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NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOURMarch 30, 2017Geno AuriemmaKia NurseGabby WilliamsDallas, Texas THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UConn. We will take an opening statement from Coach Auriemma, then we will take questions for the student-athletes. COACH AURIEMMA: You know, it's a long journey really from October 15th, when we started, to this weekend. A lot happens in four or five months. You go through a lot. Players change and teams change. We're no different than anybody else in that respect. But what happened this year was really remarkable in that the unknown was what everyone talked about in October. Then throughout the whole season, it became really evident that, you know, this was a really, really good team, made up of really good players. They proved it every night. This is where they belong. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes, please. Q. For both players, who is the leader of this team and why? How has that dynamic transformed during the course of the season? GABBY WILLIAMS: I think that we've all kind of shared the leadership role. Kia and I, Saniya [Chong] stepped up, Lou [Katie Lou Samuelson] has stepped up. There hasn't been one person to kind of take over. I think for different aspects, you know, different people take over certain things. KIA NURSE: To kind of piggyback off of what Gabby said, obviously what we learned from the seniors that came before us is it's never a one-person thing to have to lead a team on their own. We decided that this year, different people who weren't in that role before had to step up and do that. Like she said, it's been a team effort the entire way. Q. Kia, what for you was the toughest moment of this season? How, as a group, did you overcome it? KIA NURSE: I think during the beginning of the season, our toughest moments were in practice, in understanding what we needed to do to be successful. Because, like Coach said, there was this unknown from a lot of people. With us, our unknown was: How do we step into these roles we haven't done before, do them successfully, help out the younger guys as much as possible. We had a transition to make. We did it as best as we could. It was a challenge. But I think we stepped up together. With the help of the coaches and everyone on the team, we did a good job. Q. For both players. Obviously the team has been here for 10 straight years to the Final Four. You don't have too much experience on the court in the Final Four. What have you learned to get you ready for tomorrow night's game? KIA NURSE: Well, obviously we're fortunate to have been here, you know, twice with the two of us, understanding how the older kids, like Stewy [Breanna Stewart], Morgan Tuck, Kaleena and Kia, had approached this tournament and what it took to be a success in it. We're fortunate our ringleader has been here a couple of times. Using the advice he gives us, things he helps us in practice, try to take that as a game plan emphasis. Q. For both student-athletes. What do you remember about last year's meeting with Mississippi State? How much has the ringleader and his assistants told you to block that out, that this is a totally different situation? GABBY WILLIAMS: Well, they've returned a lot of players. There's some familiar faces. We've been watching them all year. So we do remember some things about them. Like you said, they have evolved and changed, just like every other team that's here right now. So right now we're just going to face the team that's in front of us. Q. For both players. Can you give us a feeling of the legacy? You're playing for a team that's won 111 straight teams, won 11 national championships, and now you step up to a leadership role. What is that like? Is there pressure? Does it make you feel like you're part of this? Take me through the dynamic of what that's like. KIA NURSE: Well, I think no matter what, when you come into a program like this, there's going to be pressure. What you learn from the moment that you get here, from the coaches and from the vets who have been here before, is you learn how to deal with it, how to handle it, how to put it aside when it's not needed. When you come here and you have to step into a role of leadership, and it's difficult, it's a challenge, the best part about it is is the people that came before you to build this legacy, who had done it so flawlessly, they had the same challenges, had to get through the same things. You are not doing it alone. You have the help of your coaches, you have the help of your teammates. That makes it all the better. Q. With this week being so intense, what is the most fun part about this whole process? KIA NURSE: Obviously the Final Four itself is something to be celebrated. It's not easy to get here. It's a lot of fun to be part of. There's a lot of stuff going on around it. The funnest part about it is you get to do it with your teammates, with the people who have put their tail on the line every single day in games and practices to help get you here. To see the smile on the face of our senior last night, T [Tierney Lawlor], who got to go to a rodeo. To see how happy she was, that's probably the most fun part, to be with your teammates and experience this with them. GABBY WILLIAMS: It's just a blessing in itself to be here. It's definitely an opportunity we don't take for granted. Like Kia said, this is our last few days together, just this team. So we're just going to try to enjoy it. It's the last trip we'll have with Saniya and Tierney. We want to make sure they have a good experience, as well. