Youth can be a great thing. Sometimes, teams that have a high number of veteran players may put too much pressure on themselves to be successful. With youth, you can get some surprises.
This season, the Creighton women’s basketball team was filled with young talent. The Bluejays had a tough non-conference schedule and some tough times at the start of conference play. But, after changing the structure of the offense and the maturing of this team, the Bluejays turned their season around and made a run in St. Charles at the MVC Tournament, including upsetting the #1 seed Missouri State, to get the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Creighton women’s basketball team now heads to Norman, Oklahoma to take part in the NCAA Tournament. First up is the #3 seed, St. John’s. But before the Bluejays take their charter flight on Friday afternoon to get ready for the Red Storm, head coach Jim Flanery took some time to talk to us about his basketball team. Here is what he had to say.
White & Blue Review: How does it feel after being the head coach here for the past several years to make the NCAA Tournament now?
Jim Flanery: Well I think the thing for me, I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be in some ways. We have been heartbroken three times in the last five years, losing games by a total of four points in the championship games. It is hard in a one bid league. It is one bounce of the ball or one off night by one player.
It felt really good. It wasn’t that I didn’t expect it by this team, but I probably would have expected it more with another team and that’s what makes it so good. I look back and we were 6-8 and 0-3 in the league at one point . To our teams credit they understood they had a chance to be better as the year go on and to have such a good approach to things. It was really gratifying and everything I thought it could be.
WBR: Is there something different with this team, since you did have some teams before that had a good chance?
JF: I think our youth maybe helped us where we didn’t put so much pressure on ourselves. Sometimes when you have a junior or senior team, they think they have one last go around where a younger team may not feel that way. I think it helps to have Carli Tritz who is a go to player and wants the ball at the end of the game. Not that we haven’t had really good players before, but she is getting into an elite category as far as someone who wants the ball at the end of the game and can make positive plays at the end.
We had been playing well at the end of the season winning five of our last six heading into the tournament so our confidence was pretty good. In some ways the Drake game was a good wakeup call that we couldn’t take anything for granted. A lot of things factored in.
WBR: Carli Tritz had an amazing game in the semifinals against Missouri State. What was the thing that got her going to get the ball to her?
JF: We have been trying later in the year was to get our posts away from the basket a little more and that we crowded the basket a little bit too much. Sarah [Nelson] has had a terrific year, but she is only 6 foot and she is better on a face up. So what we did was try to clear the basket area more and Carli has been able to get more back screen layups and more open spots under the basket. When she got a couple of easy ones to start the half, her confidence was up. Sometimes getting a couple of easy ones really can get someone going.
We have tried to open the floor up more for players like Carli and McKenzie [Fujan], and our bigger wing players. The fact that we shoot well from the perimeter has opened things up. Her determination says it all.
WBR: With DaNae Moore, the lone senior is not much of a scorer, but came up big in the opening game with a career high in points. What kind of influence has she had in the locker room this year and how special is it for her as a senior?
JF: She has been steady and a tremendous leader. With nine of our twelve kids freshmen and sophomores, for her to keep their heads up when we weren’t playing well or against our tough non-conference schedule where we would lose some games, it is a big credit to her leadership. She is steady and her teammates respect her and her team first attitude.
The fact that she doesn’t have to score to make an influence says a lot. She played 102 minutes in the conference tournament and did not have a turnover, which is huge in women’s college basketball. She understands what she can and can’t do. That is a big part of college basketball. She is a great example of someone who doesn’t try to make plays she can’t make. A lot of younger players sometimes think that the more plays they make means they will get more playing time.
WBR: Heading now into the NCAA Tournament against St. Johns, what kind of challenges do they give you?
JF: They are balanced. They have four kids who average about 11 or 13 points a game, so there are not a lot of areas we can go and help on the defensive end. They are quicker at a lot of positions. Their defense is solid where they don’t give up easy baskets and have great length. It will be hard for us to score. The good news is that they don’t run up and down a lot. They average 61 and give up 55 points. They are fairly methodical. As long as we take care of the ball and give them some easy ones, I think we have a chance at the end of the game.
WBR: With your non-conference schedule you played earlier in the year, do you think that helps you now in the Tournament?
JF: I hope so. That is not the reason why we do it, but now that we are there, I think it helps us. I definitely think it will help our kids mindset where they know that we are playing a Big East team. We beat Marquette and we played Notre Dame the past couple of years. Nothing against St. Johns but Notre Dame is better than St. Johns. I hope our kids have a belief that they can compete and having the non-conference schedule we had can help that.
WBR: Is there one key that you have that would be the thing to put you over the top?
JF: I’m worried about our rebounding since they will be quick and physical. We are an average rebounding team. There are a lot of things. I know we will be nervous, but hope we aren’t too nervous. They are too good defensively for us to get down 10 to 12 points right away. I do think that our players are confident and really believe that we are a different team than we were in November and December. Our team believes we are quite a bit better. We can be a great defensive team. In the conference tournament we held our opponents to under 44 points.
WBR: Three years ago you played down in Oklahoma. What is it like to play there?
JF: They had about 8000 there when we played there. It probably won’t be as full until the end of our game, but it is a nice arena and a good program. The two years we played them, they went to the Final Four. It will be great. If our game with St. Johns is close, the Sooner fans may root for us because they think we would be an easier matchup for them than St. Johns. We are the underdog and if there is a chance we can win that game, they would be on our side. That would be kind of cool.
