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Geno Auriemma Postgame - Ball State · Coaches Corner

• 0:02
  Do you know at the offense, especially in the first quarter, you got
• 0:10
  off to a good start. It looked a little smoother. Did you like
• 0:14
  that that you have the capability to make it look a little smoother today?
• 0:19
  Uh? Yeah, And I just told me that's there's six different starting lineup
• 0:25
  in eight games. So we'll just keep tinkering, see what we see what
• 0:32
  we can come up with. There was there was a lot of good things
• 0:38
  that happened in that first quarter. You know, I thought we we gave
• 0:44
  ourselves a lot of chances too to do what we talked about doing. You
• 0:49
  know, we wanted to make sure that we got a lot of threes up.
• 0:52
  Uh, that we got to the basket a lot. So we we
• 0:58
  accomplished that the things that we set out to do. And it's just gonna
• 1:03
  take some some more work to kind of fine tune it. Not sure it'll
• 1:07
  work against everybody, but you know, we'll see. For she knows this
• 1:19
  is this the first defence. Uh mm hmmm mm hm, oh, thank
• 1:37
  you or places like for life. Do you know the offense, Uh,
• 1:59
  especially in the first quarter, you got off to a good start. It
• 2:01
  looked a little smoother. Did you like that that you have the capability to
• 2:06
  make it look a little smoother today. Uh yeah, And it just told
• 2:12
  me that's there's six different starting lineup in eight games. So we'll just keep
• 2:20
  tinkering, see what we see what we can come up with. There was
• 2:27
  there was a lot of good things that happened in that first quarter. You
• 2:30
  know, I thought we we gave ourselves a lot of chances to do what
• 2:38
  we talked about doing. You know, we wanted to make sure that we
• 2:39
  got a lot of threes up, uh, that we got to the basket
• 2:44
  a lot. So we we accomplished that the things that we set out to
• 2:51
  do. And it's just gonna take some some more work to kind of fine
• 2:55
  tune it. Not sure it'll work against everybody, but you know, we'll
• 3:01
  see. You know, is this is this the first time you started to
• 3:10
  freshmen? And what what did you think about that their combination? Well,
• 3:17
  Aliyah and uh you know, hah. Having having somebody solid in the middle,
• 3:30
  you know, I I think takes a lot of the the the pressure
• 3:36
  off and then having Ni Campaige out there takes some of the pressure off.
• 3:43
  So it w W. I don't know when the last time it it happened
• 3:46
  it's probably been a while, you know, but we really don't have a
• 3:53
  lot of a lot of choices. You know, we don't have any sophomorees
• 3:55
  and junior so we either starting seniors or we're starting freshmen. You know,
• 4:00
  there's no in between. You know, I thought they I thought they did
• 4:05
  a pretty good job, you know, in the more minutes they get.
• 4:10
  You know, if you keep trying to think of going forward, going forward,
• 4:14
  you know, they're getting more more opportunities to play, more opportunities to
• 4:17
  learn, and that's going to pay dividends. As ugly as it looks at
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  times, it's going to pay some dividends. I hope down the road,
• 4:28
  you know, where maybe we can follow up a thirty seven point quarter with
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  a you know, twenty five or you know, thirty point quarter instead of
• 4:36
  fifteen. So we've got to just keep working on, you know, finding
• 4:45
  those combinations that that work the best. And we still haven't found it yet.
• 4:50
  Talk about the job Ashland did, I mean she at least provided some
• 4:55
  from points out there for you today. And then at times you had four
• 4:59
  freshmen out there together, were you just trying to see what they could do
• 5:02
  together? Mostly I don't like I've been harping with with some of these guys
• 5:12
  too. To be really good at what you're what you're good at, you
• 5:15
  know, if you're a kid that that comes to you kind you've got to
• 5:20
  be pretty good at some point, you know, otherwise you wouldn't be here.
