UConnCat
Wise Woman
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2011
- Messages
- 13,938
- Reaction Score
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Geno in rare form:
http://www.usabasketball.com/womens/national/12_woly_game_06_quotes.html
On why he told the team it was fun to watch against China:
When the team is coming together, you know who the individuals are and you know what they are capable of doing, but you never quite sure whether it is actually going to happen, because they all have their own personalities, they all have their own egos; that’s how they got be where they are now – great players. So you hope that they are the right people, not the right players. It’s easy to get players, but it’s hard to get players who are the right people. I’ve been fortunate to be around some of these players for a long time … in other scenarios, but never in the Olympics. So, I envisioned something like what happened in the China game happening, and when I saw it happen I was like a fan. I just sat there and watched and I was like, “man, I know I’m probably speaking for everyone who is watching this game.” It’s fun to watch when we are playing like that, it really is.
On whether it was more defensively than offensively:
This team competes really, really hard. And when we do that on the defensive end … when you’ve got, every one of these guys is a great offensive player on their own team. How many national players of the year in college are on this team? They don’t need to be shown how to score. But you’ve got to draw up some things for them defensively because that may not have been their forte in college or in the pros. I don’t think a lot people made this team because they are great defenders.
On the team’s goals during the Olympics:
Somebody put some shirts ion our room last week, saying Road to Respect and I thought that’s kind of dumb, that’s kind of dumb. Sue’s won two gold medals and she’s won two WNBA championships, and she’s won probably a million European championships or Russian championships, and world championships for the U.S. And two national championships at UConn. If they don’t respect her by now, and all those other players, screw them. We don’t need T-shirts or goals to say we have a slogan. We have won slogan: Earning respect from your teammates, your coaching staff, and your opponent. Other than that, I could care less whether anybody else respects what we are doing.
On the relationship between the United States and Canada after last night’s soccer game and today’s basketball game:
Well, I’m sure the Brits, having two of their former colonies playing against each other, were hoping the roof would fall in and we’d all lose.
On knowing your team only becomes a huge story if you lose being a sign of respect to the level of dominance the women’s team has achieved:
We played a game for the ages against China, in terms of how well we played and executed, and somebody left a USA Today international lying around, and I picked it up to read about the Olympics, and there wasn’t one line or one sentence written about that game the next day. Not one. But, the top 10 preseason college football poll was in there, so that was really good, because I’m a college football fan. That goes back to what I said earlier. I think we have the mindset that we really don’t care. We’re way past that. There are no feminists on my team. We’re not running around burning our bras trying to make people believe in our team. I would burn mine, because it doesn’t fit like it used to. We just play basketball. And whether anybody cares or writes anything about it, there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re not in the PR business. We’re in the basketball business. That’s what we do. And, we’re pretty damn good at it.
http://www.usabasketball.com/womens/national/12_woly_game_06_quotes.html
On why he told the team it was fun to watch against China:
When the team is coming together, you know who the individuals are and you know what they are capable of doing, but you never quite sure whether it is actually going to happen, because they all have their own personalities, they all have their own egos; that’s how they got be where they are now – great players. So you hope that they are the right people, not the right players. It’s easy to get players, but it’s hard to get players who are the right people. I’ve been fortunate to be around some of these players for a long time … in other scenarios, but never in the Olympics. So, I envisioned something like what happened in the China game happening, and when I saw it happen I was like a fan. I just sat there and watched and I was like, “man, I know I’m probably speaking for everyone who is watching this game.” It’s fun to watch when we are playing like that, it really is.
On whether it was more defensively than offensively:
This team competes really, really hard. And when we do that on the defensive end … when you’ve got, every one of these guys is a great offensive player on their own team. How many national players of the year in college are on this team? They don’t need to be shown how to score. But you’ve got to draw up some things for them defensively because that may not have been their forte in college or in the pros. I don’t think a lot people made this team because they are great defenders.
On the team’s goals during the Olympics:
Somebody put some shirts ion our room last week, saying Road to Respect and I thought that’s kind of dumb, that’s kind of dumb. Sue’s won two gold medals and she’s won two WNBA championships, and she’s won probably a million European championships or Russian championships, and world championships for the U.S. And two national championships at UConn. If they don’t respect her by now, and all those other players, screw them. We don’t need T-shirts or goals to say we have a slogan. We have won slogan: Earning respect from your teammates, your coaching staff, and your opponent. Other than that, I could care less whether anybody else respects what we are doing.
On the relationship between the United States and Canada after last night’s soccer game and today’s basketball game:
Well, I’m sure the Brits, having two of their former colonies playing against each other, were hoping the roof would fall in and we’d all lose.
On knowing your team only becomes a huge story if you lose being a sign of respect to the level of dominance the women’s team has achieved:
We played a game for the ages against China, in terms of how well we played and executed, and somebody left a USA Today international lying around, and I picked it up to read about the Olympics, and there wasn’t one line or one sentence written about that game the next day. Not one. But, the top 10 preseason college football poll was in there, so that was really good, because I’m a college football fan. That goes back to what I said earlier. I think we have the mindset that we really don’t care. We’re way past that. There are no feminists on my team. We’re not running around burning our bras trying to make people believe in our team. I would burn mine, because it doesn’t fit like it used to. We just play basketball. And whether anybody cares or writes anything about it, there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re not in the PR business. We’re in the basketball business. That’s what we do. And, we’re pretty damn good at it.
