Geno's Post-Game Comments About Stewie and Morgan

[watanabe]

Destroyed so many lives.

 

[Zorro]

THE HUMANITY!!

 

[Shenandoah]

"the horror"...

 

[Shenandoah]

I couldn't figure out how to move a quote from another post, so I'll paraphrase it instead: geno comparing his players attitude, mindset,...(???) with those of soldiers their age in Afghanistan. WT_?Sorry, geno, you're not General Geno S. Patton, even though you may think so. And your basketball 'soldiers' did not volunteer to fight in war. It's bad enough football is compared to war, let alone basketball. Otherwise, I don't think discipline offs necessarily a bad thing.

It's more about perspective. When one looks at people their same age and some of the things that THEY are asked to do in the military, playing hard in practice and a couple of hours during games isn't so hard after all..This past summer, part of their off season conditioning was done with a group of Marines...

 

[Sluconn Husky]

“Temple was just ugly. And Cincinnati we got off to a slow start,” Stewart said. “That’s on Morgan and myself. We’re to blame for that. We’re supposed to be looked at as leaders of this team and the way that we go about ourselves in the opening of the game, we’re setting the tone for the rest of the team.


“We want to come out and I guess send him back a message. “It helps that South Carolina is next. What he said we were, that’s not the type of players we are. I think we want to send a message for not just today, not just tomorrow night, but for the rest of the season and while we are here at Connecticut.”

http://snyuconn.com/uconn/uconn-faces-test-from-no-1-south-carolina/

 

[Deadrody]

IMO what Geno did will have a negative effect to future Uconn recruits.

ROTFLMAO!!!! Please tell me you're kidding. LOL!!!

 

[Deadrody]

Just my opinion, no more no less.

Well, you know what they say about opinions....

 

[Stewie Fan]

Great move by Geno on Saturday....Tuck and Stewie's play was getting too sloppy and lazy for the past few games and he had enough. I am sure they both received his message lud and clear.....LOOKOUT USC..

I totally disagree with you. Just really need to know what games you have been watching?

 

[watanabe]

I totally disagree with you. Just really need to know what games you have been watching?

Same ones as the rest of us. UConn was starting to fall away from greatness due to the lack of competition in this league. There is no joy in squashing high school level talent. You could see it. IMO they were headed to a loss at SC if Geno didn't do something quickly.
Lucky for us he is the MASTER, and did just what was needed.

 

[Deadrody]

It is hard to argue ways of motivation against someone who has won over 900 games!

Understatement of the year

 

[meyers7]

I couldn't figure out how to move a quote from another post, so I'll paraphrase it instead: geno comparing his players attitude, mindset,...(???) with those of soldiers their age in Afghanistan. WT_?Sorry, geno, you're not General Geno S. Patton, even though you may think so. And your basketball 'soldiers' did not volunteer to fight in war. It's bad enough football is compared to war, let alone basketball. Otherwise, I don't think discipline offs necessarily a bad thing.

Eh you kind of missed the whole point of it.

 

[Hongster]

Well, you know what they say about opinions....

Stick it where the sun don't shine?

 

[watanabe]

Stick it where the sun don't shine?

Not the classic response, but good enough!

 

[Eggman]

Shenandoah: agreed. I thought about it again and agree with you. Perspective is always important, in everything.

 

[hoophuskee]

IMO what Geno did will have a negative effect to future Uconn recruits.

This is not a slam on you -- just curious do you still think now that Memphis benching will have a negative effect on premiere recruits?

 

[Hongster]

This is not a slam on you -- just curious do you still think now that Memphis benching will have a negative effect on premiere recruits?

Stewie is being Stewie, she will rise to the occasions especially when the stage is high, she is in a way has DT swags just passive. So, I don't think Geno or anybody in that matter can motivate her. She's a competitor.

 

[sarals24]

Stewie is being Stewie, she will rise to the occasions especially when the stage is high, she is in a way has DT swags just passive. So, I don't think Geno or anybody in that matter can motivate her. She's a competitor.

You didn't answer the question.

 

[JoePgh]

Did anyone notice that on the Geno Auriemma show tonight (2/17, shown after the Houston game), Kerith asked Geno specifically about his reasons for the benching of Stewie and Morgan in the Memphis game. He didn't seem too comfortable with the topic, and came at it from many directions before finally saying, "I don't go into your house and tell you how to discipline your kids. So don't judge how I discipline my team."

