February 4, 2024 • 15 mins
Geno after a good, tough home win over St. John's at Gampel
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You know, we talked yesterday aboutthis is the time of the year to
pick up the pace, to getgoing, and to have your two seniors
do it today. Would you expectthat they would be the one that would
rise to the occasion, wasn't it? M hm? Wow? You know,
there's a there's a reason Saint Johns'srecord is what it is. You
(00:21):
know, they're not an easy teamto play against. You know, they
they do a pretty good job ofcontrolling the tempo of the game. And
and I think when we when wegot it up twent you know, when
we got up twenty, there wasprobably a little bit of a law,
(00:43):
you know, and then we misseda couple of layups and then they I
think we must lead the country.And how many people banking threes against us?
They were like two or three twoof those a game every game,
So you know that's gonna you know, you kind of expect that. And
(01:03):
I think once we got leam Pageworking together again, and it's nice to
get everybody involved until it's not.And then you got to go to you
know, hopefully players that can youhandle that moment, and certainly you know,
Paige and a Lea did that.You know, I thought Leah it
(01:23):
was great at both ends of thefloor today, and you know, say
we're going to get thirty three andthirteen from her every game? Yeah,
sure, I love that certainly changesour team. Yeah, the two of
them were really good. Would youlike to see the two of them,
(01:47):
I mean, take that many shotsgoing forward and let the other guys just
feel in where you can or doyou like a more balanced Yeah? No,
I don't. I don't. Idon't particularly. You know, there's
in a slow game like that,there's not enough shots to go around for
a lot of people. But ifyou have two people taking thirty six of
(02:10):
your fifty six shots, that's alot. Some days, that's that's the
way it's got to be. Mostdays, I'd rather it be a little
more balanced rather be spread out alittle bit. But our offense, I
thought, was like very eh.I don't think we had the kind of
flow that and they make it hardfor you to get that kind of flow
(02:32):
going. So you know, somegames you can win just you know,
getting twenty five thirty three's up there, and some games you gotta win,
like today. The job Nika diddefensively against Drake most of the game I
mean, she squorreed eight points inthe fourth quarter, but before that she
wasn't really much of a factor.Yeah, I thought they got great contributions
(02:57):
from from their other from their otherguys. You know, I think that's
that's obviously a good sign for thembecause when we played them the first time,
they were so dependent on on UniqueDrake. Uh. Seems like tonight
(03:17):
they are today they functioned a littlebit better, you know, but Nika's
you know, she takes tremendous pridein that, you know, that's that's
something that she you know, shevalues, you know, getting stops and
(03:42):
she thinks that that's no unlike someplayers. She thinks that's a huge part
of the game of basketball. Mmhmm. Aliah had for deals today just
defensively. You know, what didyou like from her on their bags?
I thought I thought the ones shegot laid in the game were really impactful,
(04:04):
you know, out in the openfloor, her leading our transition game.
