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Transcript

Friday NCAA UConn WBB Press Conference · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Tommy Birch Des Moines Register coach. I was just kind
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of wondering what was it like saying that coach family
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: was going to be in the same size you and
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: do you have any good stories because obviously you guys
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: go way way back.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think this is the third time that we've
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: been in the same We may have been in the
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: same bracket other times. I have no idea, but the
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: third time where you know, there's a direct connection between
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: us playing and you know from nineteen ninety one to
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: two thousand and one two, well, I'm sorry, nineteen ninety
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: eight two today, which you know, for as many times
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: as they've been in the NCAA tournaments, kind of not
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: a lot, you know, for the success that they've had.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: And and we go back to when he was an
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: assistant in Notre Dame, which there's a special place in
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  Speaker 2: heaven for him. So uh, yeah, we've known each other
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  Speaker 2: a long, long, long, long time, and.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: We played him last year. Yeah.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: You I guess you can't avoid, you know, matchups that
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: could possibly happen, you know, between people that you know
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: very well.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The stories that involve Bill and myself, those are probably
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: best left for when we're both retired, but I have
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: a lot of respect for him and his program, and
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: is you know his family and.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: It's you know, I.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Coached against Karen once she was at Texas and then
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: any other game. I recruited Felicia coming out of high
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: school and you got Bill. So I guess you stay
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: around long enough, you get to experience all of.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: It, the questions for coach. We'll go front, right.
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: I'm just talking to Blanca and Yanna as roommates international players.
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: I guess, first of all, how are there's roommates? Would
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: you say?
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  Speaker 3: And and and.
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: What's what's the transition when you're coming from another country
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: you don't this isn't your first language, and how do
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: you handle that? And making sure that they adapt to
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: the student life first before you throw too much basketball
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: stuff at him.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Uh, believe it or not, I think sometimes the the
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: international kids have an easier time adapting the college than.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Than the homegrown ones.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: There seems to be a tremendous level of confidence, independence, uh,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: self awareness for the most part, commitment.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: They're here for a reason.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: They're very driven, and their English is really really good,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: better than good in Blanca's case. Obviously, you know she's
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: got the the Ecuador and Italy and now the US.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I've never had I've never had an international kid come
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: here and not be those things I just said. So
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: it's a pleasure to have them around. The players enjoy
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: their company. They bring a whole different perspective to the
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: locker room. There's a certain maturity about them, having lived
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: on their own for a long time, the independence that
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: they have. I think they bring an awful lot to
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: a team that's quite different than what you get on
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: a daily basis.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: Other questions for coach, I'll go back.
• 4:47
  Speaker 6: Left Jake mccrevin for the Daily Campus coach. Obviously you're
• 4:59
  Speaker 6: accustomed to hosting these first and second round games here,
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: but how do you keep your team's attention kind of
• 5:04
  Speaker 6: grounded in stores and not in Dallas or Phoenix, knowing
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: that this team has aspirations to, you know, win another championship.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: We were having a discussion this morning with some people
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: about how much more difficult it is now to harness
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: that concentration, that focus. The there's two sides to this
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: that the one side is hard to get in the
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: concentrate on the same thing for fifteen minutes, right, you
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: think about it even me you anybody like we're so
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: so I'm guessing them thinking about Fort Worth or beyond
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: probably only last about thirty seconds and then they're onto
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: something different. So hopefully I'm hoping for that. But all
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: we can do is just keep reminding them that whatever
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: they think is in the future isn't going to happen
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: if you don't take care of you know, the present,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: that's all. And you have to hope that the players
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: that have been there already can explain to them this
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: is how it goes. And maybe more games they watch
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: on TV and see how close some people do get
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: knocked out.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, there haven't been any women's.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Games except for a couple of the first four games,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: and when you saw some of the men's games last night,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: and you see what can happen in the NCAA tournament.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: And big shout out to the whole Martelli family down
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  Speaker 2: here in Richmond, God bless them, and what they did
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: last night was incredible. So yeah, I think that's a
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: reminder to every body.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: Go on the left here.
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  Speaker 7: He coached t Baker with the Ninth Sports last year.
• 7:06
  Speaker 7: The narrative was really about pages last year, and obviously
• 7:09
  Speaker 7: the media sort of clung onto that and had that
• 7:12
  Speaker 7: ending that you know, everyone sort of wanted to see.
• 7:16
  Speaker 7: Do you feel like the pressure this year is less
• 7:19
  Speaker 7: because there's less of that narrative surrounding one particular player
• 7:23
  Speaker 7: or is it just kind of a different pressure.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting too. You know, last year, I think
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: it was eventually the narrative was let's win one for page,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: you know, like, let's win one for page. It's page page, page, page,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: page one, one, one for page. And I think a
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: lot of the other players that they hadn't won a
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: national championship either, like none of them had. But we
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: made it, you know, not we all of us collectively.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe naturally it became you know, page, so
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: that happens, But in reality, you know, each of those
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: players that played in that game that are back got
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: to experience something for the very first time, you know.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: So this year the pressure is.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Losing, losing the national Player of the Year and having
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: to go back and do the exact same thing. That's
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: I think a part that gets sometimes just glossed over.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Don't worry about it. I don't know about that. Someone said,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: would you rather have the pressure of getting Paige another one?
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Or would you rather have the pressure of winning one
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: without the best player in the country last year, in
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: addition to the two players that we had that could
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: be the best player in the country this year. Whoever knows.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: I would say I would take last year's pressure or
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: this year's pressure. But pressure and Yukon go together. It's
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  Speaker 2: there every time. All I can do is and I
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: do just address it for what it.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Is and move on.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: I think that the fact that they have to deal
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: with that from the minute they step on campus, I
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: think helps them during these times.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: Any other questions for coach?
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Wow, all right, okay, thank.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: You for your time coaching. Good luck tomorrow.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: Welcome