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Geno Auriemma - Postgame SCSU · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  That's that she still got zago before styler. She's sardines. I know,
• 0:08
  huh, I cappy and I can guess a word. You didn't get a
• 0:20
  minute more? Thank you? Did you get everything that you wanted about a
• 0:25
  page today? I mean, did she look good? You get her decent
• 0:28
  amount of minutes and then fold her Yeah? Yeah, I I thought that
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  was the plan going in, you know, just kind of uh get her
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  feet wet. You know, she hasn't obviously, she hasn't played in a
• 0:40
  while, and you know, we talked about how many minutes and uh,
• 0:49
  thank you and thought in that respect, you know, she looked, she
• 0:57
  looked really she looked really comptable and felt really good. And obviously the you
• 1:06
  know, the the the same page as usual, maybe a little more uh,
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  a little more animated. You know. I think she's happy to be
• 1:17
  finally playing. So yeah, s s successful day for her. So you
• 1:27
  know half especially uh you guys had a tremendous shooting center chop inside. Yeah.
• 1:34
  Is that is that one of those pass up good shock great shot kind
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  of things up all moving she saw? That's interesting. I I don't know
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  that that is a you know, obviously that's a concept we live with,
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  uh, pass up something good for something great. This is the decision is
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  what's a great shot? A wide open three by you know, paid jay
• 2:00
  Z Caroline, you know, or or throw it inside and have to score
• 2:07
  over somebody. Sometimes I think it's there's a fine balance. I mean,
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  we still ended up with thirty threes, you know, which is probably where
• 2:16
  we want to be. But I don't just want to be come down and
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  shoot a three. I don't think we're quite there yet, you know,
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  with with the new wave of playing, you know, where it's half your
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  shots or threes. But I did like our ball movement and I and I
• 2:39
  do think that the ball movement increases exponentially when pages in the game. You
• 2:46
  know, I think she played fifteen minutes and had seven assists, or eleven
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  minutes and had seven assists, you know, I think that's the kind of
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  stuff that general, it's those kind of shots more often than not. In
• 3:07
  a while, I would say, probably since two thousand and sixteen, maybe,
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  you know, but we've also started out of other seasons with a lot
• 3:20
  of depth, tough and it didn't quite uh paying out that way. But
• 3:27
  I I feel comfortable when I sub you know, I feel comfortable knowing that
• 3:35
  they need those minutes to get better. And depending on how I how I
• 3:40
  used those substitutions, I have to make sure that the right combinations are out
• 3:46
  there, say that they look their best. I think sometimes if you have
• 3:51
  a strange combination out there, you end up with a fourth quarter where it's
• 3:53
  fifteen to twelve. You know, uh, so you've got to mix it
• 4:00
  match. But I thought for the most part, we were able to accomplish
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  that. You mean, yeah, that's that's kind of who she is.
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  You know, that's her game. She's kind of electric in that way,
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  and she creates offensively, she creates defensively. She just has an explosiveness about
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  her. She doesn't know the college game yet. She doesn't know what she
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  doesn't know, which is probably important at this stage of her her career because
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  she's just starting and I would hate for her to wonder about what's the right
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  play, what's the wrong play? Just play. She's she's a difference maker
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  in the sense that we don't have anybody else like her on the team,
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  and we certainly haven't had anybody else like her since you know, the days
• 5:01
  of Mariah and in Crystal. You know, so it's good to be it's
• 5:11
  good be able to have her at somebody like that. Coming off the bench.
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  She didn't talk about Aubrey's roles. She was really good out there to
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  just how is she you will physically this year and what do you expect to
• 5:21
  say? She can start today that possess she could be other. Yeah,
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  when when Aubrey's healthy, when then when she's a hundred percent You saw the
• 5:31
  impact that she can have defensively on the backboard. She I, I is
• 5:42
  pretty healthy for the most part. I hope that we can keep her that
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  way. Uh. Anytime you know in your past you've had back surgery,
• 5:51
  it's always something that you worry about. But if we can keep her minutes
• 6:01
  and and bursts, you know, uh, three four minutes here, three
• 6:08
  four minutes there, and not have it be prolonged, I think we can.
