Here is the transcript of today’s press conference for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team in anticipation of their rematch with the Stanford Cardinal in the Final Four tomorrow in St. Louis.
CONNECTICUT QUOTES
THE MODERATOR: Pleased to be joined up here at the podium by Connecticut head coach Gene Auriemma and Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery.
Again, once we have an opening statement from Coach we’ll take questions for the student-athletes.
COACH AURIEMMA: The same thing I say all the time, whether it’s at the regionals or at the Final Four, game time never gets here fast enough. There’s a million things you have to do and I obviously know they have to be done. But I know I speak for the players. I wish game day was today, but it’s not. We’re anxious to play. We’re obviously thrilled to be here.
I don’t think that we’re surprised that we’re here. This was something that these kids have worked really hard for. And as I tell them every day in practice, there’s only four teams left. And they’re all really, really good. So I would expect nothing but great games on Sunday.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.
Q. For either or both of you, can you talk about the matchup with Stanford, where you feel like your biggest strengths are and maybe where their strengths lie?
RENEE MONTGOMERY: For Stanford, I think their biggest strength, of course, is their post game. I think Jayne Appel has really made herself a dominant post presence throughout the season, and she’s just left it up to other teams to have to try to stop her. And I also think they have a perimeter to go along with that post game. But I’ll say that’s definitely one of their strengths.
As far as us, our strength is running the floor, making it a full-court game instead of a half-court offense and defense. I think our strength will just be to push the ball as much as possible.
MAYA MOORE: I agree, just as far as our strength being — we like to go. We like to run. And that’s just definitely one of our — mostly our style of play. They’re a disciplined team. They’re going to force us to play their style of basketball. They’re patient with their offense and they get the shot that they want. So we’re just going to have to do our best to try to just disrupt their offensive flow as much as possible.
Q. Maya and then Renee, anything that you learned from last year’s matchup in the semifinal that could help you Sunday?
MAYA MOORE: Just how much those little things matter. And the Final Four, all the things that you work on throughout the year. When your coaches are harping on getting the little things right. I think this year we definitely took it to heart a little more.
And so hopefully we’ve taken care of a lot of those little things and we’ll be able to execute tomorrow.
RENEE MONTGOMERY: I think we learned that it really is a team concept that everybody has to work at the same level and you can’t let someone work at their own pace or, you know — I think that we learned that everyone is accountable 1 through 13 on our team.
And that’s something that we didn’t have last year that we definitely have this year, that no matter how many minutes you play, everyone on the team feels they have a role on the team that they have to do every day for us to be successful.
And I think that’s the main thing, that everybody comes every day ready to do their role and do the best they can.
Q. Both Maya and Renee, what did last year’s game as far as losing, did that in any way teach you how to be ready not to lose tomorrow night?
MAYA MOORE: I don’t think we ever play not to lose. I think we always play to win the game. But I think losing last year did teach us a lot of things about better ways to win, a better way to execute the game or what we did wrong.
I think we came and we didn’t play our style of play. We let them play how they wanted to play and we didn’t play how we wanted to play. So I think it just taught us how to win more, per se, than to not play how to lose.
RENEE MONTGOMERY: I agree. I don’t think you can win championships being afraid that you’re going to lose. And maybe last year, I don’t know, our team maybe was playing with that a little bit. I don’t think we came into that game as confident as we would have liked to have been. And this year we’re not going to play tentative. I think this is win or go home, so we’re going to leave it all out on the court this year.
But we definitely know through Coach and his experience just telling us that you can’t be on the court being afraid to lose. You have to go out there and just being excited and competitive to win.
Q. Renee, Maya, did you notice anything about Stanford’s court presence last year, were they more poised, more disciplined than a lot of the teams you played last year? Obviously had a Hall of Fame coach, very experienced. Was their demeanor on the court different or more impressive than some of the other teams you dealt with last year?
