University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn-Vanguard Postgame Quotes
11/4/2018 4:31:00 PM | Women's Basketball
UConn Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On what he learned from today's game:
"Every exhibition game is the same. We're going to play a team that we're going to beat by a lot, so you can't go by the final score. You try to go by how they look. Those first five, six, seven minutes, considering it was the first time out, there was a lot of good stuff happening. The three players that I expect the most from, [Katie Lou Samuelson], [Napheesa Collier]Â and Crystal [Dangerfield], were completely in charge of what was going on. Megan [Walker] and Christyn [Williams]Â did what they've been doing in practice every day, so that's nothing new. The rest is to be determined."
On freshman guard Christyn Williams:
"She's unique in that respect that you don't have to tell her a couple times when she gets the ball what you want her to do. I just want to continue to point out to her how many opportunities exist when she touches it and what she's good at, and she's good at a lot of different things. Whenever she catches the ball I want her to do something. I don't necessarily know what or how, but I know she's going to do something with it."
On how the reserves played towards the end of the game:
"I've been saying it for two years now, or however long I've been saying it, that we have a big gap between a certain group that we play and then the next group. It's too early in the season to make any assumptions but that second group, or anybody coming off the bench, has to feel like they can contribute something because we're going to need them at some point. It happens every year. Some years we have guys who are All-Americans coming off the bench that could start for any other team in the country. Obviously, now we don't, so we have to make do with what we have."
Senior Guard Katie Lou Samuelson
On what she saw today:
"A lot of the stuff we're doing are the things we're doing in practice, trying to get out in transition, trying to push the ball and get the right shots to the right people and so that's a good sign. We're still going to go back and practice to make sure we have everything before the first game on Sunday."
On Christyn Williams:
"She can be confident and help us playing the way she did. It's really important for us to have that fourth, we're looking for that extra help from people and her doing that really shows that we can count on her in more games to come."
On crashing the boards:
"I think I'm just trying to make sure I do more stuff this year. We lost a really big rebounder for us, I've been trying to do it more in practice and just make sure I can be more of an all-around player for this team."
Senior Forward Napheesa Collier
On defensive communication:
"That's one of the biggest things because we don't have one person who can step up and be our main defender, we rely on the whole team now more than ever so communication is the only thing that's going to keep us alive on defense."
On Megan Walker's rebounding:
"It's really important, because it's going to be really hard if I'm the only one rebounding so it really is a team effort we need everyone to crash the boards because we're not as big as we have been in the past so working on rebounding is going to be a big key for us."
On what she's looking for against Ohio State:
"I'm looking for us to play at this same intensity and play as well as we did today against Ohio State. I think we came out really strong today and hopefully it transfers over for next week."
