Connecticut Postgame Quotes
No. 1 Connecticut vs. No. 3 Notre Dame
Game 15 – Finals, March 8, 2011
XL Center – Hartford, Conn.
Head Coach Geno Auriemma
Opening Statement:
“It was, as you can probably tell from watching them, a real struggle. I thought the first half was very difficult to get anything done at both ends of the floor. We had a difficult time trying to get into some offense that made any sense, and we had a difficult time keeping them out of the lane and getting to the free‑throw line. We regrouped and went over a couple things. When we came back out, the first five minutes of the second half set the tone for the rest of the game. We made some big plays, made some shots; we got the ball inside a little bit more than we did in the first half. It was exactly the kind of game that I thought it would be going in.”
Geno, just coming into the season, losing Tina was such a huge hole for you guys. It seemed in this tournament; Stefanie came out 24 the first day, 24 tonight. How important was she for you guys to win this tournament, and looking forward to the NCAA Tournament having her play really well right now?
“Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard to win championships if you don't have somewhat of a consistent scoring threat inside. Whoever that is, it doesn't necessarily have to be a center or any particular position. I think what Stefanie has done is given us a little bit of a comfort level that we didn't have probably September, October, November, December. We were more having to make jump shots, have to get down in transition. Our half-court offense wasn't as comfortable in it. Now that we have somebody like her that we really can count on night‑in and night‑out, we have a chance. If she hadn't developed to the point where she's at now, I don't think we'd have any chance going into the NCAA's. Same with Bria. I think the two of them playing the way they did this week says a lot about what our chances can be going forward.”
Do you think Notre Dame deserves to be mentioned in the talk for No. 2 seed?
“I don't see who else has played a better schedule and had as much success as they've had. I haven't seen every team, but I would put them up against any other team that would be a 2 seed. So, yeah, in my mind I think absolutely. Absolutely.”
Is this as gratifying as any championship that you can remember just because of what you guys had to go through to get to this point?
“Yeah, it is. There were a lot more areas that we had to cover. In some years every mistake we made would get exploited and this is one of those years, like 2003, 2004 maybe, 2005, '06, and ‘07, whenever we won the tournament those years. Any time I think you don't have a wide margin for error, I think it's rewarding, because everything has to go right. You can see how easily it could go wrong. Kelly plays one way last night, plays a different way tonight. It's hard to predict how people are going to behave night‑in and night‑out. For as bad as we played in the first half, to go in up one, I thought that was pretty amazing. It really was. I was shocked, shocked. To get killed like we did on the boards and still win.”
Bria got her third foul in the first half with 4:00 and change to go. Tiffany fouled with 1:00 and change. What goes through your mind? You left Tiffany in because you looked on the bench and obviously there weren't a lot of options. What's going through your mind? You know that's an Achilles. How difficult is that and how worrisome is that?
“Well, against a team like Notre Dame you just ‑‑ your worst fears are going to come true because of how they play, how they get the ball from point A to point B, and what they do when they get in the lane and how aggressive they are.
For me, we're trying to manage it so that we have enough offense out on the floor to help our defense. I know we're going to be good defensively regardless of who is playing. But trying to keep enough offensive players on the floor is a real challenge sometimes, especially when you have two of your best offensive players, Bria and Tiffany, with those fouls. Now you're looking out there and Kelly's struggling, so it's Maya and Stefanie and that's it. Yeah, during that time I just kind of shook my head and let's see what happens. Let's just play and see what happens.”
Was there ever a point in time in the fall or first few weeks of the season when you were worried Stefanie wasn't going to get to this point this soon?
