Latest / Coaches Corner / Geno Auriemma - Avail August 11

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Geno Auriemma - Avail August 11 · Coaches Corner

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  You've you've done enough of beasts. Do you still get excited about trips?
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  I'm sure going back to Italy never gets that boring for you. Oh yeah,
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  I've not been to where we're going, so I'm looking forward to that.
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  The trips are never the same as the one before because you're always bringing
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  a different group. It's a different different vibe with each group that you've over
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  with, But conceptually it's it's the same. What you're trying to get accomplished
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  is the same, and you just hope that that the competition is what what
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  you needed to be to help your team. You know, if the competition
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  is too good, your team can get the moralized a little bit. If
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  you're not if you're not careful, if you have a young team, the
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  competition is no good, and then it's pointless. So you hope that it
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  falls somewhere in between. You there was there more value in the overall experience
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  or the competition of the practices, the basketball stuff. It's it's good from
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  a basketball standpoint because you do get some time to work. We're not practicing
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  while we're over there, so basketball over there is you know, just part
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  of the trip. But the trip is for but like I tell the team,
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  every time we've gone over there, we found out something about somebody on
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  our team that helps us going forward, or they find out something about themselves
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  or their teammates. Who's a good teammate? You find out on these trips,
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  who's selfish, who's unselfiss, who cares about other people, who doesn't
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  care about other people? You know, who communicates with things? You know,
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  I like to tell a story all the time. You know, when
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  we travel with the Olympic teams, Sue would remind the entire team, hey,
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  don't forget this, don't forget that. Make sure you have this,
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  make sure you have that. Like when players take that kind of ownership,
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  then you know, you know you're led by your players and not just you
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  know, every player needs to be told every minute of every day what they
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  need to do, where they need to be, what time they have to
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  be there, so you you learn, They learn how to how to appreciate
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  how other people live and what the other cultures emphasize and what's important to them.
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  And you'd be surprised, you would think, oh man, players would
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  look forward to experiencing new things. You'd be surprised how many, how many
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  Americans go over to Europe and they're pissed that Europeans are not like Americans.
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  Then we get pissed to Europeans when they come here and they're not Americans.
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  I mean, it's just the weirdest thing. The object they're going over there
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  is to see, Hey, this is what they're like, Hey, I
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  really like this, It's really cool, this is I want to try this.
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  So it's it's it's a lot of things in basketball, just being one
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  of them. How special is it to have a trip like this to you
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  know, for Nica to go back to, you know, her hometown,
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  to give to give her a chance that you know, show restive team her
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  hometown, to have, you know, get her parents a chance that you
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  don't finally see her playing person. Well, no one could pick where they
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  grow up, right, you grew up where you grew up, and no
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  one can pick their childhood experience. It is what it is. So you
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  can't judge anybody one way or the other. But I think if you take
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  our team and you brought them, you bring them over there and you would
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  show them and listen to Nika say, okay, when I was fourteen,
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  fifteen, sixteen, this is what I did every day. This is how
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  I got to school, this is how I got home, this is what
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  time, this is what I had to do every day. And now you
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  start to think for yourself. Man, you did all that just so you
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  could play basketball, and you look at your own experience and you realize that's
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  why those kids when they come over here, are as driven and as focused
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  and as determined as they are, because this is their dream. And when
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  you're there, you can see why why it is a dream for them to
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  come over here and why they are the way they are. So yeah,
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  it's extremely humbling, I think for for kids to see that practicing a different
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  ball halls. Are you guys preparing for these games? Uh? Well the
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  first day, Uh it was a little bit of an issue. I don't
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  know how much you know players do during the summer and they don't do.
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  But page is reasoning for shooting one for thirty on day one. The ball's
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  too light, the ball's too slippery. I said, yeah, And they
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  probably changed the height of the basket. You know, the rim is a
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  little bit smaller than it used to be. How about you just say then
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  that I that I I didn't spend a lot of time shooting. I just
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  relaxed, which is what I wanted you to do. So the first day
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  everybody had an issue trying to manage the ball because it is so much different,
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  And I told him, you're lucky. It's way better than it used
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  to be. If you remember back when you're if you haven't even played high
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  school baseball, and you would they would take a ball right out of box
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  and say, this plight and it's like covered in it felt like it was
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  covered in basseling or something. You know, you can't you can't drove it,
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  you can't pass it, you can't shoot it. At least that was
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  my excuse, but after a while, you know, it's just, you
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  know, basketball's basketball. And I've always had an issue with the weight of
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  the women's ball, but nobody listens to me that if they ever took the
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  ball that we use and made it way the same as a men's ball,
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  more shots will go in. But what do I know, I've only been
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  doing this for fifty years, and you know, page getting really cleared.
