Seg 4 - WBB Show w Geno 3-5

Yes, Bob & Geno talk UConn MHOC & WHOC success since Toscano was built compared to the Hoops teams gettig Gampel 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Final segment with coach Oriyama. Then Megan Caffrey of the
Big East Digital Network will join us here on the
Coach A Show as we'll preview some of the storylines
for the Big East Tournament and we'll also get her
thoughts on page Mania. Gino, your friend Mike Kavanaugh, you
two are pretty tight the men's hockey coach. This weekend
they swept Northeastern. They officially now were in the NCAA

(00:21):
Tournament for the first time ever. I know, you guys
talk an awful lot, and I know this means the
world the cav But let's kind of go back to
a little bit when you got your first NCAA tournament.
But now it was a lot different. I mean, you
don't have the pair wise, I think you won the
Big East Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament was
at eighty nine Debbie's freshman year. Were you, guys, did

(00:43):
you think you would yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Eight eight eighty nine.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah. Now had you not won the tournament, were you
an NCAA tournament team in your mind that year or
did you feel you had to win it?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I don't know. I mean we had won the regular
season at the time. I think there were only thirty
two teams. Maybe I'm not sure. No, I'm not sure,
because we got to buy.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
No, I'm sorry, a year or two during that stretch
you gotta buy. So it was like forty eight teams
probably back then.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, forty eight teams we got to buy. And then yeah,
we played Lasal in the second round at home. We
got a home game. We may have been an eighth seed.
I mean, think about that. We won the rare season.
In the tournament, I think we were in eight seed.
Tigns of change, right. We were so excited. I mean,

(01:30):
it was so much fun. I mean to go from
you know where we were to that first NC tournament
bid ever for the program, you know, and we had
seven freshmen on the team, and we started two sophomores,
two sophomores, three freshmen. I want to say, was it

(01:51):
three freshman Debbie Wendy Omega maybe and then Chris Lamb maybe.
I don't know, carrying certainly in Laura right, so maybe
Wendy did. I don't know. But anyway, it was such
a young team, you know, such a young team, and
they were so thrilled, so excited, and I remember that

(02:12):
I remember exactly how we felt. So it's it's funny
that this is happening now because I remember, I remember
when CAV got the job and we were at the
Yukon Club golf outing or something for all the sponsors
and everything, other corporate sponsors, and I remember CAV being there,
and they asked me to say a few words, you know,

(02:33):
and I basically said that they have an opportunity to
be the new version of Yukon women's basketball, because you know,
we thought we could be successful because this is a
it was a basketball crazy place, and I thought men's
hockey had a chance to be really good because it's

(02:56):
Connecticut and it's a every kid plays ice hockey in Connecticut, right,
And then we got a ton of really good schools
that have hockey. We have a ton of prep schools
here that play hockey. You're in New England, you know
where there's a you know, a ton of great hockey programs.
So I thought, if they could get it going, you
know that. And they're in the best league in the country.

(03:18):
You know, when they got they got in the hockey'st
they were the best league in the country. So I
thought everything's in place, and little by little I know,
there's a lot of frustration along the way because they
would beat a lot of And I tell them this
all the time. I said Kat a few years ago,
if you only played teams in the top five in
the country, you guys would be in the NCAA Tournament

(03:41):
every year. You just can't help it. You guys lose
to teams that are not very good. So I love
it when you guys played BC and BU and you know,
all the whoever's in the top five, top ten in
the country. I love when you guys have one of
those games. And so when they got the new rink,
I thought, that's it. That's their gamble pavilion. You know,
that's their gamble pavilion, and that's going to put them

(04:05):
over to home. And as it turns out, you know,
since they built that building hasn't been too long, and
all of a sudden, the men's and women's hockey teams
are NCAA tournament teams. It's just it's incredible the way
it's happened. Then come on, if if they're playing in
the Big East Final at TV Garden, you know, in Boston,
and then there's an NCAA Tournament game, I don't know where.

(04:27):
I don't know if they would host the game. I
don't know how.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
No, there's for a regional site, so they would be
on the road, but they could go regional. That's right.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
There's only sixteen teams, that makes right, that's right.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
How can that be because there's only like sixties, like
sixty hockey teams across the country to play college that's
why it's so small.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, but still, they're going to get six from the
Big East, I mean from the Hockey East East.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, at least five, at least five.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
They're going to get five out of the sixteen. So yeah,
I hope they. I hope they they they're playing for
the Hockey East championship. And he's such a great guy,
and he's so he keeps everything in perspective. He doesn't
you know, he doesn't get up here. He doesn't get
He just has a great way about him. And and
it's funny because this may not be his most experienced

(05:18):
team or his most talented with big draft picks, you know,
like they lost the kid that got drafted by by Nashville, right,
he's the eleventh pick in the draft and he left
and they got better. So it goes to show you.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Right for sure. Well it says everything about how he
inspects doing what they've done leadership wise.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, I mean, uh yeah, I mean and then they
got it. You know, they got a couple of young
guys that I love watching play. You know, they uh
and I'll tell you what that they're quick as hell,
they're tough as hell. You know, they four check the
I mean, they're just there, a bunch of tough guys.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Man.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I love watching them play.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, Saturday was a lot of fun to watch in
those departments. You know, we got to get on the
golf course. You meet Kevin Adam. That's that's that's my
goal for the summer Connecticut Nation someplace nice. So there
you go, do that. Gino is always a pleasure. Thank
you for your cooperation all season long. And we'll see
over the weekend. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Thanks Bob all.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Right, Geno Arama with us on the Coaches Show. Stay tuned.
Makan Caffrey's next on the Yukon Sports Network from Learfield