed without Sherry McCracken. RanDee Henry became the person that teams really double, triple team. Last year RanDee could bounce around, shoot threes, play a little bit in touch because Sherry was the big sister and more of the tiger, so the dynamics changed without her in the line?up.

I have to evaluate and see where we are and if we get that nod from the NIT, we will evaluate that. We’d be grateful that we would have an opportunity to continue to play. But that is right now the farthest from my mind.

JIM MILLER: Anything else for Coach Miller? Thank you, Coach Miller.

An Interview With: NEW MEXICO LOBOS

JIM MILLER: Okay. We’re joined by New Mexico head coach, Don Flanagan; student athletes, No. 21, Mandi Moore; No. 33, Dionne Marsh. Coach, open with some general comments, then we’ll open it up for questions for the student athletes.

COACH FLANAGAN: Congratulations to UNLV. What a great game they played. They came with a great deal of determination and skill. Very difficult team for us to play. They came here to win the game. I thought it was about as good a college as I have seen this year. It was a great game. There was never much of a difference scorewise between one team and another. I thought the end result was pretty dramatic. A lot of fun for the part of the coach.

Looking back at the game, what I can remember of it, there was a lot of ups and downs. This team has never given up. Although they have a lot of success, they are not afraid to be down. They seem to respond when they are challenged. We did respond quite well. And, you know, the ball bounced our way a couple of times, maybe away from them a couple of times. I noticed our defense improved. I thought Dionne played a great game offensively and Mandi gave us a great forty minutes. That is the greatest effort that I have ever seen a player give for forty minutes.

Question: Mandi, you looked pretty cool on those free throws. You are obviously used to situations like that. Could you talk about that?

Mandi Moore: When we played them at our place, it was close. After the bonehead play I made by shooting it with 23 seconds left, I thought, Man, I have got to come back. I said a prayer and He was with me and I made them.

JIM MILLER: Other questions?

Question: Did you notice they had not fixed the net when you shot the first free throw, it was still all wadded up?

Mandi Moore: No. That was the last thing on my mind. I was concentrating. I was telling myself I can make these and I was a good free thrower.

COACH FLANAGAN: She upwinded it anyway.

Question: Go back to the shot you took that you would like to take back, I am sure?

Mandi Moore: We got the rebound. For some odd reason, I thought we had more than 30 seconds left. It doesn’t make a difference. I shouldn’t have shot it. I was going to take it in and then I saw Henry there, I pulled up and babied it. We got the rebound. I thought, Oh, my gosh, what have I done? I have probably blown the game for us. I thought, Let’s get back on defense.

They drove the lane on us and shot it. I don’t think she hit the rim and we got the rebound. It came back and that is when they fouled. I just thought I had 30 seconds or so left. As I let it go, I thought, That was the dumbest shot you have taken.

Question: Dionne, would you talk about all the practice that you do during practice for that 40?foot jump shot?

Dionne Marsh: I have never even practiced it ever. I guess it was just lucky. They said three seconds. As soon as they threw it in, I kind of forgot. All I heard was the crowd yelling. I heard two. I threw it up, and it went in.

Question: Dionne, has it occurred to you that you are a freshman; you are not supposed to be doing all this stuff?

Dionne Marsh: Really, this team is really good about not focusing on what year you are. It is basically on what you can do and how you help the team. Which is one thing I like about the girls. They put us all in different situations. I guess I am pretty good about what I do right now. I still have a lot of work to do. All I will do is continue to work hard and be able to add something else to my game next year.

JIM MILLER: Anything else for Mandi or Dionne? Okay, ladies, we’ll let you go.

Question: I haven’t seen your team play this year. So I am kind of curious, is your constantly taking Dionne out of the game for long stretches a normal thing, or was there something physically wrong with her that you felt you needed to rest her longer? Were you concerned that it might impact the team’s rhythm having her on the bench for the stretches you had her today?

