Seg 3 - WBB Show w Geno Dec 4

Geno on Sue Bird and comparisons with 2002 & 2016 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back with Hall of Fame head coach Gino Oriema as
the Huskies will take on to Paul Sunday, and it's
not just the Big East home opener at Gample, but
the number ten is going to be retired pregame, and
then of course that would be Sue Byrd. Ironically, I
got a text today from our friend Carl Adamick, and
he was picking my brain about some of the top

(00:21):
five Sue Byrd moments. He mentioned two thousand at Tennessee,
the Big East Final of course in O one, the
Elite Eight in two thousand and two against Old Dominion,
which if you've never seen video of that fans, the
first half is basically about as good as a Yukon
basketball team has ever played, and then the National Championship
game against Oklahoma. But Sue obviously just embraces everything what

(00:47):
Yukon women's basketball is about. And she's not the last
person that's going to have a number retired anytime soon,
and you've got a few of them coming.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah. Well, one of the best things that happened in
the NCAA is that you can wear any number you
feel like now, because we're gonna run out of numbers
for such you know, so you know, you can wear
ninety nine if you want. And uh, you know, people,
it's like the Celtics, you know, it's a it's a

(01:17):
it's a privilege and an honor to to look up
in the you know, in the rafters and and be
able to see so many, ah, so many great players
that have played, you know, in your program. And if
you and if you think back, you know of Sue's career,

(01:39):
the the incredible impact that she had on and off
the court. Uh, the tremendous talent that she played with
that you know, Uh, it certainly wasn't easy to be
out on the floor with that many Olympic future Olympians

(02:01):
and future you know, superstars and Hall of famers, uh,
and and be able to direct traffic and be able
to keep everybody happy and and Sue uh, both as
a playmaker, as a defender, as a shooter, as a tourer,
as a leader. You know, when you think about it,

(02:25):
there there isn't a h a facet of the game
that you would say, you know, she was a little
bit lacking in that area. You could you could arguably
say that no one has ever been better, had as
many things on the court as uh as Sue was.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, you know, I think of that O two regional
final against Old Dominion. I mean, the first half was
a clinic. You don't get to see that very often.
The precision, the execution, how everything went. I'm hard pressed
to find a half of basketball, and I'm sure there
might be a few of them in your time, in
your forty years. But given the time, the circumstances, that's

(03:11):
about as good as it gets, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I think so I have going back and watched some
of that game, and now that we're talking about it,
I might go back and watch some of it again.
But as I was watching it, I was absolutely mesmerized
by what was happening. The only thing that comes close

(03:37):
is the game against Mississippi State wherever that was. Was
it Bridgeport?

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Or was it Bridgeport? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Sweet sixteen game?

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, Okay. The only thing that comes close was that
game where we beat a really, really, really good team
by a number that it never happened at that level.
But it had nothing to do with, you know, Mississippi
State not being good. It had everything to do with

(04:09):
just how incredibly well we played as a group. But
certainly you know that two thousand and two teams. Again,
you know, some of the things that were done had
never been done before. You had never seen a team,

(04:29):
you know, play that well together again in a in
a time of the year where only good teams are left, right,
I mean, only great teams left. So if anybody hasn't
seen that game, I'm sure it's on YouTube. Yeh, go
find it, and you know, before you go to the

(04:52):
game on Sunday, you'll you'll get a pretty good appreciation
of what what that kid was doing at time.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, there's a lot of parallels now that you bring
it up from that two game in the in the
sixteen game against Mississippi State, and I mean you had
four seniors in O two. You had three seniors on
the sixteen team. The death was there, the talent was there.
Just so many similarities. Now, obviously the two team you know,
had Diana Tarazi, that certainly helps, but but yeah, it's

(05:23):
just scary to think the parallels between those two games
and those two teams at that particular time.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, isn't it something that uh, that twenty sixteen team,
I think they had the number one, two, three picks
in the draft yep, and that two thousand and two team.
I think they went one two four maybe I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
I think it was one two four six something like that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, Sue went first, Win went second, and I think
Tamika Williams went fourth and Asia Jones went sixth, which
you know, it's pretty incredible. Uh, you're right, the similarities
between those two starting five Uh was poof. Uh that's

(06:23):
uh uh it's good and bad because now I want
every game to be like that. So I'm I'm the
biggest culprit of like, why can't we play like that
all the time? And and you know, so here I
am telling everybody don't expect that. Meanwhile, I went to
every game and I get pissed when we're not like that.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
That's right, final type with Gino when we come back
in just a minute on the UKN Women's Basketball Coaches
Show here Onlearfield