Louisville vs. UConn Postgame Notes
UConn at Louisville
January 31, 2019 | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame quotes
UofL head coach Jeff Walz
(Coach, whenever Geno was going through his press conference, he said that if you don’t schedule UCONN in the future then you would be a big baby. What are your thoughts on this?)
“You know what. I talked with Neil. He’s who I do the scheduling with. Geno has no idea who they schedule. I’m about to call the associate AD because I can’t call him. We are definitely trying to continue to keep this going. The problem that we have is because we are going to 18 league games, I’m not going to play this game in January or February, because I only get one bye week. I even called the ACC office to make sure I was correct on that. I’m not going to give up the only bye week I get to play a non-conference game. Because now, I’m losing a week, if I have some nicks and bruises, to be able to rest some kids. Now that’s not fair to them. Now when we have two bye weeks, like we do now, I have no problem playing the game. So, we’re trying to work on hopefully continuing the series; possibly moving to a December or November game. We’ll just have to wait and see if we can get that worked out.
(How key was Dana Evans tonight? What do you think fed into her great performance?)
“I’m looking forward to watching the game. I thought Dana got the ball out of her hands better than she has all year. I’ve talked to her, ‘the ball can’t stick in your hands. It can’t stick.’ She gets a little frustrated with me because she comes from four years in high school where she was the player. She had to score 30 plus points a night for her high school team to win. Well now, I don’t need her to score 30 plus points. I need her to get our offense moving, get things going, and when she gets that ball reversed, or when she gets that shot to go, then go. Tonight, I think she took some really good shots. The ball got reversed to her. Her teammates got her open when she was away from the ball and I’m hoping she might believe me now. We’ll have to wait and see how that goes on Saturday.
(How much relief did you feel as the clock wound down and you guys held a 10-point lead late. Is this a game that you can appreciate now, or is it maybe something that you’ll have to wait until after the season ends?)
“No. I appreciate every game as we go. I’ve always said, and people get tired of hearing the coach thing. It’s one game at a time. It’s a huge win for a program, no question about it. What an unbelievable turnout we had tonight. The fans were fantastic. I’ve always said, ‘I do appreciate the friendship I have with Geno.’ It’s kudos to them for being willing to play these games. They’ve got South Carolina on Monday or Tuesday of next week. They play Cincinnati on Saturday. He’s willing to play them. I think it’s great for our game. Win or lose, we are very fortunate. We had 10,000 here on Sunday. A game where a Pittsburgh program and Lance is going to do a great job with them. They’re in a rebuilding year. They were 9-11 coming into the game and we still had 10,000 fans show up. UCONN it what pushes us over the top to get to 17,000. He’s not only doing this for his team, obviously to come in here and play a game like this, it helps our team. It helps our fanbase. I’ve had a few people come up to me and tell me it’s the first women’s basketball game they’ve been to. I asked them if they lived under a rock. They came, and they were like ‘wow, this is really impressive. I’m just shocked at how athletic they are. What kind of players they are?’ I was like ‘hey I hope you guys come back.’ They were like ‘we’re coming back for sure.’ So, it helps us. It helps all of us when he’s willing to come on the road and play like this.”
“The crowd we had here tonight and to be able to win a basketball game, the crowd was similar to our Notre Dame crowd we had last year. They all knew we were 0-14 (against UConn) here in our 12 years. They understood the importance of this ballgame, I was excited for them. It’s a huge win for our program. It’s amazing what they’ve been able to do so yes, it is a huge win for our program and I’m really proud of everybody that’s been a part of this program for 12 years. Steph Norman’s been here the entire time, Adrienne Johnson has been here with me the entire time. But it takes everybody, our fans. I’ll say it again, you look at the crowd tonight. It’s remarkable, 17,000. I just keep telling everybody about the crowd on Sunday. A team that was 0-7 in the league and 10,000 came out. Normally that’s when nobody comes. This was a huge, huge win for us. I’ve told them you can enjoy it tonight, then tomorrow it’s a quick, quick turnaround because we fly down to Clemson tomorrow, they’re playing the best basketball that they’ve played in six years that we’ve been in the league. We can’t go down there and lay an egg, that’s what I’m worried about.
UConn at Louisville
January 31, 2019 | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame quotes
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma
(On UConn’s size advantage, where you surprised at how well Louisville defended inside?)
“I don’t that we had a lot of size, but they did a really good job defensively for the most part, for most of the game. There was a five-minute stretch in the third quarter where I thought it got away from us where the offense kind of fell apart. We made a lot of mistakes tonight defensively and they took advantage of every one of them. Every time we made a mistake tonight, they got a bucket. That’s a credit to them. They played well and they shot the ball well. Asia (Durr) made big buckets for them. It’s not so much how many you make, but she made good ones. And they had a lot of kids step up and make shots that don’t normally those shots. And that’s what you need in big games like this, for people to play above where they normally play – they had a couple of kids do that.”
