Geno Auriemma Quotes (268 Quotes)

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.

The time she broke her ankle standing still. Do you know how hard that is to do

Today we played almost well enough to win the game. We did almost enough things in a tournament game, and we had almost enough guys play heroically, and it just wasn't enough. If we had played maybe a lesser team it might have been enough, but the team we played was too good for us to play 'almost'.

I know she wants to play, and as long as the game is being decided, she wants to be out there. She is a senior and I feel like I owe it to her. At the same time, I don't want to do anything to jeopardize what is coming down the road either.

Whenever we have to walk the ball up and try to attack teams in their half court, its not easy for us, because we dont have a huge inside presence. So Im constantly urging us to run.

I can't tell you how many times I've been offered jobs in that league that no one ever knew about. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people seriously about jobs in that league. This one just happened to make it to that point ... to the newspapers.

(The medical staff) doesn't want to rush her back. She did it once. She hurried up back to get back on the court because she's been out for so long and re-tweaked it. So now there's no point in rushing her back.

She played way more than I wanted her to play. But she'll take today off and go Monday and then take Tuesday and Wednesday off, and we'll see.

It's always good to see Trina. It's interesting when you know somebody when they're 17. Now you look at her and they're struggling and playing us without their leading scorer. It's kind of bittersweet. You hate to see them in that situation.

We got the big lead and we had a chance, when pressure came, to really make some plays to extend it. But we let one play lead to another to another to another. It just got completely away from us. I guess credit their defense, but I was just looking at the stat sheet.

The big guys hurt us. And Essence Carson hurt us. They got contributions from the big guys and Essence Carson. And for us it was hard to find people to contribute.

If I could predict what this team is going to do ... based on our history, we're going to play really good and we're going to do things that are going to put us in jeopardy of losing. That's about the only thing I can predict.

The only thing you can do is go ahead with what's there in front of you. If she can play, then you play her. If she can't play, you don't play her.

As it should be. When you've played here the longest, you should have a pretty good idea what to do. If you're going to be a good team, you have to do that.

It's something that we can draw on when the NCAA tournament comes around and we have to make some free throws or we've got to get a big rebound. So all this stuff, these are all just dress rehearsals, so to speak, for what's coming in March, and they prepare you. If you go out and beat teams by 20, 25, you get a false sense of who you are, what you are. I think we know pretty well after this trip that we're pretty good. We're not as good as you want to be yet, but we're pretty good.

It just kind of disappears out of nowhere. There'll be five possessions where you'll think, 'Holy cow, that's an unbelievable play' And then it just disappears.

It seems like we're in the late game an unusual amount of times compared to maybe some other schools. I guess that's a good thing that people want us to be in that game. Or maybe they're trying to keep women and children from being exposed to some of the stuff that we do on the court, and hoping everybody's asleep by the time we play. I do think it's difficult on the players.

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.

Im not going to put her in a situation where shes going to play and then next year shes going to need another (surgery) just to walk Im not going to do that.

We want everybody to be one of the top players in the league, and it's not out of the realm of possibly to do that. We've got all the ingredients. It's just a matter of doing it.

What we did on Monday can really scar you for a long, long time. You are going to hear about it every minute of every single day from everybody. You have to have pretty tough skin to survive in this environment, and sometimes you don't come back from stuff like that very quickly.

Every day that you see somebody that you think is really, really good and can't seem to get it going, you're always concerned about that because after a while, it's not physical anymore. It's mental. And that's the hardest thing to overcome. Every day that it goes on, you worry like they might never come out of this.

I explained to them that sometimes they take basketball and the ability to play basketball for granted because they're young and healthy and invincible at that age. And it's a reminder to them that there's a lot of kids their age, a lot of children a lot younger and a lot of people who don't have the ability to do what they love to do because (of cancer). Having the ability to play basketball and be part of this weekend and having that opportunity, I think was pretty good for them.

I think this is the first time in my life I have been rendered speechless.

It's not like you ever lose confidence or give up on people. I think players sometimes don't understand fully the amount of responsibility on their shoulders. As seniors, you have to take on that responsibility.

