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NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: WOMEN'S FINAL FOURApril 2, 2019Geno AuriemmaTampa, Florida RICK NIXON: Good morning and welcome to today's women's Final Four head coach media teleconference. For the next 30 minutes, you'll have the opportunity to visit with the head coach of the UConn Huskies, Geno Auriemma. UConn is making a record 12th straight appearance in the Women's Final Four in 2019. It will be the 20th overall appearance for the Huskies, and they'll be seeking their record 12th national championship. At this point I'll ask Coach Auriemma to provide an opening statement, then we'll take questions. GENO AURIEMMA: Thank you. Obviously it's that time of the year when only the good teams are left. That's one of the unique things about our game. I think the guys are starting to find that out this year. You get to this point in the season, Sweet 16, Final 8, all the 1 and 2 seeds, all the best teams in the country are left standing. You're going to have to beat a bunch of really, really good teams if you want to win a national championship. There's very few surprises year in and year out. This certainly is no exception. I don't think anybody is surprised the remaining six or seven schools. To be in the Final Four, I don't think anybody is surprised at the four that are in. We had a great weekend up in Albany. We really had to play some great, great basketball against two really, really good teams. We found out a little bit about our team that weekend. Even though it's a quick turnaround, you got to get ready for an even better team Friday night. As tough as this weekend was, Friday's going to be even tougher. I think we're playing the best team in the country. If you look at their lineup, the amount of scorers that they have, experience that they have, just the quality of their players, I think it's a formidable task for us and I think for anybody to beat a team like that. I was really impressed with the way Notre Dame has played throughout the tournament, and last night was no exception. Our team, obviously we're playing really, really well right now, with a lot of confidence. We're going to need all that on Friday. RICK NIXON: We'll take questions for Coach Auriemma. Q. There's another send-off rally scheduled for noon. In the past few 12 of these, these trips have taken on a feeling of routine. It feels a little different this year. Can you discuss how and why it feels different to the team and the fan base? GENO AURIEMMA: It's odd in a lot of ways. It's odd because what would be viewed as a magical season at every single school in America except ours. This is a struggle, man. 35-2, I don't know how they managed to do this. I have no idea how they managed because it's so unlike them. I mean, two losses in one year... It's remarkable that they're in the Final Four with two losses. It's the most bizarre thing I've ever experienced. But it's commonplace here. I'm thrilled that there's this feeling of joy because these accomplishments are meant to be celebrated. I do think our fan base has become spoiled. I do think they've lost sense of reality. Hopefully this year they realize this is really hard. The fact that we're going to 12 straight Final Fours, that shouldn't mean that it's easy or we should expect to be there every single year by birthright. So I'm glad people are reacting the way they're reacting. It's about time. Q. You and Muffet are a similar age, were at Saint Joe's within a year of each other, you left as she came in. GENO AURIEMMA: Right. Q. Talk about your time in the Philadelphia area, how that contributed to the way you coach and your career. GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, sure. I think we're all products of where we grew up. Every one of us is shaped by our environment and the people we were in contact with growing up. I think, for sure, where I grew up, where Muffet grew up, where we coached, kind of places that we were fortunate enough to coach at, the people that we came in contact with, either that we worked with or just had an opportunity to associate with, had a great influence on me especially. You take on that personality and that kind of attitude. I imagine it's still there. I've been gone from Philadelphia for a long time, but I imagine it's part of the city, part of the basketball community. When I left Philadelphia, the problem is, I felt I knew everything about everything, people in Philadelphia had invented the game of basketball. I needed to go to a place like the University of Virginia to realize that, well, not really. There's a lot of great places to learn about basketball. There's a lot of great environments that can shape you. So I was fortunate to be able to do that. I think growing up where I grew up, how I grew up, the people that I got to associate with, no question has kind of made me in some ways the coach that I am today. Q. You played Notre Dame obviously earlier this year. How useful is the tape of that game? Specific to this team, I'm not sure there's a system or a coaching staff maybe that you know better than them. Is the game tape earlier this year effective or as it always has been for so many years, does it really come down to execution at the specific time in that specific