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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 7, 2007


Bill Fennelly

Alison Lacey

Lyndsey Medders

Nicky Wieben


OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

MODERATOR: Congratulations on this afternoon's game. Your comments about the game and the upcoming opponent tomorrow evening.
COACH BILL FENNELLY: I don't know who we play. That was obviously one of the best college games I've been a part of. And obviously you feel for Nebraska. They played their guts out. It was a great game. I think it shows what Big 12 basketball is all about. Two fantastic teams.
I'm a lucky guy I got a kiss from my wife and a big hug from Sherry Cole.
(Laughter)
Sherry got me before you did. But, no, it was fun. And obviously those are games that bring back special memories. What I told the kids before the overtime was there's something inside of these kids, it's not the coaching. It's what their parents gave them, the character and resolve that this team has shown is amazing.
And I just told them no matter what happens in the game don't lose that because you're going to be very successful in life.
Excited to keep playing, excited to get to stay here. And get to playing in the semifinals tomorrow. We're honored to be here we'll show up and do our best.

Q. Lyndsey, take me through the last possession in overtime. Did you want the ball in your hands were you going to shoot that, was that the game plan?
LYNDSEY MEDDERS: The one in regulation?

Q. Regulation, right.
LYNDSEY MEDDERS: To be honest, I took Nicky to point guard camp where they taught her to dribble. She took three of the scariest dribbles I've ever seen. She got the ball inbounds and made a great pass, and I wasn't able to get my shot off for like three seconds left. She turned around set a perfect screen. When she set that screen the ball left my hands.
It felt really good and my shot felt pretty good all game. So it wasn't diagrammed. We didn't have a time-out or anything. But we even made a perfect pass up the court and then an even better ball screen which freed me up to shoot the ball.

Q. How does this one compare to the Colorado one two years ago?
LYNDSEY MEDDERS: I think as a senior, you know, I'm playing in my first semifinal game in a Big 12 tournament. We're playing for a seed in the NCAA tournament. This one might mean a little bit more.
I mean people I played with the past four years have been pretty special. And so I'd probably say this one a little bit.

Q. Would you talk about what goes through your mind when you're working around those screens out top and you don't know if you're going to get an open shot and what was going through your mind, the time on the clock, those kind of things?
LYNDSEY MEDDERS: Actually spent some time with coach this morning. Watching game film. We talked about last night using ball screens. Our post players do a great job of setting good screens. And I wasn't making great decisions as far as passing today. Obviously with six turnovers.
And so when I saw that I had a little green light to shoot I wanted it to go up. I know if they backed off on the screen and I had a little daylight I was going to throw it out there if they didn't then it was about creating for other people.
Today I was able to get more shots off and they went in today.

Q. Alison, you had a big three pointer late in the game I believe, too can you take us through that as well?
ALISON LACEY: Pretty much saw the green light and let it fly, actually. Hadn't missed. And they told me to shoot and I saw an opportunity and let it go.

Q. Coach, Nebraska shot 64% in the first half, just 28 in the second. What do you attribute that to? Do you take credit for that?
COACH BILL FENNELLY: I hope we can take a little credit for it. I wasn't real happy at half time. They need a new erase board in the locker room, probably.
I just didn't think we defended at all in the first half. I really didn't. They made a lot of open shots. You gotta defend better against that kind of offensive team. In the second half we dug in better. Fatigue sets in nervousness sets in. Once we knocked it down from 9 to a working number, those shots are a little harder to make.
Sometimes -- they missed a couple shots they'd probably like to have back. But I think any time that people don't make shots defense is part of it and luck is part of it. And they miss is part of it.
I don't think we can take total credit for that at all.

Q. Bill, what's your philosophy when the clock is down like that to maybe fouling when you're ahead by three points, do you believe in that? How do you go about that?
COACH BILL FENNELLY: I don't. And I have this discussion with my son and my father and everyone else. And I just really feel like there's too many things that go wrong if you foul. To be honest with you the way we're defensive rebounding that probably wouldn't be a good idea.
I thought we defended it really well. If they make a great shot like Lyndsey made, so be it, but I think there's too many things and you put, you bring in more things. When do they call the foul. There's a lot of things.
But we've never done it. We talked about it as staff. We've practiced both ways. It just seems like for us it's not the thing to do and we've never done it.
And I don't anticipate doing it in the future.

