University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn-St. John's Postgame Quotes
2/3/2021 9:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball
UConn Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On the value of having a deep bench:
Anytime there's an injury, it opens up an opportunity for someone to step up and fill that void. In our case, it happens to be freshmen. I've got tremendous confidence in both of them. Aaliyah, how hard she works. You saw her work on the board and what she does running the floor. She's just a big physical presence for us. Nika's getting more and more comfortable every game that she plays. The more minutes she plays, the better she looks. She's shooting the ball with so much confidence. So it felt good to see them have that much success.
On Paige Bueckers scoring 32 points:
Yeah there was an opportunity there. Whenever you're not at full strength and there's shots missing from the line up and Evina [Westbrook] wasn't having a great shooting day, I thought Paige took advantage of most of the opportunities that came her way. Paige is good at finding those opportunities and she's just as good at taking advantage of them.
On reaching 13 games and being eligible for the NCAA Tournament:
Yeah, I had said it earlier this season: it may be real easy to pick the teams that are in the NCAA tournament, just pick the teams that get to 13 [games]. So we're one of them and I hope they have us on the list. From there, we have a tough stretch coming up right here in February. It will probably be our toughest stretch so far. Marquette and then South Carolina and then Seton Hall. We got three NCAA tournament teams probably. Not easy. Then we got a bunch ready after that. There's no stopping or taking a breath. I think we've got 9 or 11 games where we only have one day to get ready for those games. So getting everyone healthy is going to be priority number one."Â
On how he feels about the freshmen's work ethic so far:
Going by the new basketball world that we live in today, these guys are regular John Havliceks. When you're going by what you see out there and how the play is just so vanilla like this, trying to up the intensity level to what I call a 'Connecticut level' is not the easiest thing in the world. The younger you are, the more difficult it is - most times. Aaliyah has it, Nika has it, Mir [McLean]Â can have it at times when she's got it going. So for sure, they have it. Paige has it in a different way. So where do they stack up among other freshmen? Hard to say, but in today's world where you're great because you're great, they're great.
On starting three freshman and having five on the floor at once:
Yeah I did look out there at one point and there were four freshmen and one high school kid. When the season started, four kids were freshman and one kid was in high school. Now, all five of them are here UConn and they're all playing at the same time. They looked like they knew what they were doing and Paige looked like their ringleader. They seemed to have a little bit of fun out there and played some really really good minutes. Let's just hope we can keep building on that.
Freshman Guard Paige Bueckers
On playing with the other freshmen:
It's really fun, obviously we're really close off the court. We're getting that chemistry on the court as well. It's really just fun to play with them, they bring so much energy and so much competitiveness and I really like playing with them a lot.
On the freshmen's performances:
It's not really a surprise to any of us because they're doing the stuff they're doing out on the court every day in practice. They're workhorses, they work really hard, they run the floor, they're very vocal. As freshmen you don't expect us to talk a whole lot but I feel like they talk a whole bunch. And just the little stuff that they do, I'm not really surprised by all the stuff they've been doing in games because it's the stuff they're doing in practice every day. Them playing like that is really big for us.
On her leadership:
I'm still working on it every single day. Coach has been really hard on me to start using my voice more. Sometimes I see stuff that other people don't see and I need to voice that and try to help them, and it'll help me and it'll help the team. But every day in practice he's really big on me using my voice and just being more vocal and being that leader. Not just by example but vocally, he's really hard on me about that.
Freshman Guard Nika Mühl
On her development:
I feel like it's slowly coming where I want it to be. I'm still not there yet and I have a long way to go, but I feel like little by little I'm more confident and comfortable on the court.
On the stretch with five freshmen on court:
It was fun, it really felt good. I think our relationship on and off the court just translates so well into games and we're so comfortable with each other. We read each other well, it was fun. I'm looking forward to playing together with them more.
Freshman Forward Aaliyah Edwards
On the stretch with five freshmen on court:
It feels great. The stuff that we do in practice we're just transferring over to the game. So it was good to have all of us out there and doing the stuff that we do best.
On her chemistry with Paige Bueckers:
I think it's great. We had some great runs in the pick and roll and some great looks out of it. Either she hitting me for a pass down low or she pulling up for that jumpshot. I think that's a great threat and it's exciting to see how that grows.
On her physical mindset:
I love it, I'm a pretty competitive person. Going up for those boards, that was just my mindset, just to grab it.
On her teammates' play:
It feels great because that's the type of teammates I love playing with. And that's how we as a team can be successful. Not only making myself as an individual successful but towards the team. I think we had some great stretches down the road today in the game that we can transfer into our next upcoming games. We have a tight schedule coming up, so just continuing to build off of those.
St. John's Head Coach Joe Tartamella
On how the team is adjusting without Qadashah Hoppie:
We've been trying to play without her in most cases for a number of games this year. We're adjusting without her, but we've had to do it without her all year. You need [Unique]Â Drake and [Kadaja] Bailey, we need our bigs to make up that gap. We've seen it in some games but we really haven't been able to close the gap to what Q would bring from a scoring and leadership standpoint, we're really missing her senior leadership.
On what you tell the team when down 20 after shooting 52 percent from the floor:
We need to play better defensively, that's the reason why we were down. We didn't defend, rebound or take one free throw.
On trying to stop Paige Bueckers:
She's a great talent. She can shoot, pick you apart with vision. We didn't make it difficult for her today. She's a great player, controls the flow of the game, and has a great confidence about her. I think she's already an unbelievable talent, to see a younger player lead her team with such poise is very impressive.