What I got out of his rather long response was that for the third straight game he was noticing that "it didn't look right", and he thought it was important to send a clear message to the entire team that he would not just passively allow that to keep happening. So he felt he had to do something dramatic to deliver that message. He basically acknowledged that Stewie and Morgan were not individually at fault -- he implied that he penalized them because they were the leaders of the team, and the team was playing lackadaisically for three games in a row.

He said it was not premeditated -- he did not decide before the game that he was going to take them out after 5 minutes. That was the only specific new information that he provided.

 

[hoophuskee]

Did anyone notice that on the Geno Auriemma show tonight (2/17, shown after the Houston game), Kerith asked Geno specifically about his reasons for the benching of Stewie and Morgan in the Memphis game. He didn't seem too comfortable with the topic, and came at it from many directions before finally saying, "I don't go into your house and tell you how to discipline your kids. So don't judge how I discipline my team."

What I got out of his rather long response was that for the third straight game he was noticing that "it didn't look right", and he thought it was important to send a clear message to the entire team that he would not just passively allow that to keep happening. So he felt he had to do something dramatic to deliver that message. He basically acknowledged that Stewie and Morgan were not individually at fault -- he implied that he penalized them because they were the leaders of the team, and the team was playing lackadaisically for three games in a row.

He said it was not premeditated -- he did not decide before the game that he was going to take them out after 5 minutes. That was the only specific new information that he provided.

Kara Wolters said he did it to her before big games. Meg Culmo felt like he did it and when she had asked him at one time though he denied it - she said she didn't believe him. IMO he did it with Charde. He does this from time to time - imo he's not lying when he denies it - he just looks at it differently. I believe he figures "I'm the coach and I don't like how they are playing and in preparation of doing things right for the next game, I'm going to bench them as I see fit."

That's probably in some manner how he looks at it. IMO I'm with Kara and Meg (and Sue when she says he has a formula.). He knows the big game is coming up and in preparation of that big game - he uses this reasoning to bench his big time players when he feels the game is important. Some year's the OOC games aren't as important because his conference - a team in there was tough. But nowadays until UCONN can build up the AAC these OOC games are huge. This is what Geno thinks of the big games like his comments below of the USC game unlike what we heard when primarily but not limited to the old Big East of RU or ND being tough -

On the scale of tonight’s game on the national stage:
“I tell kids all of the time when we are recruiting players this is what they want. This is the game that they want to play in, a game like this. I guess this was a slow night in the sports world because I guess this was the biggest thing on television tonight. The point of coming to Connecticut is to play in these games. Whether its January, February, March, April, it doesn’t matter, these are the games you come to Connecticut for, these are the games we practice for, games like today.”

He refers above to recruiting. He also refers to what the kids want and he also refers to January and February (i.e. - it's not JUST the title game that matters. Other OOC games matter too.). Just because the title game means much more doesn't mean the reg. season game isn't real big. I don't think he knew he was going to pull them to start the game but but but I think his coaching vision of how he wants the game to be played is so ingrained - that if he isn't satisfied - he feels he has the right to pull anyone at any time. Which he does. And in some cases he'll do before a big game in preparation for the big game.

 

[Aluminny69]

Some random thoughts:

1. No one ever mentions that Kiah Stokes was also benched for that game. Why not? What did she do wrong? Geno stated that the move was not premeditated, but I'm not so sure. He pretty much knew he was going to win that game, even playing the last five players on his bench. Intended of not, the UConn bigs ( Stewart, Tuck, Stokes) were well rested for their USC showdown two days later.

2. I remember a game against Providence in 2003 or 2004, where Geno benched his starters, including DT. Supposedly to send a message, but again, I'm not convinced. And if winning is not important to him, why does he only do it in games he is sure to win? I would love to see what happens if one of these games got close, or UConn fell behind late in the game. That would be the acid test.

3. Breanna looked driven in last night's game against Houston (? I can't even remember who the opponent was, all the AAC tems look the same to me ( cannon fodder)). I mean, driving to the basket, rebounding, blocking shots. She really displayed why she is the best player in the country. The only thing missing in her game right now is her 3 point shot. I'm sure Loyd from ND will get a lot of consideration for POY, and Loyd is a great player, but Stewart is clearly the better player, and will be playing for the National Champion.

 

[Striper69]

Some random thoughts:

1. No one ever mentions that Kiah Stokes was also benched for that game. Why not? What did she do wrong? Geno stated that the move was not premeditated, but I'm not so sure. He pretty much knew he was going to win that game, even playing the last five players on his bench. Intended of not, the UConn bigs ( Stewart, Tuck, Stokes) were well rested for their USC showdown two days later.

