UConn Final Four Postgame Press Conference - 2024 NCAA Tournament

reminder that chair [Music] rolls [Music] welcome back to the NCA Division 1 women's basketball national semi-final game two postgame press conference featuring The Yukon Huskies we'll hear an opening statement from coach and follow up with questions from our student athletes Aaliyah Edwards Paige Beckers and na Mo the student athletes will then be dismissed and as we indicated will'll be available for 10 minutes in the mix Zone and then we'll open up at that same time for questions for Coach coach if you give us a brief opening statement and then we'll go to questions for our student athletes uh yeah thank you um uh after we beat USC um one of the things that said in the locker room was you know there's people always ask you how do you feel about winning a game like this and sometimes um you just can't put into words how you feel you just have to feel it you have to be there and you have to have been there be a part of it and um you know the same thing applies to when you lose at this part of the season um hard to explain hard how you feel when you know season ends so suddenly um but we put ourselves uh in in position to win a game that we probably had no business even being in and given the circumstances that we work with So when you say well you were lucky to be here given everything but in the moment when you're trying to win the game and you don't win the game you don't think about you were lucky to be or you just think about we had an opportunity to win this game and we didn't and um you know Iowa won a game and and they get to go on and we get to go home at this time we'll open it up for our student athletes I ask that you raise your hand um and ask and await the microphone reaching you we're going to start in the back with the gentleman Agra and I see you uh Dan Lobby cleveland.com um Aaliyah were you given an explanation about the file call and and what was your view of it no I wasn't given the explanation there was no real time to get an explanation for it uh my point of view is pretty clean we'll go next to Jake on our right hand side yep you're right there one one up yeah Jake chter from ESPN for for all the players what did you make of of the screen call from your your Vantage points on that play um we just had a play um I thought we we're going to run it um I thought we executed it well we were going to get a shot off the whistle blew um I didn't see it was in the rear of me I was just trying to come off the screen um everybody can make a big deal of that one single play but not one single play wins a basketball game or loses a basketball game I feel like there was a lot of mistakes that I made um that could have prevented that play from even being that big or causing the game um so yeah you you can look at one play and say oh that was like that that killed us or that hurt us but we should have done a better job I should have done a better job of making sure we didn't leave the game up to chance like that and leave the game up to one bad call going our way and that deciding it so yeah maybe that was a tough call for us but I feel like I could have done a better job preventing that from even happening take our next question from Nancy Nancy armor USA Today sports um aah there's been a lot of talk about the officiating and criticism of officiating this whole season how disappointing is it though that we're talking about it again after what was a a really good effort by you guys especially given the circumstances you've been dealing with this season um I mean we can't really control what what happens with the rest and and their decision making but I just want to focus more on this team and and actually making it all this way to this game when a lot of people didn't count us in so I'm going to leave this game with being proud of of the team and proud of how we game in game out just continue to to believe in each and other and and lean on one another and unfortunately we just didn't leave this game with the dub but we we fought hard and and up until the very end um yeah there are some decisions that even myself um I wish I could take back but that's just how um the game went and um we left it out there on the court today going to stay to our right Roger please proceed Paige can you just talk about the effort that na played with today on the defensive end and then coming up with some big baskets when you needed them I think seven assists as well just her overall game today yeah I'm glad NAA got to show on his platform on this stage what she's been for us her entire four years at Yukon what she's been in this entire year um just you you saw the epitome of what na is a tenacious Defender does everything that this team needs her to do um controls our offense plays with so much heart and energy um it plays with their whole soul and you saw that tonight you see that every single time she steps out on the court um and so I mean she just does what ni does and she played her heart out we're GNA go to Maggie the gentleman in the blue shirt then Lindsay Michelle Dion I see you as well Maggie's in the front row right here Maggie Bon CT Insider na on that same note what made Caitlyn so hard to guard um I feel like I feel like just her confidence and you know obviously she she's a great player one of the greatest to play the sport um I feel like she makes everybody around herself better um so yeah I mean just overall I would say her confidence