Geno's Definition of Genuine Toughness...

[CMC'72]

From Dom Amore's article this morning. A Pure Geno Gem:

"There were 45 fouls in the game; Edwards and Olivia Nelson-Ododa fouled out, as did UCF’s Alisha Lewis.

“We all have this vision of what toughness is,” Auriemma said “Some people think it’s you making a show of how tough you are by how you act or what you say or your posturing or whatever. Or you knock somebody on their ass and it’s a foul, and you think, ‘I’ll show you that I’m tough.’ Toughness is making all those free throws at the end, making eight free throws. Toughness is getting a huge rebound at a big time. Toughness is Christyn making that 3 when she had to make it. And I think we showed that. I think all the other stuff was just fluff.”"

UConn women survive physical battle, beat UCF 52-47 to advance to Sweet 16

UConn has rarely had to spend this much energy to win a second-round NCAA Tournament game, rarely, if ever, had to work this hard for a win over an American Athletic Conference opponent. But UCF&#8…

www.courant.com

 

[Zarathustra]

Great Quote from Geno! Toughness is also ONO with four Blocks,
Azzi with three Steals, and four for four from the Free Throw line.
as well as Dorka Leading the Team with 3 Assists ( can you imagine
UCONN with a team total of 8 Assists???? ). And then there is
Evina with her poise and NO turnovers and mature presence helping
to GROUND the children ( and grandchildren) when necessary.
But Christyn, ONO, and Aaliyah lead the counterattack against
the WBB " offense" of UCF.
Now back to normal basketball: Indiana. Does a 56 to 55
Hoosier victory over Princeton bode well for UCONN?? I think so,
What Carla can do ( and almost did do) , Geno and our UCONN "team"
will do better = and take home another, well earned " W". Go Huskies!! Z

 

[JellyBean]

I listened to the presser and Coach G hit the nail on the head with his comments on toughness.

 

[Urshurak]

Loved this one. I'm very proud of this team. Toughness=UConn

They earned that win, BECAUSE they were tougher when and where it mattered.

BTW, my voice and my wifes voice are GONE. My TV is in therapy. Got yelled at ALL night.....

 

[GoUconn7961]

God bless him and I hope he's around forever.

All you naysayers still need to show a little respect. The guy understands the game; especially yesterday's game.

 

[Kat]

I watched that post game presser. The frank honesty that comes from Geno is so unlike most of these things where the coach just recites pages from the cliche book. His analysis of Paige's game, why he sat Nika during the second half, etc. was unvarnished truth.

 

[HopJim]

One of my all-time Geno quotes. Redefines "articulate."

 

[TCC Kid]

From Dom Amore's article this morning. A Pure Geno Gem:

"There were 45 fouls in the game; Edwards and Olivia Nelson-Ododa fouled out, as did UCF’s Alisha Lewis.

“We all have this vision of what toughness is,” Auriemma said “Some people think it’s you making a show of how tough you are by how you act or what you say or your posturing or whatever. Or you knock somebody on their ass and it’s a foul, and you think, ‘I’ll show you that I’m tough.’ Toughness is making all those free throws at the end, making eight free throws. Toughness is getting a huge rebound at a big time. Toughness is Christyn making that 3 when she had to make it. And I think we showed that. I think all the other stuff was just fluff.”"

UConn women survive physical battle, beat UCF 52-47 to advance to Sweet 16

UConn has rarely had to spend this much energy to win a second-round NCAA Tournament game, rarely, if ever, had to work this hard for a win over an American Athletic Conference opponent. But UCF&#8…

www.courant.com

If Geno is right or wrong on his definition, in this instance he is right. Toughing it out is touchness.
This kind of defense, helter skelter attacking 2 on one 3 on 1, is not fun to watch but effective it was used by Arizona last year, Green Bay in the Gulf Coast classic years ago, and UCF each time Uconn played them in the AAC. It's not new. With 16 players she had 80 fouls to give and was not ashamed to use them.
Uconn is a sync, flowing game, rhythm type team. Get them out of sync and they tend to lose their sense of game. Quick triple teaming confused many. Also, UCF knew how to make it look like Uconn fouled them. With 20 hands flaying away the refs were confused.
I hated it but, you win any way you need to--to win.