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Transcript

UConn WBB Presser at St John's · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: For your pages. How are you feeling in your first
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: game back down? Should you up?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: I'm feeling good. I'm just glad to be back out there.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Obviously first came back from anything. You just want to
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: get your feet wet, get the field playing basketball again,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: on the physicality of it.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: The pace of it. But feeling good.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, cool page with you an age player on the court.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: At the same time, you got the special of question,
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: how is it that you're gonna have to be the
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: field to you not always have to be a primary
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: ball hander that she got the court.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we have a lot of people who
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: can handle the ball, who can make plays on our team.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: I think we share that responsibility really well, knowing that
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: no one person's gonna dominate the ball, and we don't
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: want to share it. We don't want to touch it,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: we don't want to move side of the court and
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: continue to involved moving that way. So it's definitely easier
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: for the team when you have funny and people will
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: handle a rock like that.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: It can't hate it.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Sometimes this coach is talking about they haven't turned the
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: ball over like this most of the season. Just more
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: do you feel like major guys is pressure so successful tonight.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: I'll see understanding that's part of our identity as a team,
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: and just defensive intensity, that anticity, it brings energy. But
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: also communication was key for our team tonight and I
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: feel like we communicated very well and our pressure is
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: everybody was talking on the core, which made easy rotations
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: and things like that to make it easier for us
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: to get turn.
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: Over do yeah, forging out plastic, it was like for
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: to see it easy to kind of pink back into
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: her normal self this past week.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Uh, it's been great.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I think it'll do strives for a team in terms
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: of her being aggressive and her living score and the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: defense happening to worry about her and her aggressive mentality,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and I think we'll.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Be a much better team. She continues place well anything
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: else with student athletes.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: But.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: For Diner be solid.
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: But what was possible and how will beginning revenue share?
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: So I just want to your opinion on my juge game.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I think that's huge just for.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Women to continue to capitalize on what we brought to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the sport and what we do for just sport in
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: general and entertainment and just to be able to be
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: a part of that. We're extremely grateful I think like
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: it's continued to grow as the sport grows, and so
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: it's a second right direction.
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: Can you talk about like, did you see the signs
• 2:41
  Speaker 6: there's one girl that came from Florida. Does that even
• 2:43
  Speaker 6: surprise you anymore? How they're coming up to see you
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: in the rest of the team.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I mean I never want to take it
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: for granted and think that people are obligated to come
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: watch us or it's not a blessing for people to
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: be in the stands when we play. So I never
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: want to take it for granted and continue to be
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: grateful for everybody who supports our team, especially to people
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: who come from a long distance, who spend a lot
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: of time, money, and effort to get here.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: All right, well, thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 3:18
  Speaker 7: H Okay you guys, anybody.
• 3:28
  Speaker 8: That understood anything KK Saturdays?
• 3:32
  Speaker 9: Because I didn't.
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: Can you just talk about your thoughts on the revenue sharing?
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: Uh?
• 3:41
  Speaker 9: Uh, maybe I missed it. I thought if the unit
• 3:44
  Speaker 9: is parguing.
• 3:46
  Speaker 8: Yeah, here at c C people say revenue sharing today.
• 3:50
  Speaker 9: I know, yeah, that means they just we just gave
• 3:53
  Speaker 9: more money to their players. Uh. I think.
• 3:59
  Speaker 8: You know, the Big East was way ahead of a
• 4:03
  Speaker 8: lot of other conferences back when we had the Big.
• 4:12
  Speaker 9: League, you know, sixteen teams.
• 4:18
  Speaker 8: We had, we had revenue sharing within our own within
• 4:22
  Speaker 8: our own league, and you were you were rewarded for
• 4:27
  Speaker 8: winning the regular season, winning the tournament, going far in
• 4:31
  Speaker 8: the NCAA tournament, winning a national championship.
• 4:34
  Speaker 9: So I thought it really incentivized.
• 4:39
  Speaker 8: A lot of the teams in our league to make
• 4:42
  Speaker 8: an attempt to say, hey, let's give it a shot.
• 4:45
  Speaker 8: Let's see if we can capitalize on some of that,
• 4:48
  Speaker 8: because there are rewards now for excellence, for for what you.
• 4:52
  Speaker 9: Put, what kind of product you put on the floor.
• 4:57
  Speaker 8: And that was never the case on the big pictures
• 5:00
  Speaker 8: where the NCAA they were obviously been doing this on
• 5:04
  Speaker 8: the men's side for a long long time, and a
• 5:07
  Speaker 8: lot of the.
