Barbara Turner Good Quotations

I think Renee is going to be the leader of this team. I think she could be the next person that everybody's talking about as the big name for Connecticut. I think her future is very bright. She's going to lead this team and they're going to be very good next year.

Some of them were bizarre. A lot of them in the first half, they weren't even putting pressure on us. It was just us making mental mistakes. So we definitely have to try to avoid those, especially on the road against good teams because those could hurt us down the stretch.

I think it had to be a little frustrating for them. But you have to give us some credit, too. We did a good job on defense, especially down the stretch. It was a tough shooting night for both of us. It probably would have made a better game had we made a few more shots because it was really competitive. It just came down to who made the plays when they needed to make them. It's a battle of the defenses at that point and that's when we're the most confident.

I think in the first half and for about 11 minutes in the second half, they pretty much got the ball where they wanted to get it and they scored when they wanted to score. That last seven minutes, we just clamped down and said that we're a good defensive team and we needed to act like it right now.

It's very hard, because you feel like you don't want to mess up the rhythm of the team. When you worry about that, you tend to not do all the things you're capable of doing. She hasn't been doing that in practice. I told her, don't worry about anything but what you're good at, and that's scoring.

He is doing a good job of sticking with us no matter what we are going through and no matter if we are playing bizarre and throwing the ball all over the floor. He is there to let us know we are going to win this game.

This road trip built a lot of character. It let us know that given tough situations we know what we need to do in order to win. We know how to win. Whereas before I don't know if we would have been able to do that. We probably would have panicked a little bit, played too fast and probably fell apart when they made their run. So the fact that we were able to do it was just a good ending to this trip.

Our guards did a good job of moving the ball up the floor in transition, and I just tried to focus on running the break every time. I noticed that helps us out a lot when we get out in transition. That?s when we?re at our best, so it?s just something that (assistant coach Chris Dailey) told me to focus on a lot, I tried to do it every single possession down the court.

You always want your team to play well no matter what you do. I have put together some good games, but I still don't think it's enough, because I haven't been able to pull my team along as much as I would have liked to.

I have put together some good games or whatever, but I still don?t think it is enough because I haven?t been able to pull my team along as much as I would have liked to. You always want us to get better as a team rather than worry about individual statistics.

Very rarely, since I've been at Connecticut, have we had somebody that we expected to be good just go off on us and get 30. We've done a good job of that. That's us taking pride in not letting someone go out and dominate us.

Very rarely since I have been at Connecticut have we had someone who we expected to be good go off on us and get 30 points. For the most part the person that is supposed to get a lot of points, usually doesn't get it against us. I think that is just taking pride in not allowing somebody to just go out and dominate us.

Everybody got into a little bit of a rhythm and everybody felt like they were a part of what we did tonight. That's always a good feeling when everybody can come into the locker room and smile about the game.

We needed it; we talked about it. Obviously we don't feel like we won a national championship, but to be able to beat a top-five team, finally, and to get over that hump is a really good feeling.

If she can have a good stretch the next four games going into the Big East tournament, it will get her some endurance and get her some conditioning, and it will help our team. We need her a lot. She?s our one true center; our one true big body. And every team around the country needs that one true center. Every team that?s successful and wins national championships has one so, obviously, we?re going to need her.

I don't know if we would have been able to do that. We probably would have panicked a little bit, played too fast and probably fell apart earlier than we did when they made their run. So the fact we were able to do it was just a good ending to this trip, and I think it brought our team a lot closer together.

We knew that they were a good team, I don?t think we underestimated them at all. It was just a fight. We?re not going to win every game by 30, and tonight was a great example of that. This game just lets us know that Monday, we?re going into a battle, and we?re going to have to be ready to fight and make all the plays that we need in order to win.

That was the turning point. We struggled a little bit offensively, but the main thing was that we started to stop them defensively. That last seven minutes we just clamped down and said that we're a good defensive team and we need to act like it.

That whole Connecticut thing is tough. It's a tough situation. We're off the radar. Like nobody's really talking about us, but they are. So no matter what, Connecticut's always going to come out of somebody's mouth whether it's negative, positive. It's been tougher this year than any year for me. It's something that we've done a really good job of fighting through, and I think that's why we are in the position we're in right now.

There were stretches where we were really good and there were stretches where we had lulls. But the key thing is that we were able to put our heads together and come out with a win, especially on the road. That's really a tough thing to do. I don't care who you're playing. And that's what happened (Sunday) and that's why we were able to win.

We knew how tough they were at home, we know how good of a team they were. We knew that we were going to have to respond to big runs by those guys because they do a good job of putting points on the board.

We knew how tough they were at home, we knew how good of a team they were. We knew we were going to have to respond. It seemed like every time we needed to make a play or make a shot or get a defensive stop, we were able to do it.

We've been on the road throughout my career with sell-out crowds against really good teams. When you're in a situation like that, you have to know how to help your team win.

Good thing Mel was in there. Everybody was running at the shot. Our little linebacker came in there and toughed it out and came out smiling.