Latest / Coaches Corner / Geno Auriemma Avail Feb 26

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Geno Auriemma Avail Feb 26 · Coaches Corner

0:00
Speaker 1: When did I find out? Probably when I was in Phoenix,
0:03
Speaker 1: you know, watching her play, and then I got a
0:06
Speaker 1: sense that that that would be that would be the
0:09
Speaker 1: end of her career. But officially today's Thursday, yesterday, I
0:19
Speaker 1: would say, over the weekend probably, and it was Yeah,
0:33
Speaker 1: it wasn't even from from her.
0:38
Speaker 2: So, yeah, what do you think life after basketball is
0:42
Speaker 2: going to be like for her?
0:43
Speaker 1: Just like she's one person who would play forever if
0:46
Speaker 1: she could. Yeah, So what do you think it's gonna
0:48
Speaker 1: be like for he?
0:48
Speaker 2: Trust?
0:53
Speaker 1: Yeah? I often wonder because there's a lot of players
0:58
Speaker 1: in her say, a lot of players, But the players
1:01
Speaker 1: in her situation tend to go one of two ways. Right.
1:05
Speaker 1: They either completely walk away from it, like I've done enough,
1:09
Speaker 1: I've had it, I'm out, and since I can't play
1:13
Speaker 1: at the level that I've always played at, I'm not
1:15
Speaker 1: going to touch a basketball ever again. Right. And then
1:18
Speaker 1: there's others that hang on because it's their life, it's
1:22
Speaker 1: the only thing they know, it's the only interest they have,
1:24
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's their identity. I don't think and
1:30
Speaker 1: I haven't talked. I haven't spoken to her about it yet,
1:33
Speaker 1: but I don't I don't think her her future revolves
1:38
Speaker 1: around her playing the game at even pick up games
1:46
Speaker 1: or you know, playing in a you know, in a
1:48
Speaker 1: fun atmosphere, unless it's where her kids And I don't
1:56
Speaker 1: think there's a coaching aspect to it that she would enjoy.
2:01
Speaker 1: But I do think there's some basketball off the court
2:08
Speaker 1: related things that she's probably going to find herself getting
2:12
Speaker 1: involved in whatever that whatever that is. You know, I
2:19
Speaker 1: said to her one day, I said, you know, you
2:21
Speaker 1: should be the Olympic coach. It's in LA. She goes,
2:27
Speaker 1: I've never coached before. I said, well, that's a shocker
2:29
Speaker 1: to everybody. Yet every coach you've ever played for thought
2:33
Speaker 1: you were trying to coach the team. So you've already coached,
2:37
Speaker 1: and it's LA and you're from LA, and it would
2:39
Speaker 1: be the most amazing thing. We were laughing about it,
2:44
Speaker 1: and her think her response was someone, but like, do
2:47
Speaker 1: we have to go to World Championships and go to
2:49
Speaker 1: practice and go all those tours? Can I stay in
2:52
Speaker 1: LA and wait for the team to get there. But
2:54
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's something involving USA basketball, the w n
3:02
Speaker 1: b A, the NBA, you know, something that's gonna involve
3:06
Speaker 1: her having some decision making opportunities on how the game
3:12
Speaker 1: is going to go. A talent evaluator, Yeah, no, she's
3:18
Speaker 1: a horrible talent evaluator because she thinks the most. She
3:22
Speaker 1: thinks the best of everybody. And one time in Las
3:27
Speaker 1: Vegas during a training camp, I had her and Sue
3:31
Speaker 1: each pick a team that we're gonna play against, play
3:34
Speaker 1: against each other, and they could draft, and they had
3:37
Speaker 1: a draft, and when the two teams were playing, all
3:41
Speaker 1: she did was bitch about who was coaching the team.
3:44
Speaker 1: Since she was the general manager, she picked the team,
3:46
Speaker 1: somebody else was coaching it. Her team was getting beat
3:49
Speaker 1: and all she did was bitch about the coaching, not
3:52
Speaker 1: the fact that she picked a bad team. Okay, so
3:55
Speaker 1: town evaluator, I think I think being on TV and
4:00
Speaker 1: talking about what the game should look like, or owning
4:04
Speaker 1: a team and deciding this is how the game is
4:07
Speaker 1: supposed to look like a pat Riley kind of thing,
4:13
Speaker 1: you know, because she's just that smart, and she's that respected,
4:17
Speaker 1: and you know, that committed to, you know, to winning.
