NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL FOUR: UCONN VS STANFORD

March 31, 2022

Geno Auriemma

Christyn Williams

Olivia Nelson-Ododa

Target Center

UConn Huskies

Semi-Final Media Conference

GENO AURIEMMA: The comments are always the same, right? We're happy to be here, glad we're playing. Playing a great team. I don't know how we can beat them. They have no weaknesses. Same refrain every year when you get to this point.

It's true, though, you just feel appreciative that you're still playing, and you feel fortunate to be in this position, and you also know that there's three other teams here that are better than any teams you've played up to this point, and you're going to have to play better than you've ever played the entire season in order to win this thing.

Tremendous challenge for us, but we wouldn't be here if we couldn't handle it.

Q. Obviously there's an enormous amount of noise about Paige coming home this week. Is it at all a distraction? Do you embrace it? Do you let it be a big deal or just block it out?

GENO AURIEMMA: Paige is a walking distraction. So it doesn't matter where we are, whether we're at school or whether we're here. There's just stuff that follows her around, and it's fine. Our players are okay with it. They understand it. She doesn't make a big deal about it.

I don't know that she's called a team meeting and said, look, we're going to Minneapolis and it's all about me going home, and isn't it great. I don't think there's any of that going on.

For me personally, there's none of that. I've probably been walking around trying to think how much this place has changed since 1995 and we're in the same locker room I think we were in back then and we're playing the same team we played back then. So it's funny how life comes around, right?

Q. Christyn and Olivia, I know that ESPN reported during your regional final that you had said that Coach broke you at one point emotionally, and both of you have been yelled at a fair amount by him in all the games I've watched. We live in an era where a lot of players the second that they feel like Coach is being too hard on them jump in the transfer portal. I wondered did either of you ever consider that? If not, why did you stick around?

And Geno, how much does it say about these two that they did stick around and put up with being coached hard at times because a lot of kids don't want that anymore?

CHRISTYN WILLIAMS: I definitely have not ever considered going into the transfer portal. I knew coming here it was going to be hard, and Coach wants the best for us, so I just had to grow up and learn how to take constructive criticism in order for me to grow my game and be the best player that I could be. I knew things were going to be tough and things were going to be hard, but there's always a light at the end of the tunnel, and I think I'm experiencing that right now.

You know, I appreciate everything that he has done. It's always hard going through it, but I know I'm a better player from it.

OLIVIA NELSON-ODODA: Just kind of going off what Christyn said, coming here, you know it's going to be hard, you know it's going to be difficult. But looking back at the person I was when I first got here to now, I think it's a lot deeper than basketball just in terms of how much I feel like I've grown up and was forced to grow up through certain situations and just have to mature as a person.

Like I said, it's deeper than basketball in terms of just growing as an individual, and I think that this program really does push you towards that.

GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, I think people associate coaching and teaching as being two different things. There's lots of different ways to be hard on somebody and be demanding. I think any good professor that you had in high school or college probably was extremely demanding of you if they were worth a damn, and they were demanding in a different way.

We demand a lot from our players, because you know what, you can't tell me when you come to Connecticut, I want to go to the Final Four and I want to win a National Championship, but I want to do it my way. I want to do it the easy way. I want to do it so that no matter what I do everything is about me and my self-esteem and make sure you treat me like a little 12-year-old and don't hurt my feelings.

All those kids are not playing here this weekend. Every kid that's playing here this weekend on all three teams has had to struggle through a lot to get here. And the ones that don't like to struggle, that think that anytime somebody criticizes them, they think of that as failure, champions take that criticism and they use it as advice on how to get better.

That's hopefully what I'm teaching my players every day is that life is hard, and if you think it's easy, then you've got a lot of growing up to do.

Q. Olivia, when you see a teammate go down and get injured, how much does that motivate you to elevate your game maybe to rally around her? And also for Geno, are you guys better equipped to handle a shorter rotation given what you went through in the regular season?

OLIVIA NELSON-ODODA: That moment with Dorka was super emotional because it was like, dang, another injury, especially at that timing. It was kind of just something we've been dealing with all year. But I think it not only motivated me, but my entire team just kind of like gathered ourselves, grouped ourselves together, just like we have to fight this one out for her. Because like I said before, just kind of what we've faced this whole season, it was just kind of one of those moments where we realized like we've just got to grind it out for her.

GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, par for the course, right, that we lose probably our longest -- her and Liv, Dorka, but it's okay. We only play the longest team in the country in four days. So it's just the way the season has gone.

