University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn vs. Louisville Postgame Quotes
1/15/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 15, 2011
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UConn Head Coach Geno Auriemma UConn vs. Louisville January 15, 2011
Were you pleased with the way that Bria (Hartley) played following the loss of Tiffany Hayes? "Well, it's something that we talked about a lot since the beginning of the season. Bria has the ability to impose herself on the game whenever she wants to. When she's being aggressive on the offense end she's able to make plays for herself and other people and she's looking to take advantage of scoring opportunities. Maybe because Tiffany wasn't there there were more of those opportunities for her. We had a long talk yesterday and I think she's starting to understand what her role is on this team and how consistent she has to be. I thought today was a great step forward."
Any concern with Tiffany (Hayes) going into Monday's game? "These things, there's nothing you can do about it. She banged her head against Maya's (Moore) hip or something and has a mild concussion. Exactly what that means I don't know. We'll probably know more tomorrow. It is what it is. There's not much you can do about it."
What did you think of Shoni (Schimmel) playing against Bria (Hartley)? They should have some good battles in the next four years. "Yeah. She's a pretty aggressive kid. She certainly doesn't shy away from the ball and she doesn't shy away from wanting to shoot it and wanting to make a play. I think she's a lot like Bria. She needs to solid and she needs to be consistent for them to help their team. Based on what I saw, there's very little that when I watch her you can say she struggles with. She seems to have a good overall game."
Were you pleased with the play of Lorin (Dixon) off the bench today? "In the second half. In the first half I was really disappointed in her. When you're called on and come off the bench and you know you can provide certain things at both ends, offensively and defensively, Lorin understands that there are certain things she can do that no one else on our team can do, and she has to do those every single day. For her to play the way she played in the first half, that's just not acceptable. It's unacceptable for her as a senior and unacceptable for us as a team. I told her that at halftime and I thought she came out in the second half and set the tone on defense. That was the difference in the game, those first five minutes, how we defended them, the shots we forced and that was because of Lorin."
Did you feel that giving up an easy offensive rebound to end the first half is indicative of how you played in the half? "We're at the mercy of our post players. You wonder some times can they ever become consistent and give us something we need. We talked a lot about that the last couple of weeks. People who rebound well are not people who practice rebounding a lot. They are born a certain way and they have a nose for the ball. They are aggressive and they want the ball. Bria Hartley had more rebounds than Stefanie Dolson and Maya Moore. That's hard to believe, right? But that's how we live right now. In fact, Lorin Dixon had more rebounds than Stefanie Dolson tonight. So it's just been a struggle to get our big guys to be more consistent. Thank goodness for Kelly (Faris), because she bails us out all the time on the defensive end."
UConn Player Quotes
Maya Moore: On the collision with Tiffany Hayes early in the game: "We both went for the ball and she kind of hit her head on me...somewhere hard. I think around my midsection. She didn't get back up quickly so I knew something was off. She's looking fine though, I'm pretty sure. She's not laid out looking all out of it, she looks fine."
On playing a short rotation if someone major goes down: "I don't really think about that. I just trust the coaching staff to prepare us the way they know how. They have years and years of experience playing through seasons with different amounts of guys in the lineup with people who are injured. I don't think about it. If they tell me to do something, I'm going to do it. If that creates a problem, then we can go ahead and fix it."
On defensive effort: "It just comes down to aggressiveness. In the first half we weren't aggressive enough. On defense, we always try to take the mindset of `even though we are on defense, we are going to be the aggressor.' When we are in the passing lanes and pressuring the ball and communicating on defense, that's us being aggressive and that's exactly why we had a run, because our defense was pushing it."
Bria Hartley: On talking with coach about what she has to do out on the court: "It definitely helped a lot because you want to go out there and show coach that he can depend on me to be a leader out on the court and work hard all the time and play well for the team to help us get a win."
On if she thought she would need to score more with Tiffany Hayes going down: "No not necessarily. When Tiffany is out, when one of the main players is out, we have to play together. All of the guards have to work together to get good shots and just run a good offense."
On hitting three-pointers to extend the lead when it was 39-34 towards the end of the half: "I knew we had to step up at that time. We just wanted to run our offense and get good shots. If the shot's open, you gotta take it."
If she was more aggressive today with Hayes out: "I was a little more aggressive today. I can't sit back and wait for the bigs to come after me. Sometimes I have to take the initiative and help the team get things done."
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
His thoughts on a close first half: "I thought we lost a little bit of composure. We're playing with a couple of upper classmen that really do a nice job for us...but at the same time we still don't have that leadership yet that you need when you're playing on the road at a place like this. It's 39-34, we're right there competing and they come down the court and hit a couple of baskets, instead of someone saying that we're ok, panic sets in.... We just have to continue to work, continue to get in the gym. We have to do a better job in practice of putting them in tough situations where it really puts a mental test on them."
On the team's 18 turnovers: "We're averaging about 18, so we're right on par for us. We just have to cut down on the unforced start-overs. The charging calls, the walking calls really aren't forced by anybody, it's not being mentally focused and disciplined enough at this point but we try to get in the passing lanes, we try to create as much havoc as we can. I thought in the first half, we did a good job with that. The big thing is, we forced 18 turnovers, but we only got 14 points off of them, so it really doesn't matter. If you're forcing turnovers and can't score off them it defeats the purpose".