4:23
Speaker 3: She's been the face of every team she's ever played on.
4:25
Speaker 3: She handles it's such an easy going way.
4:28
Speaker 1: How I must you admire.
4:30
Speaker 3: How she's taking a lot of people like to kind
4:31
Speaker 3: of hold back and maybe not enjoy the process as
4:34
Speaker 3: much as you seem to enjoy every step.
4:39
Speaker 1: I remember to your point, there was never a time
4:44
Speaker 1: high school, college Olympics, UH, any European team she was
4:52
Speaker 1: on any the Olympic team. From the very first time
5:01
Speaker 1: that she's ever stepped on the court with UH, with
5:05
Speaker 1: a team. The minute she walks in the gym, it
5:08
Speaker 1: kind of takes on her personality and she's okay with it,
5:12
Speaker 1: and she embraces it and lives up to it all
5:17
Speaker 1: the time. There's a there's a quality that you have
5:24
Speaker 1: to have to be like that, and I I guess
5:26
Speaker 1: you're born with it. You know, some people try to
5:28
Speaker 1: acquire it. I I just think you're born with that.
5:31
Speaker 1: You know, you're born with that personality that she has,
5:34
Speaker 1: and you're born with that talent and then she perfected it.
5:37
Speaker 4: How would she be in this date and age playing
5:39
Speaker 4: as a student, do you think I mean if we
5:40
Speaker 4: talked about the crazy times back in three or four,
5:43
Speaker 4: but if she was playing now, with social media and.
5:45
Speaker 1: All that stuff, she wouldn't have been here after her
5:49
Speaker 1: freshman year.
5:51
Speaker 2: UH.
5:51
Speaker 1: She would have put herself out to the highest bidder.
5:54
Speaker 1: And I uh, as I said this before, she'd be
5:56
Speaker 1: on four different teams in four years. She would have
5:59
Speaker 1: maximum that whole thing. The whole nil thing would have
6:02
Speaker 1: been a huge game for her to play. And the
6:09
Speaker 1: whole social media thing may not be honest with you.
6:13
Speaker 1: I'm kidding when I say all this. She's one of
6:16
Speaker 1: the most private people you'll ever meet until she's in
6:20
Speaker 1: front of a crowd, and then she's not. But you
6:23
Speaker 1: don't see her on social media, not like some of
6:26
Speaker 1: these other people that are all over it. That's not
6:28
Speaker 1: who she is. You know, she kind of she kind
6:31
Speaker 1: of stays in the background until she has to be
6:35
Speaker 1: in front of everybody, and then she's the best there
6:37
Speaker 1: ever was at that. You know, you will walk in
6:42
Speaker 1: here right now and only knows maybe one or two
6:46
Speaker 1: people in this room three, but she will walk around
6:50
Speaker 1: and give you a big hug and a kiss and say, hey,
6:52
Speaker 1: how you doing, how you been? And then afterwards I
6:54
Speaker 1: will go you know that person, you go no, But
6:57
Speaker 1: she makes everybody feel, you know, like you're part of
7:01
Speaker 1: her world. You know, there's.
7:04
Speaker 3: A lot of great players, and there's a real short
7:07
Speaker 3: list of the greatest.
7:09
Speaker 1: Players Tiger Brady Jordan.
7:13
Speaker 2: What is that that one thing that separates those people
7:17
Speaker 2: from the great ones to become the greatest?