(On Dana Evans’ performance)
“What happens when you have a kid like Asia Durr, if you’re not careful, you spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to keep her from getting shots that a lot of other people end up wide open. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. And that’s always a dilemma for every coach that’s coaching against a team that has somebody like that. Do you spend all your energy trying to guard one player and leave everybody else and hope that they play their normal game? Or do you just let their best player get 35 or 40 and make sure that the other guys don’t score? I thought, for the most part defensively, they score a lot of points, I think they’re in the 80s aren’t they? Something like that… And until we started fouling and all that, they were in the 60s. So I don’t think our defense was that much of a problem, but like I said, that third quarter killed us offensively.”
(What led to Louisville’s rebounding advantage?)
“They’re better rebounders. How’s that for a genius answer? We’re traditionally a pretty good rebounding team, this year we’re not really. We’re not really a great rebounding team. So we struggle with teams that have the kind of size and quickness that Louisville does. We don’t get a lot of offensive rebounds. They got 35 defensive rebounds – we missed a lot of shots, they better get a lot of them.”
(On comparisons of Baylor game to tonight and impact of Christyn Williams)
“Every team needs everybody on board, right? If you’re going to win the big games on the road. You need everybody to not just play well, but you need some kids to play better than well. We didn’t have enough contributions from enough people. I thought we were way better than we were in the Baylor game tonight. But that five-minute stretch in the third quarter, we looked just like we looked against Baylor. We went from looking like that for 20 minutes to looking like that for five minutes, so we made some progress since that game.”
“In a normal world, why would this be a big story? Home team ranked third in the country beats the second-ranked team in the country by 11 for their first win in 17 tries, 18 tries. In the real world, that’s not that big a deal, is it? But because it’s UConn, it’s a big deal. I said before the season started, this isn’t a typical UConn team. So people are starting to get used to the idea that I was right. We’re human, we kind of suck this year, to be honest with you. And we need to get better.”
(On how his team handled playing in the KFC Yum! Center atmosphere in front of over 17,000 fans)
‘We’ve played in a lot of big places. Did we handle it great? I don’t know. We were down one at halftime, and we had a five-minute stretch where we were lousy. I don’t think the crowd had anything to do with it. You could’ve put 25,000 in there and take out Asia Durr and we would’ve won by 30.”
(On why he fills the schedule with high-risk games on the road)
“I do it so that I’m trying to increase the chances that we lose. Because we win too much and it doesn’t help us to win that much. And it doesn’t help us get better. It used to be that kids were so competitive, and they were so driven to win that you didn’t have to worry about that stuff. In today’s world, kids aren’t motivated by much. So you’re trying to put them in situations where they have to struggle to win. Our schedule’s even worse next year, it’s even harder next year. I want them to grow, I want them to get better, I want them to see what it feels like to have the things you want to try not work; the things that always work not work and you have to figure out a different way to do it. I don’t think we should shy away from that, just because we want to protect our record. We’ve been doing this for as long as I’ve been coaching. How many places can I take my team where there’s a good chance we’re going to lose? Because then if we beat that team, then that’s a hell of a win. And that’s the way we’ve always operated. I’m probably the least surprised person when we lose these games. I’m like ‘okay.’”
(Can you appreciate what it’s like for Jeff Walz to finally beat you after 14 tries?)
“Absolutely, I know exactly what this feels like. I still remember when we beat Tennessee at home for our first win against the No. 1 team in the country. And what that felt like and what that did for our program. These people that follow us on a regular basis, I tell them all the time that every team’s biggest crowd is when we come to town. It’s unusual when it’s not. The best thing that can happen when that happens is the home team wins. So now all of a sudden it’s a big win for them. Fans, get all excited, more fans come and watch and now all of sudden there’s another good basketball program and if we keep playing them, that’s another really tough opponent. Otherwise, I might as well just play against my grandsons in ping pong and beat the hell out of them. We’re not going to put ourselves in a situation where beating us is a big deal. It should be a big deal. Those kids deserved it tonight. They played their asses off. They should really be proud of themselves. And he’s done an amazing job coaching and building this program. Some coaches just want to have good teams. You don’t have the success he’s had without having built a great program. Beating them has always been hard. Sometimes we made it look easy, but it’s always been hard. Always.”
(The ACC is adding games to the schedule which may make scheduling games like this more difficult in the future. Do you hope this series continues?)
“Yeah. So, the ACC is adding games. So that means he’s going to have less non-conference games. So if he chooses someone other than us to play, he’s a big baby. Because he’s going to have to play somebody right? Unless he’s going to quit after his first win. And then tell me all summer ‘I won the last one.’ It’s what I did with my son. The first time he beat me in one-on-one, I said that’s it, I’m done. It’s 2,172-1 – I’m done.”
