University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn vs. Clemson Quotes
11/29/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2009
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Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On Kalana Greene's performance
"Yeah, we should schedule South Carolina, College of Charleston. Any team from South Carolina. She loves that, I guess. You know, when Kalana gets in that mode where she's flying at the basket and she's making things happen, that's when she's at her best. And, yeah, I know she's slowed down a step - maybe - from where she used to be, but she's a little bit smarter and she still plays really hard for the most part. Today was just one of those days where everything seemed to be going right and she was in the right place at the right time every time. "
On Clemson pushing the pace helping Kalana
"Yeah. We seem to play - I mean I think we can be OK with either style of play - but for Kalana, especially, it's good when the game's going up and down. It's more to her liking when it's a little more open and it's not confined to half court. And I think by us pressing a little bit, you know, you want to find out what the other team wants to do. So, it looked to me like Clemson wanted to go up and down a bunch of times. The only thing wrong with that was we were willing to just give them a layup so we could get a layup and once we got that taken care of, everything seemed to go all right."
On trailing in the first half
"Wow. I'm sure that will be a stat tomorrow. I don't know. I thought the first four possessions, you know, we were a little bit, a little bit disorganized - probably my fault. We really didn't have a clear idea of what we wanted to do in our press in the beginning. It was a little bit better after that. But, they took advantage of it. But as I said, once we were able to get it organized the way we wanted - I wasn't ready to call timeout when it was 3-2, to be honest with you."
On playing hard every game
"Well, it's pretty simple in some ways. Some regular season games you don't know the impact that it's gonna have. You know, it's like baseball. You win a game in April and May and you look up in September and you're down one and you say 'Man, that game, we should've won.' But at the time you're playing, it's just another regular-season game. But when you're playing in a tournament setup, you know if you win these two games, you win a championship. If you win these three games, you win a championship. So it kind of narrows the focus and I kind of like it when it's like that. I've always been like that since the beginning when we play here. And I made a point to say that before the game started that, you know, you don't want to be sitting there watching somebody else stand there at half court getting a trophy for winning the championship. So it's part of, you know, as long as they're keeping score and giving out trophies, we might as well be standing in line first."
Senior, Kalana Greene
How important is it for you to win every championship you can while your here?
"It is very important. That is our goal every year. Our goal is to win every game we play and if we do that than we will win championships. We go hard at practice everyday and we get rewarded when we play our games for the amount of hard work we put in at practice."
28 points is a career high for you, and obviously your back from injury, have you felt this good about your game in a while?
"Yes. I think today was just that my defense translated into the other end of the floor. That is what I want to do every game; get out in the passing lane and get stops on defense. The more stops we get, the more opportunities we get on the offensive side of the ball. If we continue to get offensive rebounds, it will give us extra opportunities to score as well."
Senior, Tina Charles
62 points in the paint today as opposed to all the outside shots taken yesterday, what was the plan to go inside and what were you guys getting down in the paint that made it so easy?
"When one big man gets the ball, the other one is supposed to sprint down the court, post up and move the ball in the lane. That's what Maya and I were able to do tonight and our teammates were passing up the ball which allowed us to establish our position. "
Clemson Head Coach Cristy McKinney
Were you pleased with how your team started the game?
"Yes, I was. It was a small victory for us at that point. The thing we wanted to do was compete and I think we came out and had some open shots that we knocked down. That is how we wanted to start the game and I believe we did what we wanted up to that point in the game. It was a great opportunity to play against UConn and I think our team learned a lot."
What did your team get out of this three day tournament?
"We learned we have to play hard for forty minutes of every game. I thought it was a quality tournament with various teams that have different styles of play. Anytime you can play different teams you can learn from them and in the end it is good for your basketball team."