and her ability to you know involve other players stay T right um for for Paige and and well really any of you guys um ni played 40 minutes I think the last three games and none of you guys were coming out uh very often throughout this run how did you physically maintain the intensity it requires to play that hard for that long this entire time Paige let's have you answer and then we'll move on just due to time um I there's a lot of people that help us recover um we have a massuse that travels with our athletic training staff um our doctors they do a really good job of just making sure that we're resting recovering um getting the treatments that we need um and then just us being competitors us being just grateful that we're here and trying not to take any of it for granted and not thinking about being tired or thinking about what aches what hurts um how tired we are um and just being grateful that we're here and just trying to continue to play with that heart and play with the mentality of not being tired Lindsay Lindsay schel USA Today um Paige when Ayah was being asked by the officials just a second ago you're shaking your head and you look really frustrated are you mad that we're talking about it or are you mad that we're making a big deal about one call no it's I'm just frustrated with the loss um I mean we can talk about officiating but players players play player decide the game um yeah we're staying to our right with Michelle um Michelle Smith from the next page for you because you'll be coming back are you we how long will it take you to find perspective and about what you guys did this season under some really difficult circumstances um the only thing you can really feel right now it's just like this thing of the loss there was going to be tears regardless at the end of the season um just cuz it's my last time playing with these guys takes a while to process um after this season win or lost the whole journey of it all um but you just for this year especially um with my perspective you just appreciate it as it goes along just being around it team everybody saw the heart the joy the passion that we played with um we just love each other we enjoy being around each other um and this season meant everything to us uh Against All Odds nobody thought we would be here all people posted about us was the worst ranking in 20 years the worst start in 20 years the worst seating in the tournament in 20 years and here we are at the final four it's not the ending that we wanted but just to just to look back and it's hard right now of course cuz all you're thinking about is a loss but this is relationships and memories that we'll have for the rest of our life and I know we're proud of being here um the just the stand that Yukon is National Championship so it's always disappointing but I I know we'll reflect after this and just get better from here going to stay to our right Dion and then we'll go to you all right Deion cash Fox Sports um great season ladies um Paige how does it feel to be able to play injuryf free I know that was big for you this year and what's it like to you know to be a Yukon lady Husky and play for Gino or Emma all three of you ladies let's start with Aaliyah um just truly grateful to be a part of this program play alongside such talented players like the ones that are sitting beside me and also the ones that back in the locker room um it's it's tough that this is my last time I I shared the court with all of them and last time um playing under a coach uh it's just no words how much the program and everyone who supports the program has poured into me and and what I've gotten out of it as well but also just the how much I've grown not only as a player but as a person under coach and um I'm just thankful for him and everyone who's a part of this program and lend to hand in in um my growth as a player an NAA um I'm just I'm just very grateful to coach um for bringing me all the way from you know Croatia to here never in my life you know what I would I have thought that I would be here sharing this Discord with these amazing people great players great coaches great staff and just enjoying every single moment of it and I'm pissed right now it really hurts but I know that I'll look back onto this and I'll feel nothing but but but being thankful and grateful and blessed for what I've built here what kind of experiences I've had here because this is family for life and they love me when and when I was at my worst when I was at my best and it it stays forever and I'm just very grateful to have to have had that luck and opportunity to you know come all the way where I came from to this you know to this place it's special Paige would you like to answer um yeah to your first point I mean yeah now played a full full season college basketball injury free very blessed grateful for that um but yeah just to these guys Point um everybody comes to you kind of play for Coach um he challenges you he believes in you he trusts you and he always has your back um and he's everything we could ask for in a coach um and it's everything I dreamed of to to play for him to play for the whole coaching staff to play in this program to play along people um that are my sisters um so it's really just been a dream come true and I'm extremely grateful he recruited me here um he recruited everybody else around me here because I love every single one of them um and just I owe everything to this program and I'm super thankful