Jan. 6, 2009
SDSU Head Coach Beth Burns
Aztec Athletics Center
Press Conference Quotes
Opening Comments:
"It's a really exciting time for us. Obviously we're going into the start of our conference season on a high note. December was really good to us. With that said, once Sunday came, everybody is 0-0 and it's time to start from square one in Mountain West Conference play."
On how big the win against Texas was:
"I think you don't really remember days, you remember moments. I think for this team, you have to realize that there are people in the locker room, seniors, who were 0-16 in conference play (in 2005-06). It seems like a really long time ago, but it really wasn't that long. I think you can only tell them that they can so many times, now they know they can. When you're building (a program), to have tangible reinforcement gives confidence. We've been young since we've started. As soon as people have hit (fall) camp, it's been the Quenese Davis', the Paris Johnson's, the Jené Morris'. They've played and they've learned by doing. The sense of accomplishment, but more the sense of confidence, is just huge. We will, I'm sure, reference it many, many times over the course of the next eight weeks."
On the play of Jené Morris:
"It's ironic that what stands out are the things she does defensively; I tease her. I tell her you can't toss a pork chop past a wolf. She was guarding (Texas') Brittainey Raven, who was a preseason All-America candidate and their leading scorer with 17 points per game. She was 2-for-6 (shooting) and had five turnovers. She's [Morris] a gifted athlete; plays and practices very hard, but she just understands the game and plays in space well. She plays off her teammates and she anticipates. I think that with the pressure that she does, our last two games we've gotten over 30 percent of our offense from our defense and a lot of that is because of Jené."
On the team's play in the 2008 MWC tournament propelling this year's team:
"I think I would have to refer back to confidence. Last year the two oldest people on our team both suffered season-ending injuries. Every time that occurred we took two steps backwards before we took three steps forward. In March, we caught lightning in a bottle and in basketball, March is a pretty good time to catch lightning in a bottle. It did the same thing. To beat teams that you haven't beaten before and to get a level of respect that you haven't had before, it just gives you that extra confidence. We've had great practice since we beat Texas. You feel better about coming to practice. You feel better doing what you're doing and that enables us to be relaxed and play better."
On the matchup against Texas vs. the other ranked teams they've played:
"Basketball is a game of match ups. Different teams post different problems. I would argue that prior to Texas, Iowa State may have been our best game of the year. We played that well and they played that well and made shots. I think the experience level of going to Storrs, Conn., and playing at UCONN, we've learned at lot from playing UCONN two times in the last year. Playing a team like Iowa State, which is a perennial top 25 team, and having a lot of success, we had a lot of success against Iowa State. You add the factors that we were home and we were playing for a tournament championship, there was a little bit of added incentive on the line and we hung around. To me, that's the best part of that game. We didn't shoot extremely well, but we hung around. We put ourselves in a position in the last five minutes of the game to win the game."
On how far she thinks this team can go:
"I think what's really important with this team is that we do take it one game at a time. You can't have your sight on the mountain top and then trip over a rock and fall down the mountain. I really think that all we have to do is beat Air Force. Then once we beat Air Force we have to focus on the next guy after that."