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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: BRIDGEPORTMarch 26, 2017Geno AuriemmaKia NurseGabby WilliamsKatie Lou SamuelsonNapheesa CollierSaniya ChongBridgeport, Connecticut GENO AURIEMMA: It's cold. Other than that, you know, we're in a game that we want to be in, obviously. It's a game that everybody wants to be in. It's the last step, really, to where every kid wants to be. Every kid wants to be in the Final Four. It's what they talk about when they go to college, playing in the Final Four. So the day before the game and then all day tomorrow is probably the most stressful time. The actual game itself is fun to play in. I know the players are excited about it, and it's good that we're playing a team that we've not played and don't know that much about. So there's a little bit of a difference preparing for them than it would be, say, if it was Maryland or somebody else that we had played already during the year. So that should be fun the next couple days. We're looking forward to it. Q. For any of the players, what have you seen about Oregon that's impressed you on film or watching them yesterday at all? SANIYA CHONG: Well, looking at them, we know they have some pretty good guards, and they definitely can get into the lane. And when they're coming off ball screens, they're pretty good in kick-outs, so we're pretty aware of that, and we're going to stop that. NAPHEESA COLLIER: Like Saniya said, they have some really good guards and some tall posts, so we're going to try to keep them off the line and keep the ball away from the big guys. KIA NURSE: Yeah, they pretty much covered it, but obviously focusing on great team defense tomorrow and understanding that they have a lot of pieces that they can use, and for us it's not going to be an individual performance on defense as it usually is, it's going to be a team thing, focus and emphasis. KATIE LOU SAMUELSON: Yeah, like Kia said, focusing mainly on defense tomorrow. They have a couple bigs and really good guards that we need to stop. GABBY WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think everyone pretty much covered everything. We've got to stop dribble penetration, make sure we have good perimeter defense, and just make their big guys run. Q. Katie Lou, two-part question: Do you have your phone with you? Are you watching Karlie right now? And could you explain how your relationship with your sisters has helped you get to this point? KATIE LOU SAMUELSON: Well, I'm trying to get back as quickly as possible to watch Karlie play. It's definitely been a great experience being able to watch her succeed so much in this tournament, and she's motivated me so much throughout my life, and I'm really proud to be her sister. Q. Kia, Coach said that it was nice to play somebody new that you haven't played before. You guys have the same sort of feeling that you've played Maryland, played other teams that are still alive, but this is a team you haven't played ever? KIA NURSE: Yeah, absolutely. It's fun to be in a situation where it's kind of out of the usual. It's a team that they've had a great run so far. There's a reason that they're here, that they've been successful with their multidimensional pieces. And I think for us coming up today and tomorrow, being prepared as much as we can, understanding that we have to be great and better at things that we didn't do well in the last game and trying to fix those for this next one. Q. Kia, you played a pretty key role as a freshman in a National Championship run. Can you just address how impressed you are watch these Oregon freshmen, how composed they are, how they're handling the high-pressure stakes? KIA NURSE: I mean, your first NCAA Tournament is never an easy thing, and I think they're doing a great job handling, not only the stakes and the high pressure in every single game, but also the distractions and everything else that comes along with it. Obviously they've done a great job for their team. They've been a big piece of what they do, and it'll be a great defensive match-up tomorrow. Q. I'm curious just how much interest or how much you watched Sabrina play in high school. Sounded like you maybe saw a couple of games in northern California. GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah. She's one of those kids that was good for a long time. You know, she was on everybody's radar as a young player. It didn't just happen as a high school senior or junior. You know, there's a lot of things about her game that are just really fun to watch. I did get a chance to see her play a lot in high school, both during the summer and a couple times in California. And it's not really a surprise what she's doing because she has the kind of a game that is a little bit older than she is, which is not usual. You know, usually kids play right about their age. She plays a little bit older because her game is not necessarily based on how fast she is or her ability to -- it's not like -- it's a complete difference than Jordin Canada, let's say. She just has her own unique style, the way she plays, and it's fun to watch, and it's effective, and it's exactly what this team needs for them. Q. Yesterday you said you weren't really surprised about what Oregon is doing; what was it about Kelly Graves and that marriage with Oregon women's basketball that you thought would make them kind of a rising power? GENO AURIEMMA: Well, a couple