• 5:07
  Speaker 9: Small schools, this is their this is their livelihood, right.
• 5:12
  Speaker 8: A lot of the small schools they count on their
• 5:14
  Speaker 8: men's team making the NCAA tournament, trying to go deep
• 5:17
  Speaker 8: into the tournament. That is a huge, huge chunk of
• 5:23
  Speaker 8: their revenue as a department. So to have another team,
• 5:28
  Speaker 8: you know, within the department that can theoretically earn that.
• 5:36
  Speaker 9: It's great for the schools it's great for the future
• 5:43
  Speaker 9: of the game, of the sport.
• 5:45
  Speaker 8: It's another step in the right direction based on what's
• 5:48
  Speaker 8: happened the last couple of years. And like they said,
• 5:52
  Speaker 8: it's capitalizing on the momentum that's out there.
• 5:55
  Speaker 9: There is money being put on, you know, on.
• 6:00
  Speaker 8: The table for broadcast rights and you know, any other
• 6:04
  Speaker 8: corporate investments, and the schools are going to be the
• 6:08
  Speaker 8: beneficiary of that, as it should be. It's MHM, it's
• 6:15
  Speaker 8: part of you know, it's a it's a statement saying
• 6:18
  Speaker 8: we I don't think you could ever say we can
• 6:21
  Speaker 8: be totally self supportive. I don't think any anybody thinks that,
• 6:25
  Speaker 8: but certainly, you know, it's it's a it's a statement
• 6:30
  Speaker 8: that they made today about where women's basketball fits into
• 6:35
  Speaker 8: the big picture of college.
• 6:36
  Speaker 9: Athletics, HM culture.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: After the USC game, you talk about your big express
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: job from that point on to now, what do you
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: think about how the goverment ESPC you're around or where.
• 6:53
  Speaker 8: Yeah, there's a trend in in basketball at all levels.
• 7:02
  Speaker 8: You know, from the top to the bottom NBA down, that.
• 7:09
  Speaker 9: The big man that used to exist back in the day.
• 7:13
  Speaker 8: You know, kids in value as much anymore, you know,
• 7:18
  Speaker 8: they may be a pretty good defensive player.
• 7:19
  Speaker 9: They may be a pretty good shot blocker and.
• 7:21
  Speaker 8: Protective of that, but when it comes to, you know,
• 7:24
  Speaker 8: using that that player as a big part of your offense,
• 7:29
  Speaker 8: it's kind of drifted away, so to speak, when where
• 7:33
  Speaker 8: that used to be the beginning point of your team.
• 7:39
  Speaker 8: I never you know, I never thought that that was
• 7:41
  Speaker 8: the answer. You know, We've always prided ourselves and having
• 7:47
  Speaker 8: you know, big kids that could impact the game a
• 7:50
  Speaker 8: lot of different ways, going back to you know, Carol
• 7:54
  Speaker 8: Walters and Rebecca logo and moving on from there and
• 7:58
  Speaker 8: the hall of famers that we've had late a position.
• 8:01
  Speaker 8: So as it relates to Jenna, there's a lot of
• 8:06
  Speaker 8: growing that she has to do. There's a lot of
• 8:11
  Speaker 8: learning that she has to do.
• 8:13
  Speaker 9: It's you know, she made.
• 8:15
  Speaker 8: A great comment the other day, she said, you know,
• 8:16
  Speaker 8: when I played over in Egypt, we didn't pay that
• 8:19
  Speaker 8: much attention to the details that we pay attention to here.
• 8:23
  Speaker 9: So that's a whole learning curve for a kid like that.
• 8:26
  Speaker 8: And what ends up happening sometimes is they spend more
• 8:29
  Speaker 8: time thinking than actually playing, which is okay because you
• 8:34
  Speaker 8: have to learn how to play the game.
• 8:36
  Speaker 9: She's learning little.
• 8:37
  Speaker 8: By little every day she's having more of an impact
• 8:41
  Speaker 8: little by little every day. I asked her to tip
• 8:49
  Speaker 8: the ball backwards a defensive tap. The other day she
• 8:52
  Speaker 8: volleyball smashed it forward to one of the other guys
• 8:55
  Speaker 8: on the other team. So my Arabic isn't very good yet.
• 8:58
  Speaker 8: So I'm working on that and that'll help her grow
• 9:01
  Speaker 8: a little bit more.
• 9:04
  Speaker 9: Drast me for good free.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: What did you just like to Page today?
