Latest / Coaches Corner / WBB Coach Geno Auriemma - BE Media Day

Transcript

WBB Coach Geno Auriemma - BE Media Day · Coaches Corner

0:00
Speaker 1: Coach Nio has been a landscape of college basketball in
0:03
Speaker 1: the last few years. How has it affect your program
0:07
Speaker 1: and how do you think it needs tweaking if needed.
0:14
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's effected every program in the country
0:17
Speaker 2: one way or another. It's had little effect on us
0:23
Speaker 2: compared to some other programs that that that you've read about,
0:31
Speaker 2: and it's going to continue to have an effect. The
0:36
Speaker 2: the nil part has an effect and who you get
0:40
Speaker 2: and who you keep, and the portal has an effect
0:44
Speaker 2: on who you keep and who you get, So one
0:48
Speaker 2: of those things would be an issue, but both of
0:50
Speaker 2: them combined this is it's quite a challenge for everybody.
0:56
Speaker 2: And unless they fix it, it's going to be undoing
1:01
Speaker 2: and you'll see more and more coaches every week, you know,
1:04
Speaker 2: stepping away from it because it can't be done the
1:07
Speaker 2: way it is right now. It can't be done, you know.
1:09
Speaker 3: I reflect on what this year is going to be
1:12
Speaker 3: for Paige and that she's always been on the spotlight,
1:15
Speaker 3: but this season in particular, what do you think it's
1:17
Speaker 3: going to be like for her? Knowing that even more
1:21
Speaker 3: people now are gonna be watching because they know she's
1:23
Speaker 3: gonna be indune for young gs who and are looking
1:25
Speaker 3: forward to that.
1:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, there has been a lot of a lot of
1:30
Speaker 2: attention on page since since high school, actually since before
1:36
Speaker 2: she even got to Yukon. But ah, she tries her
1:42
Speaker 2: best to not let it be as much of a
1:47
Speaker 2: burden as it can be. Her. Her willingness to accept
1:54
Speaker 2: that responsibility and what she has to do for our team.
2:02
Speaker 2: Those two things I think are going to help her.
2:05
Speaker 2: She's more concerned about what she has to do for
2:08
Speaker 2: our team and how she can help our team reach
2:10
Speaker 2: our goals. I'm sure there'll be periods, There'll be times
2:15
Speaker 2: during the season when it becomes overwhelming, either in a
2:18
Speaker 2: positive sense because she's doing so great or in a
2:21
Speaker 2: negative sense because she's struggling. She's going to get both
2:24
Speaker 2: at some point, but she's pretty good at managing that.
2:31
Speaker 2: But we're going to ask a lot of her contrary
2:34
Speaker 2: to what maybe is out there with our team. I've
2:37
Speaker 2: said this to our people back home. She's playing with
2:41
Speaker 2: a lot of really really young players and so that's
2:44
Speaker 2: going to be a real challenge for coaching staff and
2:47
Speaker 2: for her. And because we're playing with a lot of
2:51
Speaker 2: young players, she wants to be on the court all
2:52
Speaker 2: the time and I know I can't afford to have
2:55
Speaker 2: her on the court all the time, but I know
2:59
Speaker 2: she's deserving of it. But I certainly don't don't think that,
3:08
Speaker 2: you know, we should be adding to the you know,
3:11
Speaker 2: it's all Page all the time, all over the country,
3:14
Speaker 2: which is want to happen with today's culture.
3:18
Speaker 3: How much do you think the players benefit from having
3:20
Speaker 3: her and the fact she takes on a lot herself
3:23
Speaker 3: seems to be so team first or time.
3:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, the players benefit by having by having a safety net.
3:34
Speaker 2: You know, yesterday we were we were playing and we
3:37
Speaker 2: we had discrimmage a little bit among ourselves and we
3:41
Speaker 2: went about five or six minutes and each bucket that
3:44
Speaker 2: we got Page didn't get any of them. And it
3:47
Speaker 2: was a great sign because they always looked to her,
3:50
Speaker 2: and they need to stop looking to her as often
3:52
Speaker 2: as they do, and yesterday was a really good example
3:55
Speaker 2: of that. But when it comes right down to it,
3:57
Speaker 2: that's who they're going to look at, and that's who's
3:59
Speaker 2: going to have to carry them, and there's no getting
4:04
Speaker 2: away from that.
4:05
Speaker 3: How about you compare the dynamic of last year's team
4:07
Speaker 3: to this year's team.