things. I don't know every sport at Oregon. I'm not that familiar with every single one of their sports. But it seems to me that most of their sports are pretty good, and they're pretty good nationally. I remember seeing their baseball team play our baseball team in the NCAA Tournament, and I thought -- the only thing they need is the right person. It's not like somebody has got to go in there and reinvent something. It's already there. It's a great place, great facilities, and they have a national brand that they didn't used to have, say, 15 years ago, 20 years ago. They were maybe more of a West Coast team. Now they seem to be a national team. I used to tell my friends that you knew Oregon had arrived -- it had nothing to do with anything big. But their football program just captured a lot of people's imagination back in the day, you know, and that's kind of how it all made sense to the East Coast people, because of how quickly they became significant in football, which seems to be what everybody drives everything on these days. I remember reading in the paper, it was really funny, Terrelle Pryor, when he was coming out of high school was like the No. 1 football recruit in America. And we recruit a lot of kids from western Pennsylvania, and I grew up in Philadelphia. So when I read who his final schools were, it was exactly who you would think: Penn State, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, and Oregon. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. That's when you say, all right, it's a little bit different than it was 25 years ago. So all they needed was just the right person, and his success at Gonzaga, I mean, they didn't have to look far, and they got the right guy. They got the right coach. Like anything else, you know, when you've got the right person at the top and you get the support of the university, this is what happens, and it should happen more places. Q. We seem to talk about it every year, but attendance this year at the Regionals, except for this place, has been pretty pathetic. I think 3,000 people were down in Oklahoma City and then Lexington and 4,500 out west, and probably going to be a lot worse tomorrow night. Any thoughts on what they can potentially do to make these Regionals, get people to show up to them as opposed to this year where it just wasn't very good? GENO AURIEMMA: I don't know. That's a good question that seems to be popping up a lot more. I don't know what exactly the answer is to be honest with you. Women's basketball is kind of unique, you know? Like, I think the biggest mistake that women's basketball has made over the years is trying to be like men's basketball, and at some point they're going to realize they're not. And once they realize they're not, then women's basketball can start working on what's best for women's basketball. You know, the whole idea of, early on even, the huge arenas, the big places, the crazy starting times. It's like everything they did was, well, if the men can do it, we can do it. Well, no you can't, so stop pretending you can. It's like a reminder all the time. Women's basketball fans are not basketball fans, they're fans of their team for the most part, and then you've got some places where they're really women's basketball fans. And you know, until people start betting a lot of money on women's basketball, that's just the way it's going to be. So we have a unique situation that needs to be handled. I'm not saying I know what all the answers are, but there's certain places in America that there's a lot of really good women's basketball fans, and there's a lot of places that it's not. So to put Regionals in those places doesn't make any sense. However, I don't blame necessarily the NCAA and the committees because a lot of places don't want to host the Regionals. So you might end up having a situation like they have in all the other sports, where you're going to end up going and playing more home sites, unfortunately. But that's the reality. Q. As far as Katie Lou goes, where has she kind of grown the most since she got to UConn, and is there any particular challenge with a West Coast kid and anything you have to focus on when they make the trip out east? GENO AURIEMMA: How much time do you have? Q. As long as you have. I have a flight back at 8:00 tonight. GENO AURIEMMA: It still won't be enough time. Yeah, it presents a unique challenge when you get somebody that has to travel that far to go to school, number one, and that would be no matter what. Number two, I guess kids grow up differently out there. There's just a different mindset, a different attitude, a different mentality. And that's not like across the board 100 percent, because Diana Taurasi's personality was completely different than Lou's, and Lou is different than Kaleena Lewis, and Kaleena Lewis was different than Charde Houston or Wilnette Crockett. So we've had a bunch of kids from California, and they've all been a little bit different on their own, but there's this, hey, don't worry about it, everything will be fine. It doesn't fly real well in my world, hey, don't worry about it, everything will be fine. So one of the biggest challenges is that you have to try to convince them that everything is important, every little thing is important. And a lot of times with Lou, she wants to decide what's important, and I've said this before: The worst thing that can happen to a kid is when they make a lot of shots at an early age, and