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. We will continue with questions for head Coach Geno Auriemma. Q. Geno, excuse my language here, but I seem to remember at the beginning of year you said something to the effect of there are times when you wish these guys could be more assholes on the court or something to that effect. COACH AURIEMMA: I wouldn't say that (smiling). Q. Well, you probably would. But I wanted to get a sense of how you think their collective personality is as a group today, and is it different from what the collective personality was in October? COACH AURIEMMA: You know, in 1998/'99 season, we started the season as the No. 1 team. Well, no. We played three of the top-10 teams in the country in California in a row. We scored a hundred in every one of those games. We won every one of those games by, like, 30. We were No. 1 in the country. Everyone was talking about how they can't believe a team could play that well that early. We had five freshmen. I mean, they happened to be Hall of Famers, Sue and them. Then something happened. Sue got hurt. Things changed. As we got towards the regionals, I tried to make the team into something they weren't. Like I knew what they didn't have, and I tried to give it to them. It all backfired on me. We lost. We deserved to lose because I screwed it up leading up to that. I tried to force something that has to come naturally, you know. So I thought about that this year. Right around that time, early in the season, I said, I can't do this. I can't make them into something they're not. It's not going to work, you know. Things are going to have to play themselves out. We're either going to become that or we're not. Little by little, you know, they started to respond to whatever circumstances were in front of them. But they've never changed. They haven't become what I hoped they would become, like edgy and really pissy, just walk out there and grab you by the throat and choke you, like some teams that I've had. They just walk out: Yeah, we're probably going to win, so let's just play. I'm sure something bad will happen during the game, but it's okay, we'll fix it. Lou, put your hand up on defense. Well, you know, she's probably going to make a couple threes, but we'll win. Phees, are you going to guard anybody? Eventually I will, but it's not like I have to do it all the time. Coach, really? They just have this attitude like everything will be fine, don't worry about it. Yet they keep winning. You know how many times I go home and go, Man, I hope we get our butts kicked the next game so bad. But it just doesn't happen. I'm happy for them that it doesn't, but I'm pissed for me (smiling). Q. Taking that personality of the team, applying it to the Mississippi State game, a lot of talk about what happened last year. How do you get that out of their minds, that it's probably not going to be a 60-point game this year, erase that, all as a fresh start this year? COACH AURIEMMA: Right. Well just this morning, I watched that game again. I'm going to remind them at practice today. There's nobody on this team right now that had anything other than 'I was at that game' to do with that score. If you watch that game, Stewy [Breanna Stewart], looked like an NBA player playing against high school kids. Moriah was so much better than anybody on the floor. And Tuck just dominated long stretches of the game. So the score was like 30-4 at the end of the first quarter. I think Lou had one bucket. I don't think Kia had any. The other guys didn't even play. If they think they had anything to do with that win, they're going to be reminded today, No, they didn't. This is not the same Mississippi State team we played. The turnaround they've made offensively has been remarkable. They're still the same defensive team that they were. And we're not the same team by any stretch of the imagination. If those three seniors were here, I would have a tough time convincing them. But won't be tough with this team. Q. Geno, you said a little bit there the experience, even though you've been to 10 straight, those guys really haven't been on this stage. How do you get them to do the right things to keep this thing going for you guys? COACH AURIEMMA: You know, the only reason we get asked that is because we've been here so much. That only applies to me and C.D. [Chris Dailey] and Shea and Marisa to a certain degree, as well. And we're not playing. So the players that are going to be playing, Kia has played a lot in two Final Fours. Gabby, not much. Lou, a little bit. Saniya, not at all. Crystal Dangerfield, not at all. Pheesa, hardly at all. They don't own any of those 10 Final Fours. They don't own any of those 11 national championships. They only own part of the streak. I mean, the only thing that this team has to hold onto, I've said this before, is the 36 wins that they have right now this year. So going into this weekend, how are they going to handle this situation that they're in right now? I have no idea. But it's not going to be that much different than, How is Mississippi State going to handle their first Final Four? How are those kids going to handle being here for the very first time? We all have the same issues. This is not an easy environment to play in. Both teams I think are going to see the effects of that. Q. Where in Mississippi State's performance do you see there will be a keynote? Where have you taken some notes from where their development was from the first game to this one? COACH AURIEMMA: I think, from what I can see, and believe me, I haven't seen like 40 