“Yeah, I think there were a lot of times watching her practice that I didn't know how long it would take. When the season started, to be honest with you, this is what I thought. I thought if we could get ten minutes from Stefanie Dolson and we can get ten minutes from Heather Buck, that's 20 minutes. The other 20 minutes we'll kind of zig and zag and figure it out. So that's what I thought going in and obviously I don't have any idea what I'm thinking about, you know, because none of that ever came to pass. Maybe that's why she developed so quickly because she wasn't put in a situation where, hey, Stef, just give us 10 minutes. She was put in a situation where you need to give us 30 minutes every night, and it needs to be really, really good. Sometimes that forces you to be better than you are, quicker than you want to be. So you look at her play the last three days. Look at the player that fouled out in the first 12 minutes against Baylor the second game of the year, and that's not the same person, not even close.”
If you had to vote for most outstanding player of this tournament, who would you have voted for?
“Unfortunately, I didn't get to vote. But I know who I would have voted for.”
In your 27 years now, have you ever had a player develop as quickly in season as Stefanie has done for you to be able to play 12 minutes and then 40 in the championship?
“Yeah, probably only one, but she had a lot to overcome because she was big and slow; not very bright and lazy and didn't work really hard. It took a long, long time to get her to where we needed her to be. But Kara probably is the only one that comes close to what Stefanie did. And Kara was MVP, she made the Eastern all regional team as a freshman after playing like four or five minutes a game in November. Other than that, no. As I said, this one might have happened quicker simply out of necessity. But Kara was a dominant player, it's just it didn't look like that because we had Rebecca, Jen and Nykesha. So it didn't quite look like that. During this time during Kara's freshman year, she was a dominant player. And I hope that Stefanie ‑‑ Stefanie can't be what Kara was because she's not as tall and doesn't have the same amount of help around her that Kara had. Hopefully we can get some of the same results though.”
Senior Forward Maya Moore
All season it's been team concept, a team thing, lot of contributions. Talk about how that helped you tonight and the way you guys finished this run?
“We needed every person to contribute tonight. I thought we did a good job, especially in the second half, stepping up, hitting good shots, running our offense and executing what Coach was drawing up for us. Whether it was dominating the boards like Kelly did for us tonight or hitting some big shots and making some great passes like Bria and Tiffany were doing and Stef finished really well tonight. It took all of us, so I was really proud of the way everybody stepped up.”
Maya, you've won four of these in a row now. Talk about how meaningful this one was just because of how difficult it was to get here?
“Yeah, it's been definitely the most difficult year, but we have shown some resilience. I think overcoming some odds and being mentally tougher than people probably thought we would be, and finding a way to win. Just going through the regular season and being consistent enough, just enough to win all of those games. To know that you can't really look to your left or right, you've got to suck it up and play through it, because we don't have a lot of reserves coming off the bench. That takes a lot of mental focus for a long stretch of time. Because of that we've developed. Especially Bria and Stefanie have developed quicker. It's just a blast to see that, and see it in the games.”
Maya, right after the final buzzer you gave Stefanie a hug and said something. Would you mind sharing with us what you said to her?
“Probably something like you're my MVP or I'm really proud of you or something along those lines. I gave her like eight hugs. I don't really remember what I said at that one. I was just really proud of the way she stepped up and had everybody's back tonight. Relieving a lot of pressure, I think, for all of us, by scoring in the post. Every time we threw it in there, it seemed like something good would happen. She would either do her hook shot, didn't get frustrated. So I was just really congratulating her and making sure she knew that what she did tonight was really special.”
Maya, do you feel that the team was discounted this season? If true, did that perception fuel the team this season to the point where it's at now?
“We take any motivation that we can get. It is an unusual year, and some of the challenges that we're facing this year; we haven't necessarily had to in the past, so we just use it to make us better. We use it to make us more focused, more competitive as a challenge to be mentally tougher for longer stretches of time, knowing that you're going to have to play more minutes. I think we used it in a positive way.”
Maya, There were a lot of plays in this game, but you were up 5 with about 2 minutes to go. You missed the shot and Stefanie went through about three Notre Dame players and gets the ball to score instead of them coming down only down 5, you're up 7. Can you talk about how key that play was for you guys?
