University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn-Creighton Postgame Quotes
1/9/2022 4:50:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On Caroline Ducharme's defense:
"She was really good today defensively in a lot of different ways. She's got a lot better at it, she's worked really hard at it. I think that's going to keep getting better, hopefully, as the season goes on and her career goes on. Hopefully she keeps making shots.
"I think the biggest area for her has been not getting lost on, whether it's what switches are going on or what cuts are happening or overhelping at times. Again, some of it's just experience. You play enough basketball at this level and you learn to read offenses better. That just takes a little bit of time. But she's just such a competitor. She competes and she wants to be really, really good. Whatever she sets her mind to, it's gonna get done. I have no doubt about that."
On Nika Muhl:
"It's hard when you miss that much time and you haven't practiced much. She's looked a lot better in practice than she did today, playing. She just has to understand that she's not right all the time and the refs are allowed to call fouls once in a while, that it's not always their fault when you foul. That causes her to not have a rhythm in the game because she can't be in the game as long as she wants to be or for long stretches like she wants to be. All in all, I'm happy we got her the minutes that we got her and hopefully we can get a few more out of her this upcoming week."
On positives from the game today:
"I thought defensively we pretty much got done everything that we wanted to get done. They're not an easy team to play against. They're not an easy team to defend. You've got to work really, really hard and you've got keep working, and the minute you stop they get a layup or they get an open three. I thought defensively considering we haven't played and couldn't have anyone at practice to actually go 5-on-5 and go full court, I thought that was a huge positive today. I was hoping we would come out and do a great job defensively. I was more worried about our execution on offense and our timing and everything, given that we haven't had that opportunity. I thought the defense was really, really good. And I thought the offense looked really good at times. We just have to get better at sustaining things. We allow something that happens to set us back, so we'll take two steps forward, something will happen, and we'll take two steps back. That hopefully is something we can work on the next couple days, the next couple weeks."
On how he can win with this group of players:
"So much of it is self-inflicted, unforced errors, our mental toughness has to be there. A concentration element that has to be there. When you watch this particular group play as it was today, there is an up and down factor to it. That's the only constant I've seen is the inconsistency. Players will look really good for five possessions, and then look completely the opposite for five possessions and then that will trickle down to another player and another. We're searching for who is going to be that individual on the court that is going to bring some sort of sense of order to what we are doing, to finish out late game situations, to finish out fourth quarters, to play through adversity. That to me is the most glaring thing that this team has to fix.
Freshman Guard Caroline Ducharme
On her improved defense:
"I've been happy with it. I've been trying to keep my player in front of me and I've been doing extra workouts and putting in extra work to stay on top of this. There still is progress to do but we are working on it."
Sophomore Forward Aaliyah Edwards
On being back in action:
"The excitement to just come back and play after being off for 20 days. It felt good. Just going back to my strengths and relying on my teammates helped with my success."
Senior Guard Christyn Williams
On Caroline Ducharme's performance:
"We had injuries and we needed people to step up. Caroline has done an amazing job filling in that role. She also had three blocks today so she has been working on defense as well so she has definitely been working hard. She's a scorer and she's not afraid to let it fly."
