Geno Auriemma Last Quotations

I was flabbergasted we couldn't execute something we have run every day in practice for the last five months.

One of the dangers that you run into when you have success so early, people tend to forget. It?s better to have success late then early because an awful lot of people may end up remembering whatever happened last year or whatever is going to happen this year.

One of the reasons why we want to play in this tournament when we're eligible is because it's usually a good field and you end up playing pretty good teams. You find out quickly early in the season where you stand. We're a lot better today than we were last week.

No one ever talks about our defense. Our defense has always been good. But when you have great offensive players like I've coached the last 15 years, it's hard to concentrate on our defense. But our defense has been pretty good.

Look at last year's tournament and see who did what.

Playing at Louisville, at DePaul, at Villanova, at Notre Dame, at Texas, and we're going to go to Rutgers... I think we've had the toughest stretch of anybody else in the league. And for us to play well and to win, that's a huge step for us because I don't think this group really believed last year that we could win on the road against good teams.

Last year I didn't like the fact that you never what the starting lineup was going to be. I'd like it settled by the time the first game comes around. I'd like to be settled. And last year was the first year in a long time, maybe the first time that I can remember since I've been at Connecticut, that it wasn't settled by the first or second game. It never seemed to get itself settled.

Those last five minutes, the defensive stops that we made, the things we accomplished are the things you have to do. I think we made the plays. Offensively we got the ball where we wanted to get it. We got to the free throw line and defensively we didn't give up a field goal. That is a far cry from last Monday (against Rutgers). That is the nature of the game. You get it right and you feel great. You get it wrong you feel lousy.

We have won some big games on the road against some good teams, which has given the group the confidence that you need to play in these games. I don?t know that we went in feeling like we were good enough to win this thing last year. I think maybe we thought we were, but I?m not sure we really believed it.

We needed some time. The only days we did anything was Friday and Saturday. Both of the days were more of just getting our heads rather than our bodies ready. We had a talk last night with the team and a lot of really good things came out.

We hope to improve on what was a very, very disappointing year last year. My fans are adamant that if we're 25-8 again next year, heads are going to roll.

To their kids' credit, they play hard, even last year when they were losing. Their mind-set is, 'We can win,' where before they were hoping not to get beat by too much. Watching on film, they act like they can win.

Watching them play kind of brought back memories of when you spring an upset. I don't remember the last time we had a chance to spring an upset on somebody. It's a great feeling for them.

(Duffy) should get 40 points if she played the way she did in the last 10 minutes. She's just one of those unselfish kids who wants to get the other people on her team the ball. She showed in the last 10 minutes how hard she is to defend.

Today we were smart enough (to win). We ran out of timeouts and we did a lot of good things the last two minutes that we needed to do. Everybody feels real good about it right now.

I sense that this year, there have been more near-upsets and more great moments in this tournament than maybe the last five combined. Which is a sign, I think, that we are going in the right direction.

When you get to be a senior, a certain amount of responsibility falls on your shoulders, like all of it. Everything that happens on our team, you're responsible for it and you can't not take responsibility for it just because you're not playing. ... I think (Turner) understands that now and she was really different the last couple of days in practice.

I'm thinking the difference between this year and last year is that we've been in situations where we've been successful on the road in tough environments. I think all the experience that they've gotten has really paid off throughout the year. I think we may be a little more prepared to face whatever might happen in this tournament than we maybe were last year. It might be a little bit of a confidence thing. They probably do, right now, have a lot of confidence. If they don't by now, they never will.

I never know what to think anymore. Last year we go up to Notre Dame and spank them all over the court and then they come here and beat us. But I do think when you go on the road and play really well, that's a good sign. That's a sign that you can handle adversity and focus on what you need to focus on.

I'm happy for these kids. The worst thing that could have happened is for them not to get to the final with an opportunity to win a championship. After what happened last week, that would have been really really hard for them going into the NCAA Tournament.

I'm more excited about the possibilities going into this season than I was last year,

I knew we would find a different Notre Dame team than the one we played at their place. I knew we would have to play a lot better than we did there. Our post players came up really big. It went exactly the way I thought it would except for the last five or six minutes, considering the kind of week we had.

I'm glad that the realization has hit that this is it, that this is your last go-around and you've got to get things done. Right now you'd say that Will has really made a commitment to herself to being one of the better players at her position in our league.

I'm glad that they set it up the way they did to where it's the last game of the season. Ironically it ends up being for the Big East championship. If that's the way they had it planned, obviously it was pretty good planning.

It's never easy to lose and it's especially difficult to lose if there's a conference championship at stake. So there's a tremendous amount of frustration right now and it's going to take us a while for us to get over that. This is one of the bigger challenges that we've ever had as a coaching staff and as a program in the last 10, 15 years. I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time, I know how difficult it's going to be.

I know everybody has talked about parity the last couple of years, and it hasn't played out at the end of the season. But there does seem to be more even teams than in the past.

I don?t know if you can play better than she has the last two nights, Tuesday and (Thursday). She really has improved 100 percent, not 50, I think she?s 100 percent better than she was last year.

I remember the last time we won a national championship without a great tournament from our point guards. I think it was never. And I would venture to say if our guard play isn't really, really good, it won't happen again this year.

Sometimes you get it right and you have to kind of enjoy the moment. That last five minutes, the defensive stops that we made, the things that we accomplished, that's what good teams have to do.

The goal is not to play Rutgers three times, the goal is to win the Big East championship. It would be disrespectful to West Virginia to think like that. We set out to get ourselves in position to win a championship and put ourselves in the same position we put ourselves in last Monday (a 48-42 loss at Rutgers) and try to make the outcome a little different.

The first week or so is not bad. It's those last 10 days where they've been cooped up. That's when it's awful. So, for now, the novelty hasn't worn off yet. But it's not an ideal situation. It really isn't.

It's always been good. The last two times we've played in this building it's been exceptional.

There were two possessions and the one at the end. The last one, this is how games are won and how they are lost. Sometimes it almost doesn't matter what you do the whole game. The game can come down to a possession or two.

It seems like it's going to be settled fairly quickly, even though the competition is tougher this year than it was last year. There's just a lot more parity on our team. But yet, at the same time, you can seem them separating themselves. It's just a matter of time.

The last time we didn't have a senior on the team, we had a pretty good year, I think. We were (37-1) and we won a national championship. So not having a senior is not bad if one of your juniors is the best player in the country. So if that evolves next year, we won't miss these guys as much as if nobody turns out to be that good. Then we'll miss them a lot.