• 6:12
  We can keep her that way. And again, she's quite different than
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  our other wings. Everything's everything's about building on it. So we need her
• 6:27
  to build on today. There was maybe import the post like out in Canada.
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  Dinner in Toronto. It's always been one of my favorite cities to visit.
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  Last time we were there, we had a great, great trip,
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  it's not often that you get to play in a historic arena, you know,
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  like maple Leaf gardens, And obviously anytime, uh one of your players
• 7:10
  gets an opportunity to play in front of their friends and family and people that
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  you know, maybe haven't seen her in person in a long time. So
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  I know it's exciting for Leah, and I know how excited the players were
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  we went to Croatia. So it's it's a trip that comes at the perfect
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  time for us because it gives us an opportunity to be on the road and
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  all be together right before the holidays. So there's a lot of great things
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  about about that trip coming up. Yeah, particular restaurants in line. Yeah,
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  I don't wanna. I don't wanna give any of them away. Uh
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  you know, uh, maybe I should tell you where Page is going that
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  way all the popera. She can go there and leave the rest of us
• 8:01
  alone. But Nick Nurse gave me some real goes, so we got our
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  choices. Do you know what do you hope are what can you anticipate alias
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  cling this year? Leah's what ceiling? Well, I always I always try
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  to get players to think about what are my what are my strengths, you
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  know what, at the core of who am I and for Leah, it's
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  it's got to be how how physical, how aggressive, and how assertive she
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  can be at both ends of the floor. And to me, when she's
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  at her best, like she was for the majority of last season, it's
• 9:01
  the fifteen footers are going in, the reboundings there, the defense is there,
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  the finishing around the basket is there, getting to the free throw line
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  a lot. If there's a consistency to al uh Aliyah this year, I
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  mean, I I think building on what she did last year, I think
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  she's she can have an All American type season as she did for the most
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  part of last year. I would think that that's certainly within her reach.
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  What's your favorite memory with her and you hop over the years. Uh,
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  my favorite memory of of Tamika uh uh when when we were recruiting Tamika,
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  that was probably a great memory. She's so loud and so extroverted and vivacious
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  is what they used to call people like that back in the day, and
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  she was someone you could have a lot of fun with. And I know
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  I remember telling this story, but I remember when you could send a plane
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  to go get people back in the day, you know, and a lot
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  of the big schools thought they were, you know, ahead of the game
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  because they would send an airplane to pick you up and fly you in for
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  an official visit. And you know, she was all excited about that happening
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  with some of the other schools. So I mailed her one of those airplanes
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  that you put together, those that skinny cardboard, and I said, I'm
• 10:50
  sending a plane for you. And I found out the other day her mom
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  still has it. So I think that was really cute. That was the
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  f that that was the first record. The first thing I think about when
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  I think about Tamika was how much fun it was recruiting her and then when
• 11:11
  she got here. Uh, if you see KK today, if you never
• 11:16
  saw Tamika play, if you see KK today and the way she approaches the
• 11:18
  game and how she is, that's kind of how Tamika was, except much
• 11:24
  much bigger and capable of doing more more things physically. So the the energy
• 11:33
  and the physicality that she brought to the game. I don't know what I
• 11:39
  taught her, not well enough. She went into coaching, so I didn't
• 11:43
  teach her well enough. But I know she loves the game, and I
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  know she loves people, and I know that all her kids are gonna have
• 11:56
  as much fun with her as I did. M Can you just talk about
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  the other freshman. That's how they played today, you know, Ice,
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  all all the others, well they all have I remember saying this earlier.