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: And first came back and restriction.
• 9:12
  Speaker 8: That kid came all the way from Florida to see
• 9:14
  Speaker 8: Page plays. And when whenever you whenever you take any
• 9:21
  Speaker 8: time off, you know you're always going to have a
• 9:25
  Speaker 8: little bit of a pick up when you go in here.
• 9:27
  Speaker 8: And the way the game started, and she looked like
• 9:29
  Speaker 8: she just picked up exactly where she left off.
• 9:32
  Speaker 9: But then you start to see her drift.
• 9:35
  Speaker 8: And she doesn't have the stamina to you know, keep
• 9:40
  Speaker 8: her foot on the gas like she normally would. So
• 9:43
  Speaker 8: she spent a part of the first half just wandering,
• 9:49
  Speaker 8: you know, and we couldn't get her enough shots. Then
• 9:52
  Speaker 8: when we started the second half, maybe it was getting
• 9:54
  Speaker 8: a you know, getting a breather. We changed up a
• 9:57
  Speaker 8: couple of things. Then all of a sudden back back back,
• 9:59
  Speaker 8: you know. So, I never I never doubt you know,
• 10:08
  Speaker 8: what Page can do to impact the game, because I've
• 10:10
  Speaker 8: seen it so many times. But I also know she's
• 10:13
  Speaker 8: not a robot where you just put her in, push
• 10:17
  Speaker 8: the button and everything happens automatically. But you know, glad
• 10:22
  Speaker 8: we had her back today. She'll be even better on Sunday.
• 10:26
  Speaker 8: And let's just hope. You know, that's the leastous.
• 10:29
  Speaker 9: Was she on her minute restruction to night, Well, she
• 10:33
  Speaker 9: says she wasn't.
• 10:35
  Speaker 8: I made she bought twenty three twenty Yeah, she played
• 10:40
  Speaker 8: twenty three minutes. Yeah, she said, I'm not I'm not
• 10:44
  Speaker 8: a minute restriction. I said, well, actually you are, but.
• 10:51
  Speaker 9: It will have nothing to do with your leg It'll
• 10:53
  Speaker 9: be everything how you play. That's why I couldn't wait
• 10:55
  Speaker 9: to get her out on the first day.
• 10:57
  Speaker 8: So it ended up being like I was hoping for,
• 10:59
  Speaker 8: like twenty one, twenty two, ten eleven minutes each half.
• 11:05
  Speaker 9: You know, so, I think we hit the mark pretty close.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: It's amazing.
• 11:12
  Speaker 8: I feel like you talk a lot about perconsistency and practice.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like you're starting to see that.
• 11:16
  Speaker 8: Translate to the game situations now for.
• 11:19
  Speaker 9: Her yeah, Yeah, she's being more aggressive. I think.
• 11:24
  Speaker 8: I always again, I always marvel at how.
• 11:32
  Speaker 9: Precise she is with everything she does.
• 11:34
  Speaker 8: You know, there's not a lot of waste of motion,
• 11:37
  Speaker 8: there's not frivolous stuff that she does. Everything's button down,
• 11:44
  Speaker 8: pretty you know, pretty tight.
• 11:45
  Speaker 9: You know.
• 11:46
  Speaker 8: She she just plays the game in a way that
• 11:50
  Speaker 8: makes you think, Wow, this girl's put a lot into this.
• 11:53
  Speaker 8: You know, she's she's trained herselves to play at a
• 11:56
  Speaker 8: certain pace, in a certain level.
• 12:00
  Speaker 9: It's it's interesting that and I hope that I can
• 12:03
  Speaker 9: figure this one out.
• 12:04
  Speaker 8: But you know, I think I think she maybe sometimes
• 12:09
  Speaker 8: feels when it's all on my shoulders, then I have
• 12:12
  Speaker 8: to do a lot. That's good when I have to
• 12:15
  Speaker 8: share it with everybody else, that's really kind of comfortable.
• 12:18
  Speaker 9: And that's what I'll do. I'd like for her to.
• 12:21
  Speaker 8: Kind of be even more like she suffers from the
• 12:26
  Speaker 8: same thing that Page did and Sarah does, or I
• 12:29
  Speaker 8: think they they want to do just enough to help
• 12:33
  Speaker 8: us win, you know, and I like for them to
• 12:35
  Speaker 8: really And I'm hoping that Easy keeps building on it,
• 12:41
  Speaker 8: you know, she keeps building.