I was fortunate, I didn't see it. So by the time I got over there, our athletic trainer had already covered it up, so I didn't see what they saw. I expected them to be broken up about it and emotional about it. It's not something that you see every day. But the way they responded is exactly the way we responded throughout the season.

I think there was only one time where I think we felt sorry for ourselves the entire season, and I think that was at Oregon. For the rest of the time, I think these guys handled it better than I would have handled it, I think, at their age.

Q. Geno, you used to play Stanford almost every year from 2007 to 2014 in regular season and also in the NCAA Tournament and then you didn't play them except for an NCAA game in 2017. Have you still been following them, what they're doing? I know you don't play them, but the success they've had winning the title last year, and is it something you'd want to try to renew that rivalry at some point because it was usually pretty good match-ups when you played.

GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, it didn't get renewed. I guess we played at their place, then they were supposed to come back to our place, and something got lost in translation, I guess. We've always had great games with them. Some have been close, some have not been close.

But I think like us, they haven't changed much over the years. They still play the same style of play. When you watch them, you know exactly what you're going to get. There's no surprises when you play Stanford. It's not like they're going to come up with a new and different way to play every year. They play hard, they play together, they play positionless most of the time, they shoot the ball great every year. It's the same Stanford team that I remember 25, 27 years ago playing around here. It's just different people, but it's the same. It's the same.

Q. Paige and Azzi just reflected on getting acclimated to the program as freshmen and how they tried to be mindful of the fact that they entered with this over-the-moon hype, they bring that with them, and sometimes you're not sure how that might go over with the upperclassmen. How did you see them handle that and how did you see the seniors handle that, what could be kind of a complicated dynamic?

GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, that's why you've got to recruit the right kind of kids, because if you get the wrong kids and they come in like that -- recruiting is a funny thing. You don't ever worry about the ones you don't get. Somebody says, hey, I'm not coming to Connecticut. All right, you move on. The biggest danger is you bring in people that have no business being there.

So when these guys came in, they were all the rage. Christyn was national Player of the Year. Liv was in the top 5. Fans being fans, they completely ignored everybody on our team except these guys. They were the next great thing.

So once you get past your freshman year, whoever is coming in the next year, they're the next great thing. That's just the way people are. But if you bring in the right kids, they are respectful of what we have and what we've done, because it is bigger than them.

This program survived before Paige and Azzi, and it'll survive after Paige and Azzi. So as long as you come in with that attitude, that I'm here because I want to be part of this, I don't want to make it all about me all the time, these guys understand that, and it only took them, what, two weeks? I had no intention of starting Paige as a freshman. I said, I'm going to make her earn it, I'm going to make her wait her turn, because we've already got a pretty good starting lineup. And it only took about two weeks. You could see the look on their faces like I don't know who else is starting, but I know she is.

Q. Were you aware -- obviously I'm sure you saw Paige's speech at the ESPYs. I was wondering your take on it, if that's very typical of her to speak out on a cause like that and if she's expressed to you her interest in at that cause.

GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, I try not to get too caught up in players' -- and they know this -- personal lives. I let them be. I think players need space to be who they are and become what they want to become, and hopefully they're true to themselves. They're being authentic.

Paige cares a lot about a lot of things, not just basketball, and she cares about her teammates. A lot of the things she gets, she makes sure that they get.

That speech, I think it reflects her background, how she grew up, her family dynamics. And in today's world, I think it's pretty remarkable that young people have a perspective that goes beyond themselves and their sport, and I think she's in some ways typical of kids her age, that they're very conscious of what's going on around the world and what impact they can have on it. And she has the platform to act on it.

I'm pretty proud of her.

Q. Olivia, last summer you talked a lot about the disappointment of your performance last year in this round against Arizona. Different year, different opponent, different player, what is your approach for tomorrow? Is there something to prove? What is the motivation besides winning tomorrow to get this team to the championship game?

OLIVIA NELSON-ODODA: I'm not really focused on thinking about last year's performance and in having that kind of cloud for tomorrow. It happened last year. I used that as motivation in the off-season.

Coming into this game, I'm just focused on what I can do to help my team win. That's as simple as it can be for me. I'm not too busy trying to overthink about what else should I do or what happened last year, whatever the case may be. It's as simple as just what do I need to do to help my team win, what do we all need to do together to win this game.

Q. For Christyn and Geno, you and Stanford are both really good offensive teams and you do what you do really well. How big a role do you think that a big defensive play could play in this game tomorrow night? What role is some pretty good defense going to play in this game, as well?