7:20
Speaker 1: Du uh uh uh Their drive? You know, if you
7:24
Speaker 1: take in consideration, they were all born with the talent,
7:28
Speaker 1: you know, that guy given ability, but not all those
7:36
Speaker 1: people have the drive, the commitment, the competitiveness, the will
7:42
Speaker 1: to win always. So those people you just mentioned, they
7:49
Speaker 1: were the most talented, but they were also the most driven,
7:53
Speaker 1: and they were the smartest. You know, people think that,
7:58
Speaker 1: you know, you can accomplish those things because physically you're
8:01
Speaker 1: more gifted than anyone else than everyone else. Those people
8:03
Speaker 1: you mentioned, they're brighter than everyone else, They know the
8:07
Speaker 1: game better than anyone else, and you put those combinations together,
8:14
Speaker 1: it's pretty hard to beat. Were all those things evident
8:17
Speaker 1: the first time before her? Yeah, well obviously you couldn't
8:22
Speaker 1: get deeper back in those days, you know, you you
8:25
Speaker 1: couldn't have any contact. But there was something about her
8:28
Speaker 1: that was uh. I think in high school there was
8:32
Speaker 1: a a a torny man. I don't know, they plan
8:34
Speaker 1: us to play three games in three days or something.
8:36
Speaker 1: She either tied the game or won the game on
8:38
Speaker 1: the last shot, like in every one of those games,
8:41
Speaker 1: and so you you already knew there's there's a moment
8:45
Speaker 1: that the game has to be decided, and she owns
8:48
Speaker 1: that moment. And then when she got here, we had
8:51
Speaker 1: a lot of really really good players who were many
9:01
Speaker 1: they they they won a national championship, if I'm not mistaken,
9:08
Speaker 1: they won a national championship in two thousand right, And
9:11
Speaker 1: she walked in the gym and the first day of practice,
9:14
Speaker 1: second day of practice, third day of practice, they they
9:17
Speaker 1: knew right away this is the best player in the
9:20
Speaker 1: gym every day. Now, she had a lot of Sarah
9:23
Speaker 1: Strong on her. She didn't want to show that every
9:27
Speaker 1: minute of every day, every possession because she was very
9:30
Speaker 1: deferential to her to those guys cause she appreciated they
9:34
Speaker 1: won a national championship. I've not won anything, but they
9:38
Speaker 1: all knew, and we all knew that there's something different
9:41
Speaker 1: about this kid than everybody else.
9:43
Speaker 2: It's in two thousand two against Oklahoma, when you have
9:46
Speaker 2: the best senior classes ever here, you dropped the play.
9:49
Speaker 1: For her, absolutely, absolutely absolutely, and they knew it. They
9:55
Speaker 1: knew that's where the ball was going. The other team
9:57
Speaker 1: knew that's where the ball was going. The the things that
10:04
Speaker 1: she could do on the court. Guy gave her the
10:10
Speaker 1: size to be able to do. We were playing we
10:12
Speaker 1: were playing i want to say, Arizona State one year,
10:16
Speaker 1: and we we knew they they were the most physical
10:20
Speaker 1: team we have played up to that point, and we
10:22
Speaker 1: played her. So Paige is not the first guard on
10:25
Speaker 1: our team that would played power forward. So we put
10:27
Speaker 1: her in. We put her in the lane the whole game.
10:29
Speaker 1: She must have shot twenty free throws to twenty five
10:31
Speaker 1: free throws. I forget what it was. It was a
10:33
Speaker 1: ridiculous number. But you could put her anywhere on the
10:36
Speaker 1: floor and and she would be the best player at
10:42
Speaker 1: that position in the country.
10:44
Speaker 2: We've asked you through the years, who the best player
10:47
Speaker 2: ever was here because you've had so many great ones,
10:49
Speaker 2: and you'd be hesitant to answer, but then you might
10:52
Speaker 2: tell us privately. But you know what, if we have
10:54
Speaker 2: one game to win and one possession to win it,
10:58
Speaker 2: I'm gonna give it to Diana. I mean, is that
11:01
Speaker 2: kind of tell you that she may be the most
11:04
Speaker 2: competitive or yeah?
11:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, sometimes people want to talk about who's
11:08
Speaker 1: the who's the best ever? You know, how do you
11:11
Speaker 1: quantify who's the best ever. So I just think that
11:17
Speaker 1: when you talk about who's until somebody comes along and
11:21
Speaker 1: does more, who's the greatest winner ever in college women's
11:26
Speaker 1: basketball history, then that's who you've got to go with,
11:28
Speaker 1: because no one else even comes close. So if you
11:31
Speaker 1: had to win a game, I mean, if there were
11:36
Speaker 1: if some of those other guys you were talking about
11:38
Speaker 1: on my team were on the team, it'd be great.