we'll take our last question for for p paa um how how should uh Yukon fans remember Aaliyah I would say I would definitely say not how should they but how they will remember her and that's as one of the greats here and as one of the players that had to overcome so much to get noticed to get credit for what she does every day and um I feel like this year she finally got the credit not even enough to to how much she should have gotten but I feel like you know um she's been the most Solid Rock for us all these four years when we were dealing with so much she's the most consistent one the hardest worker um and she just puts her head down doesn't talk she just you know works and um I'm as much as you know devastated I am that we couldn't leave here with you know one thing that me and her and I mean all of us came here for and that's a national championship I feel like you know we gave it our all and we really left it out there 100% And I mean I feel like that's what people should remember her for just a player that always leaves 100% out there no matter what no matter who's watching no matter if nobody talks about her she leaves it all out there and I can't wait for the things that are coming for her because she she's one of the greats and she's going to be great and PE yeah I mean to the National media she's underappreciated under resected um she deserves I mean the Yukon fans and they know every single game every single day what she brings and that's competitive Spirit Drive determination domination um and just the will to win um she does everything she never complains once about what she doesn't receive how much credit she gets she just puts her head down like ni said she just works and does anything this team ass in needs of her um and she was she was put on a heavy load this entire year this entire four years as the person who was the most consistent in the lineup always carried the heaviest load always handled the pressure um and just showed up every single day ready to go um regardless of the circumstances and who who was around her so I mean you can't fans know how much Aaliyah means to this program like Aaliyah or like ni said she's one of the greats um and I'm so so so glad she gets to go up on that wall and she was recognized as a first team allamerican because that's what she's been um so Aliah is everything to this program she embodies this program um and she's going down as one of the greatest Paige aiyah NAA thank you very much for your time this evening as a reminder to the media all three will be available in the mixone for uh 10 minutes they going there right now and at this time we' like to open it up for questions for Coach we'll start with Jake we'll go to Lindsay next Jake CH from ESPN Gino what did you make of the illegal screen call there at the end um I mean there's probably an illegal screen call um that you could make on every single possession I just know there were three or four of them called on us and I don't think there were any called on them so I guess we just got to get better at not setting illegal screens go to Lindsay Lindsay schel USA Today G to follow up on that coacho from Old Miss right after the game tweeted you know that they call moving screen a lot on the screen rescreen action and she said I think Gino screamed because he wished he could have that playback and I wondered was that who said that coach show at Old Miss and I just wondered if or was were you reacting because you didn't like the call or did you think that you should have run something different I don't remember we can go up to the front row on our left hand side we'll go Jonathan Howard I see you we'll go second row and then back up to the front thanks Gino um to listen to what Paige and the other players said about you here a few minutes ago and particular knowing that paig is coming back next year what does it mean to you to be sitting next to them when they're saying what they said about you in this program uh I mean the object of what we do is um to try to get people that we can impact and it's it's a great feeling when you feel like you have impacted um people that are at an impactful age um I think every coach that coaches has players that feel about them the way uh these three uh feel uh about me I mean that's what we do that's what we do for a living and you you hope that you have players that appreciate it you hope that you have players that understand what what it is that we're trying to do um and you know it doesn't always manifest itself in wins and losses um but you would hope that if players have played for you for four years um that they will feel the same way about you that you feel about them and how much they've impacted you as a coach and what you've what you've been able to take from them and that's you know that's what makes this when it when it's done right that's what makes this this profession you know as great as it is you know think about when you were their age and you had an impactful teacher that you felt like really helped you get from where you were to where you wanted to go and how much that meant to you at that age um so it means that means a lot to you for them to say that and um you know I I hope that um I hope they they understand the impact they had on me going to stay to our left Howard you know Howard mdll at the next U there's a lot of talk from your players you've talked about the expectations with this program um obviously it's not a national championship this