UConn Basketball HC Geno Auriemma talks Florida State postgame
UConn Women’s Basketball Head Coach Geno Auriemma met with the media following the Huskies 99-67 victory over Florida State.
Full Press Conference Transcript
Back-to-back, really good defensive impacts from Kayleigh Heckel these past two games. Is it rare to see someone in transfer fit in so seamlessly so soon?
GENO AURIEMMA: “No, I mean, not really. I think if you’re doing something similar to what she’s used to, her whole high school career, the team that she played on, they were a pressure defense kind of thing, pick up.
So it kind of fits in with what she likes and what her – that’s her skills. That’s her skill set. So it’s not like we’re introducing anything new to her.
But she’s going to get better at it. And I think when we have her and KK out there together with Aziz, I think that gives us a really, really good defensive presence out there, especially in full court.”
So which championship was it that a reporter first started asking if these ceremonies ever start getting old, these banner ceremonies?
GENO AURIEMMA: “I don’t know. You know, I don’t know. I think the hard part is answering, you know, which one is – you know, why is this one different? Why are they all the same? Which one was the most important? Which one, you know, was the toughest one? You know, we have 18 – you know, we have 20-some Final Fours. And 12 of them turned out to be championships.
And they all – as I’ve gotten to this age, I’ve started to think more about they’re all incredibly significant to the people who won them, the people on their teams. That’s why on our banners now in our – in Worth, in our practice facility, we actually have the names of the entire roster on the banner so that, you know, you can remember that’s kind of who it means the most to.”
It’s probably the same question a different way, but what goes through your mind when you see the curtain drop and another banner is revealed? I mean, it’s not – there’s no suspense. You know what it’s going to look like and all of that. But still, there’s a certain finality to it, it’s there. What goes through your mind when that happens, that moment?
GENO AURIEMMA: “Again, I go – I got yelled at today because I wasn’t watching the video.
You know, there was a video on and I wasn’t watching it. And I keep thinking to myself, you know, I was there, I saw it, I experienced it. You know, I remember it. I think the banners when they are unveiled are, again, very symbolic obviously. They’re part of history now. They’re part of the legacy of UConn women’s basketball.
I think the fans really kind of gravitate towards wanting to be a part of that. The tradition, the ceremony. I was there the night they raised the banner. I have a lot of mixed emotions about the banners and the championships. It’s hard to – because it’s hard to put into words exactly, you know, what it means. Other than – and sometimes, you know, when I look up, it’s – and I’ve said this before, Don, maybe, you know, not so recently.
But to put into perspective, you know, what’s happened, if you asked me, CD, or anybody associated with this, if you said, hey, you know, if you could go on one of those time machines, you know, and you could go back, would you like to relive all these and try to do it again?
I would say no because it’s no way that this could ever happen the way it happened. So it’s such a unique thing that I was there. I was there for every one of them.
I saw it. I felt it. I was part of it. And even for me, it’s not that easy to see it, you know, and be reminded of it because it’s just a lot. It really, really is a lot, you know. Like the video while they’re introducing the starting lineups and then we’ve got to wait for the opening tip-off and one more thing and one more thing and one more, you know.
What was I talking about today? Some crazy stuff that they’ve heard all – and meanwhile, like tip-off time. It’s tip-off time. It’s time to go. So, yeah, it’s a lot. It’s a lot to make a long story longer. It’s a lot. It’s a lot. It’s a lot to deal with. Grateful, but it’s a lot.”
Coach, yesterday you talked about how some players would see less minutes and others get more. How do you feel the rotation was today?
GENO AURIEMMA: “I thought it was pretty good. I mean, I thought it was pretty good. We looked at it afterwards and, yeah, I thought it was not bad. You know, I certainly didn’t want Sarah and Aziz to play 38 minutes. So, that was a given.
So, we wanted to make sure we took care of that. And, you know, I certainly wanted Allie to play more minutes than she played against Louisville. So, we took care of that.
So, you’re not always going to get it right. But I thought we got it pretty close to what I wanted it to be tonight. You know, it was a stretch.
It looked like players were deciding which player was going to come up with the steal with this team. Is that something you’re emphasizing, that we have the depth now, we can jump the passing wave, you get a foul, we’re going to be okay? Yeah, we’re in a little bit of a dilemma in that we want to do that. We want to – I don’t think you see a lot of teams press anymore.