• 5:24
  So what was it that brought you here that you can kind of hold
• 5:30
  on to where you're here? And some people they are scores or you know,
• 5:34
  or they are shooters or their rebounders or you know, all handlers or
• 5:40
  whatever is their strength. And you know, one the thing that that Ashton
• 5:46
  did better than anything else that she did was she was a scorer. That's
• 5:50
  what That was her job in high school to score points. And it was
• 5:54
  her job during the summer to score points and to be aggressive hunting down shots,
• 5:59
  and and you know she did. She did a better job today than
• 6:04
  she has at any time this season. Uh. The fact that we have
• 6:09
  four freshmen out there at one time. You know, as as we play
• 6:15
  this way, there's gonna be fatigue, and there's uh, you know,
• 6:17
  we're trying to see how many minutes you know, I we uh, we
• 6:23
  would get productive minutes that I wanted to get for Paige you know, knowing
• 6:30
  that, you know, we have another game coming up this weekend, so
• 6:35
  there may be times when there's four freshmen on the court, and they need
• 6:39
  to be prepared for that going going forward, because the more different, the
• 6:46
  different positions that they get to play, the more experienced they're gonna get.
• 6:50
  You know, last week you were talking a little bit about trying to make
• 6:54
  a new puzzle out of the pieces you have left. How has your coaching
• 6:57
  staff adjusted its approach to the season given given the start and giving what you
• 7:02
  have to go forward with. You know, it's always it's always a challenge.
• 7:11
  You know, it's always difficult. Uh. There there are times that
• 7:17
  the way I like to play, the way I like to coach, the
• 7:20
  way I think is most effective for for us majority of the time is you
• 7:30
  know, three guards and and then you know a four man, five man.
• 7:36
  They're not even big guys anymore. They're just bigger than the guards.
• 7:42
  You know, today we played page in that spot, you know, so
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  finding finding the pieces that fit how I like to play. H Against Texas,
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  we went against everything that I believe in it and we went with a
• 8:00
  big lineup to try to match their size, and it was just allows the
• 8:05
  decision by me to do that. You know it didn't work anyway, so
• 8:09
  you might as well do what your strength is, you know. And if
• 8:13
  your strength isn't your your big guys, and your strength is your guards,
• 8:18
  then get as many of them out there as you can, for as often
• 8:20
  as you can. And that's not to say we can't we can't play with
• 8:26
  two big guys, because we did that a lot today. We just can't
• 8:30
  play with three. And that's just, you know, evident. Unless those
• 8:35
  three are Rebecca, Caaren Jamel, then that's easy. But you know they're
• 8:41
  not, so so we got to mix a match and find their way.
• 8:50
  So every day practice it's or staff me is, it's me, random Raven,
• 8:54
  and it's those guys going okay, so why don't we try this?
• 8:58
  No? I hate that? Why don't we try this? No? I
• 9:00
  hate that too. Do you like anything? No? I do not.
• 9:03
  I don't like anything about what we're talking about, but eventually set on something.
• 9:09
  Caroline was on the bench today, Do you have an updating how she's
• 9:11
  doing? How you look smiling? Which you good? Yeah? If you
• 9:26
  offer me the new NIL package that's coming to college, I still wouldn't be
• 9:31
  able to tell you when she's coming back. Do you guys read that letter
• 9:37
  by the way from the NCAA. Have you read it? Tried? Right?
• 9:43
  You know what my favorite was? Each Division one school has to guarantee
• 9:48
  a scholarship to an athlete, even if they don't play the sport. I
• 9:54
  know you looked up on that one on that's if I offer you a job
• 9:58
  and you come and say I don't feel like working, I have to pay
• 10:01
  you anyway. You guys want to sign up for scholarship. You guys want
• 10:07
  to sign up for a scholarship right, And I'm in favor of it.
• 10:11
  Don't get me wrong, but I thought that was pretty interesting. You know,
• 10:20
  that's we've probably talked about that morning. We've talked about, you know,
• 10:24
  basketball stuff. I just thought it was interesting. If you have a
• 10:28
  question, ilex okay, thinking about tonight, but also kind of season long,
• 10:37
  where is the biggest area you feel like the teammates improved defensively? Is
• 10:41
  it the same factory each time or is it kind of depend on the night
• 10:46
  and matchup problems that opposes. We have so many deficiencies that have to be
• 10:50
  addressed. We continue to do silly things that are are totally controllable by us.