4:12
Speaker 2: We haven't you know, obviously Heart replacing Nika and Aliah
4:16
Speaker 2: as difficult. You know, they're two you know, two pieces
4:23
Speaker 2: of our uh you know, final four team that can't
4:28
Speaker 2: be replaced. So the dynamic change is just by losing
4:31
Speaker 2: the two of them, our our incoming freshmen are going
4:36
Speaker 2: to be really, really good. Maybe not as good as
4:40
Speaker 2: Aliyah and Page were in April, you know, but they're
4:44
Speaker 2: going to be really good. So it's gonna take a
4:46
Speaker 2: little bit of time, but we're going to be a
4:49
Speaker 2: different team while on the floor, simply because we have
4:51
Speaker 2: different pieces to work with. So I'm hoping that we
4:56
Speaker 2: start to find our identity, you know, sometime in the
5:01
Speaker 2: and then November.
5:02
Speaker 4: Coach you added, speaking of freshman, you've had a top
5:04
Speaker 4: freshman in the high school player of the Year in
5:07
Speaker 4: Sara Strong.
5:07
Speaker 2: What's thell to you so far about her on and
5:09
Speaker 2: off the court? H Sarah off the court is very
5:17
Speaker 2: very introverted, very shy, very studious. You know, she wants
5:23
Speaker 2: to know, she wants to be sure, She's very cautious.
5:30
Speaker 2: And she started out in September early October being the
5:36
Speaker 2: same on the court, and the last two weeks there's
5:41
Speaker 2: been a more Sarah the Sarah basketball player that got
5:48
Speaker 2: her all those awards, and I can honestly say that
5:55
Speaker 2: she's probably as impressive as any freshmen that we've had
6:02
Speaker 2: in a long long time with all the things that
6:05
Speaker 2: she's capable of doing on the court. So I'm excited
6:10
Speaker 2: because every day she does something I haven't seen before
6:13
Speaker 2: h from her. I'm anxious. I'm anxious every day to
6:20
Speaker 2: go to practice to see, you know, what's the next
6:24
Speaker 2: step that she can take? Little baby step, but the
6:26
Speaker 2: next step you wanted her.
6:28
Speaker 5: To find her role for you this season, is she's
6:30
Speaker 5: starting to do that for you in practice.
6:33
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, she's found She's found her role already.
6:38
Speaker 2: Her role is every time she gets the ball, try
6:41
Speaker 2: to make a make a flight, and very rarely do
6:44
Speaker 2: you do you have freshmen come in where you're asking
6:48
Speaker 2: them to do that. So we need a big rebound.
6:53
Speaker 2: I expect her to get it when she's on the court.
6:56
Speaker 2: You know, we need to we need a pass to
6:58
Speaker 2: a shoot or I expect her to make you know,
7:02
Speaker 2: we need a defensive play. I expect her to make it.
7:05
Speaker 2: We need a big three right now. I expect her
7:07
Speaker 2: to get it. So it's a lot to put on
7:10
Speaker 2: a freshman, but that's what we did with Page, so
7:12
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter. We've been down that road before. And
7:15
Speaker 2: you wouldn't ask anybody to do those things if they
7:17
Speaker 2: couldn't do it. She had, you know, and and and
7:30
Speaker 2: being completely transparent. When Jamel went to this like back
7:35
Speaker 2: gym where nobody was, there was only one person watching
7:38
Speaker 2: her play. I think it was Nikisha Sales, who may
7:40
Speaker 2: have been watching somebody else, I don't know, but Sarah
7:43
Speaker 2: was playing and Jamel came back and said, I saw
7:46
Speaker 2: this ninth grade kid. It's going to be really really good.
7:49
Speaker 2: It's just something, you know, It's just saw something. So
7:51
Speaker 2: I went down there right away, you know, and we
7:53
Speaker 2: watched and all you saw was this young kid who
7:57
Speaker 2: had a knack for doing the things that people have
8:02
Speaker 2: to learn to do, and she already had them. You know,
8:06
Speaker 2: the way she saw the floor, you know, how she
8:09
Speaker 2: finished around the basket, her just non rushed, casual kind
8:19
Speaker 2: of approach to the game where all the great players
8:22
Speaker 2: have the ability to slow the game down somewhat. And
8:27
Speaker 2: each year it yeah, it it became for me after
8:32
Speaker 2: her sophomore year, during her junior year, it became if
8:36
Speaker 2: we get if we get, if we get Sarah to
8:40
Speaker 2: come into our program, we will significantly change the trajectory
8:44
Speaker 2: of that program.
8:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, coach, which Page Becker is playing in the
8:48
Speaker 1: final season on you what can players like? What can
8:50
Speaker 1: the players have? And see Page Becker's played college double
8:53
Speaker 1: basketball in Yukon.
8:55
Speaker 2: Well expects this season and she has her farewell tour.
