Completed Event: Women's Basketball at Eastern Kentucky on March 19, 2026 , Loss , 58, to, 72
Final Score
Women's Basketball
58
at Eastern Kentucky
72
The University of Utah Athletics
Utes See the Sights and Meet with the Press
3/21/2009 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 21, 2009
Utah Opens NCAA Tournament with Villanova
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Utah women's basketball team took off for Maryland on Thursday, March 19, using Friday to see some of the sights in Washington D.C. before their first practice on Saturday afternoon.
The team toured the Capitol building on Friday before meeting up with a local alumni group in the evening to watch the Utah men's basketball team in their NCAA Tournament game.
The Utes held their first practice on Saturday, meeting with the media beforehand. Below is a transcript from their press conference.
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Opening Statement: "Well obviously we're just pleased to be here. It will be a great tournament, great teams, great host, great facilities, everything's first class and we're excited to be part of it."
Reporter: "How does it feel to come across the country when the other teams are close and Maryland is playing at home?"
Head Coach Elaine Elliott: "Well it's just the unfortunate reality of the women's tournament that we're still in that position, so we've been in this position before. The preference is always to be closer and the expectation is that you can be far away, so you just go play."
Morgan Warburton: "I'm just excited to be here again. We don't really think about that, we just worry about who we're going to play. No matter where it is, it's difficult if you're not on your home floor, but for the most part, it's just good to be in the tournament."
Reporter: "How does last year's experience in the tournament help this year's squad?"
Elliott: "It's a new team, and a new scenario and actually I really thought that from the very first opportunity. I thought it was a very good, positive mindset for the kids. Their heads are in the right place, it's different than last year. I think last year, we felt good about the opportunity, but there really wasn't any expectations of being close. So really their heads are in a great place. As much as it can be a non-factor for us, I truly believe it is for us this year."
Reporter: "Describe the experience of going to the Elite Eight in 2006."
Warburton: "I think the leadership that year was amazing with Kim Smith and Shona Thorburn. It's a really exciting feeling to know that you got that far in the tournament. It's one of the best places to be playing in. I got to see that as a freshman, and to be able to tell the team about that, is good for the team."
Reporter: "What are your impressions of Villanova?"
Kalee Whipple: "Villanova's a really good team. We've watched a lot of film I think they're really good shooters, I think they mirror New Mexico in our conference. A set-motion offense is what they usually run- just slow their pace down and shoot a lot of threes and try to get to the basket and get open shots. Their half court defense is what we have to focus on."
Elliott: "Yeah of the true-to-their-system, motion teams, Wyoming and New Mexico are the most similar in our league in terms of what it would be like to defend them. Wyoming is going to shoot three's at all five positions and get shots off of screens and motions that they try to create. Probably defensively they're like New Mexico. They're just going to stay between you and the basket. We've seen teams that run the same offensive style, we've not seen teams so interested in the slow pace as they have, but they're very good. Their motion is as good as you'll ever see in the country. It's just really excellent. [Villanova coach] Harry [Perretta] knows what kind of kids he needs to run that. They're just basketball players. They can all shoot, dribble and pass from all five positions they don't have the typical five spot, and that poses a lot of problems for most teams."
Reporter: "Talk about the development of your bench this year."
Elliott: "Well, we only had eight kids that played the entire pre-season. We only had a roster of eight. The three kids that were coming off the bench didn't play in the preseason because of injuries. So we had them back at the start of the conference and obviously they haven't been training because they had been injured so they also weren't in shape so then it was another month to six weeks of giving them a few minutes and actually giving them some training time. So now we have a few more options than we had and they have come through valuably certainly in our conference tournament. We can change our lineups now when we need more scores on the floor, which we had no option to do in all the preseason."
Players Mentioned
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