• 11:07
  That it's not anything that the other team is doing. It's things within
• 11:11
  our power that isn't carrying over from practice to the games. You know,
• 11:18
  the the number of layups that some team will get because the the guy that's
• 11:24
  supposed to be rotating over is and rotating over on time. So things like
• 11:28
  that were a foul that happens with one second left on the shock lock,
• 11:31
  you know, and just little things that can be fixed, things that can
• 11:39
  you know, some things can't be fixed. We're not going to get you
• 11:41
  know, we're not gonna get any bigger, quicker, faster, stronger than
• 11:45
  we are. This is what we have. But you know, right now,
• 11:48
  my biggest problem is the things that a werein our control we're not controlling.
• 11:52
  And I feel, you know, I feel obviously it's my responsibility,
• 11:58
  but I feel like, yeah, it's it's a tough it's a tough go
• 12:05
  with with this group. They they they're not easy. It's not an easy
• 12:13
  group. And I'm not even talking about the freshman they're they're they're the least
• 12:20
  in my works. You know, the other day you were talking about Ashland
• 12:28
  has been kind of driving herself crazy because she wants to be good so badly.
• 12:33
  Is this a good step for her? Like, uh, you know,
• 12:35
  getting her on the right track kind of yeah, you know. It's
• 12:46
  it's like the guy quit smoking, he when'd you quit smoking? Yesterday?
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  How am I doing? I want to roll? I think today was a
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  good start. This is this is going to be an ongoing thing for a
• 13:00
  while because she just is so incredibly hard on on on herself and trying to
• 13:09
  be you know, everything, trying to be everything all the time. And
• 13:18
  I think one one day at a time, you know, But today was
• 13:24
  a great start. You do. Today was really good. Today was really
• 13:30
  good. Yep, today was really really good. She just did what comes
• 13:33
  natural to her, you know. And again, then you're gonna have to
• 13:37
  live with a dumb shot, a dumb three because I really don't know anybody
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  to pass it too. So I wanna shoot it, which that that never
• 13:43
  goes in or coach told me to be aggressive, So I just put your
• 13:46
  head down and drive into three people and throw some shit up there. So
• 13:50
  you're gonna get that, But that's fine. That's better than I catch it.
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  I'm open. I dribble once and I give it to you. So
• 13:58
  I I everything about today for Ash was good, everything, even the dumb
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  stuff. From where you sat. What was it like watching Nika going up
• 14:07
  against her sister out there? You know, I didn't really notice it that
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  much. I mean, I don't know how many times they were matched up?
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  Was there? I don't know. Yeah, I mean I wasn't really
• 14:18
  paying it. I wasn't really paying attention, but it didn't look like there
• 14:22
  were a lot. I was just happy that her mom and dad got to
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  see, you know, their kids play. And it's crazy that, you
• 14:31
  know, you got to go five thousand miles to see your two kids play
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  play college basketball and they happen to be playing against each other, you know,
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  so it's kind of like Nika said, this was kind of like her
• 14:43
  senior night, you know, for her. But yeah, in the back,
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  the Creationian Fat flag was flying and everybody's you know, celebrating, and
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  I thought it was a great I thought it was a great thing. And
• 14:56
  the coach, you know, their coach and other people there were really you
• 15:01
  know, they were involved in it two, you know, making this happen.
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  So I'm just really really happy that we were able to pull it off.
• 15:09
  You know, you talked about all the deficiencies. Are there things that
• 15:13
  you're happy about right now? Are encouraged about right now? They're happening,
• 15:18
  and what are they? Well? Some days there are some things, other
• 15:35
  days there are other things. But there's not one thing that I'm happy with.
• 15:43
  Six days in a row, five days in a row, four days
• 15:46
  in a row. We just like the scoring in the first quarter and then
• 15:50
  the second quarter. We have a very difficult time with this team sustaining things.
