Latest / Coaches Corner / Seg 3 - WBB Show w Geno Auriemma 10-29

Transcript

Seg 3 - WBB Show w Geno Auriemma 10-29 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I think that kid is a young girl.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: I don't think she heard me.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: So it was a regular one.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Two of them. Two of them. There you go.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: Where'd you play?
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I got in the car to go home, and I
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: just sat there, and I just.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Dozed off. I took a nap.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Where'd you play, and how'd you hit them?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I played at Hartford. Okay. Actually, I hit it really good.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I putted lousy. That'll do it. I putted lousy.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: You know, I would say I putted like a girl,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: but that's not true because every girl that I've ever
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: played with is better than me.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: With the Hall of Fame head coach of the Huskies
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: on the UConn Women's Basketball Coaches Show, you've got a
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: lot of juniors on this team. Jenna's a junior, well,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: a redshirt junior. You've got Kaylee Heckel back, Allie Zabel, who...
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Worked her tail off to get in the best shape
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: of her life, and then the very first practice, the
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: very first start of practice, she sprains an ankle. And
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: then Morgan Shelley.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Where do you see this? She hasn't played since freshman year.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she hasn't played since February of 25. Then she
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: had surgery and played one game, the exhibition against Syracuse,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: and that's it. What are your expectations for this group, Gino,
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: to take that next step? I know some have various roles,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: like Jana's a forward and the other three are guards,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: but Obviously, there are going to be integral parts if
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: you're going to go far again this year.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all the equal parts have to be equal.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: There can't be a drop between whoever plays 30 minutes
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: and whoever plays 20 minutes, let's just say. There can't be, like,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: this huge drop, you know. The thing with Allie, yeah,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the very first drill, she went in for a layup,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and she's on the floor and out two weeks, whatever
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: it was.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: And, you know, Jenna's been good.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Jenna's been good, you know, understanding a little more about
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: what we need her to do and her physicality and
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: all that. And Morgan practiced today. So that's a good
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: sign because she's a really good player. She's a really
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: good player who just hasn't played. And, yeah, it gives
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: us enough versatility that, you know, we don't have to
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: play anyone longer than they need to be out on
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: the floor.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: But, you know, I counted them yesterday.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: 10, 11, 12, 13.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, all 13 of you guys aren't playing
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the same number of minutes. It's just not possible. So
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the great thing is every day, you know, they're competing
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to see who's playing what, who's playing how many minutes,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: who's playing what role. And it's fun to watch because
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: you have to You have to get better every day.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: You know, you have to get better every day. And,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: you know, those juniors, they've been here quite some time,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and I think they're going to have, I think, you know,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: pretty good battles for how much playing time they're all
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: going to get.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Right, and then you throw in these freshmen, particularly Jovana
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Popovich and Olivia Vucosa. who are going to make impacts
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: right away, particularly Jovana. If you've not seen her play yet,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: just wait. She is fun to watch. She's very poised,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: it seems. She plays, it seems, like older than she is.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: And obviously the pro experience in Europe probably has a
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: lot to do with that.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Very mature young lady and plays under control, plays at
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: a pace that is so... Fun to watch, so comfortable.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: She makes the right decision most of the time. She
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: makes the right pass. But the big thing that I
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: like is she makes shots like at the end of
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the shot clock. You know, the ball, nothing's happening, nothing's happening.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: There's five seconds left on the shot clock. She makes
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: a shot. She gets us a bucket.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Like the Texas game at the end of the half.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, she does.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: And she's a really good shooter and very stone-faced. You know,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: she doesn't change her expression. Her demeanor is the same
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: all the time. And I think we're going to need that.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: You know, you're playing on the road. A lot of
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: these big games are on the road or neutral courts. So, yeah,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I've been really, really impressed with Giovanna.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: How did you find her?
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Um, there's so.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Many ways now that players come into your orbit. You know,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the world is so much smaller now with the internet,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: those kids over there, uh, they watch a lot of
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: college basketball on YouTube, uh, or wherever they can find them.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: And so they know all about our program. Um, we
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: have people that we've developed relationships with over the years, uh,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: over there and they know you're, you know, you always
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: want to hear about, you know, somebody really, really good. And,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: you know, Hey, this kid's 17 years old and think
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: you'll like her. Um, you should come out and watch
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: her play. So, you know, we did and yeah, she's
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: pretty good.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: We'll get to the two freshmen when we come back.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: It's the UConn Women's Basketball Coaches Show. We are live
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: at Hartford at iHeartRadio here on Learfield.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Back in a minute.