9:00
Speaker 2: Anybody that's watched their play will know that. You know,
9:04
Speaker 2: when Page was a freshman, there was nobody better in
9:06
Speaker 2: the country than Page. Obviously she got every national player
9:09
Speaker 2: to your work, and then she kind of disappeared from
9:12
Speaker 2: the spotlight because of some injuries. But if you look
9:17
Speaker 2: at our final fourteenth last year and how we got
9:20
Speaker 2: there and that we were two points away from playing
9:24
Speaker 2: in the national championship game, if you know, that was
9:27
Speaker 2: a testament to just how you know, how much that
9:31
Speaker 2: kid can do for a program, a team, and how
9:34
Speaker 2: far she can take you. Obviously not by herself, but
9:39
Speaker 2: you know, putting a player like Page on your team
9:42
Speaker 2: automatically makes you a national championship contended And so that's
9:46
Speaker 2: the you know, whatever people want to see, you know,
9:49
Speaker 2: they're going to see. You know, that's the way the
9:51
Speaker 2: world is today. If they want to see, hey, she's
9:54
Speaker 2: the best guard ever to play basketball. That's what they're
9:56
Speaker 2: going to think, because she's going to show you that.
9:58
Speaker 2: If they want to see hey, she's O hype, they're
10:00
Speaker 2: going to see that too. So it is what it is.
10:03
Speaker 2: You know, she's gonna play great, she's gonna have her
10:06
Speaker 2: unbelievable moments, and she's gonna have some down moments. But
10:11
Speaker 2: I think Page is, uh, Paige is somebody that everybody's
10:16
Speaker 2: gonna want to watch. Unfortunately, I wish she was, you know,
10:20
Speaker 2: playing with a much older group. I wish she was
10:21
Speaker 2: playing with a with a more experienced group. Oh I
10:26
Speaker 2: thought you were raised him? Oh obviously. I was pointing
10:28
Speaker 2: over there like yeah, yeah, yeah. You know when when
10:44
Speaker 2: you say that, you it's not like we've been losing
10:49
Speaker 2: all the time and now this is gonna change. I
10:51
Speaker 2: don't mean that kind of trajectory. I mean that you're,
10:57
Speaker 2: you know, for the last couple of years you've been
10:59
Speaker 2: for whatever, You're this far away. So a player like
11:03
Speaker 2: that can help you close that gap. But what I
11:07
Speaker 2: really mean is that's a four year being able to
11:12
Speaker 2: close the gap. That's not like a one and done
11:14
Speaker 2: close the gap this year and then leave like it
11:18
Speaker 2: would be let's say, if this was men's basketball. So
11:21
Speaker 2: this is an opportunity to close that gap for four
11:25
Speaker 2: years in a row and keep it closed so because otherwise,
11:30
Speaker 2: you know, you see programs around the country now, even
11:34
Speaker 2: if they do get to the highest level, it's it's
11:37
Speaker 2: hard to stay there on a regular basis. And she's
11:40
Speaker 2: one that can provide you surrounded with other people, she's
11:43
Speaker 2: one that can keep you there, you know, really hold
11:46
Speaker 2: on seconds, go ahead.
11:49
Speaker 1: You know, just related to that, you're telling you your
11:51
Speaker 1: wish page.
11:52
Speaker 2: Were surrounded by older or papers.
11:54
Speaker 6: Find the numbers have been a thing where you add
11:57
Speaker 6: because get injured.
11:57
Speaker 2: I fact, you as more people to you, you know
12:00
Speaker 2: than you nesserve of respective to hen Okoba. Do you
12:03
Speaker 2: feel like in a numbers games this is a temnity
12:05
Speaker 2: that allows you to roll more potential solutions to different problems.
12:09
Speaker 6: Over these post of the year.
12:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, as we grow and get better during the course
12:13
Speaker 2: of the year. You know, right now we don't have
12:20
Speaker 2: everybody back from everybody's in a different stage of coming back,
12:25
Speaker 2: and so you know, we don't have easy full time yet.
12:29
Speaker 2: We've got her quite a bit of time at practice,
12:32
Speaker 2: but now full time we don't have Caroline back, Aubrey's
12:38
Speaker 2: not back, so we're Yanna Patterson is on hold. So
12:43
Speaker 2: we've got some pieces that are still on their way back.
12:47
Speaker 2: But what we do have every day of practice is
12:49
Speaker 2: we probably have nine players who can all contribute when
12:57
Speaker 2: they step on the floor, and it's just a matter
13:00
Speaker 2: of now finding the pieces. Here's the problem. The problem
13:04
Speaker 2: we have nine players that all can contribute. The The
13:08
Speaker 2: big thing is they contribute really good when they're on
13:11
Speaker 2: the floor with Page, So we got to find a
13:13
Speaker 2: way to be really good when she's not on the floor.
13:16
Speaker 2: And I think that's where, you know, maybe Kitlin can
13:18
Speaker 2: help and kk you know, and it's really important that
13:22
Speaker 2: we get Asy back because if we could get in
13:25
Speaker 2: a situation that whenever Page is not on the floor,
13:29
Speaker 2: Asy can take on that, you know, because when Page
13:33
Speaker 2: wasn't around, Asy was unbelievably dominant, so she got hurt.