RENEE MONTGOMERY: I would definitely say yes. I think the main thing about them is they never take a shot that they don’t want to take. They go down on offense and they keep on working the ball around until the right people shoot the ball, where they should be shooting it.
I think a lot of teams sometimes might have players that just take errant shots that aren’t supposed to be shooting it from the 3-point line and they just shoot it because they’re open. But I think Stanford does a really good job of making sure that people they want to shoot the ball are shooting it where they like to shoot it. And that’s what makes them so tough, because they have enough patience to wait until they get the right shot that they want.
Q. I’m struck listening to these questions about the loss last year. Everybody loses sometimes, and yet it seems like there’s a different standard, a loss in any game is different for y’all than it is for any other team. Is that a pain in the buns or is that the way you want it to be?
RENEE MONTGOMERY: I don’t think it’s a pain, because I think you know that going into Connecticut. I think it’s just — they said along the years that we didn’t make it to the Final Four that was unbelievable to our fans and to just the community, because they set such a high standard and we knew that coming in. So it’s not like we can come here and think, My goodness, we didn’t expect this. But we kind of knew it coming in, but it’s also good because when you have high standards I think you reach a higher potential.
So I don’t really see it as a pain; I think of it more as a motivation to work harder.
MAYA MOORE: When you come to Connecticut you know the culture of Connecticut basketball because of the success has been set at a really high level. And when we go out, our goal every time we step out on the court is to go out. And if we’re going to lose on the scoreboard, it’s because another team has just outplayed us and beaten us.
And most of the time when we’re on the court we feel like when we play no team should be able to beat us when we’re at our best. So that’s just kind of the expectation that we have as a team, that we’re not just going to give anyone a game. So when we do feel like that happens, that’s devastating to us. And just the type of practices that we have throughout the whole year, consistency, intensity, it just makes it so hard when you lose. So hopefully something we won’t have to experience.
Q. Do you guys have a sense of how you will play in a late-game situation if it’s close? I mean, you’ve won just by simply obviously a lot of the year, if this is a two-possession game with 30 seconds left, whatever, are you confident that it’s not something that you guys have experienced a lot this year?
MAYA MOORE: We always have to be confident. I think that’s something that’s separated our team this whole year. We came in thinking we can make the next play, get the next run, hit the next best shot. It’s one of the situations you can’t get caught up in the situation; just trust your instincts. And I trust my teammates. And that’s when you find out the character of your team. I feel we’ve got good chemistry this year and we feel confident in each other to finish and make big plays. And if it comes down to it, we’re not going to be afraid to make a big play.
Q. Renee, at this point on the eve of the semifinal you’ve had Coach give you the scouting report so you know your opponent pretty well. Do you think anybody at Stanford can actually stop you?
RENEE MONTGOMERY: That’s a tough question. I think they’re going to find ways. I know they’re going to know all our weaknesses. They’re going to pretty much try to play against that to make us do things we’re uncomfortable with.
I’m sure they’re going to try to slow us down, do some three-quarters. I know they’re not going to have everybody crashing the boards like they did before. I know they’ll do things to hinder us from playing the best basketball we can play.
But in that sense I think they will. They do have a Hall of Fame coach and I’m sure she’s going to come up with something. But as far as — I think we’ll still be able to execute a certain extent to our game plan, might not be exactly how we want to go, but I still think even if, for instance, me or Maya don’t score a point, I have confidence in my teammates that they’ll be ready to step up in the big moment.
Q. Renee, you mentioned Jayne Appel. What have you or the team told Tina that she has to do to counter Jayne’s play?
RENEE MONTGOMERY: I personally haven’t talked to her yet about it. I don’t think I need to. I think she knows that this is a great matchup for her as far as dominant post players. They both were up there today for the All-American awards. So they both I’m sure have a certain level of respect for each other.
