NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - CREIGHTON VS IOWA STATE

March 24, 2022

Jim Flanery

Greensboro Coliseum

Creighton Bluejays

Sweet 16 Media Conference

JIM FLANERY: Well, we're thrilled to be here. I think last weekend was really special and I think incredible for our program, and it hasn't really kind of stopped, but you've got to turn the page and then get ready for a really good Iowa State team. So I think our team knows that. I think they've handled their business all year in terms of that.

In our league we play a lot of Fridays and Sundays, and you can have a great win on Friday, but then you've got to turn around and by Saturday morning you have to be ready to start getting prepped for that next one. So we've had some time to prep for Iowa State. We know what a challenge that will be and how prepared they'll be, but we're thrilled at the opportunity, and can't wait for that for tomorrow night. It's strange, though, that two teams that are two and a half hours away have to get on an airplane to North Carolina to play, but if that's the way it is, we'll be okay with that.

Q. Jim, what's this journey been like for you as an Iowa guy and just everything you've gone through throughout your coaching career to get to where you're at now?

JIM FLANERY: Yeah, I was accused of being too much of a storyteller in Iowa City, but I will tell you that the two schools that I chose from when I came out of high school were Iowa and Creighton. I was not recruited to play basketball at either institution, and had I been -- had I had a room at Iowa, I might have chosen Iowa, but my parents kind of pushed me to go to Creighton and said if you don't like it, you can leave, and I ended up going there, loved it, and here I am a million years later.

Yeah, you know, the Iowa connection, to play in Iowa City last weekend and to now play Iowa State is maybe a little bit extra for me, but at the same time when you've coached a long time, you have friends all over the profession or at least you hope you do, and connections all over the profession.

So it's not necessarily any different than if we played anybody else, but as far as what it means -- I do think our program is in a better place than it's ever been in terms of when we joined the Big East, our facilities had already started to get better. They've continued to improve, and we've been able to, I believe, recruit at a little bit higher level. Because we're getting a little bit better players, we're a little bit more competitive, and we're in a league that pushes us and challenges us to raise our game. So when we're in a position where we're stressed like we were in Iowa City both games really. The Colorado game was misleading. It was a ten-point win; it was not a ten-point game. We're in a position where we can execute at the end. I think that's certainly going to be important.

Yeah, I think our program is in great shape because of the commitment that the university has made and because of our time in the Big East.

Q. Were you kind of saying that the grand scheme of things you were hoping to stay in Iowa and possibly go to Iowa?

JIM FLANERY: Well, yeah, probably. Either Iowa or Iowa State. I mean, everybody who reads knew that we were probably in a position where we would maybe play either of those two, and I just said if it was -- if I knew it was going to be warm, then that would be the perfect case scenario because you either want to go somewhere warm or somewhere close, and it was actually pretty warm in Iowa City last weekend so, we kind of got the best of both worlds.

Q. It almost sounded like you had kind of wanted to go to Iowa when you were coming out of high school. Did I read that right?

JIM FLANERY: Well, yeah, but I was 17 or 18, and my parents were kind of telling me they wanted me to go to Creighton. So when you are 17 or 18 and your parents tell you they want you to go one place, you kind of lean the other way just because that's what they're telling you, so I can't really say that it was -- and the other part is when I visited Creighton, it was with my mom. There was a snowstorm, and I had to stay overnight in one of the residence halls in a box room with my mom. So it wasn't the best campus visit from that standpoint, which may have skewed my perception.

Anyway, it ended up being a good decision, I think. I can't believe I remember that.

Q. Coach, being from Iowa, the Iowa roots, when you go into Iowa City last week and you beat Iowa in front of a sold-out crowd, after the game is over, are there texts from friends and family, maybe some joking, some having fun, but obviously, congratulatory? And then if I can follow up on that, just what has it been like for you? Obviously, you're familiar with these programs, but to have it in the fashion where you're playing one team in the second round, the following team in the Sweet 16?

JIM FLANERY: Well, in a bus it's close to three hours and 40 minutes from Iowa City to Omaha. Rachael Saunders tells me she can make it in 3:20, but I texted people back the whole time. I took maybe two phone calls. It was three and a half hours of texting. That didn't include the emails that I responded to the following morning. It was great, but there's numbers in there that I had no idea who was congratulating me.

But, yeah, I think it's special. I think there was more interest because of the Iowa part of it, and because a lot of my friends growing up are either Iowa or Iowa State fans, so that certainly plays into it too.

Yeah, it was a lot to respond to, but I think it also lets you know that people are paying attention, and the other part of that it was on ABC in front of almost 15,000 people, which is great for our sport, and I think that -- I mean, what a platform for our program in particular too. I think that too has a chance to I think elevate our program. But what Iowa girls and women's basketball has done to the sport overall is remarkable too. I think that wasn't lost on me after Sunday too when I said that. I said that environment is in large part because of what the Iowa program and what is and also what Iowa State's program is and how much of a pedestal that girls basketball is on in the State of Iowa.

Q. This is your 20th season with Creighton, which is incredible. Just the commitment to one program and to finally reach this point, what does that mean for you personally and just how does it feel to see that all come together after 20 years as head coach?

JIM FLANERY: I mean, I was a philosophy major, and I think I can come down from a high and come up from the low maybe a little bit quicker than a lot of coaches, I think. I think I majored in philosophy because of who and how I am, but I also think that helped me.

I know Kirsten, our volleyball coach says, Well, you handle losing so much better than I do, and I say, I don't know about that, but I do think that's what has kept me at Creighton because it's not perfect. No place is perfect. There's days where you are frustrated, and there are days where you wish the weather was warmer and you coached somewhere further south, but I do think it's been helpful that I'm kind of wired that way, but also because I went to school at Creighton and because I have so many relationships even from my time as a student and through all that time, in some ways you can't imagine being anywhere else.

