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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2006

DENVER, COLORADO

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and begin with TCU, joined by head coach Jeff Mittie, Natasha Lacy and Adrianne Ross.
Coach, would you begin with some general comments.
COACH JEFF MITTIE: First off, I want to congratulate Wyoming. They've got a great basketball team. Joe's team, he's done a fantastic job with them.
We knew that the lead that we had was not safe because of how they play. We held -- we did such a great job defensively early in that game. I felt like if offensively we could continue to score, that would be key because I knew their offense wasn't going to remain at, I think they were at 12% first half.
All in all, pleased with the victory. We've had three great games with Wyoming. This was just another one of those.
THE MODERATOR: Questions directed to the student-athletes.
Q. Do each of you guys feel like this maybe solidifies you for an NCAA tournament bid? Most people say the Mountain West is going to get four bids.
NATASHA LACY: I really don't think anything solidifies us for the NCAA bid unless we win the tournament. We're not counting on this win or any other win in the past. If we win the tournament, that's an automatic bid. We'll get in the tournament.
ADRIANNE ROSS: And I agree (smiling).
Q. Did you think your steal pretty much solidified the win?
NATASHA LACY: Again, I wouldn't say it solidified it, but, I mean, it was kind of a back-breaker. They're excellent shooters. Any given day or any given time, they can hit a couple threes and get right back in it.
Q. Was that one of your better defensive games?
ADRIANNE ROSS: I definitely say the first half was. I know we came out second half not as we wanted to. We wanted to come out just like we did the first half.
Doing such a great job in the first half, it helped us out in the second, gave us a little cushion. So, yeah, definitely the first half.
THE MODERATOR: Ladies, we'll let you go. Coach, stick around for a few minutes.
Questions directed to Coach Mittie.
Q. What does it do for you as far as the NCAA tournament is concerned?
COACH JEFF MITTIE: Well, I don't know what it does for us. We beat another quality team, another quality win down the stretch. We've had a pretty good stretch run here.
As you know, my thought process on this is that we want to win a Mountain West conference tournament championship. So, our focus is on that.
I believe that our league, and I'll talk about the league, I believe that this league has six teams that could be deserving of a bid. Now, nobody thinks we're going to get six, and I understand that. But four to five, I think, is reasonable.
I think we've got to be careful across the country. In my opinion, when we've been in the past, and you look at teams that have made it, RPI-wise, our league is very strong. Wyoming is very deserving of a very good look here.
So, I think that our league's going to sit very well at the end of this. But I don't know necessarily what it does for us. I think it's another good quality win. As you know, we've played a very, very difficult schedule. Hopefully we're reaping the benefits of playing that difficult schedule now with some victories.
Q. Talk about Natasha's play down the stretch.
COACH JEFF MITTIE: She was frustrated early in the early part of the second half. We set her down a little bit. We felt like we could get her inside on the post. That's what we wanted to do.
She came back in and really was assertive. I thought our team did a great job of getting her in the low block. You mentioned the steal at the end, I thought the steal was huge. Three-point play, finish it off, allows us to do some things differently defensively. Really puts the pressure on them.
So, yeah, her play down the stretch was critical. We really went to her on every possession. She was an option the last four minutes.
Q. How does that compare to how you have been doing this season?
COACH JEFF MITTIE: Compared to how we've been doing this year (smiling)?
Q. Yes.
COACH JEFF MITTIE: We have not defended the three very well. That's the nicest way I can put it. That was the best defense we've played on the perimeter year long. I think we're eighth in the league at defending the three. I think we have good perimeter quickness. We haven't coached it very well, obviously.
This team really played well tonight. I thought they came in. I mean, we were all over Zavecz all night long. That's a very good player to hold 1-14. She got a lot of rebounds. We made Bolerjack work for her nine points. They really Taylor attacked us in the post, but we were willing to allow some one-on-one play down there as long as they didn't hit the big play on the perimeter. I thought our team really executed a good game plan. They made a game plan look very good.
Q. Did you see anything defensively, because you had Wyoming frustrated in the perimeter, did you see something on film going into the game?
COACH JEFF MITTIE: Well, I wouldn't say -- we made some changes defensively. What we're doing is we're switching a lot of those motion screens. Wyoming and Utah use a lot of those flair screens, they use a lot of slip screens. We were having trouble defending that, staying with our player.
Now, the disadvantage of that is that when they get a mismatch on the perimeter with Zavecz on like Lohse, we've got to do a better job of helping. I think our team has grown in that defense. We made that switch about maybe halfway through conference. We're really just now only in about our fourth or fifth week doing it, so we're really starting to play it pretty well.
I'll say this, another thing, too. Our first year in the league, we've got to get a feel for some of these. Hopefully we're getting a little better feel for some of the talent in this league, because this is a very talented league. Zavecz and Bolerjack, both times they've really hurt us. We did a good job on them tonight.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts...

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