11:40
Speaker 1: I'd just close my eyes and point to any of them.
11:43
Speaker 1: But still, yeah, there's something that there's something that she
11:50
Speaker 1: had court mate, right, Yeah, you know, the two of them,
11:57
Speaker 1: the two of them individually were We're the kind of
12:02
Speaker 1: players you want with the ball in their hands at
12:04
Speaker 1: the last moment. But you know, again, if they both
12:18
Speaker 1: got triple team, then they passed it to Maya, we'd
12:20
Speaker 1: still win, you know what I mean. If Fordam guarded them,
12:26
Speaker 1: she passed it to still, we'd still win. So that
12:29
Speaker 1: to be in that situation, yeah, not not very many
12:33
Speaker 1: people get to experience that.
12:34
Speaker 2: Is leading the two thousand and three and two thousand
12:37
Speaker 2: and fore cast of characters you had to national championships,
12:40
Speaker 2: the maybe the greatest.
12:42
Speaker 1: Individual I think. So I don't think anyone's ever been
12:47
Speaker 1: in that situation ever before or since that I can remember,
12:54
Speaker 1: given the inexperience of that team and the youth of
12:57
Speaker 1: that team. Yeah, it was just and and it wasn't
13:07
Speaker 1: like it just happened in the Final four or anything
13:10
Speaker 1: like that. We as coaches, we saw it the second
13:15
Speaker 1: week of training camp that year, because we had just
13:18
Speaker 1: lost such a great cast of players that the expectation,
13:23
Speaker 1: even on our staff was, Man, this is gonna be hard.
13:26
Speaker 1: And after two weeks of practice, we looked at each
13:29
Speaker 1: other and we went, man, this is gonna be just
13:32
Speaker 1: like last year. And no one would be and I said,
13:34
Speaker 1: and we said, no one's gonna believe this. You could
13:37
Speaker 1: just see it, you could, because now the real Herd
13:40
Speaker 1: was gonna come out, you know, before it was you know,
13:44
Speaker 1: I'm playing along with these guys out of respect. She
13:50
Speaker 1: is gonna be the real met coming out. And she
13:52
Speaker 1: did it while getting beat up the whole Yeah yeah, yeah,
13:55
Speaker 1: Page stopped whining. She's not the first great player here
13:57
Speaker 1: to get beat up every possession. You know, she should
14:00
Speaker 1: watch films of how how, how how much more physical
14:04
Speaker 1: the game was back then, and how difficult it was
14:09
Speaker 1: and how difficult people made it for d to get
14:13
Speaker 1: done when she got done. But the difference, and you know,
14:17
Speaker 1: because the game is not nearly as physical today, when
14:21
Speaker 1: it does get physical, everybody loses their mind. Back then,
14:24
Speaker 1: because the game was way more physical, the embraced the physicality.
14:28
Speaker 1: You know, we have a clip of which a rebound
14:31
Speaker 1: that she got down to Tennessee. I don't know if
14:33
Speaker 1: you guys have seen it. A rebound that she got
14:36
Speaker 1: and she's tangled up, you know, somebody's got her arm
14:38
Speaker 1: behind her and she's tangled up. And yes, she gets
14:42
Speaker 1: the ball with her left hand and she's fighting the
14:44
Speaker 1: kid off with her right hand, and there's this big
14:46
Speaker 1: smile on her face like this is the greatest thing
14:48
Speaker 1: that's ever happened. Like the fight, the struggle is. She
14:53
Speaker 1: didn't complain about it. She embraced it. How are you better?
14:57
Speaker 2: How are you better?
14:59
Speaker 3: Really? For having Diana?
