March 8, 2011
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LAS VEGAS -
COACH BURNS OPENING STATEMENT: First we'd like to congratulate New Mexico. They're a tough out. We've had two really competitive games that could have gone either way throughout the season. Certainly they got the better of us today.
I knew it was going to be a really physical game, very competitive game. Nothing about it really surprised me. We did our best. We worked as hard as we could. They were just the better team today, for sure.
Q. Was there a point where you thought you were a little out of rhythm, out of flow? Were you happy with the fact you seemed to be able to go toe to toe but missing some layups, getting a little gassed at the end?
COACH BURNS: You know how it is. Your rotations, everything's different, you got a day, all you can do is your best.
I think Paris probably mentally, emotionally, it's a lot to handle. I think that can work against you. It worked against them senior night. Our senior night, I mean, you couldn't have laid a bigger egg, and kids couldn't have tried harder. I think J.B. and Paris combined were like 5 of 29. She tried too hard. She felt great responsibility to get something done. She short-armed stuff. Credit to New Mexico. It wasn't like she was alone out there.
We have two big bodies. She's by herself with a big body. She did wear down. But I think emotion coming into it might have played a part.
Amanda Best has been playing great basketball. What a great representative of our league, of what college basketball's about. If you could have seen her at the Air Force game the other night, she's remarkable.
I knew that as good as Sajoyia Griffin is and helps us, I had to get her out and put in a bigger defender so we could switch more and try to counter some things.
Our offense wasn't as good. I felt if we didn't stay within spitting distance, we didn't have a chance. It was so hard for us to score. I was just really trying to prevent separation.
Q. How do you sum up the season? Good, bad? Right, wrong? Pretty, ugly? How do you sum up the year? Can you emote how you're feeling in terms of some high hopes, how it all turned out?
COACH BURNS: This season is unsumupable. Is that a correct phrase? I was an education major, too (smiling). But this season is unsumupable. You can't imagine what we have endured. We've had staff changes, people get sick, all the periphery things. It's just been one of those. That trickles down to your athletes. I think it affected everybody.
No excuses. It is what it is. As my good friend Coach (Steve) Fisher once said, 'You know, some years are just like this.' I looked at him and I said, 'Yeah, but some years are just like yours and I'm looking forward to having one more like that because that seems like a lot more fun.
Look, there are 12 women's professional basketball teams. Jené Morris was a first-round draft pick. Not that it's hard to make an NBA roster. She was a first-round draft pick that made the team. Quenese Davis has 407 more assists than anyone who ever played at San Diego State. The beginning of the year a point guard gets ineligible. We already were thin. Coco did a great job. But it changed everything that we did.
If you ask any coach in America, if you're down to your last two picks whether you take a guard or a big, as talented as your bigs are, all season long we had young guards and all season long, on the court, that was kind of the story of the season.
I'm's disappointed when we're not successful, but I'm not surprised. Yes, excited as can be that we have two redshirts. The five kids we signed early, because of the Sweet 16, the best living rooms we've gotten into at this point. We will be back. Let's not have any funerals for the Aztecs. We will be back.