SCOREBOARD 1st 2nd Final 4/4 Rutgers 23 23 46 1/1 Connecticut 28 38 66
Postgame Notes University of Connecticut | | | On winning the Big East Season: “I was thinking during the day it has been a long season, it has been disappointing for some of our individuals and our kids had to go through a lot of things. This past week is a perfect example; we got from LSU at 3:00 in the morning, we got back from DePaul at 3:00 in the morning and it is a lot. I think today our players were able to show that once again how resilient we are. It is gratifying right now for them to be in this position and I know that they are tired and exhausted. We talked about it yesterday, I said 11:00 tomorrow night you are going to be exhausted and you can either be exhausted as Big East champions or you can be exhausted as slugs.” On the game: “You have to take your opportunities when you get them and you have to convert. I thought our defense could not have been any better in the first 20 minutes. I don’t think we made a mistake, maybe one or two the entire first half and for us to come up empty so many times it worries you. It was a five point game at half time and it have very easily been a 15 point game at half time with nothing different, make a couple lay-ups or free-throws. When you know that you are leaving things on the table, you know that you are putting yourself in situation that a couple of jump shots in the second half can change everything. That is exactly what happened, they caught us in a little bit of a bad defense and I didn’t really do what I needed to do to help those guys but it took us a timeout to get it squared away. They got a pretty good perimeter game obviously and once we took care of that one little mix-up where they got a couple open jump shots we were ok. One difference was Lorin Dixon; the defense that she played was tremendous. There were a couple opportunities for her to get beat or leave her feet but I knew how bad she wanted to play. She really wanted to play, hoping I would put her in and more importantly she wanted to play well. She was really disappointed coming out of the game down there and I am really happy for her. As good as our defense was in the first half there were times in the second half that it was better.”
Epiphanny Prince really got to you guys last game, can you talk about defending her and how you were able to stop her? “Assistant Coach Tanya Cardoza told me to just focus on defense because offense always comes. Epiphany Prince scored 33 point on us the last time we met so that was definitely in the back of my head the whole time.” She got into the lane a lot last game and got a lot of foul shots, what did you do to stop her? “I just tried to stay down on defense, a lot of times I try to go for steals but I tried not to do that tonight because she is such a good ball handler.” Do you have any lingering feelings towards Epiphanny Prince after that foul against Maya Moore? “I asked her if she did it on purpose and she said no, so I can’t be mad at someone who is just playing hard. I’m sure she didn’t mean to foul her as hard as she did, she just didn’t want her to make the basket and get a free throw.”
Was that the most physical game you played in all year or one of the most physical? “Yes, it was a physical game, as well as the UNC and LSU games. Those three teams are a physical bunch and that’s one thing that coach always says is to play physical. We have to be physically and mentally tough and I think that we did that tonight.” What was going on between you and Kia Vaughn in the second half? “I think we were both just playing off of our emotions. We just got carried away because we both love the game. Both of us wanted this win, but my team stepped it up.” Do they seem like the same team that you played on their court, did they seem different the way that they played? “I don’t think that they seemed different, but some of their key players got into foul trouble. I believe Epiphany Prince had four fouls, Kia Vaughn had three, and Rashidat Junaid had three. I just think that our mentality of attacking their defense all the time got them into that position.” What does the BIG EAST Regular Season Championship mean to you after all the team has gone through this year? “It means a lot. We came far after the win against DePaul and we wanted to show to our fans and to ourselves what kind of team we are. We know that we are the better team and we knew that we could come out and win. Can you talk about the lift Lorin Dixon gave you after Ketia Swanier got four fouls? “That’s the thing that Lorin is going to have to do for us. She was put in that position after Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene went down and she did a great job when she was starting. That is what Lorin likes to do is be that spark off of the bench.”