13:37
Speaker 2: Then Page has been dominant without easy. I want to
13:41
Speaker 2: see if they can do that together, which I think
13:46
Speaker 2: they will, but then it's a comfort level that we
13:49
Speaker 2: can remove one and not whereas last year we had
13:52
Speaker 2: to play Page almost forty minutes everything, and I don't
13:55
Speaker 2: know that you can sustain that, but we won't have
13:58
Speaker 2: to do that this year. I hope. If we do,
14:01
Speaker 2: we've got some missions.
14:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, coach. Obviously this year Yukon got selected to being
14:06
Speaker 1: the Women's Championship coonsin at the Barkleys in I mean yeah,
14:09
Speaker 1: when you found that out there now, so like, what
14:11
Speaker 1: are overall thoughts and how will everything?
14:13
Speaker 2: You just says like that this season and anytime we
14:17
Speaker 2: get a chance to play in an event, you know
14:19
Speaker 2: where there's a lot of other good teams, and especially
14:22
Speaker 2: an event here in in New Jersey, you know, it's
14:27
Speaker 2: it's it's things that we've done for the last thirty
14:31
Speaker 2: years where we feel like we can elevate the game,
14:36
Speaker 2: we can bring even more attention to the game than
14:39
Speaker 2: has already been there. There are three other really really
14:43
Speaker 2: good teams and in the you know, in the event,
14:47
Speaker 2: so I'm expecting you know, the environment at the at
14:51
Speaker 2: Barclays you know during the w NBA Finals was incredible,
14:57
Speaker 2: so I know that the building has the potential to
15:00
Speaker 2: be you know that uh, that kind of spectacle. So
15:04
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to it since it is the pages
15:08
Speaker 2: last year to I mean, you're gonna keep her in better,
15:11
Speaker 2: like good players, but this year the added sensors. Yeah,
15:19
Speaker 2: probably certainly on her part. I think she feels it.
15:24
Speaker 2: I think she she's at practice, she's doing she's doing
15:32
Speaker 2: some things in practice that that haven't happened much in
15:38
Speaker 2: the last four years that she's been there, three that
15:41
Speaker 2: she's black, that she's played. Uh, she's not. She's not
15:46
Speaker 2: passing up any opportunity to take advantage of what's happening
15:52
Speaker 2: on the floor that benefits her and us, Whereas in
15:54
Speaker 2: the past she might defer to you or to you
15:57
Speaker 2: and just let it go. And I don't see that
16:00
Speaker 2: happening either on the defensive end on the offensive vand
16:04
Speaker 2: she's just taking on this. I don't want to leave
16:08
Speaker 2: any stone unturned, right, So I think the urgency is
16:12
Speaker 2: more on her part. I don't want to add to that,
16:16
Speaker 2: you know, but I'm thinking that as the weeks go on,
16:22
Speaker 2: the younger players are going to get caught up in
16:25
Speaker 2: that urgency, and that's either going to scare them. I
16:29
Speaker 2: don't want to screw this up, or it's going to
16:31
Speaker 2: elevate them. And if she's you know, like we've been
16:34
Speaker 2: down in this scenario before when we had d right,
16:36
Speaker 2: we had a lot of really good players. Graduate d
16:38
Speaker 2: came back two freshmen to start lineup, two other guys
16:42
Speaker 2: that had never started before, and she's out there with them,
16:45
Speaker 2: and there's some there's some growing pains. But the again,
16:51
Speaker 2: I go back to the confidence that you have from
16:55
Speaker 2: knowing you have somebody like her on the floor. That's
17:01
Speaker 2: ultimately that's what's gonna get us, you know, get us
17:03
Speaker 2: to the next spot. What would you mean what would
17:06
Speaker 2: it mean for page breakers to have.
17:08
Speaker 5: A NASA chapel like.
17:11
Speaker 3: That?
17:11
Speaker 2: Again, I've loved her being here because she's she's an
17:25
Speaker 2: unbelievable competitor. You know, she's a really tough physically, she's
17:30
Speaker 2: tough mentally. She has an aggressive mentality. She's used to
17:39
Speaker 2: winning every every drill. Everything she does is game pace.
17:49
Speaker 2: So she paid attention and Carla did a fantastic job
17:54
Speaker 2: with her. I'm sure. I'm sure there are things that
18:02
Speaker 2: I've said in practice that may be new to her.
18:08
Speaker 2: To Carla didn't say, I'll find out what they are soon,
18:15
Speaker 2: but so far she's still coming to practice every day.
18:19
Speaker 6: Coach, you you mis an nil about the union fixed?
18:23
Speaker 2: Do you have any suggestions how to fix it? Uh?
18:31
Speaker 2: The nil part, well, what the what the portal? Well,
18:38
Speaker 2: the you know, the nil part I think is I
18:43
Speaker 2: think it's a test. It's a test for whether people
18:48
Speaker 2: are full of shit or whether they're serious. All right,
18:50
Speaker 2: So it's a test for do we keep the charade
18:54
Speaker 2: of student athlete and amateurism or do we call it
18:57
Speaker 2: what it is? You know, my professional pay for play sports.
