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Geno Auriemma Presser - Oklahoma · Coaches Corner

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: All right, we welcome coach ori Emma to the stage
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and we will just go ahead and open it up
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: for questions. Questions for coach.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Usually when people say stage doesn't want to leave me
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: to day.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Gino Joe's own Channel three in Hartford. I think you've
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: said that, Uh, the best way you prepare for these
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: games is you do what you do best. Can oh,
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: can you win this game? If Foklahoma does what it
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: does best, well.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: That's why they keep score.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: You know they're gonna obviously not do what they do worst,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and neither are we. So I think we've got to, uh,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: we got to play the way we normally play, and
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: you know, we've got to make some adjustments obviously, like
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: you always do it at this time of the year.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: But you know, their style of play is very, very
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: similar to ours, and I think playing at a pace
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: that they play at, I think causes problems for a
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: lot of people, and playing at the pace that we
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: play at causes problems for a lot of people.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: So it'll be an interesting it'll be an interesting matchup.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: Thanks Mike Anthony from Hurst to Connecticut, good morning. You know,
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: as he's played really well of late, has shot really
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: well and just wondering what you see in her play lately,
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: what you hope to see in her play, and kind
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: of the approach she takes to this stage now with
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: her future plans being announced. I don't know if that
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: puts her even more at ease in this situation.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: I hope so.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Sometimes, you know, these things weigh on on players' minds,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: as they should. You know, it's a big it's a
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: big decision, and you you know, you want to try
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: to have as few distractions in your head as possible
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: at this time of the year, you know, So having
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: made that decision clears a few things up for her
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: and allows her to hopefully allows her to just focus
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: on playing and doing what she does best. You know,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Paige has been in this situation a lot, asy as not,
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  Speaker 2: so I'm sure she's anxious to, you know, to play
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: in this environment and in a game of this magnitude.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: And the only thing I worry about when kids are
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: you know, and it's their.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: First real, real, real, uh.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Exposure to this when they haven't played in a long time, Uh,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: is they try so hard, they put so much into it,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: you know, So if we can keep it kind of
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: like the other games that we've played recently.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I would think she's going to.
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: Play great, right, lur Riley from the Hartford Current, can
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: you just talk about the post matchup and kind of
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: the challenges that it presents for you.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: There, their post their post situation is different. There aren't
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: very many teams in the country that they both happened
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: to well, two of them have both happened to be here,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: you know them and U C l A. You know
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: where They've got a dominant post play that can single
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: handedly win you a game. And it certainly takes a
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: lot of pressure off your shooters knowing that, you know,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: if you're not making a lot of shots on the preimter,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: you always got somewhere to go to get a bucket. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: certainly the effect that she's had on their team has
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: been tremendous and on ours on our side, not so much.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: You know, it's it's more significant for us when we
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: go to our small lineup and people have to match
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: up with Sarah playing in the middle, so we pose
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: a different sort of problem. But I want want to
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: have to play three or four games guarding you know,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: reagum beers, and I'm not sure anybody wants to have
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: to play against Sarah four games and so it would
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: be interesting.
• 5:05
  Speaker 6: Hi Gino, Alexa philip O ESPN. I was just curious
• 5:09
  Speaker 6: what your reaction to seeing Juju's injury was the other day.
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: I know you guys were still at the arena when
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  Speaker 6: it happened. And then also just given being around the
• 5:18
  Speaker 6: sports seeing also what your program has experienced over the
• 5:21
  Speaker 6: last few years, what do you feel like is the
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: best path forward in the women's basketball community to get
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: a better handle, hopefully on some of these horrible injuries
• 5:31
  Speaker 6: that they're experiencing.
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were made aware of it right after our game.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I think it was right right after our game. You know,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: somebody came in our locker room and wanted to show
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: it to me. And I still haven't seen it, and
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: I've seen enough of those in my career. I didn't
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: want to see another one. Uh, you know, I talked
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: to Lindsay that night, and.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: There's really nothing you can do about it.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I mean everything's been tried, People try and and there's
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  Speaker 2: probably more emphasis than ever before put on prevention, you know,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: the science behind it and how much time and effort
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: is spent trying to prevent these kinds of things happening, and.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know what the I don't know what the
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  Speaker 1: answer is.
