Geno Auriemma Teams Quotations

We're in a good bracket with good teams like everybody else is. Say all you want about who's in a tough bracket, who's not? The bottom line is, starting this weekend everybody will get to a chance to prove whether they belong there or not.

Whenever we have to walk the ball up and try to attack teams in their half court, it?s not easy for us, because we don?t have a huge inside presence. So I?m constantly urging us to run.

Whenever we have to walk the ball up and attack teams in the half court, it's not easy for us, because we don't have the huge inside presence that can make teams collapse. I'm constantly urging us to run.

My initial reaction right now is I saw where it's going to be announced during the Final Four. So if I'm sitting here in Connecticut and there's four teams playing in Boston at the Final Four and I get a phone call, my first reaction is I'm going to be (mad) that I'm not at the Final Four. I can tell you that much. So if I happen to be in Boston with my team and I get that phone call, it'll be kind of a special weekend.

Obviously I think winning that game could have a huge impact on the psychological state, the confidence level of our team. That's obvious. But at the same time, we're home. We're Connecticut. Everybody think we're one of the top-10 teams in the country. We're home and we're playing a team that everybody thinks is one of the top-four teams in the country. Going into the game, yeah, we expect to win this game. That's what you're supposed to think if you're us.

I think we have a reputation of being a really good NCAA tournament team. There does seem to be a little more of an edge to our game, a little more of a focus. I don't think we get up tight. I see teams that get very, very tentative and tense at tournament time and I don't see us being like that generally. I think our approach as a coaching staff is pretty laid back. We want to reward our kids for a great season.

I think that fear factor stuff is gone. I just don't think anybody in the country is afraid of anybody anymore. Teams just think they can walk in any building and win any game.

I think there are a lot of teams that are going to make the NCAA tournament that are not as good as Texas. With their conference, they have a chance to play some really good teams and if they can knock off one or two of them . . .

I think for as good as Sue was and as talented as her teams were ... I don't know if I ever met anyone that didn't like her and hold her in the highest regard. Unbelievable.

Most good teams play good at home. But the really good teams, they really separate themselves by playing well on the road. This is probably the biggest win we've had this year.

We came out of this game feeling like Pitt lost the game rather than we won the game. We didn't beat them like we have so many other times. They are one of the most aggressive teams we have played this season. We won because we have a little more talent and little more experience.

We commit some of the dumbest fouls I've ever seen. I don't think other teams foul as much as we do.

With Brittany, you're not quite sure what level she's at. She hasn't been able to practice much since the Big East tournament. It took a little toll on her. But even if she can play in a limited role, at least we have someone in the lane who can counteract some of the teams we can play. But how much, I don't know.

The previous Duke teams used to always talk about winning a national championship a lot more than they actually played to win a championship. This team is a little bit different. They don't talk as much about it. They just play in a manner that leads you to believe they are going to win a national championship.

You have to temper everything, you have to say that some of the passes that we threw, if they were thrown against teams that have great athletic ability, they might have been stolen. But you look at it and you say, ?How many turnovers should you have if you play Albany?? Well, seven is a good number.

The strength of your league is what is going on in the middle. We have always been good at the top. But we will have teams finishing 10th, 11th 12th in our league who are pretty darned good, and I don't know that anybody else has that.

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.

Our defense bails us out a lot of times. Say what you will about both Rutgers games and how bad we were offensively, we had a chance to win. I used to have teams that made every play, every time. Now we're looking at a team that maybe doesn't have the ability to make every play, every time. But what we have to do is make certain plays at key times. If we can do that, we'll be all right.

Some teams would have maybe gone from 17 down to 27 down right away. That says a lot about (Louisville).

Some teams would have gone from down 17 to down 27. They went on a 12-0 run. That says a lot about them.

The more you look around the NCAA Tournament, you see a lot of teams that had a lot of success and had a lot of trouble sustaining it. One of the things I'm happiest about is that we've been able to sustain it. Ultimately, that's going to be whether or not you were great. We've been able to do that. That's a long time, 13 years.

It's a lot like the old Virginia Tech teams we played. They're physical and they play pretty intelligently and they go after the offensive boards pretty hard. It'll probably be like the games we played against them a few years ago.

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's different than it was two years ago. People buy into teams and into personalities. We were coming off a national championship and we had the dominant personality in the country. Now we're coming off losing in the Sweet 16 and we have a bunch of nice kids that are just happy to be here. Maybe I'm going to have to rile some people up, start saying and doing stuff that stirs the pot a bit.

It's different than it was two years ago, ... People buy into teams and into personalities. We were coming off a national championship and we had the dominant personality in the country. Now we're coming off losing in the Sweet 16 and we have a bunch of nice kids that are just happy to be here. Maybe I'm going to have to rile some people up, start saying and doing stuff that stirs the pot a bit.

I know we didn't win the regular season, but I don't know how finishing second was all that great when you have to get the winner of South Florida-Notre Dame in the first round. I'm saying to myself, the four teams with a bye, this is what we get for a great season. I'm not sure that's ever been the case. They've come into this league and dramatically altered the landscape. They certainly have benefited and we have benefited from it also.

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.

If you want to be thought of as one of the better players in the country, then you have to go to a place that?s really, really difficult, tough to play and play really well. Most good teams play good at home, but the really good teams, the way they separate themselves is they play well on the road.

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 can't believe there's 64 teams in the country better than that team that are going to be playing in the NCAA tournament.

For the first time since 1994, there isn't anybody sitting there saying, 'You know, there's three or four teams that can win the national championship: Connecticut and three other teams.' First time in 12 years. So, how they react to that is going to be interesting. They might like being in that situation.