I think she needs to be aggressive. I think any time when she comes out there and she’s aggressive on offense and defense she plays really well against other top post players. And I’ve seen her play against some of the best ones, Courtney Paris and Kia Vaughn. I’ve seen her play against them. I know she’s capable. I would tell her personally I’ve seen her do it before, so let’s have it two more games.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, both.
Questions for coach.
Q. Two-part question on Tina Charles. I know you’ve said in the past you needed to push her. At what point did the light go on for her and, secondly, how much more room does she have to grow as a player?
COACH AURIEMMA: I don’t think Tina’s any more different than a whole bunch of players I’ve had at Connecticut. I think players like Maya Moore, Renee Montgomery, Diana Taurasi, they’re different. Everybody else is pretty much in the same boat. They all come to college and they all think they’re pretty good. They all think they’re working hard. Then they get some numbers that make them feel like, hey, I’m pretty good.
They get some awards that remind them that I’m pretty good. And my job is to remind them it’s not good enough. And with some players you can’t do that, because it may be all there is. That’s all they have in the tank.
But with Tina, I’ve seen Tina in high school. I’ve seen her in AAU. I’ve seen her in college do some things that lead you to believe that somewhere inside there there’s the potential to be the best player in the country.
But Tina may not see that. And as long as Tina doesn’t see that herself, then it was a struggle. So the biggest challenge that I had was how to make her see it, that inside of you is the best player in the country, the best center in America.
Has the light gone on? Yeah, I’m sure it has. I’m sure it has. But in coaching you always gotta have your hand ready to put it on the switch because it could go out at any time, and you have to keep turning the light on for her sometimes, as you do for any player except the two that are up here.
So I think Tina’s going to play great this weekend.
Q. The biggest deficit you faced all year was eight points. That was still in the first half. Do you have any remaining anxiety if it’s a close game tomorrow night how your team is going to respond?
COACH AURIEMMA: I have anxieties about a lot of things. You spend a lot of time in Philly. You can’t go up there without having anxieties about everything.
I worry about lots of things. I don’t worry about what the score’s going to be with five minutes left or three minutes left or 30 seconds left. I don’t worry about that. I figure if we’re in the game and there’s three minutes left and we have a chance to win, we’re going to win.
I spent — I bet you I spent more time worrying about the other 37 minutes and how to get us to that point. I think we’ve got — I’m confident because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore make plays in the last minute of games last year in practice.
If you told me there’s 30 seconds left and we need a 3 to win the game, I’d dare you to pick anybody in this tournament that you would want shooting the ball other than Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore. So I feel pretty good about that.
Q. First, if you win tomorrow are you going to petition the Pac-10 to get a share of their title? And also is there a feel that this is kind of like the championship game tomorrow night since you’ve already beaten Louisville twice and Oklahoma once, although it was earlier in the year, this game kind of has a little more of that championship feel to it?
COACH AURIEMMA: You know, I’ve heard people say that. But it’s not. The championship game is Tuesday night. So I don’t want to make tomorrow night’s game the championship game because I don’t want to — if you lose the game you lost the national championship. So in that respect it’s the national championship game, because if you lose you’re done. The national championship is over for you. But I don’t want to be in a position where if we win the game our guys think we just won the national championship, now the next game’s going to be easy.
There’s no comparison between the Louisville team we played in the regular season and the Big East tournament and the team that’s here today. And there’s certainly no comparison between the Oklahoma team we played earlier in the season and the team that’s here today.
So tomorrow we’ve got our hands full with Stanford. No question about it. But I’m sure you’ll ask Tara all these questions. They’ve got their hands full with us. Sometimes that gets overlooked. I think your point about is it a pain in the ass to constantly have to — I say this all the time to our writers up in Connecticut. At Connecticut the only story is if we lose. If we win, it’s not a story. It’s not a big deal. That story’s already been written 100 times.
The only thing people — it’s like coming to see the gladiators, you know? You know who is going to slaughter who but you go there, and the only way it’s going to be a big story is if we were to lose somehow, some way.
