NCAA Women's Regional
Semifinals and Finals:
Bridgeport
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Geno Auriemma
Napheesa Collier
Gabby Williams
Connecticut
UConn - 86, UCLA - 71
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UConn. We'll
start with an opening statement from Coach Auriemma.
COACH AURIEMMA: Obviously, you know, we played
a really, really good team. They are hard to play
against. And today was a struggle for us. Even when
we got up 20, I didn't think it was like being up 20
against somebody else, where you know it's going to
go from 20 to 30. I never had that feeling.
It was a grind for our guys. We felt it a little bit in the
fourth quarter.
These two here, especially, they were amazing. They
just keep playing and playing and playing, just keep
making plays when we need them to make a play.
Between the two of them and Saniya, they were just
really, really, really good.
We got our work cut out for us on Monday.
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the
student-athletes.
Q. Gabby, can you talk about Saniya's
contributions today. Seemed like her baskets
came at big moments, breaking the press when
they brought the press to you.
GABBY WILLIAMS: Yeah, at times it seemed like she
was the only person we could really trust with the ball.
She was able to penetrate the zone, which is what you
have to do against a team like that. She handled their
full-court pressure. She just played really confidently
tonight.
Q. Gabby, Saniya on the defensive end it seemed
like was everywhere she needed to be today. What
do you see from her at that end both in a game-by-
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game basis and today?
GABBY WILLIAMS: Yeah, she stepped up. They're not
an easy team to guard. I mean, the matchups are
pretty tough. I was really impressed with how she did
on the glass. She was boxing out guys that were a lot
bigger than her. She tried to stop dribble-penetration
as best she can. I think she did a really good job with
that.
Q. Gabby, it's not very often that you get matched
up with somebody that's almost as athletic as you
are. Monique Billings has that type of jumping
ability, the length, is very similar in style to you.
Can you talk for a second about what it was like to
actually face somebody that can compete with you
athletically, not just basketball-wise.
GABBY WILLIAMS: It was tough. It was a challenge.
Usually, you know, I try to use my athleticism as my
advantage. I couldn't really do that tonight. So I had to
find another way to, you know, guard her to match up
with her.
I'm glad I was able to see that, you know, going into
next game.
Q. Gabby, during the handshakes, many of you
guys didn't really have a smile on your face, yet
you won. Why was that?
GABBY WILLIAMS: I think we were just kind of
exhausted. It was a long final three minutes. We were
happy, you know, once we got back into the locker
room. We didn't end the game as well as we would
have liked to. I think the look on our face is just a result
of how the last few minutes kind of dragged for us.
Q. Did you get a chance to see Oregon before you
played today? What do you think of that matchup
come Monday?
GABBY WILLIAMS: Yeah, we watched the game.
We've been watching them the whole tournament.
We've been watching everybody.
So it's the same thing. They're here for a reason.
Right now they're a really good team obviously.
They're a lot similar to UCLA in that they have really
good perimeter players. They're really good on the
glass.
We're just going to have to go in with kind of a similar
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game plan, I think.
NAPHEESA COLLIER: You know, like Gabby said,
they're a really good team. There's no bad teams left.
Monday is going to be a hard game as well. We're
really going to have to stop them on the three-point line
because they have some really good guards.
Q. Napheesa, you had your customary offensive
game today. Three blocked shots, tie-up during a
team moment. Did this feel like a big step forward
for you defensively as well?
NAPHEESA COLLIER: I think every game I try to get
better on defense because it's one of my weakest
points in my game right now. I'm just trying as hard as
I can in the games, trying to do those hustle plays.
Q. Napheesa, Gabby was saying that last three
minutes seemed like it would never end. How did
you keep finding a way to make one more play?
How did you find that within yourselves?
NAPHEESA COLLIER: Well, the time I was in,
because I fouled out at the end (smiling), we tried to
keep them off the three-point line and tried to box out,
which we didn't do as well as we did in the beginning of
the game.
Because we were fouling, because we kept reviewing
plays, that made it drag out longer. From the bench,
from my standpoint on the bench, it seemed like that
really dragged it on, like I said, just because we weren't
really, you know, stopping them on the perimeter as
much.
Q. For both players. It's only three minutes in, but
when you're down 9-2, is that a bit of a wake-up call
for you?
GABBY WILLIAMS: We like to say that, you know, to
play with us, it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. They
came out hard. They came out aggressive. But there
was 37 minutes left to play.