2. I remember a game against Providence in 2003 or 2004, where Geno benched his starters, including DT. Supposedly to send a message, but again, I'm not convinced. And if winning is not important to him, why does he only do it in games he is sure to win? I would love to see what happens if one of these games got close, or UConn fell behind late in the game. That would be the acid test.

3. Breanna looked driven in last night's game against Houston (? I can't even remember who the opponent was, all the AAC tems look the same to me ( cannon fodder)). I mean, driving to the basket, rebounding, blocking shots. She really displayed why she is the best player in the country. The only thing missing in her game right now is her 3 point shot. I'm sure Loyd from ND will get a lot of consideration for POY, and Loyd is a great player, but Stewart is clearly the better player, and will be playing for the National Champion.

I think he just rested his main Bigs and wanted to be sure Kiah would be available (look what happened to Isabelle).

 

[Striper69]

Kara Wolters said he did it to her before big games. Meg Culmo felt like he did it and when she had asked him at one time though he denied it - she said she didn't believe him. IMO he did it with Charde. He does this from time to time - imo he's not lying when he denies it - he just looks at it differently. I believe he figures "I'm the coach and I don't like how they are playing and in preparation of doing things right for the next game, I'm going to bench them as I see fit."

That's probably in some manner how he looks at it. IMO I'm with Kara and Meg (and Sue when she says he has a formula.). He knows the big game is coming up and in preparation of that big game - he uses this reasoning to bench his big time players when he feels the game is important. Some year's the OOC games aren't as important because his conference - a team in there was tough. But nowadays until UCONN can build up the AAC these OOC games are huge. This is what Geno thinks of the big games like his comments below of the USC game unlike what we heard when primarily but not limited to the old Big East of RU or ND being tough -

On the scale of tonight’s game on the national stage:
“I tell kids all of the time when we are recruiting players this is what they want. This is the game that they want to play in, a game like this. I guess this was a slow night in the sports world because I guess this was the biggest thing on television tonight. The point of coming to Connecticut is to play in these games. Whether its January, February, March, April, it doesn’t matter, these are the games you come to Connecticut for, these are the games we practice for, games like today.”

He refers above to recruiting. He also refers to what the kids want and he also refers to January and February (i.e. - it's not JUST the title game that matters. Other OOC games matter too.). Just because the title game means much more doesn't mean the reg. season game isn't real big. I don't think he knew he was going to pull them to start the game but but but I think his coaching vision of how he wants the game to be played is so ingrained - that if he isn't satisfied - he feels he has the right to pull anyone at any time. Which he does. And in some cases he'll do before a big game in preparation for the big game.

As is his wont.

 

[hoophuskee]

As is his wont.

Yep. But his terminology will be about his effort/satisfaction pretending as if the next team isn't a big game. The thing is he would have been satisfied if a big game wasn't coming up and wouldn't have benched them. His terminology why he would bench is "global" it can be done for most games. He chooses sometimes to strategically employ this benching option but he'll still hide behind "I'm not satisfied and it has nothing to do with the big game coming up."

 

[ThisJustIn]

Some random thoughts:

1. No one ever mentions that Kiah Stokes was also benched for that game. Why not? What did she do wrong? Geno stated that the move was not premeditated, but I'm not so sure. He pretty much knew he was going to win that game, even playing the last five players on his bench. Intended of not, the UConn bigs ( Stewart, Tuck, Stokes) were well rested for their USC showdown two days later.

2. I remember a game against Providence in 2003 or 2004, where Geno benched his starters, including DT. Supposedly to send a message, but again, I'm not convinced. And if winning is not important to him, why does he only do it in games he is sure to win? I would love to see what happens if one of these games got close, or UConn fell behind late in the game. That would be the acid test.

3. Breanna looked driven in last night's game against Houston (? I can't even remember who the opponent was, all the AAC tems look the same to me ( cannon fodder)). I mean, driving to the basket, rebounding, blocking shots. She really displayed why she is the best player in the country. The only thing missing in her game right now is her 3 point shot. I'm sure Loyd from ND will get a lot of consideration for POY, and Loyd is a great player, but Stewart is clearly the better player, and will be playing for the National Champion.

Re #3 clearly you don't recall the Rutgers game during the Diana era.

Also, if he has to do it in a "big" game he's misread his team throughout the season...

 

[Shenandoah]

Shenandoah: agreed. I thought about it again and agree with you. Perspective is always important, in everything.

And, yes. I DO agree with you about football being compared to war. It really ticks me off when coaches and announcers do it. I served during Vietnam, my Father in WW2, and now my son is in his 4th combat tour, and I'm sure he'd rather be running pass patterns!