Though maybe we wouldn't want to changethat up a little bit, but
I think that the fact that shewas so active and she doesn't get it,
(04:26):
you know, she didn't get abreather, so she didn't come out
of the game. And that's alot to ask. And yet she was
terrific at both As I said,she was terrific at both ends. And
you would say, well, shegot through free throw line a lot,
she rebounded a lot, she madesome mid raidings jump shots, and that's
to me a complete game. Gknow, on you've talked about this a
(04:50):
little before, but on Wednesday,you have a pretty good chance of joining
coach K and Tara's the only coachesin college basketball history with twelve hundred wins,
and you would have done it,you know, three years faster than
Coach K, six years faster thanTara. You say, it just kind
of means you've been around a longtime. But can you talk about the
(05:11):
consistency of this program and the prideyou're taken that as I started to you
know, we were talking. Idon't know why the subject came up because
it doesn't usually come up unless Annabrings it up. You know, it's
up to her. We would havea sign for Tuesday's Wednesday's game going number
(05:33):
three, you know, anything tocelebrate something, right. I think the
if you look at all the coachesthat have had, you know, the
the kind of success that we're talkingabout. It involved being at one place
(05:59):
a lot long time, or beingat a bunch of places, and I'm
I'm fortunate enough to have been herethe entire time and the ability to keep
recruiting the kind of players that keepyou at the level that we've been able
(06:20):
to stay at for for thirty fiveof those thirty nine years. You know,
you look at the way the worldis today, I don't think you'll
see this happening much going forward.So it's something to certainly something to be
(06:42):
proud of for our staff, forCD and I especially, and for you
know, our fans and everybody associatedwith you kind of it's a it's a
big deal to have won that manygames and to being such, you know,
such company. But it's been reallyreally unusual. It's not it's not
(07:10):
something that we take for granted forsure, And probably last week and was
a great reminder of however we lost, well we lost in the final four
and a couple of those buzzer beatersor something somebody said, I forget where
somebody sent me something. You know, people just think that like I enjoy
reading like dumb shit that people sayabout me, cause I don't. I'm
(07:32):
not on social media, so Idon't know near that stuff. So people
feel compelled that they have to sendit to me so I can look at
it, and you know, theygo, you know, he only wins
championships when he has the best players. And I thought that, Naw,
there's a really smart guy that gotyou run for president. I said,
tell me a coach who's ever wona lot of games, a lot of
(07:53):
championships, whatever the case may be, that hasn't coached great players. I
mean, that's the whole point thatyou try to get to, is having
the ability to coach the absolute bestplayers. And I don't know that I'd
be here for year number thirty nineright now if I didn't have that opportunity
to coach those kinds of players.So you know, I've been very lucky
(08:16):
in that respect. I'm gonna haveto audible because Pat stole my question.
But you know, does the numberof wins that you actually accumulate really register
with you or matter to you morethan obviously the number of banners or the
number of trophies, because if youthink about it, in most sports,
(08:39):
you probably couldn't name who has themost victories. Yeah right, I mean
Connie Mack has the most victories butalso has the most losses. He owned
the team, So I mean that'sthe I mean you understand what I'm saying.
Is that being number one in thatcategory matter to you or or are
you coaching to you know, putmore banners up there. Yeah, think
(09:00):
about think about it this way.Dom, I've said this, You get
to a stage in a career thatwhat actually does impact your life? At
this stage, So if we showup in April and there's another National Championship
banner, how does that change anything? And if we get to my career
(09:26):
ends, you know, one thousandand one and ninety nine, no Amy
Durant, poor thing left here scoringnine hundred and ninety nine points. So
look back what somebody has it werenine ninety nine. I'm telling you all
right, but then you better tellthem. You better tell them because it's
(09:48):
wrong in the record book. Thepoint, the point being the point.
I want to set up a basket, that's right, I'm want to have
Kesha passitur Yeah. I think atthis point, you know, in a
career, there's really there's really nothingthat I could accomplish that would make me
(10:16):
step back and say wow, thatthat is really, really, really I
like to think that our basketball programis going to be remembered more for the
eleven national championships that we have ratherthan the number of wins that that I
have may get down the road,but I do think in sports that number,
(10:45):
the number of championships is what thegreat separator is. You know,
you could say somebody's you know,somebody's won the next number of games,
and that's great. To win thatmany games, I think it's great,
But I I think the the elevenchampionships for us is what separates Connecticut from
(11:07):
every other basketball program. Fat ohno, say yeah it's no, no,
yeah, yeah, yeah, nono. If you know, if
they keep off of me a newcontract and you know at some point you're
(11:30):
gonna say, no, I can'tdo this anymore. I just don't know
when when that day is. Youknow when that day would be when we
can't get players or it's the wthe what you have to go through to
get good players. It comes like, do I really wanna do that?
But our recruiting hasn't fallen off.You know, we're still getting the kind
(11:50):
of players that I like, thecoach that I enjoy being around, I
mean as much as you can withtwelve, sometimes thirteen, fourteen, you
know, exactly enjoy all of them, but you enjoyed being around them.
