Louisville vs. Connecticut
February 07, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
University of Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On Connecticut's shooting) "It's tough. I think it was 18-11 or maybe 16-11 and I thought we were doing some good things. Then, all of the sudden, the flood gates open and that's how they play. They are a special basketball team. I look down at the stat sheets at the end of the first half, and I noticed that they had four kids that made three-pointers. It is kind of hard to sit there and pick your poison as to who you're going to guard and who you're not going to guard. When they come and out and shoot it the way they do, it makes for a long, long day for sure." (On Connecticut's defense) "They're fantastic on the defensive end of the floor. Tina Charles does a fantastic job because you can get out and pressure on the wings and really cause havoc. They do a fantastic job of guarding on the ball. If you do get by them, you're reward for that is trying to score over Tina Charles. You're like wow great, I finally got past somebody and now she's (Tina Charles) is standing there in front of me. They've got a very good presence. The other thing they do as well as anybody we've played this year, I don't think I've seen anybody close is they guard you without fouling. They guard you up close and they're up in you. They don't reach, they don't slap. If you do put the ball in front of them, they take it. That's really a tribute to them and their staff and how hard they play. They can play hard."
(On Connecticut's game plan to take away Becky Burke and Monique Reid) "Yes, at this point right now, that's a very good idea. That's why he's paid what he is paid, and that is why he has won as many games as he has. They did a fantastic job. Becky actually came out and got open in the first half and hit two open three-pointers. They did a great job on Monique. She was frustrated all afternoon. She wasn't playing as hard as she need to be. She forced up some shots where she had free-throw line jump shops she should've taken them. But instead, she drove in. When they made that big run in the first half, we had some decent shots, but instead of taking the open six foot shots, we drove in and let them block everyone. Like I told our kids, you cannot do that against a player like Tina Charles and Maya Moore. When you've got a good shot, take it. Unfortunately, we didn't shoot the ball very well today."
(On the positives of the game) "I'm going to have to sit back and watch the film again. I'm going to try to watch it unfortunately, I really don't want to. I thought Keshia played hard. I felt like of all of our players that she really played hard. Monique, I felt like she didn't play well at all. I tell Mo if she gets 10 rebounds, that's great. She gets seven offensive boards, that's fantastic, but you get one field goal. It's like you shoot and miss, shoot and miss, shoot and miss, and then they finally get it. It looks great, but the end result is zero. On top of that, she had no assists. It's not like she was getting her offensive rebound and kicking it out to someone to shoot. We've got a lot of work to do. We've got to get healthy, but I'm not sure that we're going to get healthy enough before the year is over. Shelby did a nice job for us. She went out and competed and she scrapped. She played hard, but it is just tough to ask her as much as I ask her to do. Just to get the ball up the floor like she does is exhausting for her, and then to try to run the offense and try to create and get someone a shot is a lot to ask."
(On keeping the players' spirits up) "We've talked about that. It's something that we're playing to finish out this season of course. We're trying to win. We have six more conference games and our goal is to go 6-0. At the same time, we return everyone next year. I've been trying to get our kids to understand that we've got to improve every day. However, it might not result in a win at St. John's on Wednesday. It might not result in a win at Pittsburgh. I look at a Nebraska team who was 15-16 last year. They get one player back and they're 20-0 right now. We've got about four. I'm not saying we're going to be 20-0 by any means, but we've got three or four kids that are out that we were counting on. We've got to continue to get Asia (Taylor) better, get Keshia (Hines) better, so when we do get our group back, we're going to have a chance to really make a run and continue to grow our program. It would be nice to get to the point that if we do get two or three kids hurt, we're still going to be able to go out and compete to win. If you're not a competitor, and you don't go out there and try to win every night, then you should try to play chess or checkers. It's pride now, we have to play for pride."
(On the size of the crowd) "It says a lot about our city to have over 14,000 show up, when we're as injured as we are and playing like we are. I know it was Connecticut, but they've played a lot of other places and 14,000 people weren't coming out to see them play. I think it says a great deal about our city and our fans and the kind of people we have here."
University of Connecticut Head Coach Geno Auriemma
(On planning defensive strategy) "Our defense sets us up for what we do the rest of the game. We're not out here trying to outscore them or match them basket for basket. We're trying to play in a way that makes it very difficult for what the other team is trying to do. We feel like we will be successful if their players cannot function the way they are used to functioning. We feel like we accomplished our goal, and not every game will go that way. I thought the last couple games we played just okay defense and I know the players were excited about coming to Louisville. A team like Louisville just doesn't have enough scorers on the floor right now. You take away two players from last year's team, plus their point guard, and you're taking a lot of points off the board. As well as I think we played defensively, it's also about who Louisville doesn't have on the floor right now. They're a much different team and have always been a good offensive team since Jeff's been here. Right now he just doesn't have the personnel to be able to do it."
(On UConn defense not playing up to par) "I thought at Pittsburgh it was just too easy for them to get open shots. I don't judge if the shots go in or not, just because somebody misses a wide open shot doesn't mean you played good defense. If somebody makes a tough shot, it doesn't mean you played bad defense. Pittsburgh got a lot of open shots and West Virginia was able to take the ball where they wanted to go in the first half. Away from all the things we stressed all year long, I'm not expecting our players to take away a three and keep them from driving to the basket. You can't do both things unless you're so much quicker than the other guy, but you can control where they beat you off the dribble. I just think it's the little things like that, that we're getting better at all the time. It sounds stupid because people aren't scoring a lot of points on us. When you shoot the ball from the three point line like we did tonight, it's hard to beat us. When teams are playing against us, they have to hope we miss shots which we are capable of doing. When we make shots like we did today from the perimeter, we are a tough team to beat."
(On Lorin Dixon) "The way Lorin is right now is the way she was in high school. She's a game changer with her speed and quickness. The only thing that you want to make sure Lorin understands in the half court, is what exactly she can do to help our team. I know what she can do in the full court, that's what matters, but being more confident as a leader is something she never had to do. It was up and down and she has gotten so much better at running her half court offense. I still want her to be more confident shooting the ball. She goes through stretches in practice where she makes everything and then goes through a stretch where she doesn't make a thing. That has to get better, but overall she's been a perfect complement to Tiffany and Caroline."