19:03
Speaker 2: So either keep the charade of student athlete, which you know,
19:12
Speaker 2: teams wouldn't be going three thousand miles to play conference
19:15
Speaker 2: games if it had anything to do with student athlete welfare.
19:18
Speaker 2: That's number one. So we obviously through that in the
19:22
Speaker 2: garbage gamp. So let's just call it what it is.
19:24
Speaker 2: We're going to pay these guys to play basketball, or
19:26
Speaker 2: play play football, or play them to play you know,
19:29
Speaker 2: any sport at a university. And then let's be making
19:32
Speaker 2: a business and figure out how do we manage this business.
19:36
Speaker 2: Other sports have done it, pro sports, they've done it.
19:39
Speaker 2: They signed kids to contracts, and you're bound to your contract,
19:43
Speaker 2: and let's honor the terms of the contract. Let's do it.
19:47
Speaker 2: You already got kids holding out right, you already got
19:49
Speaker 2: guys playing and going. I ain't playing anymore until I
19:51
Speaker 2: get more money, so we become professional sports. Let's say
19:55
Speaker 2: it and let's act it, and let's stop the charade portal.
20:02
Speaker 2: How about we teach kids how to make a commitment
20:05
Speaker 2: and stick to it. All right, I get it. You
20:07
Speaker 2: want to leave, fine, leave no penalties. How many times
20:11
Speaker 2: you get a chance to leave? No penalties? Coach can
20:16
Speaker 2: leave anytime he wants, I can. I have a buyout.
20:19
Speaker 2: That's a great idea. Let's sign kids still contract and
20:21
Speaker 2: let's put a buy out in. Let's make it a
20:23
Speaker 2: business because that's exactly what it is that would fix it.
20:27
Speaker 2: And let's have a salary cap, which I think this
20:30
Speaker 2: twenty percent. You know, whatever it is, I think that's
20:33
Speaker 2: what it is. Right, So they're getting close, but they
20:37
Speaker 2: got to start calling it what it really is and
20:40
Speaker 2: not be ashamed of it. The kids aren't ashamed of it. Hey,
20:45
Speaker 2: you student ath Are you an amateur?
20:46
Speaker 4: Yeah?
20:46
Speaker 2: I am, but you get paid a lot of money.
20:48
Speaker 2: I know, let's not talk about that, but I like it.
20:52
Speaker 2: I was k doing kk KKs kk. She's always been
20:59
Speaker 2: that way and she'll be that way and so whenever
21:03
Speaker 2: you see her, you know the beauty that we have now,
21:07
Speaker 2: kids can't fake injuries so when the kid goes down,
21:12
Speaker 2: you know, and whether it's they got you know, like Yanna,
21:16
Speaker 2: whether they slammed into somebody's shoulder or a KK yesterday
21:20
Speaker 2: making a cut and her sneaker going like this, it's
21:22
Speaker 2: all on film. We have it right there and we
21:24
Speaker 2: look at it right away, and so you know, when
21:28
Speaker 2: she said, oh this is you know, okay, so let's
21:31
Speaker 2: take a look and see what it is. And it's not.
21:39
Speaker 2: It's not going to be like two days, but it's
21:41
Speaker 2: not going to be long. M know.
21:44
Speaker 5: At the final fling nature discussion started with you and
21:47
Speaker 5: Dawn spent a few others this the year when the
21:50
Speaker 5: w NBA surpasses some prominence the college game, the way
21:53
Speaker 5: the men's NBA long surpassed the college game and prominence,
21:57
Speaker 5: and I wonder who, having watched this year.
21:59
Speaker 3: And the w n b A group and all that,
22:02
Speaker 3: whether you think that's.
22:03
Speaker 4: Now finally happened, Whether the w n B A has
22:11
Speaker 4: surpassed college maybe not has yet, ye will it.
22:17
Speaker 2: Is? Well, I would hope so at some point. I
22:24
Speaker 2: don't know that that's the case yet, but I would hope. So.
22:30
Speaker 2: I think they have as many issues as we do
22:32
Speaker 2: that they have to get cleaned up. And I think
22:35
Speaker 2: that the more exposure, the more people are paying attention,
22:41
Speaker 2: the more the more you have to be better, and
22:47
Speaker 2: that forces you to be better. So I think they
22:50
Speaker 2: learned a lot this summer about what the reality is
22:54
Speaker 2: when that many people are paying attention. And I think
22:59
Speaker 2: at the level that same thing is going on. More
23:02
Speaker 2: and more college programs are getting a lot of attention
23:05
Speaker 2: and they're starting to realize there's a price to pay
23:07
Speaker 2: for that. But as more and more good players come
23:14
Speaker 2: into the league, I think they'll continue to make tremendous strides.
