University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn Postgame Quotes
12/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2009
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Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On coming out quickly against Hartford
"Well, I think you're right about that. There's a - you know, there's a style of play that Jen [Rizzotti] likes. There's a lot of ball control and using the shot clock and making you defend…For some reason, today, they weren't really that hesitant. I mean, they wanted to come down and try to score quickly. And I think that's something we hope to do. And a lot of times, you know, you don't know what the outcome of your pressure's gonna be. You don't know if it's gonna yield any results or it's not. And tonight it did a little bit and it got us into a real aggressive mode. You know, the last thing you want when you're playing a pretty good team and a team that's like Jen's, for instance - they want the tempo that's more to their liking than it is to yours. So I thought getting out to a quick start was probably as important as anything else that we could accomplish tonight."
On the defense
"Yeah. There's two different halves - the first half and the second half - and I thought for the majority of that first half, we made it tough to get the same looks that they got in the second half and we pretty much limited them to one shot. And, you know, our defense has worked really hard. They've worked hard in practice, they've worked hard in our games. And we're getting better all the time. I know these teams are probably a little bit better than they look against us. It's just, it's hard for them to look as good as they are against our defense right now."
On concerns about having a challenge
"Nah, I don't worry about it. I mean, there's nothing I can do about it. If so when it happens, it happens. I don't think every game we play is going to be a 30-point game. I don't think anybody thinks that. At the same time, I mean, I don't worry about what the end result is or what the final score is. I just want us to keep playing well and whatever happens, happens. You know, everybody's talking about the Stanford game coming up after the Iona game and it's already a no-win kind of situation. You know, they're playing two really good teams - or three really good teams maybe - before us…If they beat us, it's because we were poorly prepared by our schedule. So you just go into the games, you play the games, and go from there."
Junior, Maya Moore
Can you talk about how the team came out defensively tonight?
"I was really proud of the way we came out tonight. I felt like that was our mind set coming out of our huddle. That has always been the key ever since I have been here. If you can start the game strong defensively, it will set the tone for the rest of the game. "
What in particular were you doing defensively to be so tough tonight?
"We were just aware. We have been working really hard at practice. We work on getting into the passing lanes. We always like to start out really aggressive. We were able to deny and force the other team to go back door and we have been doing a great job of giving that backside help and we just finish it off by getting the defensive rebounds. "
Sophomore, Caroline Doty
Despite the blowout, do you see the team getting better with each game?
"We are definitely getting better just because each team play throws different looks at us. Hartford is a good three point shooting team so we came out wanting to defend the three point line. We wanted to work on our aggressiveness tonight and with the aggressiveness we came out with, we definitely worked on it. "
How do you sense things are going so far despite the margins of victory?
"We still have work to do, which with these next ten 10 days are going to help with that. I think we are very focused and we know what we need to do. What we take from practice, we apply to the games and it's all mentality. We are trying to come out with that mentally 100 percent for every single game so we are ready for the games in the future and I think we are getting there. "
Hartford Head Coach - Jennifer Rizzotti
On if she felt her team had aggressiveness and fight in the second half
Yes, I did. It was nice to have Diana back on the floor, because she was the only one scoring for us tonight. We talked about playing it as another twenty minute game and finding a way to win it. So we lost by seven, they weren't pressing the way they were in the first half. Certainly Maya and Tina weren't out there as much, but I still feel good about the way we responded. We tried to take the game in segments. We talked a lot about the runs that UConn is capable of making, and not just UConn, teams that we've played the last couple of weeks that have made runs on us and what are those reasons. So we've really been trying to focus on that. Our execution and eliminating our mistakes that come in bunches.
Are you impressed with how relentless UConn is at the beginning?
Yes, obviously it's impressive, certainly not surprising. I talked to my team after the game and I said, "you wonder why I'm a crazy person," this is where I come from. These guys are up 35 and I'm sure he went into the locker room and had something to complain about, and that's where I come from. Whatever you do, we're going to want more, yes, I want you to be perfect, do I expect you to be perfect?. Geno says it all the time, no, but we're certainly going to strive to be. I want them to be a better version of themselves, of what we're capable of. What's the most perfect version of Hartford that we can be? We can learn a lot from the way UConn does things, because not everything they do is about having All Americans on the floor. The things that they do well keeping up their desire, heart, and determination, and that's what I want my team to understand. I'm not asking them to be UConn or any body else, but I'm certainly coming from a place where striving for perfection is a regular every day occurrence, so I'm going coach that way.