of their games, however many they've played, but there must have been a reason why Vic [Schaefer] benched four of his starters. Either it was because he thought they would be better coming off the bench, or he was upset about something. So when coaches make those kinds of decisions, that says a lot about the relationship that they have with their team and the kind of feel that he has for his team. And they responded. They responded amazingly well. I thought in the beginning of the season, offensively, they were good, but not this good like they are right now. And the big thing that everybody has to remember is, you know, I don't care how good your defense is, generally speaking, when you get to this point in the season, you're not going to win this thing with your defense. I mean, you have to play good defense, don't get me wrong. But if you can't score, and score when you have to, on demand, in this tournament, it's really, really hard to win. Really hard to win. They've done a great job in the tournament of scoring. That's why they're in the Final Four. Q. There have been some really good games in this tournament, especially Elite 8 games, overtime, the Stanford game. What does that mean for the women's game, to have a tournament like that? What can we do to have more people pay attention when a tournament is that good? COACH AURIEMMA: Well, that seems to have been the question for a long time. What are you going to do to generate more interest? Part of it has to be the competitiveness of the games, which that's what happened. It has to happen every year. The reason why the NCAA tournament on the men's side has been so compelling over the years is because of all the upsets that happen. The mid-majors are starting to get screwed, so maybe that's going to be less and less. You know, it's the upsets. It's the overtime games. That really attracts people. On the men's side, it happens all the time. It has to happen more often on the women's side. Not in our games, but it has to happen in every other game (laughter). I think that's kind of a starting point. Then there's a bigger question, this is not the right venue to talk about it, but there's some changes that the women's basketball tournament has to make, to make it better. I don't think they're willing to make that change yet. But eventually they're going to come to their senses and they will. Q. Coach, regarding player attitudes, there is a lot made of a comment you made last year about benching players because of their attitudes. Have you had issues like that this past year? Do you think they've kind of pulled themselves together and had a good attitude going into games? COACH AURIEMMA: Well, you know, we wouldn't be here if we had issues. Teams that have those kinds of issues generally don't get this far. Teams that live with those issues year after year don't get this far as many times as we have. We've been fortunate over the years not to be completely free of that stuff, but, for the most part, this year has been relatively easy in terms of getting everybody to be on the same page the entire season. Now, that's easy to do when you're only playing six players, or seven. When there's four players on the bench that think they should be playing, then you have some other issues. Right now we don't have that. Next year we'll have that, but right now we don't have that. That's every coach's challenge. That's why you see so many kids transferring now. They don't want to buy in. They want it, and they want it now. So far, we've been fortunate to avoid that. Q. Geno, not that you're a television programmer, but how do you feel about the change from Saturday/Tuesday to Friday/Sunday in relation to what that will or won't mean for the popularity of this year's tournament? COACH AURIEMMA: Well, I've said this in the past. TV and what's going on in the actual arena don't go together. So what's best for television is a 10:00 start on the East Coast, or a 9:30 start on the East Coast. It's not best for my players to sit around till 9:30 tomorrow night, but it's best for TV because they're paying the bills. So they get to show the game whenever they feel like it. So we're lucky, how does that affect attendance in the arena and what's more important? We say, Well, you know, at the regionals, there weren't a whole lot of people there. Well, you think anybody cares about that? No. They were on TV, weren't they? That's all that counts. So what are we trying to do? Fill the arena or make sure people are watching on television? People in Dallas have done an amazing job. The arena is sold out. Is it 'cause it's Friday/Sunday and people don't have to take five days off from work to wait till Tuesday night to play? I don't know. I don't know. Does ESPN like Friday/Sunday? No. Are they going to make sure it gets back to Sunday/Tuesday? Yes. Is that good for us? No. Is it good for them? Yes. In the end, who is going decide what's what? I'm not blaming anybody. I'm just saying that that's the world that we live in. 2002, we played in front of 30,000 people at the Alamodome. Now we're worried about sellouts? A lot has happened in that time. You know, we have to figure out how to work together, make it work for the actual student-athletes, 'cause we always use that term, you know: What's best for the student-athletes? Not playing at 10:00 at night, that's not best for the student-athletes. Q. The other folks that have gone with you to all of these Final Fours are your fans, the aura that has been built over your program over time, the expectation to win, knowing you're going to win. How much of that aura