BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2021

Geno Auriemma

UConn Huskies

Mohegan Sun Arena

Postgame Media Conference

UConn - 73, Marquette - 39

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.

COACH AURIEMMA: Well, obviously it's been great to be back in the Big East Tournament. It's what I grew up with as a coach. You know, my first year here at UConn, that was the goal, to make the Big East Tournament, back when you better not finish eighth or ninth or you were not going to make the tournament.

And to go from that to then not being in the league to being back in the league, and it felt pretty amazing. And the three days of competition, the way we played defensively, I was just really -- I've never been more proud of any team, to be honest with you, all these young kids and how much they've grown up over the course of four or five months. It's really been refreshing to watch.

The celebration, I don't know if you all got a chance to see it, that the kids had after they won. We won a lot of these. I don't know how many. I'm sure somebody will bring it up, how many of these. I don't remember quite a spontaneous and joyful celebration like these kids had.

It's great to be young. These young kids that have come in and really they've reinvigorated everyone associated with our program. They are just really unique kids. And I'm really happy for them.

My life doesn't change that much winning another championship. But my life was changed tonight because I got a chance to see the way that they celebrated. That was worth waiting six months for.

Q. A month ago Doug Feinberg asked you if it was worthwhile in a pandemic, with the risk/reward, to play a conference tournament. You said at that point you didn't care if you did. But can you talk about how much you got out of this tournament with the growth of the kids and Christyn coming around and the defense playing so well?

COACH AURIEMMA: Well, you think about all that's transpired over the months, right, and there was a time, we were just talking about it, there was a time when we weren't sure how many games we would get in, period.

We weren't sure you'd even be able to have a regular season champion, because it would be so disjointed. And we managed to get through that. And then there was some serious discussion about is it worth bringing 11 teams to a bubble to compete for three days. Is it worthwhile?

And there was a lot of discussion back and forth. And some people were, no, we shouldn't; and people were, yes, we should.

And for me, if we were going to have a tournament, great. If we weren't going to have a tournament, that's fine. You know? But once the decision was made, we're having a tournament, then obviously it became, well, we're going to go win the tournament. That's our goal.

In retrospect, it ended up being great for us because we're going into the next tournament with a better sense of who we are as a team, a better identity of who we are as a team.

Found out a lot about some of our players these last three days. So the Big East Tournament definitely benefited us, and I'm sure it benefited Marquette as well.

But that's the tournament, that's the chance you take in a tournament, if you're DePaul or Villanova. Hopefully they can still have a shot to get in. I would hope they can -- Seton Hall, Villanova, DePaul. You saw at the end of the year just how competitive our conference is.

And it did give Christyn Williams an opportunity, Christyn hasn't had the kind of year she wanted to have. She hasn't been in any kind of a flow whatsoever.

And for her to come out here and then for three days do an amazing job on the three best players that she faced this weekend, and still play it at a real high level on the offensive end -- as much as Paige was MVP, I thought Christyn could just as easily been as well.

Q. You get asked a lot to rank Paige as a player. Where does she rate as a teammate? And back to her as being a player, what's her case to be national player of the year?

COACH AURIEMMA: She's a great teammate. She's a great teammate. She's a great teammate because she's a great human being.

She's one of those kids that just gets the big picture and understands what the purpose is of being on a team and how her special skills can infuse confidence in a team.

People vote on awards. So people are going to vote. Paige came in my office the other day and she goes, "Man, I didn't realize how many people in this country hate Connecticut." I go, "I don't get on social media, I don't know." And she said, "I think it's you." I'm, like, "Maybe it is, I don't know." But I said, "I bet you if we lost all the time they wouldn't hate me." Or maybe they would anyway, I don't know.

But she's very sensitive to a lot of things that kids her age would not concern themselves with. And everything affects her because she wants it to. She never blows anything off. Should she be player of the year? Well, I'm sure people are going to vote for lots of different players, I guess. I would say, name one player that's done as much for their team as Paige has done for our team.

Name one player that's done more, let's put it this way. Name one player that's taken a team this young to where we are today. Who's done more than her? And if you can give me a better argument, then I'd say I'll vote for them, too. But I don't think you can.

But I'm not going to wear a T-shirt that says "Paige for national player of the year." And I'm not going to carry a sign around it. And I'm not going to call people and tell them to vote for her. I've never done that for anybody. And I'm not going to start today.

But some people won't vote for her just because she plays at Connecticut. And she's got to deal with that, too. And that's okay. You don't vote on some awards, like who wins the championship. So she gets my vote.