Did you let some opportunities get away in the first half? “Yeah, we did. We felt we played okay, but not as well as we could have. I think we missed a ridiculous number of free throws. I know I did at the end of the half. We just weren’t satisfied with our first half and we just wanted to go out [in the second half] and top that first half.” Did you want to set a tone right off the bat in the second half? “That’s always a key for myself, to come out attacking. We did things on the offense at times and got some really good looks. Renee [Montgomery] was knocking down tough shots.” Does this championship feel any different than any others you won? “It does because it was harder. When you’re younger, at the time you think things are hard but there’s a whole other level to go to. There’s more at stake I think. They came out – we had something to prove – having lost to Rutgers the last time. It feels good though.” On Lorin Dixon: “Lorin came in…It took her maybe a possession or two to kind-of get comfortable. After those two [possessions], she was her usual self, taking that big charge against Matee [Avavon]. How much did that mean to you to have Coach hug you coming off the floor? “That was great. That was wonderful just having Coach hug me like that and the whole team being excited was just an amazing feeling. Coming on after Ketia [Swanier] got that fourth foul, actually I was kind of nervous coming into the game. Basically, I just tried to play defense as hard as I could. Anything that happened on offense was going to happen. I just tried to hold it down the best I could with her having four fouls until later on in the game. I feel like it went pretty well and just being greeted like that coming off the court is one of those feelings that’s hard to explain. When Coach hugged me like that, that meant a lot.” On the hug: “I didn’t know what to do at first and then he just gave me a hug and I said, ‘Okay,’ and hugged him back. He said good job, but basically just hugged me. He was like, ‘Good job, good job.’ It just means a lot to have Coach Auriemma hug you like that and you’re just like, ‘Okay, I really did something!’ It just boosts my confidence level up a whole lot.” How much did you need that playing time today? “I think I needed it a lot. I feel like lately I just am not playing really well, not playing up to what Coach knows I could play on offense or defense. I felt like I was slacking. I just needed it. It helped me boost my confidence. I feel like now if we play in an environment like that against Rutgers, we can do it against anybody. It’s just another thing to add to my confidence level. I feel like now I am ready and can play against anybody like that. It was just a good thing for me today.” Rutgers University | |
Opening Statement “Sometimes the bear gets you and sometimes you get the bear. The bear got us today and they got it good. I can’t say anything other than Connecticut is a great team. They played extremely well and I thought they took it to us right from the beginning. I’d like to think that we came to play but there was no playing going on today. I think that Connecticut played with a sense of purpose and we played like we were going to play another walk in the park. With all due respect, I thought that coach did a great job of preparing his team and they played like there was no tomorrow. And in playing like that, I am sure that this team deserves to be the No. 1 team in the country and they played like that today.” In the first eight minutes of the second half, it seemed like Essence had really locked down Maya Moore. Were you trying to give her a break when you took her out because right away Maya went right at (Brittany) Ray, who you brought in and it really changed the game I thought. “It wasn’t that I was trying to give her a break, I was just disturbed with other things she was doing on the court and the other problem was that, they were easily scoring with their post player, McLaren or Charles, so we went ahead and tried to put Essence there because she is a little bit quicker. And then switch it off and see what Epiphany could do with Maya. Maya is in another category. She really is. There was nothing that we could do, end of discussion. She is just a great player, so intense. It was either Maya was going to get the ball or Charles, who played with vengeance or McLaren. Either way you shake it, someone was going to get it done.” On Maya Moore “It seemed to me that Maya Moore put her team on her back and she gave a great deal of courage to Montgomery, Swanier and Charles, and I think that great players have the ability to do that. She was not going to allow them to lose and she was not going to allow them to play anyway other than extremely tough and aggressive and that is a real credit to her.” On her team’s defense and UConn’s multiple shooting opportunities “Obviously we didn’t do anything about it. I thought we backed down. It is one thing to play defense but it’s another thing to finish the defensive possessions. And when they rebounded, they rebounded like they meant business. They gained rebounds; they were hitting the floor and getting back up two and three. They were assaulting, with lack of a better word, they were assaulting us underneath and they were relentless on the boards. They are bigger and they are just that much quicker.”
Do you think UConn did anything differently this time out? I really don’t think that they did anything differently than they did last time. I just felt like I wasn’t – I’m known to take what the defense gives me and what they were giving me were like open shots, but not within the style that we play. If I would have taken some of the shots it would have been two fast within the offense and I would have been taking shots with 25 seconds left. I didn’t want to force anything and I wanted the offense to flow so I passed it back out. Do you feel you’re a different team without the press? “Yeah, I think with the press we try to make adjustments. I think that we know that there is no easy way out and we need to just do it how we regularly do it. We don’t need to have anybody make any excuses and we don’t need to have anything the easy way out. We have to just try and do it the way we normally do it because that’s the way it’s been working.
Is there anything you can take out of this game? “You can’t forget your last game. It’s always going to be in your mind. What we will do is go back in the gym and work on the things Coach feels we need to work on. We’ll review film and get better.” Do you try to figure out why you didn’t play well? “Of course, you look for the whys, but then again we look for what we didn’t do right and things of that sort.” What upset you the most about tonight? “Our defense didn’t help our offense and our offense didn’t spark our defense. We just didn’t do anything right.” Does it remind you of last year’s championship game? “Sort of, we lost by 26 last year. This year we lost by 20 points so it all depends on how we move on from here.
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