year it's six out of the last seven opportunities to make a final four you make a final four at a time that this game has never been harder or had more parody in the game and I just I just wondered two parts to it one is do you find yourself able to take the level of satisfaction you'd like to out of like you said the impact you have on people and the success that you have and do you think that the expectations should be different at this moment well the um the expectation uh at at Yukon are what they are because we we created them you know somebody didn't walk into our building and say okay this is what's expected of you you know we we put that on ourselves now for the last 30 years what pisses me off is that the minute we don't win a National Championship for a couple years people think that our program now is less worthy of some others that have done it twice or have gone to the final four or three out of the last four years so I think it's it's more rewarding on on my end not just to win a National Championship obviously you want to win a National Championship every year but people should talk about their own accomplishments instead of you know talking about what we're not accomplishing that seems to be the big story and I said this a long time ago you know the only story is like when you know like when tiger was at the height of his career the only story on every Sunday was he didn't win nobody cared who did win and now people always wanted it to be like well can we celebrate other people okay well then celebrate them and stop talking about us when we don't win a National Championship but again that's the world that we created and um you know we might not win a National Championship but we're right there when it's usually being decided and that's all that matters want to state to our left please proceed G know Kenny wrote a whbc radio when the ladies were talking you were looking at the stat sheet I saw you studying it very closely um you hold Caitlyn to a poor night shooting what jumped off the stat sheet at you as you think about this this loss well if you'd have given me this stat sheet what without the final score before the game I would have told you we won the game um they're they're the highest scoring team in the country and we feel like if we if we hold you to 71 we should win that game and we should have won the game but I would thought they should have won the game and they did win the game so sometimes you go well both teams deserve to win the game I mean we should have won the game I'm not saying we deserve to win the game but based on this stat sheet when you look at it you say oh yeah we should have won the game however not one play somebody said not one play the size the game but when you look at it for us the way we've won this year in games like this is Aaliyah Paige a especially those two and then a third scorer they all have big nights cuz that's what we need in games like this and tonight we didn't get that tonight we didn't get that and I've said this a lot that I bet you in the 40 years that I've been at Connecticut and I don't know how many NCA tournaments and all that stuff our defense I bet you I could count on my thumbs how many times they've let us down in the NC tournament the NC tournament will let you down as your offense and if you don't make shots and if you don't convert on the opportunities that you get you're setting yourself up to lose yeah so our defense was good enough to make sure that we won the game tonight but uh offensively we just didn't have enough um you know impactful players play their normal game we're gonna go I'm sorry did I cut you off no we're gonna go to the front row on our left I'll then we're going to go back to Nancy then Doug and then I'll work through the rest of the list Vicky fogerson from the New London Day in Connecticut um Gino um a a lot of times in the last couple days you've you've qualified um you know in my 40 years coaching this is the most you know amazing run you know thing that we've done or the most you know overcoming the odds or can can you uh you touched on it a little bit but can you um uh elaborate a little bit on the impact that they've had on you now we were talking earlier um today that um there have been two instances at Connecticut that have been quite unexpected or quite remarkable I don't know how you want to phrase it but in 1991 when we went to our very first Final Four there was absolutely no way to predict or explain how that happened and yet it was the beginning of our you know of our program as it as it exist exists today everything everything else since then it was expected that we would be here because of the situation that we were in the kind of teams that we had and the runs that we went on and this year was the first one I even told the players during pregame introductions I I said this is the first time that we've come here where it feels like we're the visitors where it feels like you know we're actually The Underdogs and no one expects us to win and we did talk about getting here was the was the hardest part and you appreciate that so much today was probably the calest that we've been in any NCA Tournament game this year or any other year there's a calmness about us about what we have done and what that what happened today was not going to change how we feel until the final buzzer and it changed everything about how you feel so yeah it was an amazing run loved every minute of it incredibly grateful