QUOTES by Geno Auriemma
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It seems like we're in the late game an unusual amount of times compared to maybe some other schools. I guess that's a good thing that people want us to be in that game. Or maybe they're trying to keep women and children from being exposed to some of the stuff that we do on the court, and hoping everybody's asleep by the time we play. I do think it's difficult on the players.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
There's a lot of things that I can fix, and generally speaking, those things are about my team, ... I can fix anything that's wrong with my team. Some of the other nonsense that goes on, I can't fix. And when it comes time when that other nonsense comes to the point where it affects the way I can fix and help my team, then it's time for me to leave. When that time comes, I'll let you know.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
This is probably the first time since 1991 that I feel like we're truly a team that relies so heavily on each other. Everyone has to make a contribution for us to be really good. And obviously, Barbara and Ann have the ability to make huge contributions, and they did. That's what you expect from them. And sometimes we do forget they've won two national championships. They know how to handle these situations.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
Any time like you have a really good point guard like they do, you have a chance to have a really good team. Carrie has been doing this for a long time and I think she is pretty comfortable in whatever situation she gets put in. She has a really good group of players that are pretty versatile.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
The time she broke her ankle standing still. Do you know how hard that is to do?
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
(Turner) had an unbelievable night. There comes a point and time when you're a senior when you have to start to assert yourself. Usually those times are on the road.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
This time of the year, it's individual players who make the difference. Your style of play, your system as a program gets you to this point and then individual players end up deciding the outcome of the game. Ann stepped up and made some huge plays.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
This time of year, a team's systems don't matter. It's individual players that end up deciding the outcomes of the games.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
This time of year, it's the individual player that makes the difference. The things you do as a program gets you to this point. Then individuals decide the outcome of the games.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
Whereas before, we didn't know whether we could go on a run like that and get up big on some teams. Now we know that. And we also know that if they come back, we've got what it takes to finish the job. Whether we do or not next time we're in that situation, I don't know. I don't think anybody comes through 100 percent of the time. ... As long as we have a chance to win with three minutes to go, I like our chances.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
Whether it's Phoenix or whether it's any other team in that league, they're not going to offer me more money than I'm making at Connecticut. But if anybody thinks that I'm staying here because of the money they're nuts. I didn't come here for the money and I'm not going to stay here for the money. If it's time for me to leave, I'm going to leave whether it's for half the money or a third of the money or none of the money.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I think she's taking it pretty seriously. You know, it's that time of the year.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
Renee set the tone in the second half by how aggressive she was, looking to score, looking to make a play every time down the court. When she's aggressive, she's as good as anybody. She's got all the skills, and her best games are on the road. That's a great sign.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
Just having that makes everybody else around you a lot better. So I'm looking forward to that. We haven't had that in a while. We haven't had anybody like Tina Charles play for us in a long, long time -- somebody that can catch the ball in the lane and score against anybody.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
Last year I didn't like the fact that you never what the starting lineup was going to be. I'd like it settled by the time the first game comes around. I'd like to be settled. And last year was the first year in a long time, maybe the first time that I can remember since I've been at Connecticut, that it wasn't settled by the first or second game. It never seemed to get itself settled.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
It has been a ridiculous three weeks in terms of my thought process. During all that time when the Final Four was going on, flying out to California, Hall of Fame, all of that, there was a lot going on personally for me where I'm trying to sort out how long am I going to do this? Where am I going to go from here? What else am I going to do?
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I thought Renee set the tone in the second half by how aggressive she was. She was looking to score and make a play every time down the floor.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I think we have a reputation of being a really good NCAA tournament team. There does seem to be a little more of an edge to our game, a little more of a focus. I don't think we get up tight. I see teams that get very, very tentative and tense at tournament time and I don't see us being like that generally. I think our approach as a coaching staff is pretty laid back. We want to reward our kids for a great season.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I thought that we executed our game plan pretty well for about 30-some minutes. This was as much of a complete game as we've had in a long, long time and I'm really happy for our guys.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I think the only time individual awards really impress upon you as a kid is when you get to share them with your teammates. What you share with your teammates is the big award, the conference championship. So if you get an individual award and the team gets nothing, you feel kind of like half-empty.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I thought we ran so much that we got a little bit tired. We need more contributions from more people if we're going to keep playing like this. You worry this time of year that you get hesitant and tentative and it becomes a walk-it-up kind of game. I don't want it to be like that. I don't want to be afraid to run and afraid to lose. I just want to run up and down and make some plays and see what happens.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
For whatever reason, this is the time of year when guys get banged up a little bit.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I hate it because there's too much dead time. They don't do anything. I mean if sleeping was a sport these guys would be first-team All-American. So what happens is when there's so much dead time you've got to try to get them to understand that you've got to fill that time wisely.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I'd like to be able to dial it up when we needed it. Unfortunately, sometimes you keep waiting and waiting and it never happens. My hope is that some time in the next 24 hours we play as close to our ability as we can. Right now, I think we need to play one of the best games that we've played. I don't know where we are in terms of that, but I'd like to see us come close to that (tonight).