23:20
Speaker 2: Me I was not a big fan of that game
23:21
Speaker 2: the other night. I thought it sucked, you know. I mean,
23:24
Speaker 2: I watched professional basketball teams score thirty points in the
23:27
Speaker 2: first half, so everybody's jumping up and down. The rest
23:31
Speaker 2: of the series was absolutely phenomenal to me. That game
23:35
Speaker 2: that was shitty. And it's not the player's fault. Right,
23:39
Speaker 2: you got forty minutes and you give those players six fouls.
23:42
Speaker 2: What do you think they're going to do with them? Okay? Right?
23:47
Speaker 2: I used to laugh all the time. I said, you know,
23:49
Speaker 2: you're playing forty minutes, the same number of minutes as
23:51
Speaker 2: we're playing and you're giving every player an extra foul.
23:54
Speaker 2: You give Diana an extra foul, what do you think
23:55
Speaker 2: she's going to do with it? So now you got
23:57
Speaker 2: ten guys out there to get an extra whack, and
24:00
Speaker 2: then you've got officials that are letting them do it.
24:02
Speaker 2: You get exactly what you got in that game. So
24:05
Speaker 2: both coaches are pissed, right right, So nobody's happy. So
24:09
Speaker 2: the NBA figured out how to fix that because that
24:13
Speaker 2: used to be the member the Pistons and the Bulls
24:15
Speaker 2: and all that when the NBA games were ninety to
24:18
Speaker 2: eighty five, all right, So they fixed that. So I
24:21
Speaker 2: think the WNBA has an opportunity to take that and
24:25
Speaker 2: take it to another level to accentuate the talent that's
24:30
Speaker 2: coming into the league as opposed to stifle it.
24:33
Speaker 6: About about the game of the whole women's games be
24:36
Speaker 6: whole the last couple of years, think you know, the
24:39
Speaker 6: growth and popularity is that something you've been tangier that
24:42
Speaker 6: you do feel it's growth?
24:43
Speaker 2: Oh? Sure, absolutely. I mean the attention that's being paid
24:47
Speaker 2: on on every women's sport, not just not just you know,
24:54
Speaker 2: college basketball, not just the WNBA. I think the the
25:02
Speaker 2: more once once it became okay to put a spotlight
25:09
Speaker 2: on a women's game, and I think last year's NCAA season,
25:18
Speaker 2: you know, and a lot of what Caitlin Clark did
25:25
Speaker 2: that brought a lot of attention to the game. I
25:30
Speaker 2: think the the spotlight then started to go on not
25:36
Speaker 2: just that team, not just that player, but that team
25:39
Speaker 2: and that player, and that team and that player, and
25:41
Speaker 2: then that sport. All right, let's let's start showing more
25:44
Speaker 2: women's soccer games. Let's start talking more about the women's
25:50
Speaker 2: hockey league, you know. So all of a sudden, these
25:53
Speaker 2: things become all part of the bigger picture. And then
25:57
Speaker 2: you can get all the all the female athletes that
25:59
Speaker 2: want and all the Olympic gold medals over there in Paris.
26:04
Speaker 2: So it just became, you know, like somebody lit a
26:07
Speaker 2: fire and it just spread. And I think we have
26:09
Speaker 2: to keep fanning the flames as we go forward here
26:12
Speaker 2: and don't let it, you know, don't let it die.
26:14
Speaker 6: That's something you worry about in terms of let's build
26:16
Speaker 6: on this momentum. You can actually see it going backwards.
26:19
Speaker 4: Now.
26:19
Speaker 2: You got to build on any You've got to build
26:21
Speaker 2: on momentum because things don't stay the same forever. Right,
26:26
Speaker 2: So you reach a certain point and you've got momentum going,
26:30
Speaker 2: you've got to keep putting something underneath it. And because
26:33
Speaker 2: you're you're going to keep putting something on top of it, right,
26:35
Speaker 2: So you better make sure that there's a solid base,
26:37
Speaker 2: and you keep adding and keep adding, and keep making
26:40
Speaker 2: sure that you're shoring up the base and then adding,
26:42
Speaker 2: otherwise it's going to collapse. And then we have to
26:45
Speaker 2: treat it a certain way. You know. I have never
26:48
Speaker 2: said we're better at Connecticut than anyplace else, but we
26:51
Speaker 2: are different at Connecticut because we've been dealing with this
26:53
Speaker 2: for thirty years, and we've been dealing with this and
26:58
Speaker 2: the unbelievable attention that comes with it for thirty years.
27:02
Speaker 2: This is all new to a lot of places, and
27:05
Speaker 2: so we have to make sure that we help each
27:07
Speaker 2: other understand how to deal with all this. You know.
27:10
Speaker 2: It's somebody told me a story about Naple Valley one time,
27:14
Speaker 2: and they said, no one's allowed to make bad wine
27:16
Speaker 2: in Napa Valley because one bay bottle of wine from
27:20
Speaker 2: Naple Valley hurts the entire brand. Okay, so all of
27:24
Speaker 2: us and women's sports and women's basketball are responsible for that.