(12:11):
And if you didn't, you wouldn'tyou wouldn't do this anymore because there'd be
no point in doing it anymore.Yeah, but my friends back home,
hey, stay, stay until youget until you become number one? For
what purpose? Just I'm number one? I'm number one. You know you
(12:39):
talked about Aliyah having a complete gamewith the pull ups and the rebounds and
everything. She's been doing that prettymuch every single game, like not to
the extent of today, but justso consistent and so like she's become.
I mean, she's like a greathaving a great this season that like a
great player has. Yeah. Yeah, she is having an All American type
(13:01):
season. And you know, inthe world that we live in now,
you have to score a shit tonof points for people to think you are
a great player. And now youwow, you know, you you must
be really really good. You justscored you know, you look at some
of the NBA games. That guygot seventy. Wow. I remember when
a guy got fifty that was alot. Now a guy gets seventy and
(13:24):
tomorrow night, a guy's gonna geteighty two. So like how much how
much the scoring points really matter anymore? It's lost its value. But how
you score them? When you scorethem, what you mean to your team?
Like to see how many other bigkids around the country have the responsibility
that Aliyah has on our team givenwho were missing. So for her,
(13:48):
what she's doing is even more impressive, you know, because if she had
three other folks players that we rotatedin and out and she got to have,
you know, a breather here andthere, But she doesn't. She
doesn't get to do that, AndI think that's that's why she's I think
deserving of being an All American.The game at the end of the game,
(14:13):
like she missed a couple of freethrows, she was looking like a
little tired, like maybe you weregoing to take her out soon, and
then that's when she got the steelsin the open court. Yeah, you
can tell when a player obviously hasbeen you know, has left everything out
there, you know, when theyjust can't go any further. But you
(14:35):
know, I think our kids areterrifically conditioned by Hoodie and and and you
know, we were up twenty itgot away from us. They started making
some shots. They cut it toseven, and then we responded the way
a really good team is supposed torespond, and our two seniors responded the
way to all Americans should respond.Thanks Gase,
You know, we talked yesterday aboutthis is the time of the year to
pick up the pace, to getgoing, and to have your two seniors
do it today. Would you expectthat they would be the one that would
rise to the occasion, wasn't it? M hm? Wow? You know,
there's a there's a reason Saint Johns'srecord is what it is. You
(00:21):
know, they're not an easy teamto play against. You know, they
they do a pretty good job ofcontrolling the tempo of the game. And
and I think when we when wegot it up twent you know, when
we got up twenty, there wasprobably a little bit of a law,
(00:43):
you know, and then we misseda couple of layups and then they I
think we must lead the country.And how many people banking threes against us?
They were like two or three twoof those a game every game,
So you know that's gonna you know, you kind of expect that. And
(01:03):
I think once we got leam Pageworking together again, and it's nice to
get everybody involved until it's not.And then you got to go to you
know, hopefully players that can youhandle that moment, and certainly you know,
Paige and a Lea did that.You know, I thought Leah it
(01:23):
was great at both ends of thefloor today, and you know, say
we're going to get thirty three andthirteen from her every game? Yeah,
sure, I love that certainly changesour team. Yeah, the two of
them were really good. Would youlike to see the two of them,
(01:47):
I mean, take that many shotsgoing forward and let the other guys just
feel in where you can or doyou like a more balanced Yeah? No,
I don't. I don't. Idon't particularly. You know, there's
in a slow game like that,there's not enough shots to go around for
a lot of people. But ifyou have two people taking thirty six of
(02:10):
your fifty six shots, that's alot. Some days, that's that's the
way it's got to be. Mostdays, I'd rather it be a little
more balanced rather be spread out alittle bit. But our offense, I
thought, was like very eh.I don't think we had the kind of
flow that and they make it hardfor you to get that kind of flow
(02:32):
going. So you know, somegames you can win just you know,
getting twenty five thirty three's up there, and some games you gotta win,
like today. The job Nika diddefensively against Drake most of the game I
mean, she squorreed eight points inthe fourth quarter, but before that she
wasn't really much of a factor.Yeah, I thought they got great contributions
(02:57):
from from their other from their otherguys. You know, I think that's
that's obviously a good sign for thembecause when we played them the first time,
they were so dependent on on UniqueDrake. Uh. Seems like tonight
(03:17):
they are today they functioned a littlebit better, you know, but Nika's
you know, she takes tremendous pridein that, you know, that's that's
something that she you know, shevalues, you know, getting stops and
(03:42):
she thinks that that's no unlike someplayers. She thinks that's a huge part
of the game of basketball. Mmhmm. Aliah had for deals today just
defensively. You know, what didyou like from her on their bags?