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
My family's grown up here. I've done a million things here that I'm really proud of. (And) 99.9 percent of the time I've been treated better than I ever envisioned that I'd be treated. So I'm not looking to go anywhere. I'm not looking to run away from anything. I'm not looking to find greener pastures.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
Watching them play kind of brought back memories of when you spring an upset. I don't remember the last time we had a chance to spring an upset on somebody. It's a great feeling for them.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
The game was pretty indicative of what a lot of this season has been all about. Nothing has come easy.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
These guys have come a long way. If this game would have gone the other way, it would have been devastating.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I don't think we forced the ball and tried to make plays that are hard to make. We tried to keep it simple. You look at it, how many turnovers should you have when you play Albany? Seven is a good number. If it were 17, I'd be really disappointed. But those seven could easily be 17 or 20 next week against a better team. You hope it gets better every game where our guys see things.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I don't know if our guys were taken aback by the first 20 minutes, but the second 20 minutes were like night and day. And that's a little bit worrisome for me. You want to play every game the same. That first half left a lot to be desired.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
In these types of pressure environments, I got to tell you, I'm really, really happy for these two in particular. This is as much of a complete game as we've had in a long, long time.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I'm just really disappointed in the way we came out to play the game today. At home, that's not supposed to happen.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I know she wants to play, and as long as the game is being decided, she wants to be out there. She is a senior and I feel like I owe it to her. At the same time, I don't want to do anything to jeopardize what is coming down the road either.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I'm glad that they set it up the way they did to where it's the last game of the season. Ironically it ends up being for the Big East championship. If that's the way they had it planned, obviously it was pretty good planning.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
That second 20 minutes was obviously like night and day. And that's a little bit worrisome for me. You always want to treat every game the same, treat every half the same. But I guess we had played pretty well up to this point and that was kind of the first bad 20 minutes that we've played in a while.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
She'll make plays that are just really key without being in the box score. She's one of those guys at the end of the game, you look and you say, 'What did Will do?' Well, if you weren't at the game and you didn't watch it, you don't know what Will did. And that's Will. And that's always been Will from Day 1 that she's stepped on the floor at Connecticut. She drives you crazy with what she could do and then she amazes you with what she actually does.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
It's interesting when you know somebody when they're 17 and they come out of high school and spend some time with them on the college level. I remember the Duke game was one of the best games she ever had when I was there. Things like that just stick out in your mind.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
I told them before the (Providence) game started, every team that I've ever coached that was consistently good had seniors that were very, very consistent. And it's time now for this group to kind of separate themselves and say, 'Hey, it's time for me to have an impact every single game and not be in those peaks and valleys.' I think they've all kind of made that progression.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
It seems like we're in the late game an unusual amount of times compared to maybe some other schools. I guess that's a good thing that people want us to be in that game. Or maybe they're trying to keep women and children from being exposed to some of the stuff that we do on the court, and hoping everybody's asleep by the time we play. I do think it's difficult on the players.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
You don't go in thinking how many can we win by and that's not the point of the game. The point of the game is if we do what we're supposed to do, we're going to win. But as you look at the game, you try to find areas where you know down the road are going to help you. The fact that we didn't turn the ball over (is good). We, for long stretches, got the right shot at the right time. We executed some things pretty well.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
They stood around and wondered how we were going to win this game tonight. Then, something clicked. I don't know if we could have won this game four, five months ago.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
This game was indicative of our level of talent versus theirs. We started the game exactly the way I wanted to.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
This is the game that puts you in the Final Four. To come this close and not win and have to come back and wait 12 months and be lucky enough to do it again, it's unbearable.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
As long as we play defense like that and keep people in the 50s we'll be all right. Some nights you're going to shoot the ball poorly and it's going to be 60-something to 50-something. Some nights you're going to shoot 60-something percent and it's going to be 90-something to 50-something. But you've got to be able to play with the game on the line, which I think we showed (Saturday).
Quote by -Geno Auriemma
February is an important month at Connecticut. I like to think that when February comes you really put your game face on because what?s happened up to now it?s all going to go away if you don?t play well the next 60 days. The next 60 days for us, that?s the real season coming up right now.
Quote by -Geno Auriemma