Geno Auriemma Happen Quotations

Sometimes the reaction (to losing) is more of you're just stunned and you have no (outward) reaction. So you just sit there and you stare into space, and there's a pretty good chance that that will happen to you again because you have no idea what just happened and you don't know how to deal with it.

I'm happy for these kids. The worst thing that could have happened is for them not to get to the final with an opportunity to win a championship. After what happened last week, that would have been really really hard for them going into the NCAA Tournament.

I remember the last time we won a national championship without a great tournament from our point guards. I think it was never. And I would venture to say if our guard play isn't really, really good, it won't happen again this year.

It's a great barometer for not only what is happening with our team at the moment but what could happen, what might happen down the road. There are times we have played them at our place and played unbelievably well and beat them easily and I thought, 'You know what? I think this team can win the national championship.' There's times when we've played them at their place and got our heads handed to us and I left there thinking, 'You know what? I'm not sure we're a national championship-type team.

It's not something that you really consciously spend any time at all thinking about, or gauging your reaction. It's kind of like a spontaneous thing that happens if you ever get a phone call saying you've been selected.

I can't tell you how many times I've been offered jobs in that league that no one ever knew about. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people seriously about jobs in that league. This one just happened to make it to that point ... to the newspapers.

You worry at this time of the year that you get a little bit hesitant, a little bit tentative, and it becomes a walk-it-up, grind-it-out game. I don?t want it to be like that. I don?t want to be afraid to run and afraid to lose and worry about ?What if.? I just want to go and run up and down the floor and make some plays and see what happens ? that?s when we?re at our best.

When you get to be a senior, a certain amount of responsibility falls on your shoulders, like all of it. Everything that happens on our team, you're responsible for it and you can't not take responsibility for it just because you're not playing. ... I think (Turner) understands that now and she was really different the last couple of days in practice.

All in all I'm not surprised by anything that happens in the tournament. It's not going to be easy. It's not supposed to be easy.

My initial reaction right now is I saw where it's going to be announced during the Final Four. So if I'm sitting here in Connecticut and there's four teams playing in Boston at the Final Four and I get a phone call, my first reaction is I'm going to be (mad) that I'm not at the Final Four. I can tell you that much. So if I happen to be in Boston with my team and I get that phone call, it'll be kind of a special weekend.

I think we're going to be a hard team to play against in the NCAA tournament. We play good defense. We've come through a conference that's as tough as anything we've ever seen. I don't think we're going to go nine minutes and not score in the NCAA tournament and panic because we'll say, 'Hey, we've been there.' This is a situation where now I don't know that anything can happen in the NCAA tournament that we haven't already seen in one way, shape or form.

I hate it because there's too much dead time. They don't do anything. I mean if sleeping was a sport these guys would be first-team All-American. So what happens is when there's so much dead time you've got to try to get them to understand that you've got to fill that time wisely.

This one just happened to make it to the newspapers, ... I can't tell you how many times I have been offered jobs in that league that no one ever knew about.

One of the dangers that you run into when you have success so early, people tend to forget. It?s better to have success late then early because an awful lot of people may end up remembering whatever happened last year or whatever is going to happen this year.

I'm sitting her speechless. And that's not me. I feel at the end of the game I'm powerless. I can't instruct. I can't coach. I can't direct. I'm used to being able to do certain things. Our guys come out on the floor and play a certain way. And none of that is happening right now.

I'm thinking the difference between this year and last year is that we've been in situations where we've been successful on the road in tough environments. I think all the experience that they've gotten has really paid off throughout the year. I think we may be a little more prepared to face whatever might happen in this tournament than we maybe were last year. It might be a little bit of a confidence thing. They probably do, right now, have a lot of confidence. If they don't by now, they never will.

February is an important month at Connecticut. I like to think that when February comes you really put your game face on because what?s happened up to now it?s all going to go away if you don?t play well the next 60 days. The next 60 days for us, that?s the real season coming up right now.

She played way more than I wanted her to play. I was hoping that we could limit her minutes. Ann will take (today) off and go Monday (against LSU) and then take Tuesday, Wednesday off and we'll see what happens next week. But we needed all those minutes (Saturday).