“That's one of the big plays I was talking about. She was there. She had my back in that instance. It's all those little plays that you look back on, that makes the difference, hustle plays, getting a loose ball, getting an offensive rebound. That's what I think sometimes gets overlooked; the little plays when it comes to championships. That's what makes the biggest difference. Like she was saying earlier with how her mentality has changed and matured, and that's the mentality that we've seen in Stefanie, and everyone's mentality has to be just not being tired. Going after every loose ball and staying with the play. So that was a big momentum mover for us.”
Freshman Guard Bria Hartley & Freshman Center Stefanie Dolson
For Bria and Stefanie, a lot was asked of you both this year. What's it mean for you guys to see your hard work pay off? Not only to win a championship, but to be named to the all‑tournament team?
BRIA HARTLEY: “It's definitely a great feeling. It's our first time winning the BIG EAST Championship. We're just really excited and just glad that we went out there, played hard and won.”
STEFANIE DOLSON: “Yeah, I'm super excited. I mean, it feels great to know that we just won our first BIG EAST Championship, hopefully for more to come. So it's a great feeling to know that we went out there and played hard. The fans were there supporting us. They were great tonight. It's a crazy feeling.”
Connecticut Postgame Quotes
No. 1 Connecticut vs. No. 3 Notre Dame
Game 15 – Finals, March 8, 2011
XL Center – Hartford, Conn.
Head Coach Geno Auriemma
Opening Statement:
“It was, as you can probably tell from watching them, a real struggle. I thought the first half was very difficult to get anything done at both ends of the floor. We had a difficult time trying to get into some offense that made any sense, and we had a difficult time keeping them out of the lane and getting to the free‑throw line. We regrouped and went over a couple things. When we came back out, the first five minutes of the second half set the tone for the rest of the game. We made some big plays, made some shots; we got the ball inside a little bit more than we did in the first half. It was exactly the kind of game that I thought it would be going in.”
Geno, just coming into the season, losing Tina was such a huge hole for you guys. It seemed in this tournament; Stefanie came out 24 the first day, 24 tonight. How important was she for you guys to win this tournament, and looking forward to the NCAA Tournament having her play really well right now?
“Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard to win championships if you don't have somewhat of a consistent scoring threat inside. Whoever that is, it doesn't necessarily have to be a center or any particular position. I think what Stefanie has done is given us a little bit of a comfort level that we didn't have probably September, October, November, December. We were more having to make jump shots, have to get down in transition. Our half-court offense wasn't as comfortable in it. Now that we have somebody like her that we really can count on night‑in and night‑out, we have a chance. If she hadn't developed to the point where she's at now, I don't think we'd have any chance going into the NCAA's. Same with Bria. I think the two of them playing the way they did this week says a lot about what our chances can be going forward.”
Do you think Notre Dame deserves to be mentioned in the talk for No. 2 seed?
“I don't see who else has played a better schedule and had as much success as they've had. I haven't seen every team, but I would put them up against any other team that would be a 2 seed. So, yeah, in my mind I think absolutely. Absolutely.”
Is this as gratifying as any championship that you can remember just because of what you guys had to go through to get to this point?
“Yeah, it is. There were a lot more areas that we had to cover. In some years every mistake we made would get exploited and this is one of those years, like 2003, 2004 maybe, 2005, '06, and ‘07, whenever we won the tournament those years. Any time I think you don't have a wide margin for error, I think it's rewarding, because everything has to go right. You can see how easily it could go wrong. Kelly plays one way last night, plays a different way tonight. It's hard to predict how people are going to behave night‑in and night‑out. For as bad as we played in the first half, to go in up one, I thought that was pretty amazing. It really was. I was shocked, shocked. To get killed like we did on the boards and still win.”
Bria got her third foul in the first half with 4:00 and change to go. Tiffany fouled with 1:00 and change. What goes through your mind? You left Tiffany in because you looked on the bench and obviously there weren't a lot of options. What's going through your mind? You know that's an Achilles. How difficult is that and how worrisome is that?