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  They all have something that's unique to them, something that it has a s
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  that is a strength for them. And today basically they they pretty much did
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  what what their strength dictates that they do. You see how r versatile Ice
• 12:33
  can be scoring in the lane. She didn't make any any threes, but
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  she's terrific shooter. She's a good free throw shooter. She has a sense
• 12:43
  for the game, you know, and she's again she hasn't played a college
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  game. Today it was her first college game. KK. Obviously we talked
• 12:56
  about Ash. You saw what what kind of energy she brings and how hard
• 13:03
  she plays at both ends. And I think a little known fact about her,
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  to see the rebounds she got down at the other end, she's really
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  really tremendously athletic and strong, and obviously she's a terrific shooter. And Q
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  is like she's she's tough to pin down you know, I think she's going
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  to be a great defender. Maybe in the Nikisha sales mode. She might
• 13:45
  not be able to guard her man, but she'd be able to guard the
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  other four guys, you know, knowing where the ball is all the time.
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  She she has an and she enjoys the game, and she she knows
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  she's a great shooter, and she works really hard to get open shoats.
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  I thought she passed up a couple today, but uh, if you act,
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  if you add t Ice into the mix of ash KK, the only
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  thing was missing was Jenna. That would be in a hell of a five
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  winner, right. But they all have their unique strengths, and I thought
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  today they all showed a little bit of who they can be. Who they
• 14:31
  are and who they can be again, it's having them out there in the
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  right combinations too. M M Like what all about? Right? Do you
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  see Ice is thinking up the little story line up eventually or do you like
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  starting with fours? I don't know. I think it's gonna depend on maybe
• 14:52
  what the game dictates or how I feel about where they are at that particular
• 14:56
  time. There there's something to be said about having get set lineup and never
• 15:07
  changing it. And I've certainly done that, you know, And I also
• 15:11
  think there's something to be gained by varying it up for different matchups. But
• 15:22
  during the course of the game, it's the minutes that you get as opposed
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  to do you get them in the beginning, the middle, or the end.
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  You know, if you're if you're good enough, which she is,
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  all the minutes will be there. But there will be times when we need
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  to have her in the lineup and we need to have two pigs in the
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  lineup. Did anybody get fouled today? Watch out when the players come in
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  the interview, careful. They don't value we had We had twenty five in
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  the exhibition game. We had twenty today, So be on your best behavior
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  when they walk in. What are your teachable things from today? Teachable thing
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  from today? Jesus, Maria, Joseph. And it's a God, it's
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  just a it's a it's I it's a I'm it's contagious. I think the
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  one downside to amp ramping up the the aggressiveness factor and saying we really wanna
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  get after it is then it takes some takes some work to go from let's
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  play conservatively because we don't have enough bodies to Now let's be at let's attack
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  every possession and then let's know when to do what. So we're working on
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  that had eight months today. Huh actually had eight thous today? Who you
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  us? I thought we had twenty day they had twenty. Uh, we
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  only had eight. I think the refs gave us a I think they gave
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  us a a a great whistle today we only had eight. Oh man kind
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  of disappointed. What are you gonna say? What's he been like? Fire?
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  She just beent like increasingly antsy just get out there. She been somewhat
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  emotional a little bit, you know, in the sense that when we were
• 17:33
  discussing the minutes with with the medical staff, her opinion was twenty five to
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  thirty, which varied significantly from my opinion. So that was a little bit
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  of an emotional thing. But j just seeing her and we had a couple
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  of WNBA scouts come to watch practice, and she's just you know, she
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  put on a show for them, and it was it was so much fun
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  to see. It was so effortless, and it just everything looks so easy
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  and it just comes so natural for her that I can just imagine what it
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  must have been like all year long to not not be able to do that
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  when you're so when you're so gifted at something and then you can't do it,
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  and you waited this long and then it's finally here. There's a there
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  was a look on her face even when she came out, and she knew
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  it was her last go around. It's ironic that she came out after a
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  little scrum there for a loose ball. You know. I think she's been
• 19:00
  dying to get in those situations, to test herself out, see how I
• 19:03
  am. And uh, I think she passed every test today and played eleven
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  minutes and had, you know, a great impact, you know, so
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  imagine if she played thirty some minutes and that was pretty everybody good, Alright,
• 19:23
  I guess easy and so