MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2005

Don Flanagan

Dionne Marsh

Mandi Moore

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.