game against such a good program? GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, I don't think that a game that you play in December is really going to tell you a whole lot about a game that you play in the Final Four. There was a few years ago when we played -- Stewie was here, we played Notre Dame, I think we lost to them three times in the same year, then beat them really good in the Final Four. That Final Four game had nothing in common with the previous three games. So, yeah, that was the case this weekend when we played Louisville. I think when you play somebody once, you do get a feel for who they are, what they are. But we already know that. We play them every year. We certainly have come to know them and respect them, admire how they play. There isn't anything that you're going to be able to come up with and go, I think I got an idea. I think we can show them something they've not seen before. I don't know that you can do that. I think that this time of the year you got to go in and outplay them. That's not easy for anybody to do. Q. This is the 30-year anniversary of your first NCAA tournament team with Kerry and Wendy and Debbie. I know it's a lifetime ago. Is there anything that sticks out in your mind about that team all these years later? GENO AURIEMMA: The only thing that's the same is that we were not the favorite going down to the Final Four, not when you had teams like Virginia, Stanford, Tennessee. We were not even close to being in the conversation. I think this year, we lost at Baylor, we lost at Louisville. I think there was the sense of Connecticut doesn't have it this year, it's not one of their better teams. I don't think anybody, when the NCAA tournament started, was saying, Connecticut is the team to beat. We were undersized. We were counting on a couple seniors and a couple young players. But in terms of where our program is, where the NCAA tournament is, all that, it does seem like a lifetime ago. Sometimes I can't believe that it's the same program. I reminded my players in the locker room after the Louisville game, I said, I haven't felt like this since the first Final Four in 1991. I think that was the last time I felt that feeling in the locker room. They all looked at me: 1991? I don't even know if their parents were born in 1991 (laughter). So, yeah, things are completely different. Q. You as somebody who loves sports, all sports, can appreciate the greatness of a rivalry. Can you put into context playing a team 50 times. Obviously you know each other so well, but there's so many rich storylines throughout that. Also, maybe comment specifically on this Notre Dame team. There's so much emphasis on how many points their offense has scored, but what makes this team particularly difficult to face? GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, the fact that we were in the same league for a bunch of years, and at times we would end up playing each other four times, you add them all up, that's a lot of games. Then you throw in the NCAA tournament games. There were a lot of memorable regular-season games, a lot of memorable NCAA games with a lot on the line. There were some incredibly memorable NCAA Final Four games, championship games where we're still I think the only teams that would play in the championship game when both teams were undefeated. So much, so much, so many great players on both sides, so many great stories. Even now when we're in different leagues, it seems like that hasn't changed, that that same intensity level, that same anticipation is still there. I always think when the season starts, Okay, no matter how far we go in the tournament, at some point, if we go far enough, we're going to have to play Notre Dame. It generally turns out that way. This team I think is one of the best teams they've ever had because they're really not missing anything. There's no place where you can really exploit because they've got great guard play, they've got players at every position that are capable of taking over a game at any time. You saw last night, Arike went to the bench with three fouls and Jackie Young just took over the game. People talk about Notre Dame, the first people they talk about is Arike, then they talk about Jessica Shepard. Then you have a kid like Jackie Young. You know you have a great team when maybe your best player is kind of the unsung hero of your team, and she proves it every big game. They're big, they're athletic enough, they're really tough, they're explosive. I mean, I don't know. Unless Notre Dame plays poorly, which you have to hope for. When we played them at their place, we played great and I'm not sure they played their best game. This is one of those instances, for us anyway, I remember being in the Final Four lots of times and saying, If we play our A game, we can't lose no matter what the other team does. This is one of the times where if we don't play our A game, we're going to get blown out. Even if we play our A game, we still could lose. That's how good they are. Q. There's been a lot of great Final Fours with great players. I think people are excited about this because of obviously you guys, 20-time Final Four appearances, then a team like Oregon making its first breakthrough with players like Sabrina Ionescu. We're seeing east