And it’s a tough way to go through life. But, believe me, I wouldn’t want to be in any other situation.
Q. How do you keep your undefeated team focused on the goal?
COACH AURIEMMA: I’m a really mean person (laughter). So I went to Catholic school all my life. And they scared me into doing things the right way all the time. So I scare them every day that if they don’t do it the right way all the time — but today you can’t use the ruler. You can’t take your belt off and slap them. You can’t do any of those things that we were fortunate to have. So the kids are missing out on a great learning experience (laughter).
So I just go to practice every day and don’t talk about our record, don’t talk about our ranking, don’t talk about how good we are. I just keep trying to find things that we have to get better at. And by constantly looking at those things we constantly find things that can make us a better team. And that’s kind of the goal every day is become a better team. Not remain undefeated.
Q. Renee talked a bit about Stanford making you uncomfortable. Are they particularly good at that? Is Tara in terms of game planning particularly good at making you feel uncomfortable and doing things you don’t want to do?
COACH AURIEMMA: I think sometimes too much attention is placed on who is coaching what team. I’m a lot better coach when I have really good players. And Tara is a really good coach when they’ve got really good players. But as a coach you can only do so many things.
When we played them in St. Thomas last year, the score at one time was 60 to 36. And then we played them here and they scored 80-some on us. So Tara became a really good coach in a couple of months and I became an awful coach in those couple of months.
When in reality what happens is you have a style of play and you’re committed to it. And if you are committed to that style of play and you’re disciplined enough and you do it, regardless, then you have to trust your players.
Tara’s style of play that they’ve used throughout the season works great for the players they have and it’s the perfect system for them to play. And they’re committed to it and the players are committed to it and they execute it flawlessly.
If they’re allowed to do that tomorrow night, they will win. So it’s as simple as that.
Q. Coach, when you were in the Norman High gym recruiting Stacy Hansmeyer and perhaps Sarah Dimson, I don’t know if you recruited her, but what was it about Sherri that made you an advocate of hers, that sort of made you think this woman has a future in the college game if she wants it?
COACH AURIEMMA: I said this on one of the teleconferences I was on. I was really fortunate growing up where I grew up to be surrounded by a basketball culture of great coaches, high school, college. I don’t think any place in America has had more good coaches than Philadelphia, where coaching became the reason why you went. And sometimes to a fault. Like they think they invented the game, they were in the room with Naismith when the game was put together.
But I’ve always had a pretty good eye for what makes somebody good, I think. So when I walked in that gym and I saw the way their practices were structured, the way the people moved from one thing to another, the attention that was being paid to certain details of the game and the way she communicated with her players and the way they responded to her, to me it was the same thing that I was doing at the college level. And it’s being done in a high school gym in Norman, Oklahoma.
So if you can do it there, the gym at Oklahoma is the same size, the court is, the players are going to do the same things, and you’re going to do it with just better players.
So there was no doubt in my mind that with her communication skills and her organizational skills that she would be successful at Oklahoma. Never any doubt. When I spoke to her associate AD I told her that.
Q. Was that Marita?
COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah.
Q. I know the story of Jayne Appel’s recruiting trip has been talked about a lot. Can you revisit that one more time, her visit to Storrs?
COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, any time you’re recruiting a kid from California, you know, you’re taking a huge risk to get somebody to travel 3,000 miles to go to college when there’s so many good alternatives on the West Coast and then you’ve got to fly over a lot of good alternatives to get to our place.
But you don’t count on snow and ice and all that other good stuff waiting for you when you get there. And you certainly, when you’re having shoot-around the day of the game, don’t expect to see security guards and police come in and lead your recruit, telling you that we’ve got a problem. And you realize that her father’s in the hospital going to have screws into his ankle because he broke it getting into your building. That’s not the winning edge, I don’t think. Except we showed off that we have good doctors.
