UConn Basketball HC Geno Auriemma talks DePaul postgame
UConn Women’s Basketball Head Coach Geno Auriemma met with the media following the Huskies 102-35 victory over DePaul.
Full Press Conference Transcript
Hey coach, speaking with Sue Bird before the game, she just mentioned, you know, making the decision to come to Connecticut and, you know, choosing over other schools. She joked that it was so she could do her laundry at home, but obviously she came for other reasons. Can you just talk about how she, committing at the time, changed the trajectory of the program?
GENO AURIEMMA: “I think that particular recruiting was one of the more unique recruiting classes, not just in the level of talent, you know, it’s not every day that you recruit three Olympians, you know, in the same recruiting class.
But they all worked on each other and helped recruit each other. And Sue was definitely one of the ringleaders of that because one thing about Sue Bird is there isn’t anyone she doesn’t know and there isn’t anything she doesn’t know about anything. She stays current.
So when she was being recruited, she was all over it with Swin and Asia, Tamika, like that whole crew. And you know, you always think, yeah, we’re in a pretty good, we’re in pretty good shape recruiting this kid or that kid. And I know, you know, and I know what we were up against with Sue, you know, it was Vanderbilt, Stanford, you know, and her being a great student, you know, father, brother, I mean, father, sister, Ivy League.
So yeah, it’s always a concern, but at the same time, I just thought we had something to offer that no one else did. And I think we had a great relationship with her and as a coaching staff. But you don’t realize it at the time, because you can never predict.
But certainly that recruiting class, that decision, you know, for Sue to come to Connecticut eventually played out into us putting together the best basketball team of all time.”
Hey Geno, only certain athletes become identified with a number, you know, maybe to the, do you think of Sue now in number 10 the way you might think of some of those other athletes that are identified with a number?
GENO AURIEMMA: “I mean, the more time went by, yeah. The more you, you do, you do get, you do get the feeling that there’s something special there.
It was weird coaching her on the Olympic team where she’s number six, you know, because they do it differently. But, yeah, the first time I really identified, I shouldn’t say the first time, there have been other times when I kind of, I kind of knew, you know, with Sue, I had no idea that this is, you know, that her picking number 10 was going to become iconic, you know, one of those things. For me, one of the best ones was when the Keisha Sayles visited and she asked me, can I wear number 42? And that’s when I knew she was coming here because her real number was 24 at Bloomfield, but she knew that Carrie Baskin wore 24 and she didn’t want to wear a former All-Americans number.
So some people have tremendous respect for other people’s numbers, you know, and they don’t want to. And we haven’t had many number 10s here. No, actually, no.
I never said no to anybody asking for a number except when Dee wanted to be zero or double zero. That pissed me off and I said there’s no chance that’s going to happen. But everybody else, like, if you think you’re good enough to wear that number, go ahead and knock yourself out.
No, no, it’s. But what I did say, you know, out there was it really is unfair to so many players that we have whose numbers may never get retired, who were some of the best basketball players ever to play, not just here, but in college, that the criteria is you have to be in the Hall of Fame. That’s kind of mind boggling, right? Yeah, well, luckily now, the NCAA changed.
You can have any number you want. That’s double figures. I mean, you can’t have number 100 yet.
But thank God, you know, we’d be like the Yankees and Celtics. You know, we’d be running out of numbers after a while. You know, every kid that comes here knows Sue Bird, you know, WNBA, Olympics.
You think your kids were extra fired up? It seemed like they had an extra jump in the way they started the game today. They seemed a little extra fired up to just get out and start rolling. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
It’d be hard not to be affected somehow by having somebody like that in the building. Somebody that maybe they looked up to. They certainly heard so much about, you know, before the game yesterday, actually.
We talked a lot about, you know, what it means to be part of this. You know, how lucky, fortunate they are to be here. To be playing here, you know, on a day when this is happening.
I think they took it to heart. You know, it’s a special day for, you know, for UConn basketball. And if you’re a kid on our team and, you know, it’s crazy.
Even though Sue’s old enough to be Khaleesi’s mom, that’s beside the point. Gino, maybe they were affected today by Sue’s appearance, but it seemed like the first half was a scoring contest between Sarah and Azie. Can you talk about how they get what they want when they want so often? Yeah.
I sometimes marvel at how they get the shots they get. And a lot of it has to do with their talent, their understanding of our offense, how to get open, the fact that they’re not limited to one spot on the floor or another. But, yeah, I think Sarah played 16 minutes and 45 seconds.
And, you know, she had 20 points, five assists, four assists, five steals. And Azie, same thing, you know, just really, really efficient. And that means a lot more to me than anything else.
You know, any stat, none means more to me than how efficient they are in what they do.
You’re a little bit smaller than maybe the Big Ten or other Power Five conferences. How do you see that size difference just impacting players who are new to the league, like Sarah Williams?
GENO AURIEMMA: “I mean, I don’t know. I think in some ways, you know, the only impact, if there is any, would be you having to have to guard them. I don’t think the only impact they could have on them guarding you is a negative impact for them, that they got to be able to handle you inside the lane. So, yeah, Sarah Williams should get a lot more, you know, she should get a lot more production, whether it’s against all these other teams we played, Big Ten teams that we played, ACC teams that we played, you know.
She should be more productive and touch the ball more often and go rebound the ball more often. Yeah, I think that’s a decision that I think she needs to embrace. You know, I should be dominant.”
💬 Wondering what other UConn fans are saying?
Head to The Husky House forum and jump into the discussion →
