BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2021

Geno Auriemma

UConn Huskies

Mohegan Sun Arena

Postgame Media Conference

UConn - 77, St. John's - 41

COACH AURIEMMA: It's good to be back in the Big East Tournament. There's always been something special about it. There's a uniqueness about it that -- it's a shame that the fans aren't able to be a part of it, because that's usually a big, big part of the excitement of the Big East Tournament.

But being back here certainly feels like it's a normal place to be, even though it's not normal circumstances. And competing under certainly not optimal circumstances and have our team play, I thought, as well as we played, especially defensively, I was really, really proud of what we did and how we did it.

Sometimes, you know, you have players that are player of the game, that game, and today, especially, I think it was our team that -- our team defense was exceptional.

Q. Can you tell us how Nika is doing? And then after that just address how you thought the freshmen did overall?

COACH AURIEMMA: Nika, I'm not sure. We'll probably know more a little bit later. But right now it's an ankle sprain. How extensive, we don't know. We'll know soon.

Nika is a pretty tough kid, as tough as they come. So if I were to bet, which I'm not because obviously that's against NCAA rules, even though we're in a casino here, Nika is going to give it every opportunity overnight and then she's going to play. And if she doesn't play it's because it's serious. So we'll know a little bit later.

Q. In terms of overall performance of your freshmen tonight?

COACH AURIEMMA: The other freshmen; is that what you said?

Q. Yes, all of your freshmen.

COACH AURIEMMA: All of our freshmen? Exactly what I expected. It's their first time. So you're not quite sure. But given how they've performed, I'm not surprised. I thought Nika set the tone defensively. Early on she set a tone. And everybody, you know, just filled in. And Aaliyah has been Aaliyah. So I think everyone that we put in the game today contributed.

I didn't see anything that looked like apprehension because, oh, my God, it's the postseason, it's the tournament. So that was pretty cool to see that they just played like it was a basketball game that we had to win.

Q. Anna's first game back in more than a month. What did you see from her? And especially now with Nika's uncertainty, how important is she to this team with her passing and everything that she brings?

COACH AURIEMMA: Well, they wanted us to limit Anna to ten minutes today, so she tried to help the cause -- I thought she was going to foul out in ten minutes, but she managed to not. Obviously she's a little rusty from not having played in so long. So it was good to get her any kind of minutes.

But obviously having another ball handler and having another passer and another perimeter player, especially in case Nika can't go, you know, couldn't come at a better time for Anna to be available.

Q. On that note, too, obviously Mir got in in the third quarter. Talk a little bit about your depth, especially with the possibility of three games in three days and that kind of is even more important now, isn't it, just seeing those players progress or chip in with that?

COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, we feel like we have conditional depth. Sometimes we know what we're going to get from Aaliyah. Obviously Aubrey coming in, hopefully we get great minutes, however many there are of those. Anna, same thing. Mir, we have players that are capable of helping us.

Sometimes it looks like, why don't you play them more. And other times it looks like there's a big, huge drop-off between our first five and then some of our next group. So today was a good way to get their feet wet and hopefully tomorrow they'll add to that.

Q. After Monday, when you guys scored two fast break points, you guys I think had 30 today. Looks like the transition game was probably working better than the half court. How would you -- is that just a emphasis going back into the postseason to get that part of the game going? And how do you feel at the same time about the team's ability to execute in the half court?

COACH AURIEMMA: The transition was, again, our defense was better in terms of creating those opportunities. Against Marquette, we didn't create as many defensive opportunities. I mean, Marquette didn't score a lot of points. We rebounded the ball a lot against Marquette. But today we caused a lot of live-ball turnovers that gave us an opportunity to get out and run.

Plus, we played a team that had played last night. And you could tell that, you know, early in the game that the pace was a little more than St. John's was ready for, given their game last night. That's what you have to do. You have to create transition baskets for yourself.

They're not just going to happen on their own. You have to make them happen. Otherwise it's a half-court game. And I don't think anybody can be any good in the half-court game. I don't care who you are. You're not going to be able to score enough points if you come down and let the defense set up and think that you're going to just run your plays. That's not going to happen.

Today, I thought was a pretty good example of both. Our half-court offense is never going to be great. It's not going to be like you're used to seeing from years ago. It's just not. We have too many players that are new to this.

So sometimes it's going to be good, sometimes not so good. But if our defense can create some transition baskets and second shots, which I thought that first half Aaliyah and Liv picked up right where they left off on Monday night against Marquette.

Q. Coming into the preseason, you had talked about how Paige Bueckers, obviously, was coming in as a highly touted prospect but she had to prove herself. Well, she swept Big East player and the freshman of the year so far every week. She set the freshman assist record with 131 in 21 games. I was just wondering, if you're ready to at least, rank her amongst players you've coached over the 30 years at UConn?

COACH AURIEMMA: I would say that of all the players that I've coached at UConn over the years, I would say Paige is in the top three all-time freshmen of guys who bitch about playing time, that no matter how many minutes she plays she's not happy. And when I take her out, she has something to say all the time and complains every single time she comes out. And she does it in a way that I want to put her back in, but it just drives me crazy.

So I would say, looking back, she's definitely in the top three of all time pain in the asses when it comes to playing time. And she's averaged 35 minutes a game this year. So she's got that record, too.