CHRISTYN WILLIAMS: It plays a huge role. I think whoever plays the best defense tomorrow is going to win the game, if I'm being completely honest. Defense and rebounding is going to be huge for both teams.

I don't really think it's going to be based off offense. We have to defend well, and I think that's the big emphasis.

Q. Geno, two-part question. UConn announced that Dorka had surgery yesterday, so is she going to be able to come out here and join the team? The second part is in the same release, they announced that she's coming back next year, so what kind of impact is that going to have for you guys next year even though this year is not quite over?

GENO AURIEMMA: See what I mean? It's all about next year, who's coming in, who's coming back.

Yeah, the surgery was yesterday, and we had a chance to speak with Dorka yesterday, and I spoke with her again this morning. She's in that state where everything is fine, everything is happy and making nothing but happy talk. But once it wears off this afternoon, it's going to be a different Dorka.

We're going to try to get her out here tomorrow so she can be a part of this.

You know, I always suspected that she was coming back. I think one big reason that she came to UConn was to try to experience something like this, and it was taken away from her this year, so I think she's coming to hopefully be in the same situation but actually playing instead of watching.

It takes a little bit of time to get acclimated to our program. It's a little bit different. Dorka started to figure it out pretty well, and I thought that the four minutes she played the other night were some of the best four minutes that she's played all year long, so it's a shame.

We can try to build on that, and obviously with Liv graduating and having a big hole there to fill, I think it's huge for us, Dorka coming back.

Q. Geno, there's obviously been a lot of talk over the last year about equity and making things more equitable between the men's and women's sports. We crunched some of the numbers in a report that came out yesterday, and they're pretty glaring, 71 cents for every dollar that schools spend on men's sports -- I think there were 19 schools that spent a million dollars more on travel for their men's teams. UConn was among the schools that had some issues. I'm wondering what your perspective is on the landscape and what needs to be done to close some of these gaps?

GENO AURIEMMA: Well, the issue at UConn, that's my decision. It costs more for the men to travel. They take more people on their trips. Plain and simple. They take more trips to go recruiting than I do.

So the things that -- the numbers are misleading because at UConn I can do whatever I want to do with my program, the same as the men. And as a matter of fact, our ticket prices are going to reflect that starting next season.

Each school has to make a decision how they want to spend the money that they have, and you can mandate it all you want. Until the people at those universities decide to invest, we're always going to have this issue. Little by little, they'll be forced to do it.

Right now I think they still have an option maybe they feel at some schools, but with -- especially at the Power Five schools. With the amount of money that football brings in and the amount of money that the conferences get and that they give each school, it really would be -- you couldn't find a legitimate reason why they wouldn't do it. So I'm surprised that those schools aren't doing it, to be honest with you.

How about -- like there's things that don't involve money. I've said this before. The teams that played Monday night in the NCAA Tournament, we got home at 2:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, and we left Tuesday to come out here. We practiced Wednesday, Thursday for the biggest game of the year.

The guys finished Sunday, and they have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and they play Saturday. I don't see that in the report.

So all the things that people talk about, that does nothing to make your team better. You think Saint Peter's spends the same amount of money as Kentucky? It's not about that. It's about what kind of players do you have, what kind of program do you run, and you don't need a lot of money to do it. It helps. Don't get me wrong. It helps. But the swag bag and the weight room and all that other crap that we talked about last year, that doesn't help these kids get ready for Friday night's game. An extra three days would help.

So we should be talking about that stuff.

Q. You and Stanford look like similar programs. You play positionless basketball, very unselfish, a lot of effort. What are the biggest differences between the two teams, and what concerns you the most about Stanford?

GENO AURIEMMA: Anytime you play a team that's used to winning -- and they are, and they won a National Championship last year, and they have everybody back, and they're here. We've been in that situation at UConn a couple times. So you have a built-in advantage there because your kids are attempting to do something that they've already done.

They're disciplined, and not every team is. They play exceptionally hard, and not every team does. They shoot the ball better than most teams in the country.

When you put all those things together, you know you have a real difficult task ahead. I like to think they have a difficult task ahead, as well. I think we both do. It's supposed to be that way, isn't it? This is the national semifinal. Two teams that mirror each other, which I don't like -- I don't like playing teams that are very similar style to ours. So when you have two teams that mirror each other like that, it's not ideal. I wish we were playing somebody that was completely different.

But this is not supposed to be easy. All the match-ups that we've gotten this year -- when I looked at the bracket, I thought, man, it's par for the course. I've said that every matchup is one that I would not choose.