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 told them any time you are open and it's your shot, it's a good shot. I think my job is to instill confidence in shooters. The only way to instill confidence is to tell them every time you are open - shoot it. If we get an open look we are going to make the most of them.

Fair or unfair, at Connecticut it's not good enough just to win. There's a perception that if we don't go to the Final Four, it's a bad season. I want the players to understand that the one constant in our program, is that we want to make sure we play hard and have fun.

It's day-to-day. She said she felt pretty good (Friday), but right now it's going to be some down time for her. We'll give her a couple more days off and see if it keeps getting better.

I remember saying that. It was right around the baseball playoffs. I always thought it was pretty cool how a manager would send a pitcher ahead to the next city to wait for his team. I wanted to give Will the opportunity to do that. Why sit around for five months doing nothing I figured she could be up there scouting out the hotels and restaurants and sightseeing tours for us.

I think our defense will be tested, no question. I think our offense is going to be tested. You have to be a good defensive team to win, don't get me wrong. I don't think non-defensive teams are going to win national championship. I don't think non-defensive teams are going to win the Big East championship.

I haven't given that one thought. I haven't invested one second of energy on that. All I've been thinking about is how we can get to the Final Four, and now that we're not there, my thoughts are, unfortunately, not necessarily personal.

I told her in the locker room after the game, I said 'You should feel terrible, you wasted away about 10 games of your college career. She got more accomplished tonight than she did in 10 of our games.

I think we came out of the game feeling that Pitt lost rather than we won. We didn't really come out here and beat Pitt like we did so many other times.

This is probably the first time since 1991 that I feel like we're truly a team that relies so heavily on each other. Everyone has to make a contribution for us to be really good. And obviously, Barbara and Ann have the ability to make huge contributions, and they did. That's what you expect from them. And sometimes we do forget they've won two national championships. They know how to handle these situations.

I don't care if you have the best team in the country or are Cinderella, this is the hardest game to play in that you'll ever play in. The goal for most people is to have an experience of being in the Final Four. After you've been to the Final Four there's no experience like it, except winning a national championship.

We can be as good as anyone in the nation on any given day, and we can be worse than anyone in the nation on any given day. I never know what team is going to show up to play.

There's 12 really good reasons (to stay), the 12 players on my team, ... And that's always going to be the case. You always coach for the players and you always coach for the enjoyment that you get out of it. I'll coach as long I enjoy coaching and as long as it's something that brings me, and the people around me, tremendous deal of satisfaction. When that's not the case any more I won't coach anymore. Here or anywhere else.

I'm glad that she's been patient enough and not kind of succumb to what a lot of coaches succumb to. Which is at the first sign of success they jump up to what they think is a greener pasture -- a big-time job somewhere else. But she's been patient enough to kind of build something that's going to be long lasting.

It has been a ridiculous three weeks in terms of my thought process. During all that time when the Final Four was going on, flying out to California, Hall of Fame, all of that, there was a lot going on personally for me where I'm trying to sort out how long am I going to do this Where am I going to go from here What else am I going to do

I think she's taking it pretty seriously. You know, it's that time of the year.

Just having her out there gives us a little sense of confidence. We were missing that most of the first half. That's why it's so important for her and Mel to make shots, because if they're not making them, all kinds of crazy things start happening.

My opinion of the whole thing is it's a joke. The coach of that team should have his head examined.

She is assembling a really great cast here. She is taking young players and playing them. Once they are older they will know how to play together. Pitt accomplished more (yesterday) then we did.

I know that when she gets it going you can't guard her. She can make the three. She can take you off the dribble. She is as strong as anybody else on the court. She has the mentality of a scorer. And she defends. To me,every good team starts with a good point guard.

My family's grown up here. I've done a million things here that I'm really proud of. (And) 99.9 percent of the time I've been treated better than I ever envisioned that I'd be treated. So I'm not looking to go anywhere. I'm not looking to run away from anything. I'm not looking to find greener pastures.

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.

I'm just really disappointed in the way we came out to play the game today. At home, that's not supposed to happen.

You don't really understand what winning is and really don't appreciate what winning is until you've had your share of losing.

Sometimes you just have to hope they play bad.