27:28
Speaker 2: We need to make sure that we're all really good
27:30
Speaker 2: at what we do, so we keep adding to the brand.
27:33
Speaker 2: We don't damage the brand or hold it back in
27:35
Speaker 2: any way, shape or form, like for instance, one thing
27:38
Speaker 2: like I see a lot of these players like hiding
27:41
Speaker 2: from the media when things don't go well. Well, that's
27:44
Speaker 2: not gonna grow the game. That's not gonna that's not
27:46
Speaker 2: gonna help. You know, you can't avoid you can't ask
27:49
Speaker 2: for a lot of attention and then avoid it when
27:52
Speaker 2: it's gonna be negative attention. You're gonna have to take both, right,
27:56
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to handle the good and you're gonna
27:58
Speaker 2: have to handle the bad. And I think we have
28:00
Speaker 2: so many great stories to tell in our game that
28:04
Speaker 2: it's okay if they pick on a couple of bad ones.
28:07
Speaker 2: I mean that's that, that means they're really paying attention.
28:12
Speaker 2: And I like that. I like that it's okay to
28:15
Speaker 2: show your words right, makes you human.
28:18
Speaker 4: Love these lines you've had players over the years, you
28:22
Speaker 4: have been transcendent, just not to the lip you've seen.
28:26
Speaker 2: Lad. What's your sons? Why it didn't happen? What women's
28:33
Speaker 2: game didn't get the attention that.
28:35
Speaker 3: Maybe you should have five or ten years ago player
28:39
Speaker 3: who I think you know, I think you would agree
28:42
Speaker 3: with you.
28:42
Speaker 1: You're very worthy of that attention.
28:45
Speaker 2: I've got attention, just not to this little yeah, the
28:54
Speaker 2: ready yeah, I would say, that's just the nature of
29:08
Speaker 2: that's just the nature of life times, sports history. Availability
29:15
Speaker 2: want two? Why did I have to watch the six
29:18
Speaker 2: or Celtics playoff games on tape delay the day after
29:22
Speaker 2: the game when I was in you know, when I
29:24
Speaker 2: was in middle school and high school. You got to
29:27
Speaker 2: be kidney. Right now, I can't turn on the TV
29:30
Speaker 2: any time of the day without having an NBA story.
29:34
Speaker 2: So the time wasn't right. Nobody cared. Nobody cared about
29:37
Speaker 2: football in Philadelphia or anyplace else. Right, we were a
29:41
Speaker 2: baseball country and now we're an NFL country, So the
29:47
Speaker 2: times are usually going to dictate how things evolved. And
29:52
Speaker 2: the time wasn't right, I guess for to your point,
29:56
Speaker 2: my play for a Dinasauris or a Maya more, you know,
30:00
Speaker 2: just like the time wasn't right for a pre maverage, right.
30:05
Speaker 2: You know, if people would have covered Pee Maverage back
30:09
Speaker 2: then the way they covered Caitlin this year, Pete Marriage
30:12
Speaker 2: would be the greatest player in the history of organized
30:14
Speaker 2: sports for what he did, right, So the times just
30:20
Speaker 2: are what they are now, and it's and I've said
30:24
Speaker 2: this before and people were like, look at me, it's
30:26
Speaker 2: okay that it didn't happen then, and we shouldn't go
30:30
Speaker 2: back and condemn those people that didn't cover it, Like
30:34
Speaker 2: how dare you not cover that? You know what took
30:37
Speaker 2: you so long? You know, you can't put a gun
30:41
Speaker 2: to people's head and forced them to do anything. They're
30:43
Speaker 2: going to do it when they feel it's the right
30:46
Speaker 2: time for them to do it. And right now people
30:48
Speaker 2: think they can make money off of women's sports. So
30:52
Speaker 2: there you have the attention a little bit of the time.
30:56
Speaker 2: What came first first eat a little bit of attention,
31:00
Speaker 2: a little more, Oh, now I can make money on it,
31:03
Speaker 2: and now a lot more attention. It's no different than
31:06
Speaker 2: what happened a lot of in the Big East when
31:08
Speaker 2: we came into the Big East Lee and started being
31:11
Speaker 2: really good the first time around. We were the only
31:15
Speaker 2: one putting money into women's basketballs back then, and we
31:18
Speaker 2: kept winning and winning and winning, and we started making
31:20
Speaker 2: a lot of money, and we started getting money from
31:22
Speaker 2: TV and ticket sales, and then all of a sudden.
31:28
Speaker 2: In the year two thousand, we had nine teams in
31:32
Speaker 2: the NC Tournament, and those nine schools were heavily invested
31:35
Speaker 2: in women's best wooll So those players were born twenty
31:43
Speaker 2: years too soon. You know that with all the realignment
31:47
Speaker 2: conversations the summer you guys were coming up to.