Q. With Dorka out, how might Aaliyah Edwards have a bigger role? And kind of a two-parter, I know you've coached Kia Nurse in the past, but what have you noticed in your recruiting about the emergence of talent out of Canada?

GENO AURIEMMA: It's been more pronounced on the men's side. There's way more basketball players from Canada on the men's side, but I think on the women's side, it's starting to become more and more prevalent.

Kia was one of the hardest, toughest kids I've ever coached. Played hard, was tough and relentless and had a lot to do with the championships that we won when she was here and is a great pro.

Aaliyah has the ability to change games. Aaliyah just hasn't been able to put it together consistently. When that time comes, hopefully soon rather than later, she has the ability to change games. Her defense, her rebounding, that follow-up she had the other night in overtime, that's something you don't see that every day, a kid being able to do that. She can guard different people on the floor, different spots.

So we count on her for a lot of things, and the other night we had great performances from Christyn, Azzi, and Paige. The game before that, Aaliyah and Olivia were amazing against Indiana. So if we could put those two things together tomorrow night, we'll be in good shape.

Q. You said earlier that kids come to UConn and know it's going to be hard to win. There's something like 850 women's players in the portal as of right now. In the last few years, do you feel like you've had to change your coaching style and be nicer sometimes? The players don't think so based on their facial expressions. I'm curious how you've had to evolve your coaching style as more and more players do leave?

GENO AURIEMMA: I don't care if they leave. Players leave all the time. Coaches leave all the time. That's life.

When we got back from South Carolina, we had three or four of the kind of practices we used to have when you could coach kids, and half the team loved it. The other half were a little bit shocked. But half the team loved it.

I think they understood -- we don't practice like that anymore. Not like we did 15 years ago. Our practices aren't like that.

But there's still only one way to win a championship, and you have to be disciplined and you have to play hard, and you have to aspire to be great.

I've never had a really good player leave my program, in 37 years, that left and made it big at a top 10 or top 20 school. That's just isn't going to happen. If you can't play for me, if you can't play for us at UConn, you can't play anywhere at this level. I let these guys be who they are. I just have certain demands on the court, and they have to meet them or they don't play. They know. I'm fair. If nothing, I'm fair.

I asked Christyn one time, Christyn, is it hard to play here? She said, damn right. I said, why? She said, because you're demanding. I said, do you want me to change? She said, no.

You don't come here 14 years in a row because you go, all right, sweetheart, how do you want to do this this year? Sorry. There's lots of schools you can go to. You know those 850 people in the portal? 300 of them are not going to find a school to go to because they're going to realize it's not the school they just left. Just like last year, right? A thousand kids in the portal, 250 of them had no place to go, and the guys that they left don't want them back. Whatever happened to go and figure it the hell out.

Yeah, sometimes you have to leave. Sometimes it's the right thing to do. No question about that. But 800, 1,000 of them? There's only 365 Division I schools. It's like three at every school. Who the hell knows? When we get back, we might lose five of them. How the hell do I know?

Q. Olivia, losing Dorka and not having a ton of depth in the post moving forward and going against a team like Stanford that has a lot of depth there, how do you have to -- not necessarily change -- but what do you want to do tomorrow that will help you guys pull out the victory? And how do you think having to play through foul trouble and losing Dorka against NC State can prepare you for a game like tomorrow?

OLIVIA NELSON-ODODA: I think staying out of foul trouble will be key for tomorrow. I think that's something Aaliyah and I have struggled with this tournament, and we're aggressive on the defensive end, but just knowing when to be smart about it is going to be key.

But otherwise just losing Dorka, she's a critical part of our team, and just like any of the other injuries that happened this season, it's just unfortunate, unfortunate timing. But that just makes it even more crucial for us to step up and rally together and really just come together as a team for tomorrow.

Q. How are you recovering and learning from the double overtime win over NC State, and Coach, how are you helping them with that?

CHRISTYN WILLIAMS: I think our team just learned that we can conquer anything. That double overtime game was very hard, but we stayed composed through it all and we were very poised. I just feel like the biggest thing is we know that we can grind it out when we need to.

OLIVIA NELSON-ODODA: I think if you would have put us in the same situation last year as a team, I don't think we would have came out with a win. I think this year it kind of speaks volumes in the way that we were able to stay composed and really just stay together as a team.

GENO AURIEMMA: How am I helping them with that? By telling them, don't ever do that again. (Laughter). That's the best advice I can give them. And they told me we should have fouled. So you know, I give it and I get it back.