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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: ALBANY

March 23, 2018

Geno Auriemma

Albany, New York

THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you could begin with an opening statement.

GENO AURIEMMA: Obviously there's not a lot of teams left in the tournament. We're like everybody else, we want to get started tomorrow, and everybody hopes to be playing again next weekend.

But there's a lot to do before now and then. I think we've got a really good mix of teams here. It's a really interesting mix. And it's good to be back in Albany, and I'm anxious to get going.

Q. This regional, you've been 25 straight years to the Sweet Sixteen. I know you watch the men's side a little bit, and there's chaos, so to speak. Does it make you appreciate it more that you're able to do this year in and year out, to get this far and further as opposed to -- seen the upsets that have maybe gone on other parts of the bracket or maybe the men's side?
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, yeah. I mean, I am surprised. After all, we have the best players. Every All-American that's ever played high school basketball has come to Connecticut, they don't go play anywhere else. So we're just fortunate there is no competition out there for us. Sometimes we just feel like we should just skip the first two rounds and go right to the regionals. It's so easy, right?

But it isn't until somebody reminds you and says how long you guys have done this and you just look back and -- yeah. It's even more of a reminder how important it is or how much it means, because each year you see teams stumble a little bit. You have to think at some point in 25 years you would stumble once or twice.

But it's been a remarkable run through a lot of different players and a lot of different scenarios and at a lot of different places. When I watched the rest of the tournament, Harris as well a couple years ago when we got to the Final Four and there were three teams that had never been there, I thought that that might be a culmination of this is what we've been talking about. This has been the growth of the game. To go from 1991, when we made the Final Four, we were the first team from north of the Mason-Dixon line to make the Final Four. To now you've got what's happening today. I just think that's remarkable. It's been a lot of fun to be a part of.

Q. Obviously with Azura, I was looking up, she had 16 in the game at Hartford when you guys beat Duke. You said after the Quinnipiac game -- I think Karl asked if you would speak to her about this, and you said yes. Have you had a chance to speak with her about the game and just try to get her to keep her emotions down?
GENO AURIEMMA: No, not in any kind of depth or anything. I think she's been gone there from there. This is her second year out. I would think it's natural that you would have some kind of emotional connection. But my message was simply I don't think they're going to feel bad if they beat us, and you're going to do whatever you need to do to help us win. There's plenty of time for all the other stuff, but not when the game starts.

Now watching her practice the last couple days I don't see any of that, but you never know.

I said, hey, they've been really good since you left, so maybe they're happy that you left. So I try to do whatever I can to get her going.

Q. Your impressions of Duke scorers Lexie Brown and Rebecca Greenwell?
GENO AURIEMMA: Probably the same impressions that everybody else has. Two really, really good kids. I've had a chance to be around Rebecca Greenwell a little more than Lexie Brown. But having played against her when she was in Maryland, you watch them play, and they're really, really good. They do a lot. They're the heart and soul of that team. They play well together, they complement each other great. They're able to sometimes single-handedly win games for them.

I think it's going to be a challenge for us to contain both of them, and we're going to have to just pick one of them. But they're both really, really good, and I'm looking forward to seeing them up close.

Q. Having two fifth-year seniors as your guards, how much does that play into what they're able to do?
GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, there's no substitute for experience. I mean, obviously talent, but the fact that they've played a lot of basketball, they've been in a lot of different circumstances. Yeah, you're not dealing with inexperience here. You're dealing with talented kids who understand what they have to do, and there's nothing easy about what's in store for our guards tomorrow.

Q. Napheesa has obviously raised the level of her play in the NCAA Tournament. Odom has doubled her scoring average from the regular season. Do you see similarities in what they've been asked to do for their teams and how they've been able to elevate the level of their play?
GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, I do. I've seen a big change in a Napheesa. They're really good players. They know when it's time. They know. They're able to summon up something that a lot of players can't. I think everybody on Duke's team knows that Lexie Brown and Rebecca Greenwell have to play great for them to win. Everybody on our team knows we need great performance from Napheesa if we want to do what we set out to do.

So the really, really good players, they know what time of the year it is, and they come ready.

Q. You've talked -- I think it was in January maybe after the victory at South Carolina, you said we keep meeting moments along the way, we'll be ready for the big moments. These are kind of the big moments now with the season funneling down. Where's your team mentally and emotionally with the urgency of the situation, the importance of these games?
GENO AURIEMMA: I think you always think that you're prepared. I mean, you always think you're ready. We certainly had a lot of games where we've had to do some things that tested us. We've also had a lot of games where we weren't, but I think the real test is always why you're doing it.

Coaching a team and playing in the NCAA Tournament is kind of like investing. They give you perspectives and you have to make sure you read the fine print at the bottom, you know. What's it say, past performance is no guarantee of future success, right?

So no matter what you did in November, December, January, you still have to be able to perform tomorrow. Whether you're ready to do that, you don't know. All you can do is go through your schedule, do what you have to do. So, so far we've answered every challenge, and I've got to believe that, win or lose tomorrow, there's no guarantees, obviously, but it won't be because we're not ready for it.

Q. The remarks that Joanne made a couple years ago when Azura came to UConn, is that something you'd bring up with her or not or just let it slide?
GENO AURIEMMA: I don't think the comments that she made were, in a way, in any form derogatory or anti-Connecticut or anti-Azura. I never took them that way. I think what she was saying was there was some validity to that. I think she was saying it's unusual for a team like Connecticut to have someone transfer in, and it's true.

So I just thought of it as that's just the changing world that we live in.

We've had kids move on to other schools from our place, and there's lots of kids that move on from other schools, and this one just happened to be a really, really good player that wanted to make a change. So I didn't take it in a bad way, no. Not at all.

Q. Geno, we haven't seen you since Jamelle got fired. I was just wondering if you could talk about your reaction to that?
GENO AURIEMMA: Obviously I was surprised. I mean, if you were going to fire her, you should have fired her two years ago when they were able. Don't wait until they build the program back up and finish fourth, the highest they've ever done and the best they've ever done, and then say, okay, we're going to bring in somebody new now that they have a pretty good team to coach.

I just thought it was bad timing. And there's a lot of deeper issues that are going on there, believe me, that go beyond someone getting let go.

Losing your job in this profession, that's expected, you know? If you're not any good and people want to get rid of you, that's fine. But the way it was done and when it was done, given the circumstances -- but then again, knowing what I know, I'm not surprised.

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