And one reason for that is how many open threes you give up because it’s just so hard to cover that much ground, you know. So, yeah, we had 15 steals. And that turned into 42 points off turnovers.
So, yeah, that’s awesome, you know. But we gave up 36 points on threes, you know. So, there’s a lot of good that comes with all that. There’s something that we got to address, you know, because you don’t want to be doing that, you know, on a regular basis. But as I said earlier, you know, KK, you know, Kayleigh Heckel, Aziz, Ali’s a little sneakier, you know. She’s able to do some things. And when we have a smaller lineup out there, like we had during that one stretch with Sarah as our only non-small guard, I love that lineup, you know. That’s kind of the lineup that makes us who we are, you know. And they helped because they went with a bunch of guards.
But that lineup gets a lot of turnovers for us.”
Geno, really nice production from Sarah and AZ through two games. Has it been pretty much what you expected from them, these two games? And did you anticipate that life for them on the court without Paige out there with them would be, you know, drastically different or a little bit of a challenge early on as they get used to a new setup, so to speak?
GENO AURIEMMA: “Yeah, obviously it’s different, you know. Quite different not having a player like Paige out there. So they’ve got to do more together and they’ve got to do more on their own. And as we go along, the other players on the team will get better at finding them.
And they’ll get better at finding each other and they’ll get better at creating their own stuff. I thought in the first half, I thought AZ passed up a couple of those pull-ups that she and Paige are like automatic at those things. They’re two of the best I’ve ever coached.
So we’re getting similar shots to what we used to get. I like to see us obviously get, you know, more than 19 threes. But again, taking away Paige, that takes away a lot of those opportunities and we’re going to have to find them as the season goes on.”
What do you feel like has been the challenge for Sarah Williams through these first two games? What do you kind of hope to see from her going forward?
GENO AURIEMMA: “The challenge initially I believe is the pace of the game, you know. The physicality and the quickness that she has to deal with both with her teammates and how we play, you know, our style of play. So she gets caught sometimes between being rushed, like you saw a couple times today, and then being a step slow.
So there was a stretch there where she found kind of a little bit of a rhythm. I think it takes, you know, the question earlier was how Heckel fit in real easy. It’s really, really much more difficult for bigger guys, you know.
So I think just the change, the change in just about everything is going to take a little bit of time. But I like the direction that we’re going with her. I need to help her a little bit more.
Going back to Sarah and AZ, kind of felt like they took over the game at the end of that first half. Is that something that you told them in the huddle? Like, hey, go do your thing? Or is that just them being them?
GENO AURIEMMA: “Yeah, I would say that whenever we’re drawing up a play in the huddle, one of the first two words out of my mouth is either AZ or Sarah. So they’re going to be involved one way or another in what we’re doing.
A lot of times it’s both, but we also think that those two not only can get the opportunities that they get, but they draw so much attention that I think we can get other stuff. But I hope that based on these first two games, that’s kind of the way that I want it to go for the rest of the season. They can score 21 and 23 points, and it’s a point a minute. I think that’s pretty good right now.”
Geno, back to the press real quick. You say that it’s not done a lot, kind of a lost art. Now, it seemed like a classic case today. I don’t know if you agree that your press turned your offense that was struggling maybe to hit a couple of open shots early got the pace going and got them some easy good looks. Would you agree and talk about it?
GENO AURIEMMA: “Yeah, yeah. As I said, pressure is something that you have to use, and you have to be careful how you use it so you don’t expose yourself to bad stuff down the other end. We have to find that balance. But when it’s working and when it’s done right, there’s a lot of turnovers that happen in the middle of the floor that turn into quick buckets or easy threes in transition.
Again, I don’t know that it’s something that you can be great at. It’s funny, with a lot of this stuff, you can’t just do it once or twice and expect to be good at it. And I don’t know that you can do it for 40 minutes against a good team and get away with it.
So it’s finding, you know, it’s like blitz. You got to find the right time to do it when it makes the most sense and hope that you’re successful more times than you’re not.”
How much did you recruit Kayleigh out of high school? You mentioned that what she did today was a lot of what she did in high school. And then what was different when she was in the portal?
GENO AURIEMMA: “I thought when she was in high school, she was what you see out there now, except a little more raw, a little more wilder, you know, just flying up and down the floor. And not a whole lot of thought about whether it was going to end up good or bad. You know, just a race car driver who just liked to drive fast.