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  Speaker 2: You know, somebody somebody texted me after this happened and said,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: maybe they should do some prevented surgery, you know, like
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: this's just cut up every kid, you know, And so
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: that's a pretty extreme solution, you know. It's just one
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: of those unfortunate things that happens. And I feel terrible
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: for for Juju personally, knowing.
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  Speaker 1: The players that I've had that have had to go
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  Speaker 1: through that.
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  Speaker 2: How much it means to them what they're missing, you know,
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  Speaker 2: for the whole year that they're out, and for Lindsay,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: for her teammates. And I think the the the U,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the effect that it has on the tournament, I think
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  Speaker 2: is huge from competitive standpoint, star power, you know.
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  Speaker 1: And I think.
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  Speaker 2: The the USC kids will probably rise to the occasion
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: and play amazing like they did the other night.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: But I don't know what the solution is. I don't
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I think when kids come to college, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: them are already overused, and I don't know how much
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: that has to do with it.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: I was talking to Mark Few yesterday and I think
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: he's talking about the same things people think that, you know, if.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: You work as hard as Kobe did, you'll be like Kobe.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: And I don't know that you can work twice as
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: hard as Kobe and you won't be like Kobe. So
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I think sometimes kids overdo it at a young age
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: and it catches up to him among other things. You
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: know that you can't you know, biological things. You probably
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: can't do anything about.
• 8:38
  Speaker 7: Bryan Curchie only times, you know. Just piggybacking off of
• 8:41
  Speaker 7: that question, what did you say to Lindsay that night afterwards?
• 8:45
  Speaker 7: I know she had mentioned that you had sent a
• 8:47
  Speaker 7: message here. And as a coach, having gone through this
• 8:51
  Speaker 7: before where you lose a critical player for a long time,
• 8:55
  Speaker 7: what's the biggest challenge in kind of rallying your team
• 8:58
  Speaker 7: going forward knowing that you might have a different identity.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does change your identity because when you come
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: to rely so much on one player, not not because
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: you set out to be that way, It just happens
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  Speaker 2: that way. Great players like that just dominate the whole
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: environment on your team. But what ends up happening is
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: one of two things. And I don't know they're personnel
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: well enough you know, off the court. But the danger
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: sometimes is one or two people on the team start
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: to want to be like Juju, I'll do all the
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: things usually did, and then that takes them out of
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: their character and they play worse. And so the only
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: thing that's helped us in those situations is, you know,
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: you hope you have a you know, a.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Couple other really good players, which they.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Do certainly, and that you ask each player to do
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: like that much more, be a little bit more attentive,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: you know. But anytime, you know, you try to make
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  Speaker 2: up for it, it usually backfires. And the other thing
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  Speaker 2: is if you were mourning, and that happened to us
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  Speaker 2: one year we lost.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Shay Ralph.
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  Speaker 2: We were undefeated, were number one in the country, we
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: were by far the best team in America. And the
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  Speaker 2: very first game in the NCAA tournament, she tour acl
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: on a breakaway layup, same thing. Nobody near he or nothing,
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  Speaker 2: and the kids start, you know, they wrote her name
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  Speaker 2: on their shoes and it was like someone had passed away,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: you know, a family member, and it was the worst
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: thing that ever happened, and we lost a game we
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: probably shouldn't have lost against a really good team so
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  Speaker 2: I think if you if you just look at it
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  Speaker 2: for what it is and let's move on and everybody
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: just do a little bit more. But I think sometimes
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: it's just natural that people want to fill that void
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: and again. And I hope we're playing them, so I
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: hope that they're able to overcome it. I actually hope
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: we're playing them or Kansas State. I just hope we're playing.
• 11:32
  Speaker 8: Hey, g know, Annie Peterson from the Associated Press. This
• 11:35
  Speaker 8: is a little bit off topic, but today Doug Bruno
• 11:38
  Speaker 8: announced that he was stepping down after more than three decades.
• 11:41
  Speaker 8: Hit to Paul and I wanted to get your thoughts
• 11:44
  Speaker 8: on his legacy.