and tremendously disappointed and down the road it'll sink in but you know when you do this job for a living the many you stop the minute you start thinking about wow that was amazing that should make you feel really really good that lasts about 30 seconds and then you start going over in your mind all the things that happen in the game that you wish you had done differently to win the game [Music] that's that's the problem with this job we'll stay to our right Nancy you know Nancy armor USA Today sports um it might be hard to or S to ask you to kind of put this in perspective after the the loss but there was a a little girl who was holding up a poster that said why I play basketball and it had a photo of Caitlyn and a photo of Paige and I'm just wondering given your history in the game you know everything you've seen what is it like to see what you got tonight I mean soldout Arena people were engaged in the game in a way that we've not really seen before it's going to be a huge TV audience um you know can you put that into perspective what it's been like to see this yeah it's I I I said this up at Yukon a few years ago um Everybody kind of poo pooed you know women's basketball 25 years ago maybe whatever it was and it wasn't taken um it wasn't given the respect that it deserved back then so people didn't know who their Idols were people didn't know who they wanted to to emulate cuz they never saw him until their dads got to be in their 30s and had little girls and started actually taking them to the games and then all these little girls wanted to be like who whoever was on their their team at at the college where they went to the games and now I want to be like you name it all those kids that played and now kids that have never seen these two kids play in person are the biggest fans and they idolize these kids so it's become a mainstream sport now CU When little kids start wearing your jerseys and start wanting to grow up like you that means you've really touched the nerve and it takes certain kind of players it takes certain special players to be able to do that and people think well you win a lot of games that's what happens I don't think winning winning creates Idols you know I think the way people act the way they behave the way they treat people you know Caitlyn and and and Paige just two examples they have never ever ever I never seen them walk away from an opportunity to say hi to a little kid or an adult or anybody for that matter and I hope it never gets that way you know where you go to a a professional sport and you can't get near anybody they you can't talk to anybody you can't have any interaction with them and I don't know that there's that same connection that there used to be between little kids going to a baseball game and you know standing there and being able to talk to the players so as long as we contain maintain that there's going to be a whole another generation of kids coming up wanting to be like the kids that they see right now as long as we continue to provide access for those kids you know to interact with each other and that's what's happening now we'll take our last question from Doug from AP hey G Doug fber the AP I was hop you can talk a little bit more just about what NAA and Aaliyah did tonight and what they've brought to you for so many years well um it's hard to uh you know it's hard to wrap your thoughts uh in a neat neat little package and put a bow on it when there's so many emotions that that you go through with these kids over a 4-year period um so many highs so many lows so many inet um so many um accomplishments that they've had so many failures that they've had dis appointments uh amazing experiences um it it it is kind of similar to um the experience that you have with your kids between the ages of you know 17 18 and 22 where you know they they are the most those are the most impactful years as I've said earlier and you get to spend it with them um and NAA NAA has an effect on every single person that she meets her her passion for life and her um just the way she Embraces uh every challenge every opportunity um you know there is that you know Coming to America immigrant kind of mental of I'm so grateful for the opportunity I'm going to go there and I'm going to show everybody that I deserve this opportunity and I'm going to go home and everybody's going to be proud of me you know there's a lot going on in there um Aaliyah you know much quieter much different personality um more of a there's more stoicism and it's just a matter for her it's just I have some goals I have uh some um tremendously High aspirations I come I do my my thing every day I work hard at my game you know I'm I'm a tremendous teammate I'm a great kid um and I represent myself my team my family in in a way that everyone is absolutely positively proud of me so they they both accomplish the same things they just go about it in two completely different ways um and maybe that's why it works so well together with the two of them thank you very much for your time this evening coach thank you

Channel: March Madness

Views: 121,352

Keywords: 2024 NCAA tournament, March Madness, March Madness press conferences, March Madness coach press conferences, Men’s NCAA tournament press conferences, Women’s NCAA tournament press conferences, 2024 Women’s NCAA tournament, NCAA tournament, 2024 March Madness

Id: MJoNAtCRC84

Length: 36min 25sec (2185 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2024