to west, south with Baylor, an interesting group of Final Four participants and the individual players that are in it. GENO AURIEMMA: Notre Dame and UConn, people have come to notice one or both of us has a pretty good chance year in and year out, because that's the way it's played out, to be in the Final Four. Baylor is back. They haven't been there since 2012, something like that. Saw some graphic last night. Then Oregon for the first time. When Kelly Graves got the job at Oregon, I remember telling the people at Nike, I said, I think they're going to be in the Final Four in four years. I said, He's a really good coach, and Oregon is going to obviously do whatever they need to do, they're going to get great. It took them five years, I think. I'm not surprised that Baylor is back, obviously. I mean, they've already won two titles. I'm not surprised Oregon is there, given Kelly is a terrific coach, what they had to offer. But I think it speaks to the quality of play throughout the country, that there's a lot of schools, Oregon is a perfect example, you get the right person in there, you give them all the resources that they need. UCLA is another example, we played them the other night, of teams that 10 years ago, 15 years ago, no one gave them a second thought, now they're contenders. That's happening all over the country. The fact that a great program like Baylor has not been to a Final Four in a few years, that shows you how tough it is to get there. The game has never been more competitive, I think. When people ask me about going to a Final Four for 12 years, stop asking me because I don't have words to describe this. It's not normal. It's bizarre. I know how hard it is. These teams that go there every year prove how hard it is. Q. After the last game, Muffet and Arike apologized to their fans for what happened. I went back and watched the video last night. Arike hip checked Crystal from behind, then she was not called for that, then she was called for a foul when she grabbed her from behind around the neck or head. Did you think that Arike owed Crystal an apology, or it's part of this greatest rivalry in women's basketball? How do you keep your players poised through all this? GENO AURIEMMA: I think emotions run pretty high, especially in a game like that. I remember there were some unbelievably emotional, difficult times when we played Tennessee a couple times every year. I remember there was a tremendous amount of back and forth going at each other in our Rutgers series. We've been through this a lot. We've been through this a lot. The emotions of a Notre Dame-Connecticut game run really high. Arike is an emotional player. Had some of those. I wish I had more of them. Things happen during the course of the game. I don't think you can get caught up in what's going on that is going to affect how you're going to play, the way the game is meant to be played. I don't think anybody owes anybody an apology for anything. I'm going to do what I'm going to do. If you don't like it, that's your problem. The referees have an obligation to decide is that appropriate or not appropriate. I didn't expect an apology, nor do I need one, nor do I think one was necessary. Players are emotional. Coaches are emotional. Things get said. Things get done. You just move on. Q. Looking back, is this guy playing possum? When you were in Tampa a while back, you said this may be the first time in Tampa you're sitting in the stands and not on the bench. You meant it obviously. GENO AURIEMMA: You guys didn't believe me (laughter). Q. I believe you now. Having said that, how wide open do you think this Final Four is? 10 losses between the four teams. Oregon is seen as a Cinderella. They've lost four times. What kind of show is this going to be? GENO AURIEMMA: That's what I mean. I mean, there's this crazy perception out there that if you lose once or twice... In men's basketball, if you lose once or twice, that's not a bad month, you know. You lose twice in one month, that's not bad. You come out with five or six at the end of the season, that's okay. We've had a great year. Women's basketball, people are a little bit whacky. I think when you look at the teams that are in the Final Four, there's just a lot of contrast. It's an exciting Final Four because you've got different aspects to all four teams. All four teams have certain strengths, they all have certain weaknesses, although some have more strengths and some have more weaknesses, some have less of both. I just think it's exciting because all four teams are used to winning. All four teams have kind of thought of themselves as Final Four teams all year long. All four teams have been in a little bit of a struggle to get there. I think it's going to be great for the fans. I'll tell you what, it's got a ways to go to top last year's Final Four. Who knows? Maybe even the people on TV will start talking about us. Q. You milking this underdog thing? GENO AURIEMMA: Underdog? We were the No. 2 seed in Albany. My friend Jeff Walz kept saying, Louisville is the underdog, Connecticut is great, blah, blah, blah. If three of my players don't come out for the opening tip, they're like, Connecticut is going to only win by three, they're playing with two guys. There's no such thing as us being the underdog in some