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NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: WOMEN'S FINAL FOURApril 4, 2019Geno AuriemmaKatie Lou SamuelsonNapheesa CollierTampa, Florida THE MODERATOR: We will take an opening statement from Coach Auriemma. GENO AURIEMMA: It seems like yesterday was November 14th or 15th, whatever it was, that we had our first game. I can't believe how fast the season goes anymore. You try to explain it to our players, it's just a whirlwind. Especially the last three weeks, how quickly it flies by. But for me mostly, you know, this weekend, this NCAA tournament, really has been about these two guys sitting next to me here in the sense that when you have two seniors who have accomplished everything that they've accomplished in their four years at Connecticut, every kid in America wants to be rewarded by going to the Final Four. Who doesn't? Every kid in America wants to win a national championship. Who doesn't want to win a national championship? You can't say that some kids deserve it more than others, because that's not fair. But when you write down all the questions and you say, Why do these two deserve to be here? You can't find a reason to say, Well, they don't. So for me it's all about the fact that regardless of how it goes this weekend, these two are ending their career exactly where it needs to end. I'm really, really, really thankful for that. I really am. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. For both of you, the three times you've been here before, you knew there was another year, another chance to get back to the Final Four. Coach just said some wonderful words about both of you. What does it mean to know no matter what happens this weekend it's your last chance to play in a Final Four and win a national championship? NAPHEESA COLLIER: It is really different. Even though, of course, every year you come here, you know you want to make the season worth it, you want to come here and want to win. Knowing that we don't have another chance, it's just another thing that adds to the fact that we need to be really focused and locked in, and we need to do everything we can in our power to reach the goal that we want. KATIE LOU SAMUELSON: It's kind of unbelievable in some ways because it feels like the UConn jersey is one we've been wearing forever. It seems like while you're playing here, it's never going to end. You always are going to play another game, have another practice. The fact that it is kind of the end of the road, we just want to go out and give everything we have because we know this could be one of the last few chances we get to wear the UConn jersey on our chest. Q. For both of you, can you reflect on the way the last two Final Fours ended for you guys, to what degree do you bring that back with you here? NAPHEESA COLLIER: It is really hard having your season end like that, especially two times in a row. It's kind of like the worst situation that you can have. Overtime, a last shot like that, it happened to us twice. It is really hard. It's something that our first year we were like, We need to use this, make ourselves better. Then we didn't really take that to heart. We said it this year. You could see I think even from the summer, everyone just came in really focused, with a different mentality than we had the year before. Our team dynamic even this year is so much better. So I think that especially being here now, about to play in that same game that we did those last two years, you know that in practice we have to be that much better and that much on top of things because we don't want that to happen again. KATIE LOU SAMUELSON: It makes us probably more than anyone understand that there's only one thing guaranteed at a time. For this Final Four, for this section of the tournament specifically, we know it's just as easy to have one game as it is to have two. We're not looking ahead of anything. All our focus is going into Friday night. Whatever happens, we need to take care of business and do and put everything on the line. We can't save anything for the next game. Q. Napheesa, you guys this year are coming to the NCAA tournament with a loss or two, something that didn't happen in the previous two years. You faced adversity being down in games. Will that potentially help you now? Does that help prepare you guys better that you've been in almost every situation this year? NAPHEESA COLLIER: It definitely does prepare us. As much as it sucks to lose games during the year, it does give you that experience. We've had more close games this year than we have in all my years combined. Again, that experience really does help you because you're not in that position for the first time on the biggest stage in the biggest game. We know if we get in those positions, we know what to do in order to bring ourselves out of whatever is going on, to stay calm, kind of just trust in ourselves and know we've been here before, there's no reason to, like, panic, I guess. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. We'll continue with questions for Coach Auriemma. Q. You're going to have two teams in one game where the players, neither of their players, have ever played in a Final Four game. Another game where obviously both teams have players with experience. Do you have any idea what differences are going to manifest themselves based on that? GENO AURIEMMA: I don't know. I think when you've played in this game, and this will be Napheesa [Collier] and Lou's [Katie Lou Samuelson] fourth time being in this game, it's good and bad. You know this is what happens at the end if you play great. You get to play in the national championship game on Sunday. But you also have a lot of bad memories, too. Sometimes those memories pop up in the last five minutes of a game. When you've never played in this game, you don't have any bad memories. You don't have any good ones either, but you don't have any bad ones. Everything is new, everything is fresh, you just play. Yeah, I would think the first game is two teams that are playing with a certain amount of emotion, I can't believe we've reached our dream, we're in the Final Four. Then you have two teams in the second game playing, No big deal, we're here to win a national championship. Not that the other two aren't, but I just think it's a different mindset. Q. You've been here 20 times, to this point. I think tomorrow will be your 31st game at the Final Four. That's a full season of basketball basically in this setting, which is rather remarkable. GENO AURIEMMA: Wow, wow. Q. I know each journey is unique for the people involved, but to you does it still feel unique? It's not a surprise to see UConn here. Does each one still feel like a unique experience to you, beyond the fact that the players and opponents are different? GENO AURIEMMA: I think so. I think so. I'm just as like this (nervous) today and tomorrow as I was the very first time. Maybe even more so, you know. The first time ever here, I thought, What's the big deal? Nobody's expecting us to win. We're going to play and we're going to beat Virginia. Why does everybody think this is going to be really hard? This isn't going to be hard. When you're young, you're trying to do something, you think nothing can stop you. I think as you get older, you start to realize, You know how many things could go wrong Friday night? You start getting more, you know -- like I said, it's like a golfer who has never missed a 5-foot putt and they keep winning. Until when? Until they do. The next time they have a 5-footer, they remember the one they missed. It's still there even more so than it ever was in the beginning. Yeah, it takes your breath away. So I guess I still have it. Q. Same thing I asked the players. Obviously losing is never a good thing, but for a team that has gotten to this point the last two years and lost in the Final Four game, does it help going through what you did this year to have been in tight games, in situations that they may not have seen in the past? If you get down tomorrow night, We've been here before, like against UCLA? GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, yeah. It's crazy to talk about that. We had a lot of adversity this year. We lost two games. I mean, just saying those words makes you think, What an idiot, whoever would say we faced a lot of adversity this year and lost two games? Some people lose two games in a weekend. Yet, at the same time, our players have already experienced something different than they've experienced the other couple years. Any other team in America, they lose the game, it's in the newspaper tomorrow, probably on page 4, or can't find it on dot-com anywhere. We lose a game, it's at Baylor, it's on the CBS Evening News. Our kids have experienced that dramatic feeling of, Oh, my God, we lost. They got up the next day, we still had practice, everything was great. I think there's this sense coming out here this year, What's the big deal? We've been down that road already. We know what it's like to lose. We know what it's like to win. For the first time, I can honestly say in a long time, in the UCLA, second half, and the Louisville game, I was coaching a Connecticut team that wasn't burdened being afraid to lose, and was playing to win. I wonder, last year and the year before, coming out here, and I know for sure that they did, those teams were more afraid to lose the national championship than wanting to win a national championship. That comes out, and it did. We might get beat. We might get beat tomorrow night. But we're not going to lose. They're going to have to beat our [expletive]. We're not just going to lose because we're afraid to lose. Q. You mentioned 1991. Kind of along the same theme here, how has this experienced changed for you, going from the young cocky coach that went in there with nothing to lose, but also the guy that went back in the archives? You got emotional winning the regional that year. Now here you are as one of the more well-known people in sports, people want to hear what you have to say on this platform? It's a different world. Share your thoughts on the personal experience and transformation. GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, I didn't learn to speak English till I was 8. I didn't really learn how to speak it probably till I was 10. But once I learned, I didn't want to shut up (smiling). The unique thing, like nobody cared what I had to say. I've been saying things that are on my mind for the longest time that I can remember. Now I'm a little bit like, What? when people go, Wow, Geno Auriemma said that? So what? I've been saying stuff like this all my life, it's just that nobody cared. Now, yeah, from a personal standpoint, I feel like I have to keep in mind that my voice