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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2013Geno AuriemmaStefanie DolsonKelly FarisHARTFORD, CONNECTICUT Notre Dame: 61 THE MODERATOR: Joining us is UConn, head coach, Geno Auriemma along with junior center Stefanie Dolson, senior guard Kelly Faris, and freshman forward, Breanna Stewart. Coach, an opening statement, please? COACH AURIEMMA: What can I say? I feel really bad for these guys. I thought they played an amazing second half. We put ourselves in a big hole the first half, and I thought we came out in the second half and played great. And Kayla McBride made big shot after big shot and not easy ones, either. And, you know, they deserved to win because they made one more play at the end. One more play than we did. Q. Were you trying to foul Skyler? Did you want your team to foul Skyler on that last drive? COACH AURIEMMA: I think we fouled her three times, and I guess it took a long time for them not to call fouls on us but they picked the worst timing we fouled her three times, we just tried to not make it look intentional, but as it turned out we would have had to tackle her for them to call it but we tried. We knew we had to foul to get them and we saved it to the end, and like so many of these games, just wasn't meant to be. Q. You had three tough losses to them this year, a couple of years ago you beat them three times and they beat you in the Final Four, is that something that you can tap into and maybe make it the other way? COACH AURIEMMA: I think history has shown that what happens during the regular season, doesn't necessarily mean that's what's going to happen in the postseason. There is a lot of basketball to be played before there is a chance of a Connecticut/Notre Dame game. We're going to get together on Saturday and start preparing for round one of the NCAA Tournament and that's as far as we're looking forward right now. Q. We saw what happened on the last possession. What did you want to happen on that play? COACH AURIEMMA: Well, it's funny, we just went over it this morning, and we ran a little misdirection thing and Kaleena was wide open at the top of the circle, but this morning and yesterday‑‑ was it yesterday or the other day, we got Stewie for a layup on the lob so Kelly was looking for that and as it turns out Kaleena was wide open at the top of the key. Stewie made a great catch and next time she is in that situation after she catches it she is going to square up and catch it and attack the basket and get a foul. She is too young to understand that right now. You know, it's one of those plays where you only need 2, so a score and a foul or just a foul‑‑ when Stewie caught it I thought we were in great shape and then it kind of‑‑ I probably should have called time‑out when Stewie dribbled down and passed it, so I take the responsibility for that one. Actually, we wanted to win without the time‑out, when the ball hit the rim, right, tie score, the ball hit the rim and they had to check to see if the ball hit the rim, wasn't that play, so they forced to us take a time‑out, we wanted to keep flying, tie score, at home, when it's that late a lot of things pop up. Q. Can you tell us how you're feeling right now after this loss and take us through that play where you tied the game up in the final minute? STEFANIE DOLSON: Honestly at this point how I played isn't really in my mind. You know, it sucks that we lost. Like Coach said we fought in the second half. That layup that tied it up was a lot of different emotions but at the end of the day we didn't win, doesn't really matter how I played. Q. It's been 11 years since UConn hasn't made a three in a game, national championship game against Oklahoma, ironically. Is it conceivable that any team could do that to you and as many as you have been shooting all year that you could go 0 for 5? COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, I don't know that the way, you know, the way Notre Dame played defensively was exactly the way Oklahoma played it. And it was‑‑ you can get the ball inside anytime you want and you can drive it by and you say we're not going to let you catch it on the three‑point line and shoot it. I thought today was going to be one in the lane and I encouraged our guys to get the ball in the lane and to drive it and put the ball in the lane. I didn't want us to settle for outside jump shots. But for us to go ofer, I don't think we are ever going to do that. I always think we are going to make the shot, we always do. Q. Coach, when you had Maya as a freshman and Tina as a sophomore there were growing pains, do you feel like that you have that this year, young players in key rolls, where they're just starting to learn how to do this? COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, yeah, as you look at the make‑up of our team right now, we have a couple of players sitting up here right now that are all capable of making big plays and they're all capable of winning the game for us. And in those situations, you know, you try to find‑‑ in a perfect world you have the right guy passing the ball and the right guy screen and get the right guy catching it and everything works out hunky‑dory, but I was confident and comfortable with either Stefanie, Kaleena or Stewie catching the ball, that's who Kelly was looking to and she chose Stewie and I'm okay with that and next time in the next situation if she makes that choice I'm okay with that, too. Q. Given how close the games have been between you guys, how do you think they were able to get up 13 in the first half? COACH AURIEMMA: Well, I thought the first half we‑‑ I was speechless on the bench. I mean, I can't tell you what was going through my mind on the bench during that first half. I can't think of any scenario that I thought we would play that first half the way we played it. I wasn't prepared for that, neither were any of the other coaches and I can't explain it, I can't. I have no idea what the collective mind‑set of our team was out on the floor. We talked a lot about that at halftime. We made a couple of adjustments and we came out and fix it had, but I have no idea why we were so out of sync, why we were so defensive when we were on offense. I can't explain that, the way we played the second half is normally how we come out and play but I don't know. Maybe like Jim said maybe as a team we have to learn how to handle ourselves in those situations on a regular basis. I really have no‑‑ I can't explain it Mike, I wish I could. Q. Kelly, how does an elite program like Connecticut, how does this game against Notre Dame affect your mind set and your confidence that you can accomplish what you all want to accomplish in April? KELLY FARIS: At this point, this program is about how you respond and that's what Coach teaches us how to do and unfortunately we haven't responded the way we need to, the way the program is used to responding, what people expect of us and that's why we're sitting where we're at right now. Had we responded the way we needed to, we would be on the other side so this is our last chance to respond in the right way to respond how he teaches us to and like I said, this is our last opportunity to step up and make something of it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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