Q. Two quick questions. One, a lot of green light talk up here. Passing green lights out to everybody?
COACH BILL FENNELLY: Shoot it before you throw it away. I mean that's what I tell them. Every pass is a turnover waiting to happen, and our kids can shoot. We recruit shooters, they like to play, I think kids want to play. They play -- and every timeout they're saying play to win play to win play to win. That's fun. We're trying to grow the sport. This is a great game for TV and great game for the fans. And they don't want to see you hang onto it and dribble it out. They want to see people shoot the ball and play.
That's the way we've played in and the three-point is a big part of our game to do it.

Q. The ball was in the right hands for that shot?
COACH BILL FENNELLY: There's not a player in the country I would trade for her. Not one.

Q. Nicky you picked up a couple of fouls in the first half, just one in the second half. How did you go about playing defense knowing you were in a little foul trouble there in the second half?
NICKY WIEBEN: When you're on defense you're a little tentative especially on the post. I had a time -- getting 2-0and not being able to get around inside. The second half I knew my defense really needed to pick it up a lot. Griffin had a fantastic game. Danielle Page came in and played good minutes.
I don't know, just came out and was trying to limit the touches inside more in the second half.

Q. Nicky, Lyndsey said she was scared to death when you were dribbling the ball, what were you feeling when you were coming up the court?
NICKY WIEBEN: I think it was passed it to me I knew there wasn't that much time on the clock. Tried going toward our hoop and Medders came in and helped me out a little bit. I decided to set a screen for her. Worked out good.

Q. We talk a lot this week about getting to the semifinals what does it mean for the program to be back in the semifinals for the first time in five years?
COACH BILL FENNELLY: That's probably for everyone else to make that decision. I don't think because we haven't been doesn't mean we're not doing very well. It means you're in a great league. It's special for these kids to be in the semifinals in the Big 12 league. It's a special league and environment, great environment to play here. With all the other tournaments going on across the country, the Big 12 becomes the showcase league in the nation right now and we get to play.
To be honest with you, I wouldn't have thought any less if we wouldn't have won; but for me it's one more game I get to be with them. It's exciting.
For our team this year there's a lot of lists we're checking off. And we get to check off the semifinal one today. That was good.

Q. Lyndsey, earlier this season you joked about not calling a timeout at the end of a half because when you draw off the play it never works. Does it seem to be that doing it on the fly just works out better?
LYNDSEY MEDDERS: Well, to correct you, the plays are usually good, I just mess them up. I don't want coach to get mad at me.
COACH BILL FENNELLY: She's real worried about me.
LYNDSEY MEDDERS: As soon as I saw we even get the ball, I think we had one timeout left, the thought crossed my mind. But I like to kind of go in the rhythm and the momentum and see what opens up and what doesn't.
I think it was good because we kind of caught them off guard as far as we broke the press pretty quickly. Wieben made a good pass, and they seemed to be scrambling those past five seconds only cross half court. I messed up actually on that one on in the inbound play before, didn't catch the ball.
I kind of prefer to see what the defense does and try to react to it. And Wieben deserves a lot of credit for the screen she set. Because I don't think I would have got the shot off if she didn't do that.

Q. Starting off with the Texas A&M game, seven wins in a row. What has been the change that's gotten this team to now probably one of the top 20 teams in the country?
LYNDSEY MEDDERS: It's a lot of things. We lost to Baylor. I remember the play ride home when we had three big home games and we knew we had 2 tough road games to finish out the Big 12 season. And I think a lot of it has been balanced scoring, helps a lot with the exception we played defense in the first half we've been guarding pretty well. And I think that's been able to help us a lot.
Yesterday, you know, we weren't able to put points on the board but we were able to hold someone to 20 points. At the end of a lot of these games we've been able to get defensive stops. I would distinguish, traditionally been known as a three-point shooting offensive machine which I still think we are at times but to also add to that a defensive element where all five players on the floor with the exception of myself a couple times, can actually guard people. So I think balanced scoring and being able to guard.

Q. Bill, can you talk about, you said you wouldn't trade her for any player in the world. Talk about what she brings other than scoring.
COACH BILL FENNELLY: We don't have enough time for that. She's the fails of our university, our athletic department. She's done everything that we've asked of her. I have been on her butt for four years and asked her to do things that at times weren't fair.
But the impact she's made on the court, off the court, is dramatic. And I think she will go down in history as one of the greatest student athletes in our university. One of the best players in our league, because of the way she conducts herself and the grace and dignity that she does it on the court, off the court, and it's been a tremendous honor to coach her and be around her every single day, because she leads by example and I think to go back to Scott's question, the reason this team is better is because she's healthy and I think that is the number one factor that's allowed other players to relax and play.
And after the concussion and the turf toe and everything else, she's playing the game the way she's capable of playing it. And it's great that she's ending her career that way. That's the way it should be.

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