resonates different than it did years ago, and that just because I say something, people think that it must be true. Or, Wow, this is what Geno Auriemma thinks. So now I have to weigh in on it. I don't understand that. It's like people putting their whole life on Instagram or stuff. I'm in the supermarket, look what I'm buying. Who gives a [expletive]? You do. You want everybody to know what you think or what you're doing. So I don't get that part. I really don't. Right? I'm like, Gene Hackman in The Birdcage, I don't understand. One of the great movies of all time. He goes, I don't understand. Q. We were talking to Kelly Graves a bit ago. You mentioned how many times, 20 times you've been here. He said that you guys had a chance to visit a little bit. You had some words of wisdom, said, Welcome to the club. Share a little bit about what you talked about, what you think of this Oregon program, what he's done as a coach? GENO AURIEMMA: I told him he cost me money because I told the people at Nike, when they hired Kelly, I said, I'll bet you a lifetime of free sneakers that in four years Kelly will have Oregon in the Final Four, and it took him five. He went on to explain why they didn't make it last year. I'm probably the least surprised person in America that Oregon is here. I told him that the way he's done it and what he's done and how quickly he's done it, just the way they play, everything about what they do, I just think is really, really cool and really, really impressive. I've always had a great relationship with Kelly. That's why we're going to play them in the future, starting next year. Don't get me wrong, I'm encouraging Sabrina to leave early every time I talk to her. Other than that, I'm rooting for Kelly all the way. Q. I think we've gone 12 minutes and we haven't mentioned the team you're playing tomorrow night. GENO AURIEMMA: That's women's basketball. Q. Obviously you're very familiar with them. It's probably the best rivalry right now in the sport. It's basically like Rocky 50 in movie references. What is the theme about tomorrow? There's years you've played them four times in a year, sick of each other. What is the mindset of playing a team you played in December, beat them, what, handily? Is it just an opponent or is it Notre Dame, back to what it used to be with you two? GENO AURIEMMA: I think mainly tomorrow's game is more about two really good teams that are playing. I don't think the other 49 times we played them really has any significance in tomorrow's game. It's just that in the last number of years, every time we've played them it's been a lot at stake, even a stupid regular season game like in December, it's 1 versus 2. One of us is 1, the other one is close to being 1. It's a big game. That version of game of the year, game of the century. I think that's cool because, you know, sports needs that kind of rivalry. We used to have that with Tennessee. Now we have it with Notre Dame. I think it's cool. Of course, it's exciting and it means a lot. But I don't think tomorrow's game has any more significance whether you want to win or not just because it's Notre Dame. Just because we beat them in December doesn't have anything to do with tomorrow night. Same thing with Louisville beating us. It didn't really affect the outcome of that game. I just think tomorrow's game is a completely different game. I always tell our players whenever we win a big game in December, I say, Listen, we're going to have to get a lot better fast. I'm assuming the teams we play against, they're getting a lot better. And Notre Dame is a lot better today than they were in December, no doubt in my mind. I mean, I think they're the best team in the country. I don't think anybody else is even close. Baylor. But I don't think anybody else, I think, can match Notre Dame when they're playing their A game. They just overwhelm you, man, at every position. Q. You talked a few minutes ago about your teams in the past being burdened by being afraid to lose. How does that manifest itself in the game? Why didn't you see that over the weekend against UCLA and Louisville? GENO AURIEMMA: Well, those four years when we had to Stewie [Breanna Stewart] in everybody on the team knew we were going to win. All those years we had Diana Taurasi, we knew we were going to win. All the years when we had Maya Moore, we knew we were going to win for the most part. When you don't have that kind of iconic player, you look at your team, you go, Man, I don't know if we have a lot of answers. Like if one of these kids gets in foul trouble, we're dead. If something happens that we're not equipped to handle. When you know that, there's this palpable fear we have to play a perfect game to win. When teams before you have won so much that now you're expected to do the same thing, and you know deep down in your heart that we may not be good enough to do it, yeah. Then the game gets close in the last five minutes, yeah. If you're not careful, I hope we don't lose, I hope we're not the first team to lose the national championship. So, yeah, you can see that. You can see it in their faces. You can see it during timeouts. Why do you think we got down 17 last year to Notre Dame? Same thing with Mississippi State the year before. Because there was a part of us that didn't think we were good enough. It shows up. No question. When you have that iconic player on your team that