January 31, 2019 | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame quotes
UofL head coach Jeff Walz
(Coach, whenever Geno was going through his press conference, he said that if you don’t schedule UCONN in the future then you would be a big baby. What are your thoughts on this?)
“You know what. I talked with Neil. He’s who I do the scheduling with. Geno has no idea who they schedule. I’m about to call the associate AD because I can’t call him. We are definitely trying to continue to keep this going. The problem that we have is because we are going to 18 league games, I’m not going to play this game in January or February, because I only get one bye week. I even called the ACC office to make sure I was correct on that. I’m not going to give up the only bye week I get to play a non-conference game. Because now, I’m losing a week, if I have some nicks and bruises, to be able to rest some kids. Now that’s not fair to them. Now when we have two bye weeks, like we do now, I have no problem playing the game. So, we’re trying to work on hopefully continuing the series; possibly moving to a December or November game. We’ll just have to wait and see if we can get that worked out.
(How key was Dana Evans tonight? What do you think fed into her great performance?)
“I’m looking forward to watching the game. I thought Dana got the ball out of her hands better than she has all year. I’ve talked to her, ‘the ball can’t stick in your hands. It can’t stick.’ She gets a little frustrated with me because she comes from four years in high school where she was the player. She had to score 30 plus points a night for her high school team to win. Well now, I don’t need her to score 30 plus points. I need her to get our offense moving, get things going, and when she gets that ball reversed, or when she gets that shot to go, then go. Tonight, I think she took some really good shots. The ball got reversed to her. Her teammates got her open when she was away from the ball and I’m hoping she might believe me now. We’ll have to wait and see how that goes on Saturday.
(How much relief did you feel as the clock wound down and you guys held a 10-point lead late. Is this a game that you can appreciate now, or is it maybe something that you’ll have to wait until after the season ends?)
“No. I appreciate every game as we go. I’ve always said, and people get tired of hearing the coach thing. It’s one game at a time. It’s a huge win for a program, no question about it. What an unbelievable turnout we had tonight. The fans were fantastic. I’ve always said, ‘I do appreciate the friendship I have with Geno.’ It’s kudos to them for being willing to play these games. They’ve got South Carolina on Monday or Tuesday of next week. They play Cincinnati on Saturday. He’s willing to play them. I think it’s great for our game. Win or lose, we are very fortunate. We had 10,000 here on Sunday. A game where a Pittsburgh program and Lance is going to do a great job with them. They’re in a rebuilding year. They were 9-11 coming into the game and we still had 10,000 fans show up. UCONN it what pushes us over the top to get to 17,000. He’s not only doing this for his team, obviously to come in here and play a game like this, it helps our team. It helps our fanbase. I’ve had a few people come up to me and tell me it’s the first women’s basketball game they’ve been to. I asked them if they lived under a rock. They came, and they were like ‘wow, this is really impressive. I’m just shocked at how athletic they are. What kind of players they are?’ I was like ‘hey I hope you guys come back.’ They were like ‘we’re coming back for sure.’ So, it helps us. It helps all of us when he’s willing to come on the road and play like this.”
“The crowd we had here tonight and to be able to win a basketball game, the crowd was similar to our Notre Dame crowd we had last year. They all knew we were 0-14 (against UConn) here in our 12 years. They understood the importance of this ballgame, I was excited for them. It’s a huge win for our program. It’s amazing what they’ve been able to do so yes, it is a huge win for our program and I’m really proud of everybody that’s been a part of this program for 12 years. Steph Norman’s been here the entire time, Adrienne Johnson has been here with me the entire time. But it takes everybody, our fans. I’ll say it again, you look at the crowd tonight. It’s remarkable, 17,000. I just keep telling everybody about the crowd on Sunday. A team that was 0-7 in the league and 10,000 came out. Normally that’s when nobody comes. This was a huge, huge win for us. I’ve told them you can enjoy it tonight, then tomorrow it’s a quick, quick turnaround because we fly down to Clemson tomorrow, they’re playing the best basketball that they’ve played in six years that we’ve been in the league. We can’t go down there and lay an egg, that’s what I’m worried about.
UConn at Louisville
January 31, 2019 | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame quotes
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma
(On UConn’s size advantage, where you surprised at how well Louisville defended inside?)
“I don’t that we had a lot of size, but they did a really good job defensively for the most part, for most of the game. There was a five-minute stretch in the third quarter where I thought it got away from us where the offense kind of fell apart. We made a lot of mistakes tonight defensively and they took advantage of every one of them. Every time we made a mistake tonight, they got a bucket. That’s a credit to them. They played well and they shot the ball well. Asia (Durr) made big buckets for them. It’s not so much how many you make, but she made good ones. And they had a lot of kids step up and make shots that don’t normally those shots. And that’s what you need in big games like this, for people to play above where they normally play – they had a couple of kids do that.”