do you hope to, like, get your players to buy into? How much of it do you want them to resist? How do you handle that balance? COACH AURIEMMA: Resist, what do you mean? Q. How much of it do you want to be, This is our team, this is unique to us, and how much of it do you want them to buy into, This is UConn, this is the expectation of UConn women's basketball? COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, I don't know that you can always separate the two. We are what we are. No one's imposed this on us. No one makes us who we are. We've done this ourselves. The kids that choose to play at Connecticut are choosing us as much for what they hope to do when they get there as for what's already been done. They want to be a part of that. There's a lot of programs in the country, a lot of sports, even in the pros, that have that kind of reputation. People want to play there. Like Kia said, how to separate what's happened in the past from what's happening right now is important. We've had teams in the past where kids would come to Connecticut and they thought, Yeah, I get to Connecticut, I go through pre-season, I get my uniform, then I call my parents and tell them, This is what the parade is when we win the national championship. When they realize they're going to get their ass kicked every day in practice, they don't like it, they quit. Why did you just not come here and come to the parade? Things don't just happen by themselves. You have to make them happen. Not every kid understands that part of it. So, yeah, they want to be a part of it. They want to be part of the legacy. They want to create it. At the same time, you should see in recruiting. When we're recruiting, like, a great player out of high school, invariably they'll say, Why do you want to go to Connecticut? You're going to be compared to Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Stewy [Breanna Stewart]. I don't know. Go to someplace where you'll be compared to somebody no one has ever heard of. When you come here, there's some things you have to live up to. You can't escape it. You might as well embrace it, enjoy it, let it help you, rather than be, you know, something that detracts from you. Q. Geno, as the unquestioned leader of your sport in terms of everything you've won, the NCAA, the Olympics, basically since Title IX, the number of opportunities for women to coach women, that's been in decline. Do you think that's an issue that needs addressing or not? Have you ever sensed resentment among your peers because you won so much -- not because you won so much, but because you're a man who has won so much? COACH AURIEMMA: I think in the beginning, 30 years ago, 20 year ago, 25 years ago, yeah, there was a lot of that. There was a lot of that. By everybody? No. But by a lot of people. This feeling of, Well, why aren't you coaching men? Which is really the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But not anymore. I don't think anymore. I mean, there might be some old-timers that still think that way. But not anymore. I would like to think I've done too much for the game, for the growth of the game, for people to resent the fact that I'm a man. That doesn't exist anymore. I don't even give it a second thought. As far as opportunities for women. There's a reason why there's not as many opportunities for women. Not as many women want to coach. It's quite simple. When I started coaching, I was 21, 22 years old. Somebody asked me to coach women's basketball, ninth grade girls. I didn't start coaching there because I thought I'd be talking to you in Dallas. That's what I did because it was kind of cool, and I liked it. Then I coached college girls. Then I coached high school guys. Then I was an assistant at Virginia for four years. I didn't just drop out of the sky and land at Connecticut with 11 national championships. So anybody who resents that, that's their problem, not mine. I worked my ass off to get here. Back then, women had very few opportunities other than teaching maybe, some other jobs that certainly couldn't even imagine the opportunities that my players have today when they graduate. So what happened? Kids graduate from college. They're pretty sharp. The opportunities available to them, light-years different than they were when I first started 30 years ago. Then they look at the profession itself. They go, I really need to put up with that crap? I can get a job at Travelers, making X, live a normal life. You want me to sit in a gym with 400 other coaches and watch 17-year-old spoiled brats play and I have to take five of them to come play for me? Not everybody wants to do that. Why? They have options that they didn't have 25, 30 years ago. So it's not like people are consciously depriving women of opportunities. There's just too many other choices that, quite frankly, are better choices for a lot of women. And the ones that do choose to get in it, they're really passionate about it, they work their butt off. I've never had anything but women on my staff. I hope they all want to be head coaches. I hope they move on and become great head coaches. A lot of them at some point go, I don't like this business. I want to have, like, a normal life. What are you going to do? Make them stay in the business? It's a function of how much we've done to elevate women in our society - not nearly enough. But they have other choices, other than be a phys-ed teacher and a coach. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. COACH AURIEMMA: Thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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