UConn head coach Geno Auriemma spoke with the media Sunday after Dawn Staley’s South Carolina claimed the 2022 national title in a 64-49 championship win at Target Center in Minneapolis.
Here’s what Auriemma said after the game.
On how he’ll eventually look back on what UConn accomplished this season: You know, like we talked about a little bit in the locker room, it was just a nonstop series of events that we had to keep dealing with. Even today, Liv’s groin was all wrapped up from something that happened in the game the other night, and Azzi didn’t come to shootaround and she was sick all night and hardly could play.
It just didn’t stop all year long. I don’t think any of those two things would have mattered the way South Carolina played, but it was just one thing after another after another after another.
I think it was a remarkable effort by them to stay together as well as they did throughout the entire year, and to be in this game.
But then once you get in this game, you want to win this game. You’re not just happy to be here. But I think when this wears off, I think they’ll appreciate the effort that it took to get here.
It’s another reminder, too, how hard it is to win here. Usually the better team wins when you get here. There’s very few upsets in the Final Four.
On Paige Bueckers not scoring until midway through the second quarter: No, I think it was more what they did. We knew that was going to happen, and we tried to set up some scenarios where — the same thing that we would try to do and know that wherever she went she was going to attract one or two people no matter what. But that that would free up other people to make shots, and that just never materialized.
I don’t think from the beginning of the game our offense ever looked like it was in any kind of rhythm, any kind of flow. Then Paige tried to take it upon herself to do — that never works, when one person is trying to. But their guards completely, I thought, dominated the game on the perimeter and made it really difficult for any of our guys to get any good looks.
Yeah, we usually don’t have any problem getting Paige shots, but tonight it was a problem, and I think South Carolina had everything to do with that.
On South Carolina’s offensive rebounds: We knew that was going to be the deciding factor. We said in the Stanford game the reason we won is because we out-rebounded them and we made our free throws when they counted. We knew tonight that if we didn’t hold our own on the boards that it was going to be a really bad night for us, and that’s exactly what happened.
You think about — we had the same number of field goals as they did, but when you offensive rebound you tend to get to the free-throw line, too. They outscored us by 25 from the free-throw line. They were just way more aggressive, way more physical than we were, and I thought that was the game right there.
On Azzi Fudd’s illness: You know, this morning — she didn’t feel well last night, so we knew it was going to be iffy, and then she couldn’t make it to shootaround and then she said she wanted to give it a shot to play.
Obviously it was just one more thing that — throw it on top of all the other things. As I said, maybe it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. South Carolina was that good. You’ve got to win with what you have.
On the first time UConn has lost a championship under Auriemma and how South Carolina was No. 1 all season long: Yeah, I’ve said this all along. You have to be really good, and you have to be a little bit lucky to win the National Championship. First things first, though, you have to be really good, and you have to be really well balanced and you have to be all the things that South Carolina is. You have to have good guard play. Your big guys have to be able to dominate either at one end or the other. Then you need a little bit of luck.
The 11 times that we won, I would say — maybe all 11 but at least 10, we had the better team. We played like we were the better team, and we were well balanced and we had all the bases covered and we had everything that you needed to win a championship.
We said when we got here, we’re going to need a little bit of help from Stanford on Friday night, and they didn’t shoot the ball like they normally do, and we were going to need a little bit of help tonight, and they didn’t cooperate.
I told Dawn after the game, they were the best team in the country all year. They were No. 1 in the country in November when we saw them down in the Bahamas, and they’re the best team in the country today.
When you’re dealing with that all year long, it’s not the easiest thing in the world. So I think her and her staff, they did a magnificent job managing all that and all the expectations that go with that.
On how special his team was: You know, when you looked out there, a couple times we had all freshmen and sophomores in the game, I think. For them to again, be in this game was quite an achievement. If you’d have said in November when we left the Bahamas that we would be playing South Carolina tonight, maybe everybody would have said that could possibly happen very easily, right?
But the way it went, I guess if you weren’t there, if you didn’t see it, if you didn’t feel it every day in practice or just who can’t go, who can go, it was just a credit to them that they were able to hold it together for that long. We certainly had our ups and downs.
The best way I can say it is I’m really proud of them. But tonight we just weren’t good enough. We just weren’t good enough.
On how he’s feeling about next year’s UConn team: Yeah, it’s hard to say each year what could happen. This year was a perfect example of you plan for some things and then all of a sudden your plans get blown up.
I like our chances. Provided we don’t have to navigate a season like we did this year, knock on wood, if we stay healthy, I expect to be back here next year.
On what keeps UConn’s energy up: You know, they’re competitors. They want to compete. It’s easy to compete when you’re winning. It’s easy to compete when everything is going well. But it’s something else when it’s a struggle. Everything was a struggle tonight. Everything was a struggle.
But that’s what competition is, right? That’s what’s at the heart of competing, that you compete even when the chances of winning are slim, when nothing is going your way and you still compete. Otherwise you shouldn’t call yourself a competitor.
We’ve got some competitive kids on our team that, again, we wouldn’t be here if they weren’t. Today was another example of how competitive they are.
On Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird’s ESPN show: Well, I had a chance to see them the other night after their show. I’ve known those two for a long, long time. I can honestly say, with no exaggeration whatsoever, that there’s absolutely nothing that they’ve done since they stepped on campus at UConn until today that has surprised me one bit. They’re even better people than they are basketball players, and they’re the two best basketball players maybe ever to play in that league, who knows.
The influence that they had when they were in college on the college game and what they’ve had on the WNBA and the influence they had at the Olympics, that influence isn’t going away when they stop playing, because they now are bigger than just two kids playing basketball. They represent something now. They actually represent something they helped create. So I think they’re going to water it, nurture it, and take care of it in some way, shape, or form for the rest of their lives, and people are going to gravitate to them because people have gravitated to them since the first day they ever saw them play, and it’s still there today.