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  I mean, are you guys planning to have her, you know, play
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  on this porn trip or what's the you know, playing for her? What
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  you guys are with well, Today will be pages first day of going up
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  and down full court with contact and everything that goes with blank. Tomorrow will
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  be your second, and Sunday will be your third. So I think she's
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  gonna determined after these three days just where am I and what's my comfortable you
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  know, you know, in consultation with her board of directors and investors and
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  you know, her constituents on Instagram. I think she might put it out
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  there and have everybody vote. You know, it's pretty complicated these days,
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  But I have fun with her anyway about all that. How nice is that
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  thou have her back? You know? I mean, do you hold your
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  breath you know when she's out there? Yeah? You do? You do?
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  You know? I was, was, you know, texting what Sue
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  the other day about and she asked me, she said, to my imagination,
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  or it takes a lot longer for kids to come back from mac else.
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  I said, Yeah, they're being held out longer because they're finding out
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  that the longer you wait, the more time you rehab, the you know,
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  the more time you give it that theoretically, it's supposed to increase your
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  chances of, yeah, getting back to where you used to be. So
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  it's been over a year now and it's a long time. But I think
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  because of her history, there's always a making sure that you know, so
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  after she gets knocked down a couple of times and after you know, she
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  experiences what it's like to play, I think she might feel better. But
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  I'll always be like m Excupe my fingers crossed this quote that way, anyone
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  else you're not expecting to have out in Europe? Uh Yanna uh playing Marie,
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  Yeah, that's probably Yet everybody else seems good to go, do you
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  know? Ki Kay has an helpful lot of energy that she does. H
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  that's kind of admirable for a freshman to come in and just like ratchet it
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  up like right away. And yeah, she's been a she's been the biggest,
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  the biggest surprise, I think simply because of her her explosive energy.
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  You know, she just is able to summon up the entire practice on both
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  sides of the floor. On offensive ends, she's just dynamic in the place
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  that she makes and on the defensive end, she's extremely disruptive. And it's
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  a you know, it's it's an element that we didn't have last year.
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  And it gives Nika an opportunity to play fresh the entire game instead of play
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  half the game fresh and half the games that tire. So I would say
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  she's been she's been incredibly impressive to everybody. And Q is just she's fearless.
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  That kid. I mean that kid will run up and down and she
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  can't see straight because she's just the world is spinning all around here and she
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  has no idea we on offense or were on defense? What are we doing?
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  And the ben at the boat touches her hand, it's up in the
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  air and in the basket. I've never seen a kid just catch the shoot
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  like this is what I do for a living. And when she's fresh,
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  and she's not gonna be in everybody when she shoots, everybody turns around once
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  back on these dings. Yeah, there's times when she's not in that frame
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  of mind and she shoots. We got four people offensively, got so.
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  But when she's got it going, man, and I think people had forgotten
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  how good I says and how much she adds, because now all of a
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  sudden, you've got a big kid that she's comfortable in the lane and she's
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  looking forward to to shooting her next three every possession because it goes in.
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  So we've got a lot of things we didn't have, you know, and
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  Ashton is Ashton can't do any of the drills that we do because she's trying
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  so hard to do them perfectly, so she screws up every drill that we
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  do. But then when we play five on five, she's terrific. So
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  you know, everybody's got their thing, man, and I'm I'm excited,
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  you know, to see how they do when we go over there. KK
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  said, it's an honor to have you yell at her. Do you want
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  players like that? Well, she's gonna be honored a lot the next ten
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  days. You know. One of the things I said to to the players,
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  I said, I guess Tom, you know are three our three,
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  you know, and Nika Page. You know, they've played the biggest role
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  so far. And you know, everybody has their own leadership style, you
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  know. And I've always said that the people who communicate the most talk are
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  always engaged. They're the ones that get my wrath more than anybody else because
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  I love the fact that they're holding themselves accountable by holding everybody else accountable,
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  which means I can hold them accountable even more than the guys who don't put
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  themselves out there like that. So right from the beginning in KK comes out
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  here and puts it out there. And I love that because that means she's
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  going to make in ten possessions, she's going to make five of the most
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  incredible plays any freshman could make, and then the other five are going to
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  be somewhat bizarre. And I love that because the five bisarre ones don't keep
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  her from making the next five great plays. And I just think that because
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  like I love to get close hard, and that's why she came here.
