Latest / Coaches Corner / WBB Coach Geno Auriemma - October 10th
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: So where's your focus then it's been on the Phillies.
- 0:03Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 0:05Speaker 2: I wish I had a dredging machine to dredge all
- 0:08Speaker 2: the bodies out of the Delaware River last night around
- 0:13Speaker 2: eleven o'clock. Feel like it's a wonderful life. You know
- 0:17Speaker 2: when they went in the water.
- 0:19Speaker 3: That could happen anytime.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Well yeah, yeah, but yeah, it was a bad night.
- 0:23Speaker 2: It's a bad night in Photophia last night. Holy moly,
- 0:26Speaker 2: that was sad ay. Yeah, yeah, tragic.
- 0:34Speaker 1: Philadel absolutely yeah. Man. I think once you're once you're
- 0:41Speaker 1: in that, you know.
- 0:45Speaker 2: That world, you know that that experience of growing up there, it's.
- 0:50Speaker 1: Never gonna be It's never gonna be out of you.
- 0:52Speaker 1: That's for sure. That's for sure.
- 0:56Speaker 2: Something else, something else mm hm. Anyway, on to next year.
- 1:05Speaker 4: How is Sarah Williams coming along? I know she had
- 1:08Speaker 4: a little bit of a rough start. You said it
- 1:10Speaker 4: takes a while for players have been somewhere else for
- 1:13Speaker 4: three years.
- 1:14Speaker 2: Better, you know, I think a little bit of a time,
- 1:17Speaker 2: you know, like it does for anybody that's new every day,
- 1:22Speaker 2: and it's gotten a little bit better and you see
- 1:25Speaker 2: a little more of what she can do, you know,
- 1:31Speaker 2: she's getting comfortable in certain spots on the floor.
- 1:33Speaker 1: You know, she knows where she likes the ball, and
- 1:35Speaker 1: she has a.
- 1:40Speaker 2: Great, a great feel for being around the basket and
- 1:44Speaker 2: how to you know, how to get a shout off,
- 1:46Speaker 2: and so you know, the other stuff learning how we
- 1:49Speaker 2: play and learning some of the stuff, the nuances in
- 1:52Speaker 2: our offense.
- 1:52Speaker 1: That'll come a little.
- 1:53Speaker 2: Bit little, but you know, it's been really really good
- 1:56Speaker 2: since started, since practice started.
- 1:59Speaker 3: Exhibition on Monday, are you looking forward forward from the
- 2:01Speaker 3: players to see what.
- 2:03Speaker 1: What you want to see on Monday?
- 2:04Speaker 2: Yeah, Normally these are the kinds of things that you have.
- 2:09Speaker 2: You know, nobody's watching, nobody really cares. So it'll be
- 2:16Speaker 2: good because you throw in you know, you gotta get
- 2:19Speaker 2: on a bus and you got to stay over and
- 2:22Speaker 2: uniforms and crowds and all that. So I think the
- 2:27Speaker 2: the whole experience I think will be really good. It
- 2:29Speaker 2: will really get to show, you know, how quickly people
- 2:33Speaker 2: can can adapt to, you know, playing and semi. I
- 2:39Speaker 2: don't know what kind of crowd we're going to have.
- 2:40Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, who's going to show up,
- 2:42Speaker 2: but at least it'll be a pretty good dress rehearsal
- 2:46Speaker 2: for you know, you know, going forward, so you know,
- 2:52Speaker 2: you you really can't. I can't expect a lot of
- 2:58Speaker 2: execution wise in these things, but you can't expect a
- 3:01Speaker 2: lot of the energy level, the effort. The people that
- 3:09Speaker 2: you have coming back from last year. You know, what
- 3:12Speaker 2: can they what can they add to the group? And
- 3:15Speaker 2: then the new guys just kind of followed the leader
- 3:18Speaker 2: and hope, you know, hope they blend in.
- 3:21Speaker 3: You know that now that you get transfers fairly regularly
- 3:25Speaker 3: as opposed to maybe years ago, what's the hardest part
- 3:28Speaker 3: for players to come from places like you know, the
- 3:32Speaker 3: Big Ten or other schools that they're good schools and
- 3:34Speaker 3: they're solid programs, but they're not here. It's not like
- 3:37Speaker 3: it is here. So what's the biggest transition for somebody
- 3:40Speaker 3: like Sarah to have to make to get used to
- 3:42Speaker 3: when you play here?