31:48
Speaker 6: The year just cover and you see the state of
31:51
Speaker 6: the Big East on the side and how you guys gonagement.
31:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, the whole conference realignment thing, there's more there's more
32:02
Speaker 2: people on the outside of it than they're on the
32:04
Speaker 2: inside of it. Right. The the two dominant uh, the
32:13
Speaker 2: two dominant conferences that are constantly in the news, you know,
32:17
Speaker 2: the big ten in the SEC that I don't know
32:24
Speaker 2: that unless unless there's a concerted effort by everybody, there's
32:35
Speaker 2: there's gonna be constant separation between the top and even
32:40
Speaker 2: within those conferences, the constant separation between the top five, six, seven,
32:46
Speaker 2: eight and the bottom twelve. Because now you get to
32:49
Speaker 2: twenty teams, what do you think all twenty of them
32:51
Speaker 2: are going to be equal? There's gonna be ten maybe
32:53
Speaker 2: that are going to be here and the other ten
32:56
Speaker 2: they're in they're in it for a check, right, So
33:01
Speaker 2: the more the more it's fractured, It'll get even more
33:07
Speaker 2: fractured as it moves along because people can't afford to
33:11
Speaker 2: play at that poker table, so they have to create
33:13
Speaker 2: another table over here. And these people that are in
33:16
Speaker 2: that poker table are going to continually up the ante
33:19
Speaker 2: so that they keep separating themselves from everybody else. I
33:23
Speaker 2: don't know how you fix that. We just have to
33:26
Speaker 2: be as good as we can be in our conference.
33:28
Speaker 2: The Big East has been dominant in men's basketball in
33:32
Speaker 2: spite of all the other stuff. The Power five that
33:34
Speaker 2: they call it are for whatever and all that. For
33:38
Speaker 2: the last what six for the last eight men's national
33:43
Speaker 2: championships have been won by Big East school So what
33:49
Speaker 2: does that mean for the biggest women? I think we
33:52
Speaker 2: have to invest in it more, and if we don't,
33:55
Speaker 2: then the same thing that's happened to a lot of
33:57
Speaker 2: other people that don't invest in it is going to
33:59
Speaker 2: happen to our We're gonna keep investing in it at UKND,
34:04
Speaker 2: So I'm not worried about that part. But I think
34:09
Speaker 2: maybe that what I said about when you think you
34:13
Speaker 2: can make a return on your investment, you start to
34:16
Speaker 2: invest in it more. But how do you know, if
34:18
Speaker 2: you can make a return if you don't invest in
34:19
Speaker 2: it first. So do you know, is there a particular
34:23
Speaker 2: game you're looking forward to the season, particular game that
34:25
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to? You know, I hope there's a
34:32
Speaker 2: game in in April that we're in. But I can't
34:41
Speaker 2: pick one over the other because there's so many our
34:43
Speaker 2: non conference games this year. If I didn't have a
34:46
Speaker 2: say in it, I would really be pissed, you know
34:51
Speaker 2: the fact that I helped put that together and it
34:53
Speaker 2: evolved this way. So I don't know which game I'm
34:59
Speaker 2: You probably asked me which, as you dreading that would
35:02
Speaker 2: probably be an easier question. Which one of those? I'll
35:05
Speaker 2: give you about seven of them, like coming back for
35:10
Speaker 2: a seconds, Caitland ash and stepped into it, KK and
35:15
Speaker 2: as into leadership role. No, no, a coach there there
35:22
Speaker 2: that is not that is not part of the DNA
35:25
Speaker 2: right now. They no, not yet, not yet. That's hopefully
35:32
Speaker 2: hopefully they're still learning and paying attention from you know,
35:36
Speaker 2: Paige and uh and Caitlyn who have played a lot
35:39
Speaker 2: more basketball than they have. So that's a work in.
35:42
Speaker 6: Problem a coach.
35:44
Speaker 2: So the post sport entry still in that super team phase.
35:49
Speaker 1: Would you rather see Page go to a team has
35:52
Speaker 1: already established or or to a team in the w
35:55
Speaker 1: NBA that she had to build.
35:56
Speaker 2: Like Caitly, I don't know that she has a choice
36:03
Speaker 2: number one. You've got a choice for her? Uh, that's
36:15
Speaker 2: I always think that players who players who go to
36:20
Speaker 2: a p a team that has a lot of talent
36:23
Speaker 2: when they come out of college are way better off
36:26
Speaker 2: than players who go to teams that are less talented.
36:29
Speaker 2: And the higher you're picked in the draft, generally speaking,
36:33
Speaker 2: the less talent that team's gonna have when you get there.
36:41
Speaker 2: I hope she goes to a team that's that she
36:46
Speaker 2: is exactly what they need, whatever that team is, and
36:52
Speaker 2: she goes to an established team that's