University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn-Cincinnati Postgame Quotes
1/9/2019 10:23:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On today's performance:
"It's been a long time and I thought we came out with a tremendous amount of energy. We made a couple adjustments the last couple days defensively and I think it paid off. We had a really, really, really good first quarter, not just scoring-wise, but in our attention to this is what we want to do, this is how we want to do it. They really did a good job with that and played with a ton of energy."
On Megan Walker:
"I don't know how many points she scored but this may have been one of Megan Walker's best games since she's been at Connecticut, and if we can continue to get that every game I think we're gonna be on our way."
On defense:
"I think we were more aggressive defensively than we have been in a while and because the ball went in the basket it allowed us to set up some things that we wanted to work on. I thought we did a lot of really good things tonight and our defense started it all."
On Christyn Williams:
"Christyn's gonna be a typical freshman. She's gonna have great spurts and she's gonna have spurts where she's a freshman and not sure and tentative. I think the important thing was that there wasn't any hesitation at all in that whole first half. When she got the ball she was pretty decisive with what she wanted to do. To me, that's always the first step in having some kind of success, is being decisive."
On the bench:
"If we have too many of those guys on the court at the same time it's not gonna look very good. So we have to space it out and bottom line is, it's gonna be our five starters and the mix and match off the bench one or two guys, spot them in there, and hopefully they give us some crucial minutes. I thought Kyla [Irwin] gave us some great minutes in the first half. So if we can get more of that on a regular basis I think that will help us. I don't know if they're going to score a lot of points but we don't need them to score a lot of points. We need them to do some other things. And it doesn't matter if they help our team when they come in the game. We just need to get them to the point where they understand, you can't hurt us. And that's the focus a little bit at a time."
On Katie Lou Samuelson playing with bench:
"The reason why Lou was in there a lot after she sat half of the third quarter and a little bit in the fourth was Lou's our backup point guard and backup forward and starting whatever. So she can fill a lot of different spots and help them navigate where they need to be and help them more than anyone else on our team. She communicates with them."
On Crystal Dangerfield:
"She has a tough job. She comes down and makes a lot of shots, that means she's not passing the ball. I'd rather see her create 20 points with 10 assists, probably more than 20 with a couple threes that we probably got off her passing. I'd rather her account for 30 points, 35 points any which way, it doesn't matter whether she's getting them or she's getting them for somebody else. I don't ever worry when someone has 10 assists and doesn't score a lot."
Junior Guard Crystal Dangerfield
On if she is a pass first point guard:
"Definitely, I think I'm pass first in a sense. When my teammates are hitting shots like that I want to continue to get them involve like that."
On finding her shot:
"Coach has said that when I'm getting other people involved my shots will come and when they do I have to capitalize on them."
On being back after the road trip:
"We've been away for so long it's a little weird. I made a joke where I said this is an away game because we haven't been here for so long but coming back tonight was a good feeling."
Senior Guard/Forward Katie Lou Samuelson
On her comfort being a leader:
"I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what's going on and I have a pretty good idea of what other people on my team can do. If they're in and they feel comfortable in a certain spot I can go to another spot to make it more beneficial for them. Recognizing that and understanding what I can do to help had been important to me this season."
On acting like a coach during the injury timeout:
"I'm just trying to make sure that if I see something I'm going to say it. I wanted to bring them together and tell them what I saw on the play before. Molly [Bent] made an incredible pass but I want to make sure we can find ways to get everyone to succeed. Sometimes you can feel kind of lost out there if you don't have someone that is that vocal."
On being back home:
"It's awesome. It's a lot of fun. You can tell we love playing here and you can tell by the feeling in the team. At shoot around everyone was just in a little better mood because we know that we're home and we know we're going to have that support."