- 3:49Speaker 1: I think in Sarah's case.
- 3:52Speaker 2: It would be and maybe same with with Kaylee.
- 3:58Speaker 1: I think the expectation level.
- 4:02Speaker 2: That they have while you know, this is Connecticut is
- 4:08Speaker 2: going to be different, so right away that's different the
- 4:12Speaker 2: expectations that.
- 4:15Speaker 1: Their teammates have for them.
- 4:16Speaker 2: Hey, you know, coach thinks you guys are good enough
- 4:19Speaker 2: to play here, well, you better prove it, you know,
- 4:20Speaker 2: every day. Then the expectations that come with you know,
- 4:29Speaker 2: we've been watching we've been watching you guys play on
- 4:32Speaker 2: TV all the time, and you know, you're the team
- 4:34Speaker 2: that everybody wants to be And now I'm part of that.
- 4:39Speaker 2: And I think that was that was an adjustment for
- 4:44Speaker 2: a lot of the kids, that every possession matters, every
- 4:50Speaker 2: drill matters a lot, not that it doesn't matter other places,
- 4:54Speaker 2: but the competition on the floor is different. If you
- 4:57Speaker 2: don't get it right, It's not like the next four
- 4:59Speaker 2: guys got to get it wrong too.
- 5:01Speaker 1: You know, if you don't get it right, the.
- 5:02Speaker 2: Next three guys are going to get it right, and
- 5:04Speaker 2: so there's pressure on you to get it right quickly.
- 5:08Speaker 2: So it's just didn't you know, everything's just amplified.
- 5:11Speaker 1: A little bit.
- 5:12Speaker 3: And then can you is there any way to get
- 5:14Speaker 3: until you experience it to get used to that idea
- 5:17Speaker 3: that any losses at the.
- 5:19Speaker 1: End of the world.
- 5:19Speaker 2: I know, I know that that probably takes a little
- 5:25Speaker 2: bit of a little bit of time, you know, I
- 5:28Speaker 2: see an in freshman too. To be honest with you, Uh,
- 5:31Speaker 2: you know, there's been a couple of years where you know,
- 5:35Speaker 2: you lose a couple of games and the look on
- 5:36Speaker 2: their faces is like, why does it look like why
- 5:40Speaker 2: does it look like a relative diet.
- 5:42Speaker 1: In here or something? You know, five, we're five and one.
- 5:46Speaker 1: What's the big deal? You know?
- 5:47Speaker 2: And sometimes I would go, yeah, you're right, so we're
- 5:50Speaker 2: only five and one. But it does feel like you're
- 5:53Speaker 2: never supposed to lose here. So sometimes the fear of
- 5:57Speaker 2: you know, losing you know, going to the dentist, you know,
- 6:01Speaker 2: and it's worse than two weeks before you go than
- 6:04Speaker 2: when you actually go. But eventually they all get acclimated
- 6:12Speaker 2: to it.
- 6:12Speaker 1: Eventually they do, you know, eventually do.
- 6:15Speaker 2: And then you've got the other thing, you know, where
- 6:18Speaker 2: the the guys that were here, you know, when you
- 6:22Speaker 2: bring in a new class, whether it's a new freshman
- 6:25Speaker 2: or whether it's a couple of transfers. You know, you know,
- 6:30Speaker 2: I didn't realize I was going to have to have
- 6:32Speaker 2: this for you know, so all of a sudden, the
- 6:34Speaker 2: competition for spots. So it's just a dynamic that can
- 6:40Speaker 2: only be experienced, that can't you can't prepare for it.
- 6:44Speaker 4: Is there one area where Sarah really settled in quickly
- 6:48Speaker 4: like a defense use that everybody talks about that being
- 6:51Speaker 4: effort all that she's a pretty good defender.
- 6:54Speaker 1: I think more.
