University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn vs. South Florida Postgame Quotes
1/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 4, 2010
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Head Coach Geno Auriemma
Is keeping the players intensity high one of the greatest challenges for you and not having that drop off?
It's not a challenge. It's not a challenge at all. It is not anything that I try to give a lot of thought to. I didn't know what the score was the first 15 minutes of the game, and I thought it was going to be another 30 point lead going into halftime. There was a lot of whistles in the first half and there were a lot of whistles in the final five minutes of the half. We had a lot of guys on the bench who would have otherwise been on the court at those particular times. If they were on the court, we would have had a 30 point halftime lead but they were not on the court and the players we had out there did not play so great. We went in leading only by 14 points. This is the only place in America where you have to apologize for being up 14 at halftime.
Were you upset or disappointed with the flow of the game?
Yea, I thought that the people we had out there were not necessarily people who have played together as a unit. So I was a little bit anxious to see how they would handle that situation. They really didn't have any go to players out there to help them out and were kind of out there on their own. I was more worried about what Kalana was doing out there because she should have been a little better at it but overall, I was disappointed that Tina Charles didn't score in the first half. I didn't go into halftime at the Stanford game worrying about if we were going to win the game and I didn't go into halftime today worrying about the last five minutes of the half.
Do you have the luxury sometimes of putting certain players together because you want to see how they react playing with each other and figuring things out for their own. Is it good to have some of those situations so they know how to deal with them later on in the year?
We were playing with a really small line-up and we knew we were going to have a tough time with Kalana and Megahn being the only two big guys out there. I think the more times you are in those situations, the better you become as a player. If you're trying to guard players who are five inches taller than you, the more situations you are in like that the better you are off as a player because down the road, that is a possibility. Caroline was not going to play today because she was sick, and she didn't even practice today. When she is not on the court for long periods of time, you can really tell the difference in our team. All of a sudden now, there are not a whole lot of options out on the floor so we are not in any offensive flow. It was good for them to learn from but on the other hand, some of these players need help because they cannot do it on their own.
Sophomore Guard Tiffany Hayes
Do you feel like it is helping your game to play the off-guard position?
I think that helps me out a lot because that is my primary position. I can let Lauren (Dixon) find all the open players, whether it's me or anyone. She finds the open player and that helps me out a lot.
How glad were you to see some of those three's fall tonight?
I was really glad because I have been hitting them in practice and shoot around, but they haven't been falling in games. They finally ended up falling in games, so I am really happy about that.
Junior Forward Maya Moore
What was different between the first and second half?
I think we came out more focused. We weren't happy at all with how we played in the first half. If we hadn't responded, I would have been really concerned. We work too hard in practice and we have too much pride in our program to play like we did the last five minutes of the first half. Tina (Charles) stepped up. She ran the floor, got some rebounds. Lauren (Dixon) did a great job pushing the ball. Tiffany (Hayes) did a great job of staying aggressive, knocking down three's, and penetrating. She did a little bit of everything tonight. We all just came together. I think we came together pretty well and stepped up our defense.
Are you happy with the way things are going this season, 13-0, winning games by 30 to 40 points?
No, I don't think we will ever be satisfied. We don't set our goals; we don't set our expectations around the score. We set our expectations and our level of satisfaction around how we play the game and three out of the four of our last games we haven't played a complete game. That's something we are going to need down the line, so we are going to continue to work at it in practice. We have to continue to prepare and figure out what it looks like for us to prepare and play a complete game.
What do you think needs improvement?
We are figuring that out. It is all mental. There's no doubt that we can physically do it. It is just that we need all the pieces to come together game day and every practice. We need to come together and be confident. A lot of things have to work to get a complete and perfect game. It is one of those things that we've tried to do for so long here that it seems like, 'oh, that's what they always do.' But, now we can really see how hard it is and sometimes we take that for granted. I am just glad that we are realizing it and working it out now.
South Florida Head Coach Quotes Jose Fernandez
Would you rather play UConn in the first game of your Big East schedule or toward the end after your team has had time to mature?
Last year we won twenty seven games and won the NIT and this year we have a very young team. I was proud of our team for bringing the deficit down to fourteen points at halftime. It is difficult to come back with their starting five out on the court and we ended up using all of our timeouts thirty minutes into the game. We gave up a lot of points off turnovers in the first half and that was difficult to overcome.
What do you think was the biggest difference in the second half?
UConn's defense was the biggest difference. They did a great job and switched on screens. We lost some seniors from last year so are a young team out on the floor. We start a freshman and two sophomores out on the perimeter that are still getting used to the speed of collegiate play.