And she was bitching about playing time again today, just so I go on record saying it two days in a row. One of our players at the free-throw line, she yelled "miss," because she knew she was coming out. I love her and everything but there's something not quite right about her.

Then she came off and checked the stat sheet and she goes, this is yesterday, she goes, you owe me two more minutes tomorrow because I didn't get to play my average, so you owe me three minutes tomorrow.

I was going to not start her (smiling).

Q. You touched on a few things that probably apply to how you might answer, but I was wondering whether it's in ability or execution or approach or mentality, what are the areas you've really seen the most growth from your team this season and particularly the last few games that makes you know they're in a good place heading into the national tournament?

COACH AURIEMMA: I would say their willingness to want to compete on the defensive end as much as they enjoy being on the offensive end.

I would say that kind of growth and understanding of team defense and team dynamics and how everyone is tied into it and how everyone has to be committed to it. That to me is the biggest growth.

The ability to watch film and understand it better. The ability to go through a scouting report and soak it in and then be able to execute it. That was much more difficult at points during this season.

So I think we became a little bit smarter. We certainly became a little bit tougher. And this team is a together team. They're a together team. There's no doubt about that. They all know who is who and what's what.

And they've grown up together. I looked out on the floor one time we had three freshmen and two sophomores out there. And I don't know that that could have happened three months ago.

Q. You said like a month ago this was a team that made you shake your head so often and showed you things that you couldn't imagine seeing and made you almost want to rave up and down the side line like it was 15, 20 years ago. Is there less of that now?

COACH AURIEMMA: Well, I've kind of come to my senses in the fact that I'm not changing anything. I'm not going to change what it is that they're doing. I'm just not. I've tried. It's pointless. They're going to do what they do.

They think I'm kidding -- he exaggerates. I say, you guys have missed more layups in five months than my teams have missed in 30 years. And they think you're exaggerating. I swear to God, everything I say they look at me and they go you're crazy.

Get back to Paige. You know what she told me yesterday, this morning? She said, I'm the best defensive player in the country. My players don't talk to me like that. So they make me shake my head. You know?

Nika looks at me sometimes and I almost feel like, what are you looking at? And like I have to -- I start worrying about me like is there something wrong with me? These guys have my head spinning, all these freshmen. So I just stopped trying to figure out how to help them at things that I just can't help them with. They're going to be what they're going to be. And I have to look at all the positives.

It's made me change the way I coach. And for the better, I think. I think they made me change the way I coach and made me change for the better.

Q. I know it's a new conference and you've had a lot of streaks, but eight straight years without losing a conference game, 160 wins in conference play. What does that mean and how does that stack up to everything else that you guys have done?

COACH AURIEMMA: I mean, that's a lot of wins and not a lot of losses. So when you think of it as how is that possible, I said -- well if you played in a tougher conference, that would never happen. We used to play in the toughest conference that ever existed in and we did that for long stretches.

So we play to win. That's all there is to it. As does everybody else, you know? I don't care if we're preparing for UMass Lowell, who we played in our very first game, or we're preparing for the best team in the country on national television. It doesn't matter to us.

The preparation is the same. Scouting report is the same. We do everything the same. So there's a consistency in what we do. And that consistency, I think, pays off when you're committed to it.

And we have really tough kids that come to Connecticut. I think some of the kids at Marquette thought after last Monday night that we're not the toughest guys in the world because we don't look it. But we are. We're a pretty tough group of kids.

And we go out expecting to win, like everybody else does. And we could lose our next game. But it's not going to be because we're not prepared.

Q. Just talking about the youth, how much is that going to be an asset for the NCAA Tournament? You talk about reinvigorating you, just going ahead to that.

COACH AURIEMMA: We're getting ready to do something that's never been done before. We're getting ready to get on a plane, fly to one site and be in the same hotel as 21 other teams. And then we're going to have to compete and try to win six games. And that's never been done before.

So you can say, well, you've been to X number of NCAA Tournaments. Yeah, none of them like this. So whatever we did this weekend, yeah, I love the fact that our team looks like we're ready to play basketball. Today's March 8th. And we don't play until March 21st. It's a long time. It's a long time.

As I said, once we get down there, it will be an environment -- this was only three, four days. And we're going down there with, we're down there five days before we even play a game. The quarantine, the whole thing, all the protocols. So we're going into an area that's never been occupied before, as are the other 63 teams that are going to be down there.

So I have no idea what's going to happen. I usually have a pretty good idea what's coming up in the NCAA Tournament, but this year is unlike any other year. I like my team. I like what I see. But this year has taught me one thing if it's taught me anything and that is don't look too far ahead.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.