All right, we welcome coach ori Emma to the stage and we will just go ahead and open it up for questions. Questions for coach.
Usually when people say stage doesn't want to leave me to day.
Gino Joe's own Channel three in Hartford. I think you've said that, Uh, the best way you prepare for these games is you do what you do best. Can oh, can you win this game? If Foklahoma does what it does best, well.
That's why they keep score.
You know they're gonna obviously not do what they do worst, and neither are we. So I think we've got to, uh, we got to play the way we normally play, and you know, we've got to make some adjustments obviously, like you always do it at this time of the year. But you know, their style of play is very, very similar to ours, and I think playing at a pace that they play at, I think causes problems for a lot of people, and playing at the pace that we play at causes problems for a lot of people.
So it'll be an interesting it'll be an interesting matchup.
Thanks Mike Anthony from Hurst to Connecticut, good morning. You know, as he's played really well of late, has shot really well and just wondering what you see in her play lately, what you hope to see in her play, and kind of the approach she takes to this stage now with her future plans being announced. I don't know if that puts her even more at ease in this situation.
I hope so.
Sometimes, you know, these things weigh on on players' minds, as they should. You know, it's a big it's a big decision, and you you know, you want to try to have as few distractions in your head as possible at this time of the year, you know, So having made that decision clears a few things up for her and allows her to hopefully allows her to just focus
on playing and doing what she does best. You know, Paige has been in this situation a lot, asy as not, so I'm sure she's anxious to, you know, to play in this environment and in a game of this magnitude. And the only thing I worry about when kids are you know, and it's their.
First real, real, real, uh.
Exposure to this when they haven't played in a long time, Uh, is they try so hard, they put so much into it, you know, So if we can keep it kind of like the other games that we've played recently.
I would think she's going to.
Play great, right, lur Riley from the Hartford Current, can you just talk about the post matchup and kind of the challenges that it presents for you.
Yeah, they're.
There, their post their post situation is different. There aren't very many teams in the country that they both happened to well, two of them have both happened to be here, you know them and U C l A. You know where They've got a dominant post play that can single handedly win you a game. And it certainly takes a lot of pressure off your shooters knowing that, you know, if you're not making a lot of shots on the preimter,
you always got somewhere to go to get a bucket. Yeah, certainly the effect that she's had on their team has been tremendous and on ours on our side, not so much. You know, it's it's more significant for us when we go to our small lineup and people have to match up with Sarah playing in the middle, so we pose
a different sort of problem. But I want want to have to play three or four games guarding you know, reagum beers, and I'm not sure anybody wants to have to play against Sarah four games and so it would be interesting.
Hi Gino, Alexa philip O ESPN. I was just curious what your reaction to seeing Juju's injury was the other day. I know you guys were still at the arena when it happened. And then also just given being around the sports seeing also what your program has experienced over the last few years, what do you feel like is the best path forward in the women's basketball community to get a better handle, hopefully on some of these horrible injuries that they're experiencing.
Uh.
Yeah, we were made aware of it right after our game. I think it was right right after our game. You know, somebody came in our locker room and wanted to show it to me. And I still haven't seen it, and I've seen enough of those in my career. I didn't want to see another one. Uh, you know, I talked to Lindsay that night, and.
There's really nothing you can do about it.
I mean everything's been tried, People try and and there's probably more emphasis than ever before put on prevention, you know, the science behind it and how much time and effort is spent trying to prevent these kinds of things happening, and.
I don't know what the I don't know what the answer is.
You know, somebody somebody texted me after this happened and said, maybe they should do some prevented surgery, you know, like this's just cut up every kid, you know, And so that's a pretty extreme solution, you know. It's just one of those unfortunate things that happens. And I feel terrible for for Juju personally, knowing.
The players that I've had that have had to go through that.
How much it means to them what they're missing, you know, for the whole year that they're out, and for Lindsay, for her teammates. And I think the the the U, the effect that it has on the tournament, I think is huge from competitive standpoint, star power, you know.
And I think.
The the USC kids will probably rise to the occasion and play amazing like they did the other night.
You know.
But I don't know what the solution is. I don't I think when kids come to college, a lot of them are already overused, and I don't know how much that has to do with it.
You know.
I was talking to Mark Few yesterday and I think he's talking about the same things people think that, you know, if.
You work as hard as Kobe did, you'll be like Kobe.
And I don't know that you can work twice as hard as Kobe and you won't be like Kobe. So I think sometimes kids overdo it at a young age and it catches up to him among other things. You know that you can't you know, biological things. You probably can't do anything about.
Bryan Curchie only times, you know. Just piggybacking off of that question, what did you say to Lindsay that night afterwards? I know she had mentioned that you had sent a message here. And as a coach, having gone through this before where you lose a critical player for a long time, what's the biggest challenge in kind of rallying your team going forward knowing that you might have a different identity.