• 12:44
  Speaker 9: That's it. You know, we're building towards March. So one
• 12:49
  Speaker 9: game at a time.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Going back to the announcement about what you ask and
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: being able to to do this, What do you think
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: needs to happen next?
• 12:56
  Speaker 9: And how can they this? You know, what can happen before,
• 12:59
  Speaker 9: things that happened.
• 13:01
  Speaker 8: Relatives to the to the units far or just next. Well, Notice,
• 13:08
  Speaker 8: I mean I don't know what I mean. Everybody knows
• 13:11
  Speaker 8: what the men's tournament is because they make that public
• 13:15
  Speaker 8: every March, you know, and and everybody knows that it's
• 13:19
  Speaker 8: a billion dollar business.
• 13:22
  Speaker 9: Uh. Where we are.
• 13:26
  Speaker 8: Right now, whatever the numbers that are out there, I
• 13:31
  Speaker 8: think this year, based on what we do, those numbers
• 13:38
  Speaker 8: are going to turn out to be low for what
• 13:40
  Speaker 8: I think we're we're worth.
• 13:44
  Speaker 9: Out there on the market.
• 13:46
  Speaker 8: So what has to happen next is there has to
• 13:49
  Speaker 8: be a There has to be an NCAAA commitment, which
• 13:56
  Speaker 8: this proves that there is. There's got to be Uh,
• 14:02
  Speaker 8: We've got to go back to four regionals, right so
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: that we can spread the game around the country more
• 14:08
  Speaker 8: instead of just two sites, and that will I think
• 14:11
  Speaker 8: make even more revenue available for everybody. And I think
• 14:16
  Speaker 8: the onus is on the coaches and the players to
• 14:19
  Speaker 8: keep getting better, because once you get the.
• 14:23
  Speaker 9: Spotlight on you.
• 14:25
  Speaker 8: Now there's an expectation and we just have to keep
• 14:28
  Speaker 8: meeting those expectations.
• 14:30
  Speaker 9: And you know, players like Page and Kkas and.
• 14:34
  Speaker 8: Those guys, you know, they can do a lot to
• 14:37
  Speaker 8: push this thing forward even more so. And the fact
• 14:42
  Speaker 8: that you know, the the league that starts this week,
• 14:46
  Speaker 8: the unrival league that's still in and.
• 14:49
  Speaker 9: The visa that just is more.
• 14:54
  Speaker 8: More eyes watching more women's basketball, and all those are
• 14:58
  Speaker 8: going to add up you know, a beating too.
• 15:01
  Speaker 9: You know, to what we're doing.
• 15:05
  Speaker 8: It's exciting and I hope that we can now we
• 15:08
  Speaker 8: can capitalize on it. You know, yeah, he took that
• 15:12
  Speaker 8: unrelival you know two former players, Yeah, we and PC
• 15:18
  Speaker 8: fusing heads against each other in w n B A Yeah,
• 15:21
  Speaker 8: fine together the.
• 15:22
  Speaker 9: Formerly What does that make you feel?
• 15:31
  Speaker 8: Well, they learned how to play basketball, you can. They
• 15:38
  Speaker 8: learn how to grow up, They learn how to be
• 15:40
  Speaker 8: great teammates, and they paid attention and learn where the
• 15:45
  Speaker 8: money is and that if you're gonna put this much
• 15:50
  Speaker 8: into it, put this much effort into it, how do
• 15:53
  Speaker 8: you find a way to capitalize on it. So I'm
• 15:57
  Speaker 8: incredibly proud of you know, how they represent themselves and
• 16:01
  Speaker 8: their families and how they represent you know, the WNBA
• 16:06
  Speaker 8: and what they've done, which took a lot of courage
• 16:11
  Speaker 8: because you don't know if it's if it's actually gonna go,
• 16:15
  Speaker 8: and everywhere they go and everything they do, it'll always
• 16:19
  Speaker 8: be mentioned that they played at Yukon, And to me,
• 16:22
  Speaker 8: that's something that for the rest of their lives, everywhere
• 16:26
  Speaker 8: they go, everything they accomplished.
• 16:30
  Speaker 9: We're going to be a part of that.
• 16:32
  Speaker 8: And I couldn't be you know, I couldn't be prouder.
• 16:36
  Speaker 9: It was like my own, my own kids at home.
• 16:38
  Speaker 9: You know, It's just.
• 16:41
  Speaker 8: When I met both of those kids, they were seventeen
• 16:43
  Speaker 8: years old, just hoping to get a chance to play
• 16:45
  Speaker 8: basketball at a high.
