University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn-UMass Lowell Postgame Quotes
12/12/2020 4:35:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On what he saw from the team:
"You can find out more in a 40-minute game than you can in four months of practice. The things we saw today are more telling than what we saw in the last four months. When we practice, we say you need to keep your foot still. It's not important until you get a couple walking calls. These types of things are way more important in practices because you see how they translate into the game.
"Look… this is the weirdest game I've coached since I coached my son's AAU team. My expectations for today were really low. My expectations were if we played the game that was meeting my expectations. What did I see that was great, nothing really. What I saw that was good was our players were who they are."
On what he saw in Paige Bueckers' first collegiate game:
"I mean when you come advertised as your better than any flavor of ice cream invented and play like that people will say I don't know. Paige played like Paige. She rebounded the ball, stole the ball and passed the ball. If you look at that game today, over the next four years that will be the worst game she plays in her four years here. I know Paige has high expectations for herself.
"There's not a segment of the game that Paige is not comfortable with. In baseball they call that a five-tool player… when you look at Paige she's a five-tool basketball player."
On what he saw from Evina Westbrook:
"E hasn't played in a long, long time. We give her breaks during practice so we did the same thing today. She wants to be that driving force on defense. E is going to be a driving force. I don't know her rep from her other school, but she is going to be an older leader for us."
Redshirt Junior Evina Westbrook
On her first game back:
I don't think it really hit me until the end of the game…just taking it all in, it was a great experience for me. It was definitely a lot of emotions before the game. Just being out there, I'm an older player, I have to play a certain way and act that way on the court. I think it was a good first game for all of us.
"I would say it was a solid day today, probably a 5-6 on a scale from 1-10. Just really going out there, first game in a UConn jersey, getting all the mistakes out, and feeling the excitement of my first game in over a year. I felt great. I'm not really worried about a game such as this one playing a whole lot, just making sure when I'm out there I'm doing what I need to for the team."
On Paige Bueckers:
She's amazing. She loves to facilitate the ball and get a lot of people involved. She will get you the ball. She's been nothing but a joy to play with. My expectations of her are to just continue what she's doing.
On the team creating energy without fans:
"We had talked about that, the overall atmosphere was going to be different for us. Bringing that energy is an expectation for us in practice every day, so games are no different. It was a really fun experience and I'm sure we'll be able to handle that down the road as well."
Junior Olivia Nelson-Ododa:
On the freshmen:
I saw that we were capable of being aggressive, but as always, we can work on that more. As we continue to practice and play, they can only get better from here."
On the upcoming stretch:
I think as most teams have been able to do this season, we'll adjust as we need to. I think we'll be able to adjust well as a team and we're just looking forward to being able to play regardless of the situation."
On the offense in first game back:
I think we're moving the ball well and trying to find the open people. We'll just go back and see what we need to work on."
Freshman Mir McLean
On her first game at UConn:
We were all excited to play our first game, we've all been waiting a long time I knew what I could do, what my teammates could do, and we went out and played as best as we could. When we got quiet on the bench it was kind of awkward, but I think the bench kept it alive.
I just tried to focus on what everyone was doing on the court and trying to lock in. I just kept my mindset on doing the things that I'm good at."
Freshman Paige Bueckers:
On her first college game:
"It was really fun, - we've been waiting to play basketball for nine months. Fans, no fans, we just wanted to play basketball. Before the game I was really nervous, but once you're playing, you're just playing basketball. Once the game actually got underway it was calming."
On tuning out hype:
"I talked to Coach about this the other day. My expectations for myself are pretty high, so just living up to what I know I can do. I try not to focus on what everyone else thinks. I try to be the best version of myself."
On the upcoming schedule:
"I think we're so tired of practicing…games are going to be good for us. We're going to be able to play against new people in new environments…it'll be hard, but we're itching to play more games at this point.