15:00
Speaker 1: And I just coach Diana. I just think there's few
15:07
Speaker 1: people that uh that come around that can can affect everyone,
15:16
Speaker 1: whether it's positive or negative. Don't get me wrong, but
15:19
Speaker 1: there's never anyone that's ever including me and anybody in
15:23
Speaker 1: my family, my mom, you know, they had a great
15:25
Speaker 1: relationship cause there's no one that's ever met her that
15:29
Speaker 1: you would come away and go, eh, you know, there
15:31
Speaker 1: was like a real wow. You know. So for me
15:37
Speaker 1: personally when she was here, it went by way too fast,
15:43
Speaker 1: you know. And the the to me, the best thing
15:46
Speaker 1: that ever happened to me in my in my coaching
15:50
Speaker 1: career was that I got an opportunity to do it
15:52
Speaker 1: again for those eight years you know, between two thousand
15:56
Speaker 1: and eight and two thousand sixteen. I mean, who gets
15:59
Speaker 1: a chance to do that? So not only did I
16:02
Speaker 1: have the opportunity for those four years in college, but
16:05
Speaker 1: then I got eight more. So yeah, twelve of those
16:11
Speaker 1: years were just and not even I'm not even talking
16:15
Speaker 1: about just on the court stuff. The stuff that no
16:18
Speaker 1: one will ever know that was going on off the
16:20
Speaker 1: court was just beyond Yeah, those are the stories that
16:26
Speaker 1: won't appear in anybody's book.
16:29
Speaker 3: Sarah, how do you think she's handled this? There's a
16:32
Speaker 3: lot of her or she got here, it seems like,
16:35
Speaker 3: you know, she's more than next seeded, all the expectations.
16:38
Speaker 4: How do you think she's grown.
16:39
Speaker 1: As a player? I mean, you watch her. I mean,
16:41
Speaker 1: if you watch her, can you tell so whatever you
16:47
Speaker 1: know about her? That's how much I know she She's
16:53
Speaker 1: the same every minute of every day. There's almost never
16:58
Speaker 1: a time when you're going to see a different version
17:00
Speaker 1: of Sarah in terms of how she appears, how she
17:03
Speaker 1: carries herself, how she reacts to things. And I think
17:06
Speaker 1: that's probably why she's able to handle and have the
17:09
Speaker 1: kind of success that she's having, because she doesn't suffer
17:13
Speaker 1: the highs and lows that young kids do. So the
17:20
Speaker 1: expectations that other people may have had for her, I
17:22
Speaker 1: don't know, but internally, the expectations that we we had
17:26
Speaker 1: when we were recruiting her, she's right about where I
17:30
Speaker 1: thought she'd be. Someone asked her about the game. One
17:33
Speaker 1: of the games, she talked about her ms Sean's instead of.
17:36
Speaker 3: Her rebounds and her blocks.
17:37
Speaker 2: And he.
17:40
Speaker 1: They the the thing that that does separate a lot
17:45
Speaker 1: of those players is they they they want to be perfect,
17:50
Speaker 1: they want to be great, They want to be they
17:54
Speaker 1: want to be successful with everything they do. So when
17:57
Speaker 1: they are and you bring it up, they just shrug
18:00
Speaker 1: it off like this is what I do, this is
18:02
Speaker 1: who I am. But what stays with them is the
18:06
Speaker 1: silly mistake sort of you know, I don't know if
18:09
Speaker 1: you saw her reaction when she threw that pass against
18:11
Speaker 1: Tennessee the page that went out of bounds. I mean
18:14
Speaker 1: she took that really, really really hard, like I cost
18:17
Speaker 1: this the game, even though she was the best player
18:19
Speaker 1: on our team in that game. In her mind, if
18:21
Speaker 1: I complete that pass, you know, we have a chance
18:23
Speaker 1: to win the game. That's what stays with her, and
18:26
Speaker 1: that's why she just keeps getting better and better and better,
18:29
Speaker 1: and that's why she'll be great because she does take
18:31
Speaker 1: those things to heart. She doesn't just blow them off
18:33
Speaker 1: like you know some other people might'row with a chance
18:38
Speaker 1: to title, how important is that in terms of yours's
18:43
Speaker 1: just goal ultimately winning the National Championship. I don't know
18:46
Speaker 1: that one has anything to do with the other, to
18:48
Speaker 1: be honest with you, There's been there's been a couple
18:53
Speaker 1: of years when we lost in the in the Big East,
18:55
Speaker 1: in the Big East Tournament and went on to win
18:57
Speaker 1: the National Championship. And I remember telling people that back
18:59
