JoePgh
Cranky pants and wise acre
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2011
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Someone asked Geno at the postgame press conference whether he thought Stewie and Morgan had the right personality to receive the lesson that he was sending them by the benching today. His response (close paraphrase):
"I don't know. It's not some subliminal message that I'm sending between the lines. There is a certain standard level of play that I expect from anyone at Connecticut. I don't care if you are the National Player of the Year, the best player who ever walked the earth, if you are not playing to the level that is expected, you are not going to play. I never had to give that message to Maya, or to Kelly Faris, or to Stefanie Dolson or Bria Hartley. But I have to give it to these guys."
This was after he said sarcastically that "they must be tired" so "I don't want to wear them out" before "the biggest basketball game in the history of the world."
I think I know what he is saying (and he said it wasn't just about what happened today), but I take issue with his historical account. I remember witnessing a game at Marquette in KML's freshman year where exactly the same thing happened with Stef being the target of Geno's "message", along with Kiah. Stef and Kiah played with less than full enthusiasm for the first five minutes or so, and then did not play again. As was the case today, KML was the biggest UConn player on the floor, and did most of the rebounding. As was also the case today, Marquette had a small team and UConn was able to beat them handily without their regular post players.
And I guess it worked.
"I don't know. It's not some subliminal message that I'm sending between the lines. There is a certain standard level of play that I expect from anyone at Connecticut. I don't care if you are the National Player of the Year, the best player who ever walked the earth, if you are not playing to the level that is expected, you are not going to play. I never had to give that message to Maya, or to Kelly Faris, or to Stefanie Dolson or Bria Hartley. But I have to give it to these guys."
This was after he said sarcastically that "they must be tired" so "I don't want to wear them out" before "the biggest basketball game in the history of the world."
I think I know what he is saying (and he said it wasn't just about what happened today), but I take issue with his historical account. I remember witnessing a game at Marquette in KML's freshman year where exactly the same thing happened with Stef being the target of Geno's "message", along with Kiah. Stef and Kiah played with less than full enthusiasm for the first five minutes or so, and then did not play again. As was the case today, KML was the biggest UConn player on the floor, and did most of the rebounding. As was also the case today, Marquette had a small team and UConn was able to beat them handily without their regular post players.
And I guess it worked.