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  Speaker 2: I was just talking to him in the hallway over there.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: It's funny you ask. There haven't been a lot of
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: people in the history of women's basketball that have given
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: as much to the game as he has. He's dedicated
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: his life pretty much to women's basketball, and all of
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: it in Chicago, where he grew up. So he's an institution.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think there's a kid in the Midwest. You
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: name all the states, I don't care, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois,
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  Speaker 2: I don't care. They know someone or they themselves have
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: been to Doug Bruno's basketball camp over the years, and
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: in his words, you know he doesn't want to not
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: to step away, but he knows he has to, and
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: that's somewhat of relief, I think, knowing that circumstances have
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: forced me into this situation. So it's sad for me
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  Speaker 2: personally because he's a great friend and we've been through
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  Speaker 2: a lot together, and sad for women's basketball that a
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: lifelong supporter of the game isn't going to be coaching,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: but he'll still be a supporter of the game. And
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: happy for Patty, his wife and his kids and grandkids
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: because they'll get to see more of him.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: We have time for two more questions.
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  Speaker 9: Hey, Gina, Sheantal Jennings with the athletic this isn't the
• 13:30
  Speaker 9: first year you guys have had the transfer portal open
• 13:32
  Speaker 9: during the tournament. Obviously the timing has changed a little bit.
• 13:35
  Speaker 9: I'm curious as a staff how you sort of deal
• 13:38
  Speaker 9: with being pulled in multiple directions that are both vital
• 13:40
  Speaker 9: for the growth of your program, and then sort of
• 13:43
  Speaker 9: more broadly, if you had a magic wand like, is
• 13:45
  Speaker 9: there a better time for this? Is it a football
• 13:48
  Speaker 9: response where they have two windows that sort of allows changes.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's just a lot of things going on right now.
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  Speaker 2: That take away I think some of the some of
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: the focus of the players, some of the focus of
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: the coaches. Obviously, the portal has become a big cloud that.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Hangs over everything.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Like, for instance, do you think the NBA will ever
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: have open free agency during the NBA playoffs? I doubt that, right,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: It's got to be some time after all this is over.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: It's got to.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Be when the schools have finished playing. There's got to
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: be some sort of some sort of way to track
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: and monitor and penalize tampering like there is in the NBA.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: There's got to be a guideline of what you can
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: do in free agency, which is basically what it is,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: the two windows. Yeah, I'm in favor for anything that
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: doesn't interfere with what you're trying to do as a
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: coach with your team. You know, even though I think
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: players on every team that's playing in the tournament have
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: already decided I'm either staying or I'm leaving, But it's
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: never been harder to you know, at least in the pros.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: You know who's under contract, then who's a free agent?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: It's very difficult to live in an environment where every
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: single kid on every team throughout the country, on all
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty some Division one teams, is a
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: free agent. So I hope everybody that came up with
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: this plan is really happy.
• 15:54
  Speaker 10: You know, magavenon ect Insider I talked about it before
• 16:03
  Speaker 10: you describes as third year out here for the regional
• 16:05
  Speaker 10: on the West Coast. But going ahead to next week,
• 16:09
  Speaker 10: on the two winners out of this regional, we'll have
• 16:11
  Speaker 10: a cross country trip to Tampa. Just what is your
• 16:14
  Speaker 10: thoughts on that quick turnaround on top of the cross
• 16:16
  Speaker 10: country trip.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, there's always going to be somebody
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: that has to travel. Who's ever in the West region
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: when the tournament, when the finals are on the West
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: East Coast, and vice versa, So somebody's always going to
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: have to travel, but it would only be oneing correct
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: one team. Secondly, in a normal world run by normal people,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: there would only be four teams here, which means there
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: will be no games today. The games would be tomorrow,
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: which means we wouldn't have to get up at six
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: am to have an eight o'clock practice here this morning
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: for an hour, which means we wouldn't have to get
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: up at five am to have a seven point thirty
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: shoot around for half an hour, take us longer to
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: get through security than to actually be on the court. Okay,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: God bless whoever wins Monday night. Okay, and they've got
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: to fly cross country which is all day Tuesday. Then
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: they have two days Wednesday and Thursday to play the
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: biggest game of their life. The guys who they finished Sunday.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Then they have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and they
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: play Saturday. But there's a lot of people on the
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Whens basketball committee that think they're smarter than that. So
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: whoever came up with this super regional stuff, and I
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: know who they are?
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Ruin the game they did.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: They ruined the game. Half the country has no chance
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: to get to a game in person. But you're making
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: billions off of TV watually you're not. That would be
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: the men's tournament. So yeah, there's a lot of issues
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: that they need to fix. And again, we could get
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: our ass beat tomorrow and that won't change my feelings.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Are any other happy thoughts will end on that beat note.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you coach, Thank you