Speaker 1: in those days, winning the Big East was harder than
19:02
Speaker 1: winning the National Championship because we had nine teams that
19:05
Speaker 1: went into the NC tournament. It's more about, you know,
19:13
Speaker 1: pride in in in the fact that that you you
19:17
Speaker 1: said that as a goal, like our goal is to
19:19
Speaker 1: win the regular season, And if you win tomorrow and
19:22
Speaker 1: then you win Sunday, you win the regular season. So
19:25
Speaker 1: you accomplish a goal. Does that make you better equipped
19:30
Speaker 1: to win the national championship? No, it doesn't. Does it
19:34
Speaker 1: hurt your chances? No it All it does is means
19:37
Speaker 1: you're you're not going to be the Big East champion
19:41
Speaker 1: by yourself. You know, you're gonna have to share it
19:43
Speaker 1: with somebody if you win on Sunday. So we have
19:50
Speaker 1: a really tough game tomorrow night because they're a really
19:52
Speaker 1: good team that's that's hard to match up with. And
19:58
Speaker 1: they have a really hard game tomornw because we're a
20:01
Speaker 1: really good team that's hard to match up with. And
20:03
Speaker 1: that's why you know, games like tomorrow are are important
20:12
Speaker 1: because you are gonna have to work harder than you
20:16
Speaker 1: had to work the last couple of games, and you
20:19
Speaker 1: are gonna have to be better. Yeah, it's gonna be
20:28
Speaker 1: hard tomorrow, It's supposed to be.
20:31
Speaker 4: How often, during the season, particularly as you come how distress,
20:36
Speaker 4: start to really consider a body of work and think
20:39
Speaker 4: about what the team might be capable of market.
20:45
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. I think there's a
20:51
Speaker 1: there's a point in time during the season where you
20:53
Speaker 1: see things and you think to yourself, we don't have
20:58
Speaker 1: a chance to win, and the whole thing because we
21:01
Speaker 1: have too many we have too many blemishes, there's too
21:05
Speaker 1: many things wrong with our team. We don't have enough
21:08
Speaker 1: answers for things that are happening to us. And then
21:12
Speaker 1: as the season goes on, maybe you start to fix those,
21:16
Speaker 1: those start to go away. But yeah, there's too many
21:28
Speaker 1: variables for me right now for me to sit here
21:30
Speaker 1: and go, you know, yeah, I think we should be
21:35
Speaker 1: we should be the we should be the favorite to
21:37
Speaker 1: win a national championship based on what I've seen. You know,
21:41
Speaker 1: somebody said this to me just yesterday. Hey, you know,
21:44
Speaker 1: I was watching the South Carolina game, and right after
21:47
Speaker 1: the game, I saw it on the ticker that you
21:50
Speaker 1: guys were now the favorite to win a national championship,
21:53
Speaker 1: and like, you can bet on games on TV. So
21:56
Speaker 1: obviously this person didn't know a whole lot about what
21:58
Speaker 1: was going on, and they go, how's that possible that
22:02
Speaker 1: that could happen in one day? I said, yeah, how's
22:04
Speaker 1: that possible that they could happen in one day? Because
22:08
Speaker 1: sometimes you have performances that if you're not careful, will
22:12
Speaker 1: overshadow some of the other performances that you had. But
22:15
Speaker 1: those didn't go away just because you have one fantastic game.
22:19
Speaker 1: Those are still there, you know, and those are always
22:24
Speaker 1: in the back of my mind, you know. So now
22:28
Speaker 1: we believe me. We got a long way to go
22:30
Speaker 1: before we can talk about national championships with this team.
22:37
Speaker 1: Let's let's hope we're talking about it the night before
22:40
Speaker 1: that game. Yeah, they gave her, they gave her some
22:48
Speaker 1: some guidelines, you know, a couple of minutes a quarter
22:51
Speaker 1: here and there, you know, just to see how she
22:53
Speaker 1: responds to it. So the biggest thing, too, is going
22:58
Speaker 1: to be finding time. You know, you come in after
23:01
Speaker 1: twenty eight games or twenty seven games, you know, and
23:04
Speaker 1: then you got allready back and they come in. Ice
23:06
Speaker 1: is going to be back maybe this weekend, so at
23:09
Speaker 1: a time when teams are shrinking their rotation, we're adding players,
23:13
Speaker 1: you know. So it's not how much time is she
23:16
Speaker 1: allowed to have, it's finding time for all these guys
23:19
Speaker 1: that are coming back, that are looking for for time.
