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Geno Pre Sweet 16 Presser - Duke · Coaches Corner

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  You got a head, coach, Oriama turned over to you so I can
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  catch my breath. All right, Well, you know, you wait a
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  long time to play in these games, and you hope that you know,
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  you hope you have the right mindset, like, uh, you need to
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  have to win at this time of the year. And everyone, you know,
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  everyone that's in this tournament is I think they're excited about the opportunity to
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  play because it's one more you know, one more step towards everyone's goal.
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  You know, everyone's goal is to win a national championship. And and anyone
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  who's playing still is is I obviously a tough matchup for everybody. So you
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  know, we've done the best that we can with what we have, and
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  here we are and looking forward to to tomorrow. The right shirt here first
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  Joe's own Channel three hard for Gino as you prepare for Duke. Is there
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  any value in the fact that you guys have six common opponents, You've played
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  a lot of the same teams this year. Uh uh, not necessarily.
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  I mean I think there their style of play is very very different than than
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  than our our style of play. So we may have played the same opponents,
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  but that doesn't mean that their opponents or the opponents played them the same
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  way they played us. You know, all you can do is go by
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  what their strengths and weaknesses are. And they show up over a period of
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  three or four months, and you know, obviously they beat a really really
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  good Ohio State team on the road. So and there are much younger,
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  much younger, much different team than what than the team we played here last
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  year, and we're a little bit different team as well, you know,
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  so I think both teams will be trying to get to know each other a
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  little bit. Hi g You know, Michelle Smith, the next you've been
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  compensating all season for the number of players you have available. Does that become
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  easier or harder when you get to this time of year? I think it
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  becomes a little bit harder because what's at stake. You If someone is struggling
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  during the regular season and you don't have and you don't have someone to put
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  in for them, you lose a game, you go home, figure out
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  and play two days later, three days later. At this time of the
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  year, if that happens and someone's really struggling and you don't have anywhere to
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  go, you know, your season could end. So it's much much more
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  difficult right now then it would be a month a month ago, let's say.
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  But hopefully they've learned how to how to cope with with what we're dealing
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  with. You know, I'm somewhat confident that our three experienced players that have
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  been in this tournament, you know, this is their fourth year. Well
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  Page is third, but has have enough experience to help us get through this.
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  Lindsay wendsy Schnow USA today. Do you know you caused quite a stir
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  the other day when you said that Paige is the best player in America?
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  Obviously a lot of people think it's Caitlin. Why do you think that Paige
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  is the best and can you also speak to how efficient of a player she
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  is? I didn't realize I was causing the stir. I bet you if
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  you as USC, they wouldn't tell you Caitlin Clark's the best player. Bet
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  your fies, LSU, they wouldn't tell you. Bet your fiest Texas,
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  they wouldn't tell you. I think every coach thinks the player that's on their
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  team that's helping them the most is the best player. Listen, I've coached
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  the best player in the country a lot more than anybody else coaching in this
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  tournament. It's okay for somebody else to say their player is if you go
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  by if you go by stats, if you go by efficiency, if you
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  go by the entire box score, and what she means to our team playing
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  power forward, I think she's done more for our team than anybody else could
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  have done on our team, and I wouldn't trade her for anybody else.
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  Emily Adams hurt for current Do you know, I mean, how different outside
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  of the page factor? Do you feel like this group is coming into the
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  Sweet sixteen compared to the one that you brought in last year? Uh?
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  Into the tournament? You mean, we don't seem to be as mentally or
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  physically worn out like we were last year at this time. I think having
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  Paige makes us a little more confident than maybe we were last year at this
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  time. I think KK gives us a different element that we didn't have last
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  year at this time. I would say those two things probably are the biggest
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  difference. There's a lot of similarities too, unfortunately, but it doesn't it
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  doesn't feel the same. I think our practices and and everything that we've done
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  leading up to this feels a little bit different than it did last season.
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  You know, the whole month of February last year was a real, real,
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  real, real grind for us, and I think our last hurrah was
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  the Big East Tournament and we you know, we did our best to win
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  that thing, and then we had a huge struggle with Baylor and we just
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  didn't have any We just didn't have anything left and and we ran into the
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  wrong team at the wrong time. You know, Ohio State was just way,
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  way, way better than us, and Duke maybe way way better than
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  us tomorrow. So who knows, But I think we're in a better frame
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  of mind than we were last year. Vicky Folgerson from The New London Day.