I thought I thought the ones shegot laid in the game were really impactful,
(04:04):
you know, out in the openfloor, her leading our transition game.
Though maybe we wouldn't want to changethat up a little bit, but
I think that the fact that shewas so active and she doesn't get it,
(04:26):
you know, she didn't get abreather, so she didn't come out
of the game. And that's alot to ask. And yet she was
terrific at both As I said,she was terrific at both ends. And
you would say, well, shegot through free throw line a lot,
she rebounded a lot, she madesome mid raidings jump shots, and that's
to me a complete game. Gknow, on you've talked about this a
(04:50):
little before, but on Wednesday,you have a pretty good chance of joining
coach K and Tara's the only coachesin college basketball history with twelve hundred wins,
and you would have done it,you know, three years faster than
Coach K, six years faster thanTara. You say, it just kind
of means you've been around a longtime. But can you talk about the
(05:11):
consistency of this program and the prideyou're taken that as I started to you
know, we were talking. Idon't know why the subject came up because
it doesn't usually come up unless Annabrings it up. You know, it's
up to her. We would havea sign for Tuesday's Wednesday's game going number
(05:33):
three, you know, anything tocelebrate something, right. I think the
if you look at all the coachesthat have had, you know, the
the kind of success that we're talkingabout. It involved being at one place
(05:59):
a lot long time, or beingat a bunch of places, and I'm
I'm fortunate enough to have been herethe entire time and the ability to keep
recruiting the kind of players that keepyou at the level that we've been able
(06:20):
to stay at for for thirty fiveof those thirty nine years. You know,
you look at the way the worldis today, I don't think you'll
see this happening much going forward.So it's something to certainly something to be
(06:42):
proud of for our staff, forCD and I especially, and for you
know, our fans and everybody associatedwith you kind of it's a it's a
big deal to have won that manygames and to being such, you know,
such company. But it's been reallyreally unusual. It's not it's not
(07:10):
something that we take for granted forsure, And probably last week and was
a great reminder of however we lost, well we lost in the final four
and a couple of those buzzer beatersor something somebody said, I forget where
somebody sent me something. You know, people just think that like I enjoy
reading like dumb shit that people sayabout me, cause I don't. I'm
(07:32):
not on social media, so Idon't know near that stuff. So people
feel compelled that they have to sendit to me so I can look at
it, and you know, theygo, you know, he only wins
championships when he has the best players. And I thought that, Naw,
there's a really smart guy that gotyou run for president. I said,
tell me a coach who's ever wona lot of games, a lot of
(07:53):
championships, whatever the case may be, that hasn't coached great players. I
mean, that's the whole point thatyou try to get to, is having
the ability to coach the absolute bestplayers. And I don't know that I'd
be here for year number thirty nineright now if I didn't have that opportunity
to coach those kinds of players.So you know, I've been very lucky
(08:16):
in that respect. I'm gonna haveto audible because Pat stole my question.
But you know, does the numberof wins that you actually accumulate really register
with you or matter to you morethan obviously the number of banners or the
number of trophies, because if youthink about it, in most sports,
(08:39):
you probably couldn't name who has themost victories. Yeah right, I mean
Connie Mack has the most victories butalso has the most losses. He owned
the team, So I mean that'sthe I mean you understand what I'm saying.