COACH FLANAGAN: There was a couple of questions in there. Let me ?? first of all, I think she has got a little touch of asthma, so she fatigues quickly. If you noticed, I played Mandi forty minutes.

If Dionne could go like Mandi does for forty minutes, I am not substituting because she is getting tired. Usually when she gets tired, she rests on defense. Offensively she seems to be able to get the energy to play a little bit harder. But she is just learning on defense. She is really learning on offense, too.

She is one of those players that is ambidextrous around the basket. When she jumps in the air, she’s not sure which hand she will shoot with. She is gifted. If she keeps working on her game, she will be a great college player.

Question: Don, when Judy took that three, was that maybe a no?no, no good shot type of thing?

COACH FLANAGAN: No. One of the things you don’t want to do with players is restrict their shot. Especially against a team like UNLV that is quick. You will not always get a great look. If you get a look in transition, we are shooting it. I just talked about that particular shot. The only concern I have is that we need to have numbers. It can’t be you are the Lone Ranger down there and we don’t have a chance to get a rebound.

On that particular shot, I thought it was a good chance to get a rebound. Absolutely she can take that shot. We work on things like that. One of the things we are talking about is open looks. Open look can come in your offense, it can come in transition. That was a transition open look. A great shot by Judy. As far as if you restrict players and give them too much rules about when to shoot, then there is some decision?making processes that seem to hurt shooting percentages.

Question: Did you play more man today than in the other two games? I really can’t remember. I think you did. If so, why?

COACH FLANAGAN: That is a good question. I don’t think we played more man than we did the last time at home. We played them a little bit of man at home and mostly zone away. They have a lot of people that can break it down with their creative ability, individual ability. So, a zone seems to fit. They were getting a little baseline, you know, they worked on it, you know you don’t have a lot of preparation timing here.

We weren’t cutting off that short corner drive. Dionne was having a real serious problem with that. Jenny did a good job with it, but Dionne couldn’t cut that short corner drive?off. That was the reason we played a little bit of man. I thought when RanDee Henry went out that we could match up just a little bit better defensively in man.

Question: Don, three games, three three?point decisions, you said earlier in your opening comment that UNLV is a difficult match?up for your team. Can you expand on that as to why they give you problems and why these games are so competitive?

COACH FLANAGAN: Of our five players, four of their players are quicker than ours. So Dionne is the only one that can match up quickness?wise. They are quicker. Their skill with the ball, ball?handling is quite good. I am surprised that UNLV hasn’t had more success. As far as I am concerned, they are difficult to play, very difficult to defend. They get in your passing lane. That may be a problem. One of our problems is not moving well without the ball, not setting enough screens. I think people that set screens better than we do have better luck against them.

They are an outstanding team with individual talent. I think they are capable of beating anybody at the tournament. They just didn’t beat us today.

Question: Chances are that every game you play the rest of the way will be like that. You are not going to play any teams that you will beat twenty points or more. Does it make you feel good?

COACH FLANAGAN: First of all, positive experience is very important for teams. If we play well late in the game at this point, who knows? Obviously our next game if we get fortunate enough to go to the NCAA tournament, it will be a difficult competition. We have to maintain poise and character. I think this team has that kind of character. I am real happy they had success today. One of the reasons why I think they feel comfortable here is last year we had success in this tournament. We played very well in this tournament. It helps when 99 percent of the crowd is for you.

Question: Don, this was a very emotional game, a very physical game. How hard is it for your kids to recover in 26 hours and play whoever wins that second game?

COACH FLANAGAN: Why, you know, years ago when we were in the WAC and we had to win four games in four days, they should have rested during that day off. I played a few people. Mandi might be tired. Knowing Mandi, she will respond to any challenge. I am hoping when I go Utah there and watch Utah and BYU, I hope they are knocking each other all over the place so we are on a even keel, whoever wins it.

JIM MILLER: Anything else for Coach? Thank you.