- 6:55Speaker 2: I think more on again, I think I knowing knowing
- 7:01Speaker 2: how to score, you know, knowing how to how to
- 7:04Speaker 2: position herself in the lane where to get the ball.
- 7:09Speaker 2: You know, she takes I think great pride in that
- 7:12Speaker 2: she runs the floor hard. You know, I think she
- 7:19Speaker 2: tries really hard defensively. I think there may be more
- 7:23Speaker 2: things that we do defensively that.
- 7:25Speaker 1: She'll have to get used to. But her efforts great,
- 7:28Speaker 1: so you know, no no complaints on how to end
- 7:31Speaker 1: at all.
- 7:32Speaker 4: Carol will still.
- 7:33Speaker 2: Kind of day to day.
- 7:34Speaker 3: Are you noticing her being more and more comfortable now
- 7:36Speaker 3: than maybe when she was when she came back in
- 7:38Speaker 3: February to March last year.
- 7:39Speaker 2: Yeah, she's certainly out on the court more. She's in
- 7:43Speaker 2: the gym longer. You know, she doesn't have to take
- 7:45Speaker 2: herself out nearly as much as before.
- 7:50Speaker 1: So all that's way better, way better.
- 7:53Speaker 2: She doesn't look like she did, you know, her freshman year,
- 7:56Speaker 2: but compared the last March, it's completely different, completely different.
- 8:01Speaker 5: I've had a lot of play, a lot of minutes
- 8:03Speaker 5: over the last few years. Do you have a sense
- 8:05Speaker 5: with these three of just kind of what their roles
- 8:08Speaker 5: could look.
- 8:08Speaker 1: Like at this point.
- 8:12Speaker 2: It's interesting about freshmen, you know, ideally, you know, unless
- 8:17Speaker 2: they're Sarah, you know, they would come in or Page,
- 8:21Speaker 2: they would come in and find their way somehow, some way.
- 8:27Speaker 2: Circumstances the last four or five years made it so
- 8:30Speaker 2: freshmen get thrown into the mix right away, you know,
- 8:33Speaker 2: sometimes before they're ready, you know. But with the returning
- 8:43Speaker 2: players that we have, I think they have enough experience
- 8:46Speaker 2: that the freshmen may not have an immediate impact, you know.
- 8:54Speaker 1: I think they they will have an impact.
- 8:56Speaker 2: How big an impact I don't know, but and I
- 8:58Speaker 2: think they'll have a big impact as the season goes on.
- 9:01Speaker 2: But in the beginning, I think it'll be kind of
- 9:05Speaker 2: feel your way, you know. But other than Gandy, I
- 9:10Speaker 2: think all of them, whether it's you know, Blanca or Kalise, Kaylee, Sarah,
- 9:22Speaker 2: I'm missing anybody, Okay, I think they've all They've all
- 9:28Speaker 2: shown flashes of like, yeah, I can play here and
- 9:31Speaker 2: I can be successful here, you know. So I'm excited
- 9:35Speaker 2: for them, all of them.
- 9:37Speaker 3: Is there a plan for how to give players minutes
- 9:40Speaker 3: on Monday?
- 9:41Speaker 1: Do you have something written out.
- 9:43Speaker 2: Not yet, not yet, not yet. But we asked one
- 9:47Speaker 2: of the players to write down how many minutes they
- 9:50Speaker 2: thought all the players should get, you know, just write
- 9:56Speaker 2: and down.
- 9:58Speaker 1: And put a number next to their name.
- 10:01Speaker 2: You said, you know how many minutes in the game, right,
- 10:03Speaker 2: They go forty, Well, that's for you, now for the
- 10:06Speaker 2: entire team. That's two hundred for the entire team. So
- 10:10Speaker 2: by the time they got down, we said, let's had
- 10:12Speaker 2: them all up. We had them up as two hundred
- 10:14Speaker 2: and sixty. So I said, well, you know, there's only
- 10:17Speaker 2: two hundred. This says two sixty, and I think she said, oh,
- 10:22Speaker 2: I don't remember you guys talking about our coaches. So no,
- 10:27Speaker 2: we don't have a plan yet to fit two hundred
- 10:29Speaker 2: and sixty minutes into two hundred minutes, but we'll do
- 10:33Speaker 2: our best.