Yeah, it does change your identity because when you come to rely so much on one player, not not because you set out to be that way, It just happens that way. Great players like that just dominate the whole environment on your team. But what ends up happening is one of two things. And I don't know they're personnel
well enough you know, off the court. But the danger sometimes is one or two people on the team start to want to be like Juju, I'll do all the things usually did, and then that takes them out of their character and they play worse. And so the only thing that's helped us in those situations is, you know, you hope you have a you know, a.
Couple other really good players, which they.
Do certainly, and that you ask each player to do like that much more, be a little bit more attentive, you know. But anytime, you know, you try to make up for it, it usually backfires. And the other thing is if you were mourning, and that happened to us one year we lost.
Shay Ralph.
We were undefeated, were number one in the country, we were by far the best team in America. And the very first game in the NCAA tournament, she tour acl
on a breakaway layup, same thing. Nobody near he or nothing, and the kids start, you know, they wrote her name on their shoes and it was like someone had passed away, you know, a family member, and it was the worst thing that ever happened, and we lost a game we probably shouldn't have lost against a really good team so I think if you if you just look at it for what it is and let's move on and everybody
just do a little bit more. But I think sometimes it's just natural that people want to fill that void and again. And I hope we're playing them, so I hope that they're able to overcome it. I actually hope we're playing them or Kansas State. I just hope we're playing.
Hey, g know, Annie Peterson from the Associated Press. This is a little bit off topic, but today Doug Bruno announced that he was stepping down after more than three decades. Hit to Paul and I wanted to get your thoughts on his legacy.
I was just talking to him in the hallway over there. It's funny you ask. There haven't been a lot of people in the history of women's basketball that have given as much to the game as he has. He's dedicated his life pretty much to women's basketball, and all of it in Chicago, where he grew up. So he's an institution. I don't think there's a kid in the Midwest. You name all the states, I don't care, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois,
I don't care. They know someone or they themselves have been to Doug Bruno's basketball camp over the years, and in his words, you know he doesn't want to not to step away, but he knows he has to, and that's somewhat of relief, I think, knowing that circumstances have forced me into this situation. So it's sad for me personally because he's a great friend and we've been through a lot together, and sad for women's basketball that a lifelong supporter of the game isn't going to be coaching,
but he'll still be a supporter of the game. And happy for Patty, his wife and his kids and grandkids because they'll get to see more of him.
We have time for two more questions.
Hey, Gina, Sheantal Jennings with the athletic this isn't the first year you guys have had the transfer portal open during the tournament. Obviously the timing has changed a little bit. I'm curious as a staff how you sort of deal with being pulled in multiple directions that are both vital for the growth of your program, and then sort of more broadly, if you had a magic wand like, is there a better time for this? Is it a football response where they have two windows that sort of allows changes.
Yeah, there's just a lot of things going on right now. That take away I think some of the some of the focus of the players, some of the focus of the coaches. Obviously, the portal has become a big cloud that.
Hangs over everything.
Like, for instance, do you think the NBA will ever have open free agency during the NBA playoffs? I doubt that, right, It's got to be some time after all this is over.
It's got to.
Be when the schools have finished playing. There's got to be some sort of some sort of way to track and monitor and penalize tampering like there is in the NBA. There's got to be a guideline of what you can do in free agency, which is basically what it is, the two windows. Yeah, I'm in favor for anything that doesn't interfere with what you're trying to do as a
coach with your team. You know, even though I think players on every team that's playing in the tournament have already decided I'm either staying or I'm leaving, But it's never been harder to you know, at least in the pros. You know who's under contract, then who's a free agent? It's very difficult to live in an environment where every single kid on every team throughout the country, on all three hundred and fifty some Division one teams, is a
free agent. So I hope everybody that came up with this plan is really happy.
You know, magavenon ect Insider I talked about it before you describes as third year out here for the regional on the West Coast. But going ahead to next week, on the two winners out of this regional, we'll have a cross country trip to Tampa. Just what is your thoughts on that quick turnaround on top of the cross country trip.
Well, first of all, there's always going to be somebody that has to travel. Who's ever in the West region when the tournament, when the finals are on the West East Coast, and vice versa, So somebody's always going to have to travel, but it would only be oneing correct one team. Secondly, in a normal world run by normal people, there would only be four teams here, which means there
will be no games today. The games would be tomorrow, which means we wouldn't have to get up at six am to have an eight o'clock practice here this morning for an hour, which means we wouldn't have to get up at five am to have a seven point thirty shoot around for half an hour, take us longer to get through security than to actually be on the court. Okay, God bless whoever wins Monday night. Okay, and they've got
to fly cross country which is all day Tuesday. Then they have two days Wednesday and Thursday to play the biggest game of their life. The guys who they finished Sunday. Then they have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and they play Saturday. But there's a lot of people on the Whens basketball committee that think they're smarter than that. So whoever came up with this super regional stuff, and I know who they are?
Ruin the game they did.
They ruined the game. Half the country has no chance to get to a game in person. But you're making billions off of TV watually you're not. That would be the men's tournament. So yeah, there's a lot of issues that they need to fix. And again, we could get our ass beat tomorrow and that won't change my feelings.
Are any other happy thoughts will end on that beat note. Thank you coach, Thank you