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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: ALBANYMarch 24, 2018Geno AuriemmaGabby WilliamsNapheesa CollierAlbany, New York UConn - 72, Duke - 59 GENO AURIEMMA: I was telling the team before and after the game that with each game that you play in the tournament, it gets progressively more difficult to do what you normally do. You have to be able to figure out how to win a game whichever way the game is being played. Today wasn't one of those games where you just run up and down and shoot 25 threes and everything goes great. You have to grind it out against a good team. That's part of what this tournament is all about. So I'm proud of these guys because we had to do a lot of things today to win the game, and our defense was fabulous, and then these two guys here were really, really good at both ends of the floor. Q. Both of you guys, Coach talked about your defense, just the effort you guys put forth on that end of the court to shut down their guards and what pride you take in playing a really defensive game. GABBY WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think at the beginning we were a little lazy with our press and kind of giving too many lay-ups and open threes. I think once we slowed down, started forcing some tougher shots, making sure it was harder for Brown and Greenwell to catch the ball, and just kind of got into our rhythm. NAPHEESA COLLIER: I think there was a lot of times during the games where we were really, really good at our defense, and then there was a couple times where we slipped a little bit, but I think overall, we did a great job, especially keeping Brown and Greenwell, guarding them with one and a half people, really staying on them. I think we really did a good job of that. Q. Can you address at the end of the first half there, kind of staying close and scrapping and a couple threes and then you hit that jumper at the end of the half and showed a lot of emotion after making that shot? GABBY WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think the beginning of the game we got off to a quick start, and then it was almost like we didn't expect them to start back like in the Sweet 16. I think we were just trying to win the game a little too quickly and all at once, so at the end of the second quarter, I think we just started taking it one possession at a time and started building our momentum, so that was kind of a good way to go into halftime. Q. Gabby, there were situations where they were making little mini-runs at you, closed the gap a little bit. Is it up to you and Kia to keep things calm on the court? GABBY WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think so. You know, just kind of regaining control of the tempo, make sure that they're playing at our pace and we're not playing at theirs because when they start to go on those runs it can be really easy for us to get caught up in it, then that's when things get out of control and they start gaining more momentum. It's kind of us to regain it. Q. In her presser five minutes ago, Coach McCallie compared Gabby to Maya Moore. What does that kind of comparison mean to you? GABBY WILLIAMS: Maya Moore without the outside shot. So just throw that in there. Make sure you know. I mean, it's a huge honor to even be in the same sentence as her. I think it's -- I don't know, I would never call myself Maya Moore, but that is a huge compliment. Q. What is you guys' mindset going into this game against South Carolina? GABBY WILLIAMS: I mean, the last time we played them, we kind of got out to a really early run. I don't think any of us are expecting it to be that easy. We know they're going to put up a fight. They don't -- A'ja doesn't want her career to be over, college career to be over on Monday. We know they're going to put up a fight, and it's going to be a battle. NAPHEESA COLLIER: Yeah, like Gabby said, it's the time of the year where everyone is fighting for their season, so it's going to be a good game regardless. So we know that they're going to come out with their A game and we're going to come out with ours, and like she said, we're just going to play as hard as we can and see what happens. Q. Gabby, having seen Lexie today and I know you've seen Jordin Canada a few times, hoping you could give me a sense of what the differences are, the challenges you're facing both offensively and defensively? GABBY WILLIAMS: I think Brown is a little more physical. She's a lot stronger and can get her way to the basket in a more physical way, and I think Jordin is just so quick, and is probably one of the best finishing guards, I think, in the country. They both have great outside jump shots. I mean, especially watching what Canada did last night against Texas was really impressive. So I mean, they're similar but very different builds, very different games. Q. You've been in this situation numerous times. You control the X's and O's. How do you control the emotion of your team going forward, being that a lot of these top-ranked teams have been knocked off in the NCAA? GENO AURIEMMA: Well, I mean, that's one of the -- I think that's one of the few things that the players can control is the emotional state that they're in. I think sometimes players get a little -- you want players to be emotional. This is an emotional game, and obviously you need that to be successful. But I think sometimes players get overly worked up for a game, and then they play a little too quickly, a little too fast, try to get too much done in a short period of time. The only thing you can control is your approach. Today we didn't make a lot of shots that we normally make, so you can't control whether the ball goes in or not once you shoot it. But you can control the approach that you take on in. And when you're dealing with kids at this age, it's not the easiest thing in the world. So you've got to practice it all year long. It's not something that you get to the tournament and you go, hey, we need to be in control of our emotions. You've got to work on that from day one. Q. Could you talk a little bit specifics about what you wanted to accomplish against Lexie Brown today as far as limiting a certain number of shots or where she was taking from -- I know you were switching like crazy. Just kind of elaborate what your goals were with her today. GENO AURIEMMA: We get asked a lot about -- coaches do, anyway, about what's the match-up going to be, who's going to guard so and so, as if one person is going to have to guard that kid that entire game. I don't know any really good player that can be guarded by one player. I mean, that's what makes them really good. You need a lot of help. So we try to -- whether it's Lexie Brown or whether it's Asia Durr or any other great guard that we've played against, it's your team that has to do a good job defensively, so everybody has got to be aware where she's going and just be on the same page. You know, when are we switching, which way are we forcing her off ball screens. And it becomes a team thing rather than just give her