- 10:36Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Seven OT's that's right. Was
- 10:40Speaker 1: that big fish? Big Fish? Oh she's big fish? You
- 10:46Speaker 1: know big Fish?
- 10:49Speaker 2: I said, you know, nicknames are what people give you,
- 10:51Speaker 2: it's not what you give yourself. You can't go around
- 10:54Speaker 2: they call me big fish. I told her to google
- 10:59Speaker 2: the guppy big fish.
- 11:04Speaker 1: Are these guys get this stuff? You know what steps
- 11:07Speaker 1: have you seen from Ice.
- 11:12Speaker 2: There's been some really really good moments in the week
- 11:16Speaker 2: and a half of practice that we've had. Maybe I think,
- 11:21Speaker 2: what do we have five, six, seven, eight practices?
- 11:24Speaker 1: Maybe so far there there's been moments where she's looked really,
- 11:30Speaker 1: really really good. You know.
- 11:33Speaker 2: That other than Sarah's strong, probably our best ball handling
- 11:37Speaker 2: big man, because she knows, you know, she's been here.
- 11:40Speaker 1: And off, she's run our stuff and off, and.
- 11:44Speaker 2: So there's there's been there's been a lot of really
- 11:48Speaker 2: good moments by her. So she's she's made you know,
- 11:51Speaker 2: she's made a lot of progress.
- 11:54Speaker 1: Ice.
- 11:54Speaker 2: This big thing is always you know, can you sustain it?
- 11:58Speaker 2: You know, So it's a good sign that she's made
- 12:00Speaker 2: some progress from last year and now it's all a
- 12:02Speaker 2: matter of you know, building on it every day.
- 12:06Speaker 3: When you were recruiting Sarah Williams, did you use MRSA
- 12:09Speaker 3: as a resource at all? Chose her head coach and
- 12:12Speaker 3: you had her here.
- 12:12Speaker 2: I tried not to h you know, put that. I'm
- 12:18Speaker 2: sure you know Marissa probably mentioned a few times. You know, hey,
- 12:23Speaker 2: I've been in Connecticut and I think I know what's
- 12:26Speaker 2: going on there, what you can expect there, but only
- 12:31Speaker 2: to check on her as a kid, and you know
- 12:33Speaker 2: what kind of kid is she? You know how we
- 12:34Speaker 2: used to use it to coach here, you know, and
- 12:37Speaker 2: nothing but great reports from MRSA for sure, nothing but
- 12:40Speaker 2: great stuff.
- 12:41Speaker 1: No redflax.
- 12:42Speaker 2: If there would have been, there would have been obviously
- 12:44Speaker 2: more difficult.
- 12:45Speaker 1: To bring her here. Did an update on it Ashing
- 12:48Speaker 1: Day don't be available on Monday. On who Ashton Jenna
- 12:53Speaker 1: Ashwell for sure.
- 12:54Speaker 2: Jenna, I don't know. Jenna went a little bit today
- 12:58Speaker 2: in practice, actually longer and I thought, so, well, she
- 13:02Speaker 2: will see how she responds tomorrow. But ash for sure, Jenna,
- 13:08Speaker 2: We'll see, We'll see, I hope. So that'd be nice.
- 13:12Speaker 5: Seen from Sarah strong and from Easy, just kind of
- 13:15Speaker 5: their connection and how they've come back into things this year.
- 13:20Speaker 2: I think as has been Easy for the most part.
- 13:22Speaker 2: You know, she she pretty much hasn't changed much in
- 13:29Speaker 2: four years. You know, her demeanor has pretty much been
- 13:31Speaker 2: the same.
- 13:33Speaker 1: Ah. I think she's steady and.
- 13:39Speaker 2: Looks comfortable, you know, healthy. The the the Final Four
- 13:47Speaker 2: experience probably was a great confidence booster for her, and
- 13:52Speaker 2: so in that respect that's been It's been great, you know,
- 13:55Speaker 2: to have her knowing that she's you know capable of doing.
- 14:02Speaker 1: What she did.