I think we got a lot of good shots up in those first few
minutes, they just weren't falling. Once they started to
fall, once we started to execute better on defense, the
game kind of fell into place.
NAPHEESA COLLIER: Yeah, teams are going to go on
runs. I think the important thing is to stop the runs as
quickly as we can. I think we did that. Then go out
there more and try to score.
Our shots started falling, so I think that's what
happened. So I think we adjusted to it pretty well.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. We'll see you
tomorrow. We'll take questions for Coach Auriemma.
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Q. Geno, at this point in her career, how nice is it to
see Saniya come out tonight in this spot and play
this well?
COACH AURIEMMA: I was just looking at the stat
sheet. That's probably more points tonight that she
scored than in maybe the three previous NCAA
tournaments combined. That's how little she played
the last three years.
I said before the conference tournament at Mohegan,
there's three guys we need to play at their level, Saniya
is one of them, Crystal is the other one. Today, the
effort and play of Saniya, I thought it was the difference
in the game. You know what you're going to get from
those other guys. They did what they always do, for
the most part.
Saniya made some big plays, big shots. She's as good
now as she can be. It's at the perfect time in her
career. I mean, she's a senior. Sometimes it never
happens. I'm really thrilled for her that it's happening.
She deserves it. She's hung in there.
Q. Geno, Gabby was saying a little bit earlier, to
play with us it's a marathon, not a sprint. Is it the
same thing when you look at Saniya in terms of her
development?
COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, I was really anxious to see
how Saniya's game would transfer over to the college
game because when she played in high school, it was
chaotic. They would just run up and down the floor.
They would try to score 100 every night in a high
school game.
I went to see her play one night. I don't know, she
must have had 45 points or something. If she could
have passed it to herself, she would have, back then.
When she got here, it just was a real struggle for her. It
was a real struggle. A real struggle to play with other
good players on the floor, to not just be able to do
whatever you feel like doing; that you have to share the
ball, you have to play some defense, you got to be
mentally ready. You know, it was really a struggle for
her.
She would get it going for a week. We would always
say, All right, this is it. Then it would go away. Then
she would get it back for another week. All right, we
got it. Then it would go away. It was like that every
year.
This year, you know, it's all kind of fallen into place for
her. She deserves it. She's worked hard. She
deserves it.
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Q. Coach, a similar question that I asked your
player. You looked pretty frustrated, as well. What
part of the game were you guys not executing that
was obviously frustrating you?
COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, I mean, as I said, you
know, when we got up 20, it wasn't going to be just roll
over and get up a bunch. That doesn't happen
generally at this time of the year.
But I didn't think we really took advantage of a lot of
things that we could have taken advantage of, the way
they were playing against us. Some of that was we
were tired. We played a lot of minutes. Some of it, we
made some bonehead mistakes, you know.
I don't mind us making physical mistakes, either 'cause
we're tired or we're just not good enough, whatever the
case may be. But we got tired mentally, and that
bothered me a little bit. At this time of year, where you
are mentally is going to be the difference maker in the
games at this time of the year.
Everybody's good. Everybody's physically capable.
So I was kind of disappointed. And I know they were,
too, because they pride themselves on being able to
finish things out.
Plus, you know, the fouls, the waiting. It was just a
drag. It was.
Q. Geno, I know in your former job as USA
Basketball coach, you said you hated it when they
said they have nothing to lose against the other
team. Oregon has so much youth. What has
impressed you about them?
COACH AURIEMMA: They were too young to know
any better. They didn't realize they're supposed to be,
like, nervous. They don't realize this is supposed to be
really hard, you know. You're not supposed to just walk
into the NCAA tournament and just start beating teams
with three freshmen in the starting lineup, and a
freshman point guard.
I'm not even the least bit surprised at what they're
doing. Not even a little bit. I remember when Kelly got
the job. I told everybody in the coaching profession, I
said, They're going to be in the Final Four sooner than
anybody thinks. As I said earlier today, it better not be
this soon. But they're going to be there because he's a
hell of a coach. You can recruit pretty good players to
the University of Oregon. He's done that.
They are a really, really good team. If you got really
good guards, you can have a really good team.
They've got some pretty good guards.
Q. Geno, you talked about Saniya figuring it out,
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out on the court. To what extent do you see the
figuring out on the defensive end, what she is for
you as a defensive weapon at this point?
COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, that was a big struggle for
her, playing defense, because, again, it was something
different for her. I think the thing that kids generally
learn when they come to play at UConn is you can't
shoot your way into our lineup. I mean, Lou does. She
don't guard anybody. She doesn't even pretend. At
least some people pretend. She don't even know how
to pretend.
But Saniya knew. She came here, we got some pretty
good players on the team. Bria Hartley, Moriah
Jefferson, Kelly Faris. We got guys that are pretty
good. She knew. If I don't play defense, I'm not going
to play.
It was a real struggle for her. It finally dawned on her.
She's become a really good defender, really good. I
trust her. Never thought I'd say that, but I trust her.
She has put a lot of time and effort into this. It means
a lot to her right now.
We put her in a situation that I wanted her on the freethrow line at the end of the game because I trust her.
And we put her on Jordin Canada a lot, because I trust
her. That's the best thing that you can get from your
coach, is they trust you.
Q. To talk about Oregon, how you were saying they
were young, they don't know any better, are you
also concerned about their play as far as, like,
when Maryland tried to defend them, Maryland
threw everything at them, the same thing how you
sometimes win, teams try to catch at you, you
throw different defenses? Oregon seemed like
they had an answer for every defense thrown at
them. Is that definitely one of the major concern,
going into the game Monday?
COACH AURIEMMA: Oh, yeah. It always is at this
time of the year. This is the hardest time of the year to
be a good defensive team because all the bad
offensive teams are home. They're not playing. So
everybody you play at this time of the year knows what
they're doing on offense, for the most part. So you got
to be good defensively at this time of the year.
But, even more important than that, you got to get
great possessions and you got to score over and over
and over and over and over again. You go long
stretches without scoring at this time of the year, you're
going to lose, or you're going to put yourself in position
to lose.
Sometimes the pressure that teams put on you by
scoring, and I think that's what they did to Maryland
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today, they would come down and get a bucket, and
Maryland would miss, then they would go down and
run 28 seconds off the shot clock, get another bucket,
and Maryland would come down and miss. After a
while, the pressure to have to score gets to kids.
Yeah, I don't know if we can defend them on Monday. I
really don't. We'll come up with something. But this
time of the year, I want to try to get to 90 and take my
chances. I don't want to try to win a game 65-60.
That's probably not going to work.
Q. Jordin Canada said after the game you
congratulated her for a great career. Did you know
she was a junior?
COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah. We recruited her coming
out of high school. She's become a really, really good
player. I don't think she was this good when she was
coming out of high school. She was good, and I
thought she would get better. But she's worked really
hard to improve offensively. She makes shots now that
she didn't make back then.
Well, that's one definition of an athlete. Bruno and I
talk about the kind of athletes that have an amazing set
of eyes. Like, they see things nobody else can see.
Their feet, they move to spots way before anybody
knows they're supposed to be there. Their minds are
really just quicker than everybody else's. They're one
step ahead of everybody else.
So Oregon's got a bunch of those kids. They're athletic
in a different way than UCLA is. Doesn't mean they're
better or worse. But they're different. I don't think a lot
of times that gets recognized. We try to do that. We
try to recruit kids that have that, you know, and can run
and jump, like Gabby. We try to do that, too.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.
We played them two years ago, and we didn't have to
guard her that much. Now, you see, she controls the
entire game for them. She not only gets the ball to
players, but she gets in the lane and she causes
problems. You got to kind of build your defense around
how to guard her.
I know, I mean, you watch a majority of their games,
and there hasn't been too many people that have been
able to guard her. I just wanted to kind of let her know
that, that her career has been great. For a minute
there, I did think she was a senior 'cause... Did she sit
out a year maybe? No. Seems like she's been there
forever. When kids start out as a freshman, they feel
like they've been there forever.
I remembered after the fact that she has another year
left. She's just gotten better and better every year. I
was really impressed with her.
Q. This team that you just played was incredibly
athletic as well as long. Strikes me that Oregon
doesn't have that pure athleticism at the same
level. Is that your impression? Does that make a
difference in how you're going to be able to run
your stuff?
COACH AURIEMMA: Yeah, they're a completely
different kind of team. You know, Doug Bruno and I
have that conversation all the time, about what really
constitutes athletic. People have this vision of what a
great athlete is. It usually involves somebody that
looks like LeBron, you know. Somebody that there isn't
anything on the basketball court they physically can't
do.
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