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NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOURApril 5, 2015Geno AuriemmaBreanna StewartMorgan TuckTAMPA, FLORIDA UConn - 81 THE MODERATOR: On the dais from Connecticut is head coach Geno Auriemma and student‑athletes Morgan Tuck and Breanna Stewart. We'll open with a statement from Coach Auriemma and then questions for the student‑athletes. COACH AURIEMMA: I mean, obviously we played really well for long stretches at a time, and we went into the game knowing that Maryland was going to be a difficult matchup for our guards; that their guards were going to be a big part of what they were trying to do. And I felt for the most part we handled it pretty well. We've got the kind of team when we go on runs and things start breaking our way, we take advantage of those situations, and we did so again tonight. And we felt going into the game we had a little bit of an advantage with these two, with Morgan and Stewy, and we tried to really take advantage of that. And obviously they were great. I can't say enough about them. Tuck, anyway, she played both ends of the floor. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Morgan, nice game tonight. On a night where they did a pretty good job bottling up Kaleena, can you talk about how well you played, 24 and 9, 10 for 16 from the floor. Out there taking over. MORGAN TUCK: I think it was a credit to my teammates. They gave me the ball where I'm best at. That's around the basket or driving to the basket. So I think I played well because my teammates played well as well. Q. Morgan, you weren't able to play here last year because of the injury, obviously. What did it mean to you tonight to play in this setting and to do so well? MORGAN TUCK: It means a lot, just to be out there and actually contributing and making an impact. That's why I came here. And to be really doing it, it's a great feeling. Q. This is also for Morgan. You made two 3s early in the first half and you basically were about 26, 28percent on the season. Do you think that contributed to opening up some lanes for you going to the basket? MORGAN TUCK: Yeah, I think so. I know I have to hit some outside shots unless they guard me and they can't double Stewy and Kaleena. So when I'm open, just try to knock it down to make it easier on them. Q. Breanna, the game against Notre Dame was a long time ago in December. What do you remember about that game? What stood out for you most about that win, the December win? BREANNA STEWART: I think what I most remember is got to a point where we were down 10 in the game. And it still felt like we were in control and we were able to come back and Morgan played great in that game. So did Kiah Stokes. She had a lot of rebounds. I'm not sure how many. But we really were the aggressors, and we came in there and we wanted that game more. Q. What's it mean for you guys to have gone through this road to get to this point and now be one win away from winning another National Championship? BREANNA STEWART: It means a lot.  This is exactly where we want to be right now. We want to be playing Tuesday night. That's the last game of the season, and we gotta make sure that there's still work to do. We have practice tomorrow. We've got to focus on those, because we don't want to just play in the National Championship game, we want to win the game. Q. Breanna, talk about Morgan tonight and how much it means seeing her excel after what happened last year. BREANNA STEWART: To see how Morgan played tonight, it's just a great feeling, especially as you said she sat out all last season because of her injuries and that kind of thing. And she kind of slid under the radar, even though we all knew what she could do. And she just really came out tonight to show everyone that she's one of the best players in the country. And I'm glad she's on our team. Q. Morgan, how important was it for you guys to come out in the first couple minutes in the second half and hit them with that quick run to extend your lead? MORGAN TUCK: I think it was pretty important just to get a run going. And I think it's always important to start the half coming out of the timeout with a basket. It helps get our momentum going. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. You've raved about Morgan all year long. You have three All‑Americans. I don't know how many you can get, but certainly give us one more example of why she should be the fourth All‑American. COACH AURIEMMA: I understand, obviously, there's a lot of really good players in the country, and I understand that you can only‑‑ you can only reward our team so much for what we did. And the three that they've picked to be All‑American, I thought deserved it. I thought all three of them had tremendous years. And I think because we have Stewy, Morgan gets overlooked a little bit. And we talked about it after the awards came out. And she was okay with it. She was okay with it. On our team, if people had an opportunity to come to watch our practices, they would think that there's a lot of practices during the course of the season where if you came in there you would think Tuck was the national Player of the Year. That's how good she is every day in practice. And not having played all of last year, obviously she wasn't in the conversation at the beginning of the season of who the top players in the country are. But a lot of kids have made First Team All‑American that wish they were playing Tuesday night. So it all works out. Q. You played Notre Dame, I mean, an inconceivable amount of times since 2009. How would you evaluate what it's like to play against them? Do you enjoy it? Does it become too much? What do you make of the fact you've played an opponent so much? COACH AURIEMMA: Well, they were in our league and clearly we were the two best teams in our league. And when you're in that situation, you're setting yourself up to play at least three times if you're the two best teams. And then because they're so good, they end up here all those years that we were here. And I think it's a credit and it says a lot about them and what they've been able to do. They're a lot like us. And I think that's why they have had success against us. That they have a lot of the same qualities that we have as a team and as a program. So we give them problems like other teams in the country don't and they give us problems like other teams in the country