Is that being number one in thatcategory matter to you or or are
you coaching to you know, putmore banners up there. Yeah, think
(09:00):
about think about it this way.Dom, I've said this, You get
to a stage in a career thatwhat actually does impact your life? At
this stage, So if we showup in April and there's another National Championship
banner, how does that change anything? And if we get to my career
(09:26):
ends, you know, one thousandand one and ninety nine, no Amy
Durant, poor thing left here scoringnine hundred and ninety nine points. So
look back what somebody has it werenine ninety nine. I'm telling you all
right, but then you better tellthem. You better tell them because it's
(09:48):
wrong in the record book. Thepoint, the point being the point.
I want to set up a basket, that's right, I'm want to have
Kesha passitur Yeah. I think atthis point, you know, in a
career, there's really there's really nothingthat I could accomplish that would make me
(10:16):
step back and say wow, thatthat is really, really, really I
like to think that our basketball programis going to be remembered more for the
eleven national championships that we have ratherthan the number of wins that that I
have may get down the road,but I do think in sports that number,
(10:45):
the number of championships is what thegreat separator is. You know,
you could say somebody's you know,somebody's won the next number of games,
and that's great. To win thatmany games, I think it's great,
But I I think the the elevenchampionships for us is what separates Connecticut from
(11:07):
every other basketball program. Fat ohno, say yeah it's no, no,
yeah, yeah, yeah, nono. If you know, if
they keep off of me a newcontract and you know at some point you're
(11:30):
gonna say, no, I can'tdo this anymore. I just don't know
when when that day is. Youknow when that day would be when we
can't get players or it's the wthe what you have to go through to
get good players. It comes like, do I really wanna do that?
But our recruiting hasn't fallen off.You know, we're still getting the kind
(11:50):
of players that I like, thecoach that I enjoy being around, I
mean as much as you can withtwelve, sometimes thirteen, fourteen, you
know, exactly enjoy all of them, but you enjoyed being around them.
(12:11):
And if you didn't, you wouldn'tyou wouldn't do this anymore because there'd be
no point in doing it anymore.Yeah, but my friends back home,
hey, stay, stay until youget until you become number one? For
what purpose? Just I'm number one? I'm number one. You know you
(12:39):
talked about Aliyah having a complete gamewith the pull ups and the rebounds and
everything. She's been doing that prettymuch every single game, like not to
the extent of today, but justso consistent and so like she's become.
I mean, she's like a greathaving a great this season that like a
great player has. Yeah. Yeah, she is having an All American type
(13:01):
season. And you know, inthe world that we live in now,
you have to score a shit tonof points for people to think you are
a great player. And now youwow, you know, you you must
be really really good. You justscored you know, you look at some
of the NBA games. That guygot seventy. Wow. I remember when
a guy got fifty that was alot. Now a guy gets seventy and
(13:24):
tomorrow night, a guy's gonna geteighty two. So like how much how
much the scoring points really matter anymore? It's lost its value. But how
you score them? When you scorethem, what you mean to your team?
Like to see how many other bigkids around the country have the responsibility
that Aliyah has on our team givenwho were missing. So for her,
(13:48):
what she's doing is even more impressive, you know, because if she had
three other folks players that we rotatedin and out and she got to have,
you know, a breather here andthere, But she doesn't. She
doesn't get to do that, AndI think that's that's why she's I think
deserving of being an All American.The game at the end of the game,
(14:13):
like she missed a couple of freethrows, she was looking like a
little tired, like maybe you weregoing to take her out soon, and
then that's when she got the steelsin the open court. Yeah, you
can tell when a player obviously hasbeen you know, has left everything out
there, you know, when theyjust can't go any further. But you
(14:35):
know, I think our kids areterrifically conditioned by Hoodie and and and you
know, we were up twenty itgot away from us. They started making
some shots. They cut it toseven, and then we responded the way
a really good team is supposed torespond, and our two seniors responded the
way to all Americans should respond.Thanks Gase,
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