• 15:56
  So what I really like about our team On Monday, we come to
• 16:00
  practice Tuesday and I hate it and we have to start over. And then
• 16:06
  we're really good at something on Wednesday and I think we got it, and
• 16:08
  Thursday we got to start over. It's just it's just one of those It's
• 16:15
  just one of those years. So you know what am I really really really
• 16:19
  happy with at this point in time right now? Huh? You know,
• 16:26
  I think our I think our young guys are coming along and that's a good
• 16:30
  sign. I think, you know, in the last two games, you
• 16:34
  know, at least come along, and that's a really good thing. But
• 16:40
  there's a lot that we got to get better at. You know, is
• 16:44
  there is there a difference in the way you communicate with different individuals on this
• 16:48
  team to try and get your point across. I mean, you can obviously
• 16:51
  coach Page pretty hard and she takes it. And but how do you how
• 16:56
  do you figure out how to get your point across to the different personalities esteem
• 17:03
  Well, obviously you know, that's that's what coaching is, right. Somebody
• 17:07
  told me one time that coaching and teaching actually is being able to explain things
• 17:14
  to people who have a hard time understanding. And I always thought I was
• 17:19
  really really good at that, and I'm not so good at it anymore,
• 17:26
  you know, And there's a again, it's it's being able to hold on
• 17:36
  to it. It's like I get it, but I don't get it long
• 17:38
  enough. And I've dealt with this for the last X number of years,
• 17:44
  you know, where, let's do it, and then let's get it right,
• 17:51
  and on the second try we get it exactly right. And then some
• 17:56
  of these guys in their mind, I own it now, why because you
• 18:00
  did it right twice? And that's what That's what kills me, that there
• 18:03
  there isn't this urge to get it right seven eight out of ten times.
• 18:11
  Maybe that's unreasonable. Maybe that's the old way of thinking that, Hey,
• 18:17
  you know, if we get things right in practice eight out of ten times,
• 18:18
  pretty good chance we're going to get it right half the time in the
• 18:22
  game. Slippage if you're getting it right five times out of ten and in
• 18:26
  practice, you're gonna get it right three times in the game out of ten.
• 18:30
  So it's just, you know, it's it's a challenge. It's a
• 18:36
  real challenge. It's a real challenge, and you know that's why teams gel.
• 18:48
  Hopefully as the season goes on. As the season goes on, it
• 18:52
  gets you know, it gets better, or it doesn't. Yeah, or
• 19:04
  it doesn't. But that's that's that's what every coach is facing. You know,
• 19:10
  think that's probably why you see more upsets now than you have in a
• 19:12
  long, long time ago. You know, more unranked teams being ranked teams.
• 19:15
  Whether it's men's basketball, women's basketball, it doesn't matter. You know,
• 19:19
  it's just hard to sustain true t true true day after day after day
• 19:25
  after day, game after game after game. It's very difficult, very difficult.
• 19:30
  So you know, if you have eight eight players and you have enough
• 19:34
  experience, you can mix and match. Somebody's gotta going today, you know,
• 19:38
  some just it's seriously, that's I still have my sense of him.
• 19:55
  Yeah that thinks. Now, why do you have a question? But yeah,
• 19:57
  that's all. Yeah, you know the games day nunc mm, you
• 20:02
  know, part of basketball, all these yees. You know how special is
• 20:06
  it to be a part of that and deelic words take place in Connecticut.
• 20:10
  Well, I'm really it's incredible that the Hall of Fame has has chosen to
• 20:15
  do this. I know it started off with us playing a game, and
• 20:22
  then it e vibe to there being a double header, and I think this
• 20:26
  is the first time that it's it's a triple header. And it's not just
• 20:30
  any triple header. I mean, these are you know, always like these
• 20:34
  three these three, these three games, these six teams, know this could
• 20:38
  be an NCAA you know, regional you know, uh F three regional finals,
• 20:48
  three regionals whatever. These are not the kind of matchups that you get
• 20:52
  all in one place, you know, in December. Doesn't normally happen like
• 20:56
  this. And I'm glad that they took the initiative of and did it.
• 21:00
  And and I think one big, big part of it is I think they
• 21:04
  know fans will come out and fans appreciate it, and they'll appreciate great basketball.
• 21:11
  I'm glad we don't have to play all of them, just have to
• 21:15
  play one of them, that's for sure. Thanks guys, thank you,