- 14:05Speaker 2: Sarah, Maybe because Sarah was a freshman and it took
- 14:10Speaker 2: a little bit of time for her to, you know,
- 14:15Speaker 2: to do anything other than just play, you know, the
- 14:19Speaker 2: other stuff. She really was not comfortable being a voice
- 14:24Speaker 2: on the team or standing out in some way.
- 14:30Speaker 1: This year, she's really good.
- 14:39Speaker 2: And you know, I thought she was really really good
- 14:41Speaker 2: last year, and I think she's even better.
- 14:45Speaker 5: Where do you see her? Like taking the biggest freshman
- 14:48Speaker 5: as allmore.
- 14:52Speaker 2: You know, when you go from high school to freshman
- 14:54Speaker 2: you're in college, you don't you don't know much, and
- 14:59Speaker 2: you also so don't understand your body much. All of
- 15:04Speaker 2: a sudden, you know, playing a year of college basketball
- 15:07Speaker 2: and going as far as we did and winning a
- 15:09Speaker 2: national championship. Then you spend the summer working on all
- 15:13Speaker 2: the stuff. And I don't even mean basketball stuff. I
- 15:15Speaker 2: mean all the stuff you do in the weight room,
- 15:16Speaker 2: you know, conditioning wise and nutrition wise. She just looks different.
- 15:20Speaker 2: I mean, she just looks like a different person. And
- 15:23Speaker 2: at the same time, her game is I mean at
- 15:29Speaker 2: all a whole another level from last year. That's yeah.
- 15:36Speaker 2: Every day, you know, there isn't a day that goes
- 15:39Speaker 2: by that one of the coaches and I just kind
- 15:42Speaker 2: of look at each other and go, man, there's just
- 15:47Speaker 2: something about her right now.
- 15:49Speaker 1: I can't wait, like I.
- 15:50Speaker 2: Look forward to going to practice just to see what
- 15:53Speaker 2: might happen next, some things that she might pull off.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Can you say that about easy too?
- 15:59Speaker 3: The way she worked out in the weight room this
- 16:01Speaker 3: year where she wasn't having to rehab, where she could
- 16:03Speaker 3: just basically totally focus on basketball.
- 16:06Speaker 2: Yeah, physically, I mean, as he's always been that though.
- 16:09Speaker 2: I mean she's always been even when she was doing
- 16:11Speaker 2: her rehab, she was probably one of the hardest workers,
- 16:15Speaker 2: if not the hardest workers that we have in the weight.
- 16:18Speaker 1: Room anywhere else.
- 16:19Speaker 2: So that's that's been a part of who she is
- 16:21Speaker 2: and and maybe that's why it's allowed her to come
- 16:23Speaker 2: back from all those injuries and play so well like
- 16:27Speaker 2: she did last year. So knock corn Wood. You know,
- 16:30Speaker 2: she's she's been healthy, she's worked really hard, and her
- 16:35Speaker 2: workouts on the court are still you know, fun to watch.
- 16:40Speaker 2: And now you know it's it's the same senior thing.
- 16:47Speaker 2: You know, how do you how do you how do
- 16:52Speaker 2: you pretend it's not the end even when you know
- 16:54Speaker 2: it's the end? And not worry about the end and
- 16:57Speaker 2: try to enjoy every moment of what we're doing now.
- 17:01Speaker 2: So that I think is the biggest trick for a senior.
- 17:04Speaker 2: You know, how much fun can I have without worrying
- 17:08Speaker 2: about this is gonna be all over.
- 17:11Speaker 1: She's still your best one on one player.
- 17:15Speaker 2: She's getting a run for her money, but she's yeah,
- 17:18Speaker 2: she's certainly one of the one of the best, but
- 17:21Speaker 2: she's she's got some competition this year, understood, for sure,
- 17:26Speaker 2: She's got some competition.
- 17:28Speaker 3: Coach.
- 17:29Speaker 4: In terms of leadership, this is a different group. Is
- 17:32Speaker 4: there anything that you can do to help with the
- 17:33Speaker 4: leadership process or do you believe it's an organic thing
- 17:36Speaker 4: that has.
- 17:36Speaker 1: To happen on its own. Yeah, that kind of happens
- 17:40Speaker 1: on its own. You know. You you can go out.