to, say, Kia, you guard her. I mean, that's a little much to ask. She's really good with the ball, and she's really, really -- like Gabby said, she's a tough kid. When you've got to make kids work really, really hard, it starts to wear down after a while, and I thought she had to work really hard for the shots she did get. I thought our team just did a great job defensively on her. Q. Considering how close they played with you guys in the first quarter, what type of adjustments did you have to make after that? GENO AURIEMMA: I mean, there aren't really a lot of adjustments that you make based on the score, you know. If we hold somebody to 14 points in a quarter, we think we did a pretty good job. Then we try to figure out, all right, what are we not doing on the offensive end that's causing us some problems. And tonight it happened to be when do we make that wide-open shot that we got, off the first pass, second pass or third pass. And when you're our guys, they get very anxious. So if you're not careful, you come down, and it's one pass and a shot. Well, that's great when they're going in. But sometimes you have to -- you have to wait a little bit and move the defense a little bit, so if the shot doesn't go in, you have a chance to offensive rebound. And I thought we settled down a little bit in the second quarter, and I think that was the big difference. Q. Geno, a lot was said about the Duke guards and their experience. They're both fifth-year seniors. Can you address Gabby and Kia got an awful lot done today, their experience and how that helped you today? GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah. We're fortunate that our two seniors are two of the better defensive players in the country, you know. So when we have really good match-ups for them and we have a pretty good understanding of what we want to do -- you know, we know we can count on those two every game. Gabby is going to play great every game. I say that, and we have a game Monday night. But she plays at a certain level every big game, and Kia is just one of the toughest competitors that we've ever had at Connecticut. I mean, knew going into the game that Duke wasn't going to be able to score a lot of points on us. I mean, they averaged 60, I think, something like that, during the tournament. We knew that we could do a good job defensively. We were just worried about will we make enough shots. We made just enough, I guess. Q. Sort of piggy-backing on that question a little bit, it's rare that you've had seniors that are that good defensively and maybe not as good on the offensive end. Talk about the two of them, just what they've brought to this program for the last four years, they may not be the flashy players but doing things you need to be successful. GENO AURIEMMA: Well, certainly there's nothing flashy about Kia. She's just a hard-working basketball player, and she takes great pride in her conditioning and the way she competes, and has been able to play on a lot of great teams while she's been at Connecticut, and hasn't really had to be that offensive player that a lot of our seniors end up being. And Gabby is -- you know, she's offensively -- I don't know what the word is. She makes the easy plays, and she makes the really difficult plays, and I don't know that there's anybody that has been able to do what she's done at both ends of the floor: Make really difficult plays defensively look easy, and then on the offensive end, just pass the ball to a guy that cuts for a lay-up. I mean, that's easy, but some people make that look hard. She's unique in a lot of ways. Q. I know you've talked about Lexie before, but after seeing her play and her getting seven steals against you guys, how do you see her as a pro prospect and playing at the next level? GENO AURIEMMA: Well, I know everybody has been talking about her as being one of the best guards in the country. I thought she was when she was a freshman and a sophomore at Maryland. You know, I thought she was one of the better players in America. And I'm sure the next level that she goes to she'll be able to handle herself great. She'll have a little more help on the floor, you know, so there will be more good players that can score, so that'll take some of the pressure off of her to have to do everything in some ways. But all the things that guards do, I mean, she's good defensively, she gets into the lane, and she's got great range on her threes. I would -- at that next level that she's going to, there really is a tremendous need for really, really, really good point guards, and I think she'll add to that for sure. Q. Given that your margins of victory have been in the media lately, let's say that, somebody is going to look at this score and go, oh, my God, they only won by 13, what happened? How would you respond to that? GENO AURIEMMA: That it's not as easy as we make it looks sometimes. This is not easy stuff. This idea that, well, they have all the best players, of course they should win every game by 40. I don't know, but that young lady from Duke will probably verify this, but every single kid in Duke's starting lineup was probably first-team All-American. So when you're playing against pretty good players, you shouldn't be able to win by the numbers that we win by sometimes, and certainly not in the NCAA Tournament. That makes no sense. Not at this stage of the tournament anyway. But after the Quinnipiac game, somebody said, you know, it was just one of those games, we had to grind it out. I don't know if people talk about 25-point games as a grind it out, but that's kind of where we are. That's the world we've created, and we're just doing our part to make women's basketball a little more competitive. You know? There's probably a couple dopes out there that were waiting for a 60-point win so they could weigh in, right, so we're just keeping them at bay for a little bit longer. Q. Leaonna Odom for Duke scored 22. What did you see out of her play today? GENO AURIEMMA: Well, I thought she did a terrific job of getting in the lane and causing us a lot of problems. You know, we were spending so much time getting out on Rebecca Greenwell and Lexie Brown that there were a lot of places to dribble the ball to, and she took advantage of that. You're not going to beat a really good team like Duke and think that you're going to take everything away from them. You're going to have to give up something. You've just got to choose, okay, this is what we're willing to live with, and she took advantage of it. She's really good around the basket. She's really athletic. I'm sure she starts making jump shots, she'll be really, really a handful for everybody. But I think she's -- she's only a sophomore, right? Yeah, she's got a great future. And you know, it's nice to know that there's a defensive player or a great athlete coming out of Mater Dei instead of just guys who shoot the ball, so I was happy to see that. I was starting to lose my faith in Catholic schools. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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