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  That's why, that's why all the freshmen are here, and that's why I
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  think they're going to be terrific. You know, sometimes you can sell right
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  away about a freshman whether they're gonna struggle, whether they're gonna take a long
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  and long time, or whether and you're like, oh boy, I hope
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  we didn't make the mistake of this one. You can tell right away.
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  And these guys love love to be coach, so you have for guards that
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  you have and you know, Kaked playing that way like you said, and
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  they have Janna, you know, going down and how's that and passed away
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  when you guys play, and how do you want to experiment with that while
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  you guys are you know, overseas well. I mean we are where we
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  are, We have more we have more guards than we have big guys,
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  so we have to play that way, you know. I asked the leish,
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  I said, a Leah, how did the season end for you lest
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  year? Unless you just kind of put her head down and said right on
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  the bench with foul. So I think our big guys have got to play
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  incredibly hard, incredibly well, and they've got to be incredibly smart to not
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  put themselves in the foul situations. So this is a good way to start
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  that process. How hard I play? How effective can I be without getting
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  myself in in NFL foul situation? And all the guards are under a lot
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  of pressure because Page is back, and Page makes a ton of shots,
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  Aisy makes a ton of shots, and Caroline makes a ton of shots.
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  Que just lights it up when she gets it going. Everybody now is under
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  pressure that I've got to make as many shots as these guys are, I'm
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  not going to play as much. So the guys that can't make as many
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  shots are working really hard on being a better defender, being better at some
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  other things. But you know, the big guys have have have got their
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  work cut out for them, and the guards are pressuring each other because they're
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  they're basically just the majority. And I I think Arsava play has to be
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  completely different than it was last year. This Page have a different appreciation for
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  basketball from when she first set about here. Yeah, the thing about Pages,
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  she loves the game. You know, she loves playing. She she's
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  in the gym more than anybody I've ever had. And you know, I
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  think in a in a way, she's she's missed the game so much that
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  I worry that she wants it so bad. You know, does she know
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  she's gonna push really really hard to get it back right away? And I
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  don't want her to do that. But Page is bigger, stronger. Page
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  doesn't look like skinny little freshman that came in here three years ago. She
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  looks like a college player now. She's worked incredibly hard, and all that
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  work is for you know, one purpose, and that's to play the game
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  that she loves to play. And like Eliah said, having Page back is
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  like a breath of fresh air, Like everything changes in the gym you know,
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  the minute she walks on the court, everything changes and I can see
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  them in the face. Have you seen her since she's now officially cleared,
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  and just I know this is her first practice back, but she as she's
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  gotten closer and closer, kind of embraced it or kind of feel maybe like
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  abracent mentally. The thing that helps Page is she plays slower, and she
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  uses our practice players are the players aren't She uses their footness against them so
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  now because she doesn't want to push herself yet to the limit, She's playing
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  even slow and that drives the other guys crazy because they're trying to speed her
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  up when they're trying to and she just methodically slowly, just this hesitation to
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  a good shot. Bag. This just little things that just make her who
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  she is. And you watch the way she finishes around the basket, the
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  passes that she throws to our big guys. Everybody on the team is having
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  to learn how to get used to playing with her because a lot of these
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  guys have not been around her, you know, meaning her. This is
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  azi third year and they played fifteen days together. No, so there isn't
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  a lot of experience playing together. But she makes everybody a better pass her.
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  She makes everybody smarter because you get smarter she's watching her and just being
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  on the floor with pus. You have your part to the back end your
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  poaching staff. How is it helt to have her here? How did it
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  seem? You know, we can't tell your guards to develop. Well,
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  there's a lot of guards that wouldn't be up on that wall without time is
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  help. So we brought her back because she has the ability to the impact
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  our players in a way that she understands this is what we want, this
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  is who we are, and she has the experience to be able to go
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  with the first couple of days. You know, she's very quiet. No,
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  people don't remember time. This first year here was like one three or
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  not. I don't know when it was. I don't think she spoke the
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  first three years year. And now to see her, you know, so
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  many years later, having been a head coach and having had your experience that
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  she had, and it's like being back here. It took her like exactly
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  one practice to feel like I'm about to whatever long, you know, and
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  she has such a great report with the players. You know, she hasn't
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  gotten after them yet, but she will You're welcome, Guy,