- 17:43Speaker 2: There and say I think so and so is our captain.
- 17:46Speaker 2: That won't matter one bit. You know, the leader is
- 17:48Speaker 2: going to be the leader, whoever that is. And it's okay,
- 17:52Speaker 2: you know if it takes a while, you know, so
- 17:56Speaker 2: we'll see. But right now, you know, they seem to
- 18:01Speaker 2: have figured out a few things. But we haven't been
- 18:04Speaker 2: in any situations where we're you know, okay, who's in
- 18:08Speaker 2: charge right now.
- 18:09Speaker 1: So I think we're.
- 18:12Speaker 2: Experimenting with a different way of doing things this year
- 18:16Speaker 2: than last year. And that's not a bad thing. Somebody
- 18:19Speaker 2: will step up or somebody's We've encouraged a couple of people, obviously, but.
- 18:24Speaker 1: You don't know, for.
- 18:26Speaker 3: The first time in a few years now, you don't
- 18:28Speaker 3: have the the way last season ended to maybe motivated
- 18:34Speaker 3: rich So where does the edge and of course you've
- 18:36Speaker 3: been here twelve times, where does the edge come from
- 18:39Speaker 3: when you're coming off.
- 18:45Speaker 2: Yeah, the biggest thing is if you win a national
- 18:50Speaker 2: championship and you have a lot of players back from
- 18:53Speaker 2: that team, the danger is, let's hurry up and get
- 18:59Speaker 2: to the NCAA tournament, where there's a lot of games
- 19:02Speaker 2: to be played between now and the NC twenty. But
- 19:05Speaker 2: we have enough new guys that they can't wait to
- 19:07Speaker 2: play the first game. So you try to balance it
- 19:10Speaker 2: with we're You can't say, hey, you know, we're We're
- 19:18Speaker 2: the game that everybody circles on their schedule. That's been
- 19:21Speaker 2: the case for thirty some years. So the edge is
- 19:29Speaker 2: gonna have to come in practice from the competition that
- 19:34Speaker 2: we provide for the first time for a lot of
- 19:36Speaker 2: these kids, there's enough players on our team that they.
- 19:42Speaker 1: Have to work really, really hard.
- 19:44Speaker 2: They have to fight for for every minute of playing
- 19:46Speaker 2: time that they're gonna get. Some even even the guys
- 19:50Speaker 2: that you would say, well, yeah, they don't have to
- 19:51Speaker 2: fight for playing time, Well, they may have to fight
- 19:56Speaker 2: for other things other than playing time. But there's a
- 19:58Speaker 2: lot of competition going on in practice right now, and
- 20:01Speaker 2: that's where it's going to have to come from. But
- 20:04Speaker 2: it might take an event happening, you know, Like you know,
- 20:11Speaker 2: last year we lost our exhibition game at home, our
- 20:14Speaker 2: scrimmage that seemed to.
- 20:18Speaker 1: Go out. Geez, maybe we're not that good. So we'll see.
- 20:24Speaker 1: I think it'll be all right.
- 20:25Speaker 3: I guess have a second exhibition in a couple of
- 20:27Speaker 3: weeks here or two.
- 20:28Speaker 4: Just what how important is.
- 20:29Speaker 1: To have both these games to whether it's experimenting.
- 20:31Speaker 4: Them, they're just seeing who.
- 20:33Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just get out in front of people, you know,
- 20:35Speaker 2: get out in front of people and make enough money
- 20:37Speaker 2: to pay these guys and keep them happy, you know.
- 20:41Speaker 1: So it's it's just fun to go out there and
- 20:47Speaker 1: better than practice. You know, usually it takes two.
- 20:51Speaker 2: Weeks of practice before they get bored and they don't
- 20:53Speaker 2: feel like practice anymore, you know. So these things come
- 20:57Speaker 2: right at the right time for all of us, two coaches, players.
- 21:01Speaker 2: We just want to see what's going on out there,
- 21:04Speaker 2: you know, why are you here? Has she done interviews before?
- 21:12Speaker 2: What language is she going to do?
- 21:16Speaker 1: But euro come on, come on,