But even if that hadn’t happened, how could you pass up a chance to go to Stanford if you’re a West Coast kid and they really want you bad? It’s a risk that we take and sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. And I thought wherever Jayne went she was going to be what she is today.
Because people think recruiting is difficult. It’s not that difficult. You watch kids play AU when they’re 16 and the ones that beat the hell out of all the other 16-year-olds end up doing it when they’re 18, 19, and 20. That’s what she did when she was in high school and that’s what she’s doing now. I wish she was just doing it for us.
Q. What did you see as having went wrong last year against Stanford and what has to change this time?
COACH AURIEMMA: Well, to beat Stanford you have to have good guards and a lot of them. And when we were in St. Thomas, we had really good guards and we had a lot of them. Then when we got out here, we had good guards but we were minus two of them.
So we couldn’t play the way we wanted to play. We had to play the way they wanted to play. And you can’t let somebody play to their strengths. And we did. And they played to their strengths better than we played to our strengths.
And they made shots that they had to make when they had to make them. And I thought the game was lost at about the 10-minute mark in the second half, when we cut it to 1 and I made a couple of mistakes in that game. That was one of them.
We had gone from man-to-man to a zone, and they didn’t score for three and a half minutes, and that’s how we cut it to 1. And my gut instinct told me as we’re going down the floor, down 1, we need to get out of this because they’re going to figure it out. And I didn’t change it. I didn’t communicate well enough with my players. So Wiggins runs out to the corner and gets a 3. We come down and miss, and now I’m pissed. And I don’t get out of it again and son of a gun makes another 3.
And now we get out of it, we’re scrambling and then Pedersen makes a 3. So in that stretch the game ended right there and we didn’t respond, we didn’t recover. What are you going to do, you know? We could have made those same mistakes and they miss those shots and we win the game, who knows. But the key is Stanford won the game. I don’t think we lost a game last year.
Q. If you were playing to their strengths, what would you —
COACH AURIEMMA: Their strengths, I think they’re very organized offensively, they’re very patient, very deliberate, very thorough. And they’re really good.
Everybody talks about who we have. I’m not going to run down the whole roster for Stanford because I’m not familiar with it 1 through 13, but I guarantee you that most of the players that they put on the floor tomorrow were high school All-Americans or some version of it.
So they’ve got talent. They’ve got a great center. They shoot the ball well. They handle it well. That’s why they’re in the Final Four.
Q. A lot has been said, maybe on the West Coast more, I don’t know, about Stanford’s — over the past decade, if you will, Stanford’s talent but softness, not being a tough team. It was something they really tried to overcome last year. How do you look now that you’ve had a chance to pay attention and scout this particular team? How would you describe it as being a tough team or maybe not? We know you guys are a tough team.
COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, we’re a tough team. I know this is going to get played out the wrong way. But I’m going to say it anyway. And I know I’m going to get criticized for this. White kids are always looked upon as being soft. So Stanford’s got tremendous amount of really good players who for whatever reason, because they don’t look like Tina Charles or Maya Moore, the perception out there is going to be, well, they must be soft.
Well, I think that’s a bunch of bull. I watched them play and nobody goes harder to the boards. Nobody takes more charges. Nobody runs the floor as hard. Those kids are as tough as any of the kids in the country. But people on the sports world like to make judgments on people by how they look. And it’s grossly unfair.
I had somebody say, well, you know, Stanford’s really disciplined, as if to say we’re not. You know, it’s just the perceptions out there that people make. And, yet, you don’t get here to play in these games if you’re not tough, if you’re not disciplined, if you’re not talented, and you don’t do all the little things that good players do.
So those West Coast people, you know what, the West Coast in general has a reputation of being soft. But that’s to the East Coast people, you know? And it’s probably true. Because we live in New York and Philadelphia and places like that and we walk down the street going: What are you looking at? People on the West Coast go: Hi, how are you doing? So, yeah, they are a bunch of pansies (laughter).
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