“Well, against a team like Notre Dame you just ‑‑ your worst fears are going to come true because of how they play, how they get the ball from point A to point B, and what they do when they get in the lane and how aggressive they are.
For me, we're trying to manage it so that we have enough offense out on the floor to help our defense. I know we're going to be good defensively regardless of who is playing. But trying to keep enough offensive players on the floor is a real challenge sometimes, especially when you have two of your best offensive players, Bria and Tiffany, with those fouls. Now you're looking out there and Kelly's struggling, so it's Maya and Stefanie and that's it. Yeah, during that time I just kind of shook my head and let's see what happens. Let's just play and see what happens.”
Was there ever a point in time in the fall or first few weeks of the season when you were worried Stefanie wasn't going to get to this point this soon?
“Yeah, I think there were a lot of times watching her practice that I didn't know how long it would take. When the season started, to be honest with you, this is what I thought. I thought if we could get ten minutes from Stefanie Dolson and we can get ten minutes from Heather Buck, that's 20 minutes. The other 20 minutes we'll kind of zig and zag and figure it out. So that's what I thought going in and obviously I don't have any idea what I'm thinking about, you know, because none of that ever came to pass. Maybe that's why she developed so quickly because she wasn't put in a situation where, hey, Stef, just give us 10 minutes. She was put in a situation where you need to give us 30 minutes every night, and it needs to be really, really good. Sometimes that forces you to be better than you are, quicker than you want to be. So you look at her play the last three days. Look at the player that fouled out in the first 12 minutes against Baylor the second game of the year, and that's not the same person, not even close.”
If you had to vote for most outstanding player of this tournament, who would you have voted for?
“Unfortunately, I didn't get to vote. But I know who I would have voted for.”
In your 27 years now, have you ever had a player develop as quickly in season as Stefanie has done for you to be able to play 12 minutes and then 40 in the championship?
“Yeah, probably only one, but she had a lot to overcome because she was big and slow; not very bright and lazy and didn't work really hard. It took a long, long time to get her to where we needed her to be. But Kara probably is the only one that comes close to what Stefanie did. And Kara was MVP, she made the Eastern all regional team as a freshman after playing like four or five minutes a game in November. Other than that, no. As I said, this one might have happened quicker simply out of necessity. But Kara was a dominant player, it's just it didn't look like that because we had Rebecca, Jen and Nykesha. So it didn't quite look like that. During this time during Kara's freshman year, she was a dominant player. And I hope that Stefanie ‑‑ Stefanie can't be what Kara was because she's not as tall and doesn't have the same amount of help around her that Kara had. Hopefully we can get some of the same results though.”
Senior Forward Maya Moore
All season it's been team concept, a team thing, lot of contributions. Talk about how that helped you tonight and the way you guys finished this run?
“We needed every person to contribute tonight. I thought we did a good job, especially in the second half, stepping up, hitting good shots, running our offense and executing what Coach was drawing up for us. Whether it was dominating the boards like Kelly did for us tonight or hitting some big shots and making some great passes like Bria and Tiffany were doing and Stef finished really well tonight. It took all of us, so I was really proud of the way everybody stepped up.”
Maya, you've won four of these in a row now. Talk about how meaningful this one was just because of how difficult it was to get here?
“Yeah, it's been definitely the most difficult year, but we have shown some resilience. I think overcoming some odds and being mentally tougher than people probably thought we would be, and finding a way to win. Just going through the regular season and being consistent enough, just enough to win all of those games. To know that you can't really look to your left or right, you've got to suck it up and play through it, because we don't have a lot of reserves coming off the bench. That takes a lot of mental focus for a long stretch of time. Because of that we've developed. Especially Bria and Stefanie have developed quicker. It's just a blast to see that, and see it in the games.”
Maya, right after the final buzzer you gave Stefanie a hug and said something. Would you mind sharing with us what you said to her?