• 16:46
  Speaker 9: Level, and now they're incredibly.
• 16:51
  Speaker 8: Accomplished, gold medal winners and incredible human beings. I'm as
• 17:02
  Speaker 8: excited as anybody to watch, you know, this weekend we
• 17:08
  Speaker 8: had two amazing kids, absolutely amazing.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Of course, you talk about paying at Tendative Detect the
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: first high you guys are able to kind of picking
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: two reports.
• 17:23
  Speaker 9: As a speak, you don't be able to.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Get any shots you want speak of the office, especially
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: in the first hif.
• 17:31
  Speaker 8: Yeah, you know when you last year when we couldn't
• 17:35
  Speaker 8: sub Our offense was great because those guys knew, I
• 17:38
  Speaker 8: don't care if I throw the ball if somebody said
• 17:40
  Speaker 8: five times, they can't take me down.
• 17:42
  Speaker 9: So they played through all their stuff.
• 17:44
  Speaker 8: You know, and they created a real good chemistry together
• 17:47
  Speaker 8: and knew each other.
• 17:48
  Speaker 9: So this year we have the ability to get more
• 17:50
  Speaker 9: players in the game.
• 17:51
  Speaker 8: So I'm trying to give players an opportunity to see who.
• 17:56
  Speaker 9: Fits with who, who fits with what.
• 17:58
  Speaker 8: So that first quarter, we kept that that group intact,
• 18:02
  Speaker 8: and we score twenty five points in the first quard
• 18:05
  Speaker 8: against one of the best defensive teams in the biggest right,
• 18:08
  Speaker 8: So we get twenty five in the first quarter. Then
• 18:10
  Speaker 8: as the substitutions come and as new lineups come in,
• 18:14
  Speaker 8: it just.
• 18:14
  Speaker 9: Gets really yeah, it gets really confusing out there watching
• 18:22
  Speaker 9: what's going on.
• 18:24
  Speaker 8: But at the same time, I don't know that we
• 18:28
  Speaker 8: would gain as much if we keep those guys on
• 18:32
  Speaker 8: the bench and try to score one hundred and try
• 18:35
  Speaker 8: to score ninety.
• 18:36
  Speaker 9: Serves no purpose, you know.
• 18:38
  Speaker 8: So I think my job is to is to try
• 18:41
  Speaker 8: to figure out how do I get these kids in
• 18:44
  Speaker 8: the game.
• 18:45
  Speaker 9: Who do I put them out there with?
• 18:47
  Speaker 8: You know, get them some confidence and it's not going
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: to look good. And you know, once you take Page
• 18:56
  Speaker 8: out of the game, and you take Hasy out of
• 19:00
  Speaker 8: the game, you've got a lot of kids that have
• 19:03
  Speaker 8: not played a lot of basketball, and it's gonna look bad.
• 19:09
  Speaker 9: Bad.
• 19:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, going back to Janna, how much is her going
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: into the starting lineup really helped the confidence? It seems
• 19:19
  Speaker 6: like she's gotten better each game that she started, other
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: than the beginning of the game.
• 19:23
  Speaker 8: To me, I would imagine it helped a little bit,
• 19:30
  Speaker 8: feeling like the coaches have confidence in me to put
• 19:34
  Speaker 8: me out there. Early on, she didn't like the fact
• 19:39
  Speaker 8: that we put her out there and then she would
• 19:42
  Speaker 8: come out because she would get herself from found trouble
• 19:44
  Speaker 8: and we couldn't keep her on the court.
• 19:48
  Speaker 9: So I think little by little her the things that
• 19:56
  Speaker 9: she would do.
• 19:57
  Speaker 8: To get her in trouble, she's doing less and less
• 19:59
  Speaker 8: of those the little things that we need her to do,
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: you know, be a better screener, be a better rebounder,
• 20:05
  Speaker 8: finish better around the basket. You know, there's no rule
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: that says every time you catch the ball in the
• 20:11
  Speaker 8: low post you have to make seven moves before you
• 20:13
  Speaker 8: shoot it. Just catch turn around, right, So as we
• 20:18
  Speaker 8: try to simplify things for her, she's going to keep
• 20:20
  Speaker 8: getting better. And as she keeps getting more confident, she
• 20:26
  Speaker 8: keeps getting better. There's nobody else on our team like her,
• 20:32
  Speaker 8: so we you know, we've got a player, and and
• 20:36
  Speaker 8: we're gonna need her in games like we're going to
• 20:39
  Speaker 8: see in March