And I’m sure if she was a race car driver, whoever she raced cars for would have to have a ton of cars in their garage because that’s how she used to play. And it would fluctuate. She’s really, really good.
You know, I really want her on the team. My gosh, she’s out of control. We’ll never get her under control. So it just kept going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I think watching her play, playing against her, I just thought the things that she’s really good at can help us. The other stuff I think we can work with, you know.
So, yeah, I don’t think she’s changed that much, but the changes she has made are for the better. She’s a way better offensive player than I thought she was. You know, she loves that pull up. She loves that.
First day in 960 days that Yana got to play a basketball game after her injury, what’s it like seeing her, say, committed to basketball, say, committed to her recoveries to continue after? Who’s that, Yana?
GENO AURIEMMA: “Yeah. Yeah. You know, every single day in practice, there isn’t anybody that works harder, that comes ready to go, you know, puts a lot of herself into it. It’s just she’s missed so much basketball. I mean, you think about it, she’s been here.
This is her fourth year here, you know, and she’s probably played the equivalent of half a season or one season. So, I admire her because of how hard she works and how much time she puts in, and she’s starting to find a little more of a role for herself, you know, giving her an opportunity in practice to do that. And, you know, who knows where this is going to go, you know.
The great thing about our big guys is, you know, I was trying to explain to them, this is why big guys are allowed to play basketball, okay. It’s not a given that they should be playing basketball, but they are allowed to play basketball under certain circumstances, okay. One, they have to be pretty good rebounders, okay.
Otherwise, what’s the point, okay. So, they have to be pretty good rebounders. Two, they got to be pretty good at protecting the basket, right. Otherwise, what’s the difference if you have a 5’8 guy in there or a 6’4 guy in there? So, you got to protect the basket. So, you got to rebound. You got to protect the basket.
And you got to offensive rebound at the other end. Give us second shots, third shots, fourth shots. And if you can do other stuff, that’s a bonus. That’s a bonus. So, our big guys are kind of, you know, like a mixed bag. They all have a little bit of this and a little bit of that, you know.
And so, every day, you know, we’re trying to find which one in their bag of tricks we need that day. And I’m not looking forward to that, to be honest with you. That’s excruciating, to use a Coach Hurley word. Excruciating. I love that word. Thanks.
Coach, can you talk a little bit about the uniforms? I mean, those are some pretty fancy uniforms with the gold and so forth on them.
GENO AURIEMMA: “Oh, warm-ups? I didn’t get a great look at them, but I know that Nike always comes up with some really cool stuff for us during big events, you know.
And so, they had all the glitz and glamour and all the storytelling, you know, 12 and, you know, the gold and whatever else they put writing on there. And now they have whatever happened to everybody wearing the same pair of shoes on the team, that’s going out the window. So, yeah, they look pretty cool, and the kids like them.
And I’m sure they look great on TV. That’s kind of what we do now, you know. We have to make sure that we’re, you know, media worthy.
You guys go to a football game yesterday? Pretty cool, huh? Yeah? Yeah, the only time I’ve ever seen it like that was the Michigan game. And it was mostly Michigan. And yesterday was Connecticut. That was pretty cool. That was really cool. Really cool.
Five assists, three rebounds, two steals for AZ on top of the scoring. I know that was a big thing.
We were talking about it on – the coaches there, we were talking about it on the bench that, you know, AZ’s known as like she’s a great shooter, you know, scorer. But little by little, you know, she’s starting to kind of get comfortable with some of the other stuff. She really is leaning into this defensive mentality, you know.
Wants to be, you know. And we were even talking at the beginning of the year, you know, last year we used to put Paige on the other team’s best player, right? You know. And so this year we were like, you know, who are we going to put on there? You know, KK sometimes or she might be too – And I said, look, AZ’s going to have to guard the other team’s best guard.
And that’s all there is to it. And she loves it. So, between the defensive part, the assist part, the steals part, the number of shots that she makes, you know.
She might have got a rebound. Did she? Holy Jesus. All right. So now I can’t bitch about that. So, yeah. How many threes did she make? She has as many rebounds as threes. That’s worthy of a new warm-up by Nike. All right, guys. Party’s over.
We’ll be right back.
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