don't. I mean, Notre Dame beat us a bunch of times there after not beating us at all for a long period of time. Then they beat us a bunch of times. And everybody felt there was something wrong with us and sometimes at Connecticut when you lose it's what's wrong with you, not what's so good about the other guys. Then they went to another league and won every game there by 100. So everybody found out in that league, too, how good they really are. So Tuesday night is not going to be any fun, believe me. I'm glad we're playing in that game, but it's not going to be any fun. They're really hard to play against. Q. You went to Kiah Stokes, you went big against them. Talk about how you thought that may have changed a little bit of the way you guys were able to play against their front line? COACH AURIEMMA: Well, we were trying to figure out what gave us the best opportunity to guard them. And we knew we were going to have a problem man to man. So we made a decision to go zone, and that's Kiah. So when Kiah comes in, we can play a little bit of zone, we can change our man to man a little bit, make it look a little different than it looks otherwise. And she gives us a big presence in the middle. I mean, we're not very big. So having Kiah in there, you know, it just frees up Stewy and Tuck to move out in the perimeter more where I thought that their guys would have a hard time guarding because they were clogging up the lane pretty much. It's almost like they made two decisions, Maryland did, we're going to guard K pretty hard and keep everybody else in the lane and try to bottle all those guys up. So I said this all along, when Kiah is good, she's really, really good. And today she was really good. Q. In the years past, you've talked disparagingly about other coaches, you say UConn is so dominant because they get the best players, deprecating their own players. If it's not the players, one would think you're defaulting to coaches, but I've never heard you speak that way about any other coach in the country. So what exactly is it that enables you to consistently year after year beat the best teams in the country by substantial margins? COACH AURIEMMA: That is true that there is that perception out there that‑‑ believe me, it's not a wrong perception that we get really good players. And in a lot of cases we do get the best players. Stewy was the best player coming out of high school. So we do get‑‑ but we don't get all of them. We just get some. And then there's probably 10 or 12 other teams in the country that they get some. And then when you add them all up over four years, they have seven guys that were All‑American and so do we. And that's the beauty of women's basketball in one sense is that when you get to the Final Four, it's like on the men's side this year, the four best teams made it to the Final Four. That doesn't always happen. But in women's basketball that happens a lot, because people stay for four years and they work, they get better every year. And so we know what we have to do if we want to win a National Championship. We have to beat the best teams. So we practice in a way that we prepare to beat the best teams. And our kids really buy into that. They love the winning part. They love the way we do it. I don't think we have a secret formula. I don't think we have a magic potion. I just think that we do certain things that I know other coaches don't do. We do certain things that I know other programs don't do. And we reap the benefits of it. I don't think I work any harder than any other coach. I don't put in more hours than anybody else. I don't watch more film than anybody else. My staff, we're really good at what we do. But we're not so much better than everybody else that nobody can beat us. I'm not comfortable with me saying that. Q. 9‑0 in the title game. What do you attribute your success to in this game? COACH AURIEMMA: Trying not to listen to people talk about what the record is. Because if you play in enough of these games, you're going to lose at some point. We've played in a lot of these. I mean, we've played in nine of them. So that's a lot. And we won all nine of them. I hope we play in nine more while I'm at Connecticut and the thought we're going to go 18‑0 in these games, if that happens, ludicrous. Ludicrous. So we're going in on Tuesday. It's one game. One night for the season, really. So one game, one night, and the other nine aren't going to have any bearing on it. That's not going to mean anything, nothing. At least not for me. I'm nauseous already thinking about Tuesday's game. Q. You said in Albany you were impressed with what Muffet did this year. Just talk for a second, they probably weren't predicted to be back here with what they lost last year to graduation, just how impressive that they are back in the title game for a second straight year. COACH AURIEMMA: I think that's what I said: They're a lot like us. And we lost Stefanie and Bria, we lost two All‑Americans. And it was just assumed that well you're going to be back there. They lost two All‑Americans, and they're back. Because I think at Notre Dame and at Connecticut, we don't try to have great teams. Our goal, and I don't think their goal is any different, Notre Dame, they're not interested in having a great team. Their program now kind of sustains great teams year in and year out. They're not dependent as much as some other schools maybe on graduation, recruiting. There's always enough players already in those programs that when somebody graduates they just throw somebody in that spot. No matter how good that other person was, you just move somebody in that spot and because of the coaches that they created there, those people are able to thrive and survive and play great because that's what the expectation level is. Some other place you lose two All‑Americans to graduation, the guys coming in go, oh, we can never be that good. So they're not. But I think in places like hopefully Connecticut and Notre Dame the expectation is I don't care what you look like or where you were last year, when I put you in that spot, you're going to play like an All‑American. And that's a heck of a compliment for any program. And they're right now I think obviously I'm biased, I think we're the best, but you'd be hard pressed to find anybody better than that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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