people's eyes. Q. In light of a lot of what's gone on in college basketball over the past few years, a lot of conversation about coaches being over the line and players complaining, there being legitimate issues, as well. How do you as a coach handle and figure out where that line is between motivation and going too far? More to the point, what do we need to have within the industry to be able to get that understanding? A lot of times I feel like players don't know where that line is, but coaches too. Almost like you're driving on the road without knowing what the speed limit is. What do you think should be done to give everyone guidance? GENO AURIEMMA: I think everybody's different. Everybody has to coach to their personality. Some people are very demonstrative, way out there. I've seen coaches, male and female, completely lose it on the sideline, on their players, on the officials, on everybody. Some people are very reserved. Some people act like they're very reserved and play the holier than thou, then behind closed doors, when nobody's looking, they're a whole different human being. Everybody's got to coach to their personality. Some people are better at hiding it than others. Some coaches clap all the time. Some coaches are miserable all the time. Some are somewhere in between. It's harder today than it's ever been to motivate players. I think what a lot of coaches have done is, Okay, fine. If you don't want to get in your stance and play defense, you don't have to. You don't want to run back on defense, you don't have to. You don't want to pass the ball to your teammates, you don't have to. I think coaches have given in. I'm a man-to-man coach. Well, nobody wants to listen to me, we'll just play zone for the whole year. I think coaches have become afraid. Coaches are afraid of their players. The majority of coaches in America are afraid of their players. The NCAA and the athletic directors and society has made them afraid of their players. Every article you read, this guy is a bully, this woman is a bully, this guy went over the line, this woman was inappropriate. Everything you read. Yet the players get off Scot free and everything. They can do whatever they want. They don't like something you say to them, they transfer. The NCAA goes, Oh, somebody got mad at you because you didn't box out, that's dramatic, you can go to another school. Coaches have to coach with one hand behind their back. Why? Because some people have abused the role of a coach. Q. There's this dichotomy, there are coaches who are motivating, there are coaches who have abused that power. Do you think something like a panel of coaches coming together, trying to set some standards, guidelines, would allow there to be a way to measure this, a measure of protection for coaches and players at the same time? GENO AURIEMMA: I don't know. I don't know that there is. I don't know that there is. I don't think you're ever going to be able to legislate someone's emotions, someone's passion. Who is the judge and jury of that's passion, that's over the line? One person's over the line might be another person's passion. People gave Tom Izzo a lot of grief for something he did on the sideline. His players loved that. He doesn't have to care what you think of it. He just has to care what his players think of it. If his players all transferred, if his players all quit on him, then he went over the line. If his players play really hard for him, they keep winning, they love him, they keep coming back to the program, then that's passion. Maybe people need to look at, like, what do the people that are involved, how do they react. You're raising your kids. Are we going to have a judge and jury that says this is how you raise your kid. You're being passionate with the kids, you're over the line with the kids. Why don't you let the kids that are adults, young adults, 18, 19, 20 years old, why don't you let them decide. If you don't like it, leave, transfer. Who are we to stand on the sideline and watch people do their job and go, That's inappropriate. There are things that are inappropriate. We all know what they are. Everybody knows what they are. That's up to us and up to the athletic director, to the president. That's up to the people that are directly involved to make that decision. It's not for us to stand three thousand miles away and go, That's inappropriate. Who wants to come into your house and tell you how to raise your children, what you can say, what you can do, what it means? I mean, enough already. Let people fend for themselves. I mean, I get we have to keep an eye on things. We don't want people to abuse the system. I get that. I'm all in favor of that. I just find it a little bit disconcerting that more and more coaches are being told, This is inappropriate, you're not acting the right way. What is the right way and who is going to decide what the right way is? I don't know what the answer to that is. Q. If you don't know, I certainly don't know. GENO AURIEMMA: Hey, I'm probably the biggest culprit in the country, so who the hell am I to talk? RICK NIXON: Again, Geno, thank you for your time today. We look forward to seeing you in Tampa. GENO AURIEMMA: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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