Lou did that, Diana did that, Kaleena did that. And when they get here, there's a lot of things that they don't necessarily think are important in the game of basketball, and it's a struggle in the beginning. And then once they realize it, then it just (snaps fingers). Like, I think from my experience, California basketball players -- and Lou especially, is a good example -- they're like Italian car drivers in Italy. Like red lights, stop signs, whatever; they're just a suggestion. You don't necessarily have to do it. So Lou, get your hands up on defense when a guy is a good three-point shooter like the Korver kid. It's not like she's going to do it, but it's a suggestion. She might do it, she might not. And it pisses me off, don't get me wrong, but that's life. Q. Historically your program doesn't lose to unranked teams. You don't have a history of upsets. How do you keep your team focused on the next game and keep them from not looking ahead? GENO AURIEMMA: By being pissy every day, and it's not healthy. You have to get the right kind of kids generally speaking. I find myself saying that a lot, generally speaking, because it's almost impossible anymore to categorize something as exactly this. But when you start with the right players that, one, want to be on a great team or they wouldn't come here; two, they want to be really good because they sense that if they come to Connecticut, they have a chance to be something really special if they work at it. So once they decide to make that commitment and they're willing to give up a little bit of their ego for it, then you can appeal to them about what it takes to get better and how much you have to improve every minute of every day, and how you have to prove every game that you're as good as you think you are. So going out and going through the motions and losing to somebody that has no business beating you, that makes you like everybody else, so why did you come here? I find myself saying that -- Chloe, how many times do I say that, right? She's new to our program. I must say that every day. If you want to be like everybody else, why did you come here? So we're trying to be different. We're trying to do things that are hard to do, that are not the norm. So if you're just going to go out and half-ass through something, then why did you come here? And then after a while, they get tired of hearing that and they don't want to hear it anymore. But I don't think it's anything other than we appeal to them, and we won't put up with it if they don't. And generally, we have enough good players that I can teach them a lesson and bench their butts. This year they got me, though. I can't do it, I've got to play them, whether they put their hand up on defense or not. I've got to play them. But that's changing in a couple months. Q. Both Oregon and Connecticut have strong Nike ties and you guys are going out to play there in Eugene next year, albeit not against the Ducks. Is there some kind of Nike family thing going where you guys are all part of the same -- GENO AURIEMMA: Well, we're acquaintances with Nike, yeah. Oregon is related to Nike. It's a big difference. They're part of the close-knit family. We're an acquaintance, although a strong one. We do like to think of it as family, when we all get together as coaches, all the Nike coaches, and that's where we kind of establish a certain bond, a certain familiarity with each other. You know, that's kind of -- even before Kelly got involved in USA Basketball, that was kind of my first really getting to know Kelly, at all those Nike trips. And you do get to interact with other coaches, and some you do get to be friends with, and you do get to follow their careers and all that. And Nike always has been very, very adamant about we are all part of a family thing, and that's how it's handled. That's how it's run. That's how it's gotten to be where it is. That's why they are who they are, because of the way they treat people and the way we treat each other. You know? I don't know, maybe there's an extra pair of sneakers in Kelly's room last night for beating an Under Armour school. There is a little bit of competition there, I know. Q. Geno, you've every year seemed to say that this game tomorrow night, somebody has to step up, some player usually carries you to the Final Four. Do you have any idea tomorrow night who may be the one to step up and be that player? GENO AURIEMMA: No. If you'd have asked me last year, it would be easy for the most part. I've got three guys to pick from, for the most par, and one you knew for the most part. But I don't know, this year it's been kind of different. I mean, it's like Napheesa has been pretty constant, Lou has been pretty constant, Kia has been amazing this tournament. And then Gabby is just -- some games she's the complete difference-maker, in spite of all the other players. And then yesterday it was Saniya. I really don't know. I wish I could tell you, yeah, these two guys are. But I'm watching Notre Dame play Stanford, and the kid from Notre Dame has 21 in the first half. You want somebody to step up and do that. You want somebody tomorrow to go, yeah, I got this. Whether it's on our team or their team, it's probably going to happen. But as to who it's going to be, I don't know. I don't know. Hopefully it's not just one. Hopefully it's a couple of them. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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