“Probably something like you're my MVP or I'm really proud of you or something along those lines. I gave her like eight hugs. I don't really remember what I said at that one. I was just really proud of the way she stepped up and had everybody's back tonight. Relieving a lot of pressure, I think, for all of us, by scoring in the post. Every time we threw it in there, it seemed like something good would happen. She would either do her hook shot, didn't get frustrated. So I was just really congratulating her and making sure she knew that what she did tonight was really special.”
Maya, do you feel that the team was discounted this season? If true, did that perception fuel the team this season to the point where it's at now?
“We take any motivation that we can get. It is an unusual year, and some of the challenges that we're facing this year; we haven't necessarily had to in the past, so we just use it to make us better. We use it to make us more focused, more competitive as a challenge to be mentally tougher for longer stretches of time, knowing that you're going to have to play more minutes. I think we used it in a positive way.”
Maya, There were a lot of plays in this game, but you were up 5 with about 2 minutes to go. You missed the shot and Stefanie went through about three Notre Dame players and gets the ball to score instead of them coming down only down 5, you're up 7. Can you talk about how key that play was for you guys?
“That's one of the big plays I was talking about. She was there. She had my back in that instance. It's all those little plays that you look back on, that makes the difference, hustle plays, getting a loose ball, getting an offensive rebound. That's what I think sometimes gets overlooked; the little plays when it comes to championships. That's what makes the biggest difference. Like she was saying earlier with how her mentality has changed and matured, and that's the mentality that we've seen in Stefanie, and everyone's mentality has to be just not being tired. Going after every loose ball and staying with the play. So that was a big momentum mover for us.”
Freshman Guard Bria Hartley & Freshman Center Stefanie Dolson
For Bria and Stefanie, a lot was asked of you both this year. What's it mean for you guys to see your hard work pay off? Not only to win a championship, but to be named to the all‑tournament team?
BRIA HARTLEY: “It's definitely a great feeling. It's our first time winning the BIG EAST Championship. We're just really excited and just glad that we went out there, played hard and won.”
STEFANIE DOLSON: “Yeah, I'm super excited. I mean, it feels great to know that we just won our first BIG EAST Championship, hopefully for more to come. So it's a great feeling to know that we went out there and played hard. The fans were there supporting us. They were great tonight. It's a crazy feeling.”
Notre Dame Postgame Quotes
No. 1 Connecticut vs. No. 3 Notre Dame
Game 15 – Final Round, March 8, 2011
XL Center – Hartford, Conn.
Head Coach Muffet McGraw
Opening Statement:
“I was pleased with our competitiveness today. I thought we really fought, we battled. We got down about 13 and then cut it back to three. We really kept going at them, kept attacking the basket. I thought Natalie Achonwa off the bench had a great game for us, a double-double. Fraderica Miller gave us a great first half, but in the end we missed too many shots. We got a lot of really great looks and shots around the basket that just didn't fall for us. And (Stephanie) Dolson, she really hurt us again. We thought we were going to double team her, but we didn't get down there in time and she was too much for us in the post.”
Can you talk about Natalie Novosel's coming back from the injury? Is she getting medical treatment now, is that why she isn't here?
“Yeah, she hyperextended her knee and she wanted to get back in and play. It was obviously bothering her after that. But she wanted to stay in, so we left her in. I think it affected her shots a little bit down the stretch. She usually makes a few more of those. We got really good looks and she did what she needed to do. She drove it to the basket. I thought the beginning of the first half really killed us. She got some good looks in the first half, just didn't knock them down.”
Is Dolson a better player now, than she was two months ago against you guys?
“I thought she really hurt us in the last game as well. She played really well when we came out here last time. Had about the same number of points, I think. She's a big force inside for us to guard.”
Tiffany Hayes and Bria Hartley both had three fouls after the first half. Did you think you can get them maybe in foul trouble a little earlier in the second half when they got the fourth late?
“That was our hope. Maybe that's why we missed so many shots; we were trying so hard to get them to foul us that we probably should have concentrated a little more on trying to make the shot. We knew they weren't going to come over and guard us because they were in foul trouble. So we went over to attack those two and we did that. But Natalie (Achonwa) was maybe trying too hard to get fouled.”