(On Dana Evans’ performance)
“What happens when you have a kid like Asia Durr, if you’re not careful, you spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to keep her from getting shots that a lot of other people end up wide open. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. And that’s always a dilemma for every coach that’s coaching against a team that has somebody like that. Do you spend all your energy trying to guard one player and leave everybody else and hope that they play their normal game? Or do you just let their best player get 35 or 40 and make sure that the other guys don’t score? I thought, for the most part defensively, they score a lot of points, I think they’re in the 80s aren’t they? Something like that… And until we started fouling and all that, they were in the 60s. So I don’t think our defense was that much of a problem, but like I said, that third quarter killed us offensively.”
(What led to Louisville’s rebounding advantage?)
“They’re better rebounders. How’s that for a genius answer? We’re traditionally a pretty good rebounding team, this year we’re not really. We’re not really a great rebounding team. So we struggle with teams that have the kind of size and quickness that Louisville does. We don’t get a lot of offensive rebounds. They got 35 defensive rebounds – we missed a lot of shots, they better get a lot of them.”
(On comparisons of Baylor game to tonight and impact of Christyn Williams)
“Every team needs everybody on board, right? If you’re going to win the big games on the road. You need everybody to not just play well, but you need some kids to play better than well. We didn’t have enough contributions from enough people. I thought we were way better than we were in the Baylor game tonight. But that five-minute stretch in the third quarter, we looked just like we looked against Baylor. We went from looking like that for 20 minutes to looking like that for five minutes, so we made some progress since that game.”
“In a normal world, why would this be a big story? Home team ranked third in the country beats the second-ranked team in the country by 11 for their first win in 17 tries, 18 tries. In the real world, that’s not that big a deal, is it? But because it’s UConn, it’s a big deal. I said before the season started, this isn’t a typical UConn team. So people are starting to get used to the idea that I was right. We’re human, we kind of suck this year, to be honest with you. And we need to get better.”
(On how his team handled playing in the KFC Yum! Center atmosphere in front of over 17,000 fans)
‘We’ve played in a lot of big places. Did we handle it great? I don’t know. We were down one at halftime, and we had a five-minute stretch where we were lousy. I don’t think the crowd had anything to do with it. You could’ve put 25,000 in there and take out Asia Durr and we would’ve won by 30.”
(On why he fills the schedule with high-risk games on the road)
“I do it so that I’m trying to increase the chances that we lose. Because we win too much and it doesn’t help us to win that much. And it doesn’t help us get better. It used to be that kids were so competitive, and they were so driven to win that you didn’t have to worry about that stuff. In today’s world, kids aren’t motivated by much. So you’re trying to put them in situations where they have to struggle to win. Our schedule’s even worse next year, it’s even harder next year. I want them to grow, I want them to get better, I want them to see what it feels like to have the things you want to try not work; the things that always work not work and you have to figure out a different way to do it. I don’t think we should shy away from that, just because we want to protect our record. We’ve been doing this for as long as I’ve been coaching. How many places can I take my team where there’s a good chance we’re going to lose? Because then if we beat that team, then that’s a hell of a win. And that’s the way we’ve always operated. I’m probably the least surprised person when we lose these games. I’m like ‘okay.’”
(Can you appreciate what it’s like for Jeff Walz to finally beat you after 14 tries?)
“Absolutely, I know exactly what this feels like. I still remember when we beat Tennessee at home for our first win against the No. 1 team in the country. And what that felt like and what that did for our program. These people that follow us on a regular basis, I tell them all the time that every team’s biggest crowd is when we come to town. It’s unusual when it’s not. The best thing that can happen when that happens is the home team wins. So now all of a sudden it’s a big win for them. Fans, get all excited, more fans come and watch and now all of sudden there’s another good basketball program and if we keep playing them, that’s another really tough opponent. Otherwise, I might as well just play against my grandsons in ping pong and beat the hell out of them. We’re not going to put ourselves in a situation where beating us is a big deal. It should be a big deal. Those kids deserved it tonight. They played their asses off. They should really be proud of themselves. And he’s done an amazing job coaching and building this program. Some coaches just want to have good teams. You don’t have the success he’s had without having built a great program. Beating them has always been hard. Sometimes we made it look easy, but it’s always been hard. Always.”
(The ACC is adding games to the schedule which may make scheduling games like this more difficult in the future. Do you hope this series continues?)
“Yeah. So, the ACC is adding games. So that means he’s going to have less non-conference games. So if he chooses someone other than us to play, he’s a big baby. Because he’s going to have to play somebody right? Unless he’s going to quit after his first win. And then tell me all summer ‘I won the last one.’ It’s what I did with my son. The first time he beat me in one-on-one, I said that’s it, I’m done. It’s 2,172-1 – I’m done.”
