Latest Channel 61 Interview with Geno

[sun]

Posted yesterday,
The first player that he speaks about extensively is Aubrey.
Later on he mentions that Ayanna may become an all around player eventually if she develops.
He also speaks about not having any real preference at PG when both Nika & Azzi are on the court together.
One will quickly bring the ball upcourt while the other quickly runs upcourt without the ball.
He doesn't say how they will decide who will take the ball, but only that while the one with the ball will be dribbling it, the other will get back upcourt as quickly as she can.

 

[Bone Dog]

I think this is just an excerpt from the presser we've already posted about.

 

[sun]

I think this is just an excerpt from the presser we've already posted about.

I didn't see the full interview posted here anywhere and I didn't recognize seeing it before.
The video caption states that it was made on Friday and today is Saturday.

"Oct 28, 2022 UConn Women's basketball held media availability on Friday and Auriemma talked about the injury bug that's hit UConn in recent years."

 

[Bone Dog]

You're right. It was made yesterday. I was probably thinking of people who referred to it without posting a link to it. Here's the longer version I think folks were seeing:

 

[Zarathustra]

You're right. It was made yesterday. I was probably thinking of people who referred to it without posting a link to it. Here's the longer version I think folks were seeing:

Good Stuff about Aubrey...... and a couple of comments about Piath at the very end : "If"

 

[hoophuskee]

Posted yesterday,
The first player that he speaks about extensively is Aubrey.
Later on he mentions that Ayanna may become an all around player eventually if she develops.
He also speaks about not having any real preference at PG when both Nika & Azzi are on the court together.
One will quickly bring the ball upcourt while the other quickly runs upcourt without the ball.
He doesn't say how they will decide who will take the ball, but only that while the one with the ball will be dribbling it, the other will get back upcourt as quickly as she can.

Again-- he did say at around 14:10 to paraphrase: "so when Nika is in the game we're trying to get her the ball . . ." when pushing the ball up the floor.

That sounds like "Nika is the pg.,"if when she is in and you are trying to push the ball, you look to give it to someone that the coach says you are trying to get the ball to run/ to push pace. IMO that is the pg. Geno probably has a different definition in this manner of speak of "pg" which is fine ofc.

I'll throw a flyer out there- he is implying that others can do it but Nika is the one he definitely wants to do it. Otherwise why does he say "we're trying to get her the ball?" Others can play situationally like a pg but overall Nika is the pg. There may be nothing wrong on occasion to have Azzi bring up the ball. Just like Paige did sometimes with Nika on the floor.

 

[sun]

Here's the text from the full video that I heard.

Azzie told us she took a couple of reps at PG in the scrimmage, how did she look?

Uh, I think she looked really good, you know Azzi uh, she's a good basketball player, you know she handles the ball well, she's strong, you know she can go from here to there, so yeah it's, it's we tried to make it so it's not like well you know when you're over here this possession you're the PG, but when you're over here this possession you're not, for us it basically comes down to when you have the ball in your hands you have to dribble it up the floor, if you don't you run up the floor, so that doesn't really make us a "who's your PG." (Geno shrugs). So when Nika's in the game we're trying to get her to go and she pushes it up the floor because that's what she does really really well, those other guys you know Azzi especially if she gets the ball and she goes and I don't worry about it because I know something pretty good is going to happen.

 

[Bone Dog]

I love Geno's habitual understatement. His answers have this rambling "stream of consciousness" feel to them. They're sometimes quite tangential to the question he was asked.

To the question "how did she [Azzi] look?" with the implied qualifier "as a point guard," he answers like this:

1) He begins by praising Azzi generally, but in such a way as to deflate our notion of what a point guard does ("you know, she can go from here to there").
2) Then he reminds us that he doesn't trouble himself about having rigidly defined positions and roles. Maybe point guard merely means whoever dribbles the ball up the court, thereby ignoring the traditional role of a point guard in half court offensive sets.
3) Then he uses Nika as an example of someone who's good at dribbling the ball up the floor.
4) Then he backs off this thought and imagines "the other guys" doing the same thing.
5) And in the end, he returns to his original thought concerning Azzi: "...if she gets the ball and she goes... something pretty good is going to happen."

This is classic Geno. Has he actually announced anything about his lineup thinking? It doesn't look that way. Mainly, he seems to have suggested that Azzi will be encouraged to do what Paige did, namely whatever she wants, and whatever she can get the rest of the team to sync with. This usually meant "the other guys" anticipated her moves and would get open in the appropriate ways. This is the "something pretty good" that usually happens.

One other implication: Azzi, like Paige, differs from "the other guys" in that she has something in mind for the other end of the floor -- she dribbles up with something in mind, and not just settling into a half court set. This is how I remember the great point guards, like Rizotti, Bird, Hayes, Doty, MoJeff, Crystal. They always seemed to be threatening something as they dribbled up the court. if the opposing team couldn't get back quickly enough to set up their defensive set, we'd already be attacking the rim. It's a sort of inverse of a full-court press.