23:23
Speaker 1: That's gonna be the big dilemma.
23:24
Speaker 3: I think there was a stretch early this season when
23:27
Speaker 3: Easy was out that you had Cage and a bunch
23:29
Speaker 3: of players who were.
23:30
Speaker 1: Still learning what Yukon basketball was.
23:32
Speaker 3: Now you have Carol, Now you have it easy now. Yeah, Aubrey,
23:37
Speaker 3: How does that change things in practice that you just
23:39
Speaker 3: have players that they kind of know the drills and
23:42
Speaker 3: knows them here.
23:46
Speaker 4: Yeah.
23:46
Speaker 1: I practices, practices have been have been have been really
23:54
Speaker 1: really good. The month we're really really good. The whole
23:57
Speaker 1: month of UH pretty much January and most of February,
24:05
Speaker 1: practices have been UH have been consistently good, and and
24:13
Speaker 1: I think that's carried over into the games that we played.
24:19
Speaker 1: We don't practice as much now as as before, so
24:22
Speaker 1: maybe that's why they're good. But the the things that
24:33
Speaker 1: come up in practice are hard, They're hard to do,
24:39
Speaker 1: they're hard to fix sometimes. And the the the biggest
24:46
Speaker 1: challenge for us right now is there are some combinations
24:51
Speaker 1: that look fantastic out there that if I could, I
24:53
Speaker 1: would play that combination forty minutes every night. And you
24:57
Speaker 1: saw that last year. You get five guys out there
24:59
Speaker 1: that can really together and you play them forty minutes
25:02
Speaker 1: every night, Pretty damn good, right right. It takes you
25:04
Speaker 1: all the way to almost to the championship game, and
25:09
Speaker 1: there's other combinations that don't look as great. And then
25:12
Speaker 1: there's some combinations that if you have them out there
25:14
Speaker 1: more than three minutes, you're gonna lose the game. So
25:17
Speaker 1: all these things are what happens in practice, and these
25:20
Speaker 1: are the things that stay, you know, with our coaching staff.
25:24
Speaker 1: How do we now start to learn what are the
25:27
Speaker 1: combinations that work best? And at the same time, how
25:31
Speaker 1: do you give people minutes that they need? So that's
25:36
Speaker 1: right now, that's what we're that's what we're trying to do.
25:38
Speaker 3: You know, the NCAA is trying to figure out revenue
25:41
Speaker 3: sharing and this week of Cannegan legislator legislative branches looks
25:46
Speaker 3: like they've agreed.
25:47
Speaker 4: Upon a plan.
25:47
Speaker 1: Have you been following that at all? And if you have,
25:49
Speaker 1: if you had any input, or do you see how
25:51
Speaker 1: it help you going forward? Well, it's a fact of
25:56
Speaker 1: life now that revenue sharing is here. And if you
26:02
Speaker 1: wait for the NCAA to tell you what the revenue
26:04
Speaker 1: sharing plan is, uh, you're gonna be left behind. And
26:09
Speaker 1: the fact that each state can make their own the
26:15
Speaker 1: their own their own laws about how we're gonna deal
26:18
Speaker 1: with it, that that just throws another wrench into the
26:23
Speaker 1: into the mix. Right, So for Connecticut to step out
26:26
Speaker 1: and say, regardless of what the NCAA says, obviously we're
26:29
Speaker 1: gonna stay compliant, but this is what we're gonna do.
26:33
Speaker 1: This is how we're gonna do it. And to me,
26:38
Speaker 1: you have to have a revenue sharing plan. The the biggest,
26:44
Speaker 1: the biggest obstacle to any plan is how are you
26:48
Speaker 1: gonna fund it? Well, it's called revenue sharing. Well, revenue
26:54
Speaker 1: sharing at one school. Revenue at one school isn't the
26:57
Speaker 1: same as revenue at another school. So I think we
27:02
Speaker 1: have a really good situation here because you know, our
27:10
Speaker 1: program is a high revenue producing program. So between what
27:17
Speaker 1: the state has gonna is gonna be allowing us to
27:20
Speaker 1: do and what Eartheletic Department wants to do, we're gonna
27:24
Speaker 1: be competitive with any school in the country when it
27:27
Speaker 1: comes to revenue sharing.