How much is what Natalie Achonwa did in this tournament help you going forward to the NCAA? She's another huge inside presence of a freshman that played really well tonight and just the whole tournament?
“I thought she had a great tournament. I thought she could be on the all-tournament team because she did so many things for us off the bench. She's playing with a lot of confidence. She was a real force inside. You could see she wasn't intimidated. She was encouraging her teammates. I thought defensively she was trying to lean on Dolson, which wasn't quite as good as we hoped. But overall I was really pleased with the way she played. She's a battler in there. She's going hard after the ball and got great looks around the basket. So, yeah, that's big news for us going forward.”
Can you talk about how difficult it is to knock UConn's composure or crack it? It seems like you were going after them, going after them and they never lost their poise?
“Yeah, there is a certain comfort level at home that is hard to shake. It's hard to win on the road in this league. When you have the home court behind you as we did in South Bend, it's a much different game. I think you're more comfortable. You don't get as rattled because you have the crowd behind you and I think that's a big factor. Also when you have Maya Moore on your team, I think that helps your poise a lot. She made some really big shots. I thought she looked cold in the first half, but then she hit some real daggers on us in the second half in that run.”
Freshman Forward Natalie Achonwa
Can you talk about being able to come off the bench and produce the way you did?
“When Coach came to me looking for me to contribute off the bench, I just tried to come in and utilize the minutes that I was given and tried to compete.”
Can you follow up on just what you take from this tournament and how you came into this tournament off of atough game and the way you produced in this tournament?
“I think that that loss coming into the tournament against DePaul gave us motivation from the get‑go. We knew we had to reprove ourselves from our finish in the regular season and I think we did that in the first few games. The first one was ugly. We came out and we gave DePaul a little payback. Then tonight we wanted it. There was a stretch where they had gone on a run, and that killed us.”
Sophomore Guard Skylar Diggins
What is the level of frustration on your team's behalf losing to UConn for the third time this year?
“Obviously, losing period frustrates us because of how we've been working to get to this level. You know, we work very hard. And I think this team had the mindset that we were going to win. I think we didn't play not to lose, we played to win tonight and that is the difference. Obviously playing against a team like UConn three times and losing is very frustrating. We know that wasn’t the end of our second season. We're starting the tournament. We'll see where we're at on Monday. We can't do anything but learn from it and move on.”
Looking at the big picture, what do you take out of this tournament that can help new the NCAA's?
“The BIG EAST is great for getting us ready for the tournament. Great teams. This is an Elite Eight Final Four game, championship game with this tournament. So we're going to take this momentum to where we're at. See what we need to work on and like I said get ready for this tournament, which will be very competitive. But we're excited to get started and excited to get back in the gym.”
As far as the missed shots,was it anything they were doing defensively or you just weren't knocking them down tonight?
“I think it was a little bit of both. We got them in foul trouble, they got us in foul trouble and we needed people off the bench to step up. They did. They held it down for us in the first half until we were able to get back in in the second half.
I felt like a couple of possessions in transition hurt us, maybe some rotations, just (Moore) and Dolson. So on the offensive end, we were making some shots and the shots we took were some bad shots. The other shots we usually make those shots, but they just weren't falling, great defensive pressure. The Connecticut team is going to get up and they're not going to let you get the ball in the screen, so it was a combination of both.”
Coming in here, you didn’t have the home crowd advantage. Did you just want to keep the crowd as quiet as possible as long as you can?
“I think we wanted to play hard. We were winning the four‑minute games, I think. We were saying we have to divide it up. Like I said, when you play a team like UConn, the game can seem so long. So for us we were playing together. We had great positive criticism. We felt like it was just the foul trouble that got to us early. But the crowd, I really wasn't paying attention to the crowd. We figured it out when we came here. We knew that just really playing with each other, playing together and playing hard.”