looks in the huddle and goes, What are you guys worried about? You got me. I just hope they never turn around and go, Coach, we got you. Don't count on me (laughter). I'll be like my dad, when the [expletive] hits the fan, I'll be in the bathroom hiding. Q. Bear with me on this question a little bit. Earlier today Coach Mulkey said in this very competitive environment that you guys live in, it's impossible or close to impossible to have really close friendships. But if you weren't coaches, had all these same interests, you'd all probably be best friends. Maybe even some of you would be married. Muffet then was asked the question. She said, Maybe Geno and I could be friends, but not the married thing. I wanted to get your impressions on what Coach Mulkey had to say, the idea that you guys could be friends if you weren't such competitors? GENO AURIEMMA: You think Tom Izzo has to deal with this crap (smiling)? I don't think so. I don't think Coach K has ever been asked a question like that at the Final Four. I don't think Dean Smith or anybody else has ever been asked a question like that. I appreciate you asking it, but I think the issue around women's basketball to me that I find a little bit disconcerting is the attention is always taken away from the game and the players, and it's turned onto the personalities of the involved coaches. God forbid, one coach is a man, the other coach is a woman, there always has to be some kind of friction, tension, all that other stuff. Like, I wouldn't marry me either. What's the big deal? I know me better than anybody else knows me. I think it's crazy. It's like when you watch a game on TV, a woman's basketball game, they talk more about the shoes that the coach is wearing. Who gives a damn? Really, c'mon. Let's get over that. We want to be taken seriously. Let's talk about sports, let's talk about the game. Let's not talk about the other nonsense that's on TMZ. If we want to be taken seriously, let's act seriously. Q. You talked earlier about the platform you have. Muffet today when asked a question about future hiring practices gave a long and passionate, dare I say emotional speech, about advancing women and the women's game, and women everywhere. Do you respect her voice when it comes to that? GENO AURIEMMA: Sure I do. Q. You probably don't know what she said. GENO AURIEMMA: Well, I don't. But sure I do. I think anybody that speaks up in favor of advancing a segment of the community that could benefit from our voice, absolutely. I've never had a guy on my staff as a coach, so... There's a lot of people out there advancing the game, advancing women. I'm all in favor of it any which way you can, any which way, no matter what. I just come at it from a different standpoint. I just like to think that there's probably a way to do one without the expense of another. So what are we saying at Oregon, they weren't trying to advance women's basketball or women by hiring Kelly? That was a bad move. They should have just found the best available woman? This is part of life. There's always going to be somebody who feels like -- I remember going back, you know, when Muffet and I were both kids, that guys felt like we don't have a place in women's basketball because no one will hire a guy. When a guy would get hired, the women would resent the fact that the men were intruding on their game. Now we're someplace elsewhere, you know, we're talking about maybe there's too many men coaching college basketball on the women's side. But I just think they should hire good coaches. If your preference is only to hire women, that's fine. If your preference is only to have an all-male staff, that's fine. God bless you. You have to do what's best for you, your program, how you feel about it. I support that 100%, 100%. Q. I've heard you called a lot of things before, but bully is never one of them, hasn't been one of them. Muffet called your coaching practice style something along those lines. She used that word this week in a story that was online. I was wondering what you felt about that? GENO AURIEMMA: I don't really have any feelings about it. Again, I would love to be able to just talk about the matchups tomorrow night, who's guarding who. I think if I was that type, I think it would have come up a lot sooner than now. We have a lot of administrators in this room. We have a lot of people that I've been associated with in the league, whether it was the Big East or the AAC, USA Basketball, any other place that I've coached, people that I've been involved with. I would challenge anybody anywhere in America to dig up somebody that says, Coach Auriemma bullied me. I dare you. Bring it up and tell me their name. Barb [Jacobs], can you think of anybody in our league, in the Big East? A. No. GENO AURIEMMA: If I asked Barb[Jacobs] to tell me the God's honest truth with her hand on her Bible, and said who was the most agreeable person in the room at all our Big East meetings? A. Geno Auriemma. GENO AURIEMMA: Who always decided what was best for the Big East, now AAC, and best for women's basketball, even at the detriment of Connecticut basketball. Q. Geno Auriemma. GENO AURIEMMA: Is that true for every coach in that room? Q. No. GENO AURIEMMA: Any other questions? THE MODERATOR: That's all the time we have. Thanks, coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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