27:28
Speaker 3: Now, there's a lot of last kind of coming up
27:31
Speaker 3: her page right now, but I want to ask about
27:32
Speaker 3: it first. Do you remember the first time you ever heard.
27:35
Speaker 1: Of page backers? If I remember seeing her in a game,
27:39
Speaker 1: I th I think maybe it was in Indianapolis or someplace.
27:43
Speaker 1: She just kept running on the court and playing and
27:45
Speaker 1: then running off the court because she was l she
27:50
Speaker 1: was out of breath all the time, cause she weighed
27:52
Speaker 1: about sixty pounds, and and I said, what's the what's
27:56
Speaker 1: all the what's all the fuss over this kid? Like
27:59
Speaker 1: she's on the court was like watching a hockey game.
28:01
Speaker 1: She would do her minute and a half and then
28:02
Speaker 1: she get off and it just kept happening the entire game.
28:05
Speaker 1: I remember saying to Marissa, I said, Marissa, I don't
28:08
Speaker 1: get this. And obviously, you know, when you saw her healthy,
28:14
Speaker 1: when you saw her one hundred percent a week later,
28:16
Speaker 1: whenever it was, you could see that there was a
28:20
Speaker 1: there was a different way that she played, that she
28:22
Speaker 1: saw the game, you know. And then I distinctly remember
28:29
Speaker 1: going to her high school to watch a game at
28:31
Speaker 1: her high school, and the hysteria up there had started
28:39
Speaker 1: already with how she created all these highlights because of
28:47
Speaker 1: you know, just the way she the way she saw
28:50
Speaker 1: the floor, the way she saw everything that was happening,
28:52
Speaker 1: and her willingness to pass. And so I tried to
28:58
Speaker 1: get through as many games as I could, just because
28:59
Speaker 1: I enjoyed watching, you know, I wasn't evaluating her anymore.
29:03
Speaker 1: I was just enjoying watching her play. But yeah, that
29:08
Speaker 1: seems like forever ago. It's a lot that's happened between
29:12
Speaker 1: then and now.
29:12
Speaker 2: From the outside, your relationship with her looks like it's
29:15
Speaker 2: a great, sarcastic, give and take relationship.
29:18
Speaker 1: How did you describe it? Yeah, my relationship with with Paige,
29:32
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those where love and hate. I
29:41
Speaker 1: guess they call it right. I love it when I
29:43
Speaker 1: hate her and she loves when she hates me, because
29:47
Speaker 1: then that means we're we're both on the right track.
29:52
Speaker 1: There's something I want her to do when she's arguing
29:54
Speaker 1: with me about it, there's something that she wants and
29:56
Speaker 1: I'm not letting her do it. So our relationship on
30:00
Speaker 1: the court is where I'm constantly bitching about something that
30:02
Speaker 1: I want her to do. She's wanting to do things
30:06
Speaker 1: that she wants to do, and so we're always going
30:08
Speaker 1: back and forth. And it works because she wants to
30:13
Speaker 1: stretch the boundaries as far as she possibly can, and
30:17
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that she's growing as a
30:19
Speaker 1: player and she's learning and she's preparing for what's coming next.
30:23
Speaker 1: Where that's not going to be possible, you know, all
30:26
Speaker 1: the time. But off the court, yeah, none of that,
30:30
Speaker 1: you know, none of that matters because you know, she's
30:34
Speaker 1: not a freshman anymore. She's she's not a little kid anymore.
30:36
Speaker 1: You know, I can coach her like an adult, which
30:40
Speaker 1: she is, you know. So yeah, I mean our relationship
30:45
Speaker 1: is is great. I'm glad we have two of them.
30:47
Speaker 1: I'm glad we have the on the court one and
30:49
Speaker 1: I'm glad we have the off the court one. All Right, guys,