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  Do you know, obviously things are different now, but you've had like
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  a somewhat colorful history with Duke, Like when you when you found out you
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  were playing them, did you did it bring back any memories from Cameron Indoor
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  Stadium or anything like that. Man, it's been so long since we've been
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  down there. Oh. We always had some great, great matchups with them,
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  you know, whether it was you know, when Gail was there,
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  when Joanne was there. You know, they were always one of the best
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  teams in the country, and it was always a great place to go play.
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  And yeah, there's great memories of us and Duke playing some great,
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  great games, and yeah, times have changed, you know, times have
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  changed. You know, doesn't feel the same when to Maggie first and then
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  we'll come over here, Magievenni hersyt inside. You know, it's obviously this
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  is where you guys ended the season last yeart this this moment. Did you
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  see that loss? Just adjustable with the team afterward? And do you see
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  it hanging over them now knowing that they're back at this point again, Well,
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  half the team wasn't here last year, So if it's hanging over it's
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  only hanging over half of them. So let's hope the other half don't know
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  what happened last year. You know, that's the beauty of playing in the
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  NCAA tournament is if you won last year, you have to put that behind
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  you. That's not going to help you win this year. And if you
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  lost last year, you have to put that behind you because that doesn't mean
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  you're going to lose this year. Each each and every tournament game, each
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  and every year takes on kind of a life on its own, and you
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  have to either be good enough to win that day or you're not going to
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  win. And there may be things tomorrow that we can handle very easily,
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  and we won't you know, we won't have to worry about what we don't
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  have. And then there's going to be things tomorrow that are going to come
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  up that are very very difficult for us because it'll be things we can't handle
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  because of what we don't have. So each and each and everything has to
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  be down on its own and you have to figure it out during those forty
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  minutes. Coach Jason Notty from mad Week, we're a couple of years out
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  of the March Madness label being applied to the tournament, increased coverage, and
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  now we have facilities dedicated to actually, you know, keeping the tournament on
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  it on screens. What kind of opportunity does that present a player like Page
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  And as you mentioned before, what opportunity does it give her that some of
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  the greats that you've seen come through in the past may not have had.
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  Yeah, this is the time of the year where every kid can make some
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  kind of name from themselves and for their for their school. The beauty of
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  the beauty of our game has always been that you could track those players from
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  freshman year on. You know, you got to grow with with them.
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  You saw them as freshmen and saw what they did, and then the expectations
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  were such as sophomores, and the expectations then as juniors, and the expectations
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  as seniors, and you kept being amazed that they could do those things year
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  after year after year, and they go down as one of the greats.
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  You know, now there's just more eyes on them. There's more media,
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  there's more social media, there's more outlets, there's more people talking about it,
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  there's more hype. You know, there's more pressure on the kids than
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  ever before. I think they weren't under this kind of pressure back then.
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  You know. So you've got a whole set of a whole new set of
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  circumstances and and it takes a special player to be able to handle all that.
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  And some can and some can't. And you know, as as of
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  right now, there's there's teams in this tournament that have those kinds of players.
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  But the interesting part is everybody's going to tune in to watch whether or
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  not they can. You know, we all believe that they can, but
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  everybody's going to watch to see whether they can and everybody's hoping for these magical
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  matchups, you know, where you can put them together and and start the
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  you know, start the craziness, you know, you know, it's her
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  against her, you know, discounting the rest of the teams. You know,
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  it's just like a big one on one game coming up, you know.
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  So it's fun for the fans, it's fun for everybody on on social
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  media and on TV. But in the end, these kids have to perform
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  at a high level under a lot of pressure. So it's it's it's it's
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  a lot, but it's fun for them for sure. R in time,
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  so this will need to be your last question, Carrie. You know,
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  Carrie aggerscarriegger dot com. You mentioned the teams are different, They're a younger
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  team, different style. What about Duke concerns you the most? What will
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  you have to contend with? I think defensively, you know, they're very
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  they're very aggressive, you know, they they they can force you to play
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  at their pace, at their tempo, the way they want to play.
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  I believe they their youth I think serves them well. You know, they
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  can move, move pieces around, get players in the game. They play
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  with a tremendously high level of energy and to me, a lot of times,
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  really young teams are the most dangerous teams. You know, they haven't
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  experienced a crushing loss in the NC tournament that they're carrying around with them.
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  They're just free and clear and letting it rip, you know, and let
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  them play. And they have a big win under their belt. So they're
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  they're a tough matchup because they've got really good players, they're well coached,
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  and I think they're very confident, confident in their own abilities. That's all
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  the time we have. Coach. Thank you very much, best tomorrow.
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  Thank you constudent athletes, momentarily, thank you