For ten minutes you can or for an hour you can or when you read what somebody else is making, you can, but then you reflect and you think that that's not what's important and what is important are the relationships that I've made and people sticking with me.

Bruce, he has helped me through the not-so-good times. When you have that, then you don't want to leave just because the times are good, but because you know what you have is authentic, and I think that's so much a part of why I've stayed. Also, the growth.

I just talked about things get -- have gotten better at Creighton. We've upped the ante in terms of our commitment. When you see that too, you get excited, and that renews your energy. The other part is getting in the Big East. It was like taking a new job without taking a new job because I got new challenges, a newness, but I also didn't have to move and go through all the tough things about a job change. Those are all factors.

Q. Jim, this is a tournament that hasn't always had the most unpredictability of one, twos, and threes, and fours always making it, but this is a bracket where you are in here. North Carolina had to win on the road also. How difficult is it that to pull as a lower seed to kind of have these break-through moments in March in the women's game?

JIM FLANERY: I think it's important -- or I think it's difficult or you would see more of it, but I think we're on the cusp of seeing more of that. I believe that the balance and the parity is on its way. I don't know at the very, very top. I think it's tougher, but I do believe that outside of maybe those teams that have really stockpiled and have a really -- have an older team -- have a lot of All Americans and they're older. I think those are the teams that it's really tough to beat them, but I think beyond that, there is a parity.

I think for us, I think style of play is a factor. We play differently than a lot of teams, and I think that really helped us. I know I've said this, but when J.R. from Colorado was asked before our first round game, well, who is the comparable team in the PAC-12 to Creighton? She's, like, nobody. They play differently. I think that helps. When you've gone from a 16 or 18 or 20-game conference schedule and you are playing teams that you are familiar with, they play the same way they played last year, first time, second time, conference tournament. Now all of a sudden two and a half months later you're playing a team that's different, and it's different than you've seen in your league, and now you have to figure out a way to practice. It's like if I was a football coach and all I saw was I'm in the Big 12, and all I see is pass-happy teams and now I'm going to play a team that's going to run the ball 60 times, that's an adjustment.

I think that helps us in a tournament. I think that's because we are -- we're unconventional offensively. We kind of invert, and our bigs can play like smalls, and we're not -- our offense isn't -- it's a little less. It's a little more random than a lot of offenses. I think that helped us in our short prep against Iowa too. Even though we scrimmage Iowa every year, I know that, again, we're just different, and that can help us.

I think there's two points. One, there is parity coming. It's better than it's ever been, but I think from Creighton's standpoint, it helps us that we're just a little bit different from a style standpoint.

Q. I have two questions. The first is, what about Iowa State is stressing you out? What's been the thing that you focus on? Secondly, I know you mentioned that you accidentally brought your wife's pants to the last -- to Iowa City. Did you bring the pants back because they kind of feel like a lucky charm?

JIM FLANERY: I'll answer the first one. Or the second one first, I mean. No, I did not bring them. I'm disappointed. I thought about it. I don't know if she packed them. If she did, maybe I can wear them. I thought about wearing them in the locker room before the game, and then not wearing them out in the audience.

But what stresses me out about Iowa State is Ashley Joens, Emily Ryan, Lexi Donarski. Bill and his staff do a great job of playing to their strengths and making you play away from your strengths. That's what they'll do tomorrow night. They are who they are. They can really stretch you out because of the way they shoot the ball, and then they've got good one-on-one players. Obviously, Ashley, but I think Emily Ryan is a really good one-on-one player and Donarski is good.

Then, you know, they're going to know what they want to do defensively. They're going to have a plan on who they're going to leave and who they're going to focus on more, who they're going to try to take out of the game. I think they really scheme defensively well. I think Bill has always done that.

I think when he got in the Big 12 and he saw all those athletes at Texas and Baylor and that he knew he had to be really good in that area, and he has traditionally done a great job of that. I think that's going to present -- we're going to be challenged on both ends.

Again, I think we're not the easiest team to prepare for, and we are maybe a little bit different than a lot of teams because we don't run a cookie cutter offense where you can just say, here's what we're going to do. We're a little bit, like I said, more random, and a little bit more able to kind of morph during the course of a game into something a little different than what we maybe were the previous game.

Q. There are a lot of changes off court mainly this year of name, image, and likeness. I was wondering how you have addressed that with your players and kind of how you talked with your players and also kind of as the spotlight is getting bigger here, are things changing?

JIM FLANERY: Yeah. I guess I haven't had that many conversations with them about that. We did last summer, but my understanding is limited enough that I left it to people who knew more to talk about it, and I also know that our young women are smart enough to kind of figure some of that stuff out better than I am because it is mostly social media-based. It's what are you going to do -- what is your social media platform, and that's how most of the deals are being made. Our players are not looking to me for that kind of guidance.

But my biggest thing is I just want to treat them in a way that they wouldn't want to leave Creighton even if they didn't get to capitalize on that. That's the biggest thing is we want to be as authentic when they come to Creighton as we supposedly were when we recruited them. We feel like if we treat them the right way, they maybe aren't quite as willing to think that that's going to affect their experience all that much, and I think it's great that we have it, but I think it's also important that we don't think that that they have to have that because not every kid is going to have that, and you need those kids to be bought in and invested.

I certainly didn't fight it, but I'm also -- I'm not that smart, but I'm smart enough to know that that's not an area where I can really help them, but we do give them the resources of people who can. Like I said, they're smart enough to kind of figure that out on their own.

Thank you, guys.