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Geno voices his displeasure following practice
Geno Auriemma's blood pressure and ornery state of mind seemed to increase with each possession that came and went without a basket during Thursday's practice.
Auriemma voiced his displeasure to assistant coach Shea Ralph for a few minutes and when Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis ended the scoring drought by draining a 3-pointer, Auriemma walked across the court and gathered the team around him.
"Do you think this is going to fix itself," Auriemma bellowed to the team members before continuing to challenge the team's competitive fire. When he was done, practice was over. The 5-spot drill which has signaled the end of UConn's practices was not used as the players headed off the court to do a weight-lifting session.
"It is February and as we get closer to March we want to make sure that when you make substitutions, you get people in and out of the lineup that productivity doesn't change that much and we are still not there yet," Auriemma said. "We still have a core group of guys that when they are on the floor things happen with a certain sense of precision, we get the shot we want, we get the screen set the way we want and things happen. We are not quite there yet that they continue like that regardless of what the substitution (pattern). We have to keep working on that and we have to get better at that as the season winds down."
When we were allowed into Gampel to witness practice I saw the Huskies run eight possessions in the half-court without scoring and as a matter of fact, other than a missed layup by Dolson they weren't even close to converting before the Mosqueda-Lewis 3-pointer. Even that wasn't so much accomplished with great execution as she took a handoff from Hartley, made one dribble and fired up a contested 3.
Considering how little the Huskies have been challenged in recent games, it is only natural that Auriemma turned up the pressure in practice especially with a game against No. 1 Baylor quickly approaching.
"You always have to take what Coach says and listen to it, embrace it and then respond to it," UConn center Stefanie Dolson said. "We might have had a bad practice but tomorrow we have to come out and work just as hard and harder to prove to him and respond to what happened today.
"We always say that we make practice 10 times harder than the game is going to be because it is going to prepare us for those games "
Auriemma voiced his displeasure to assistant coach Shea Ralph for a few minutes and when Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis ended the scoring drought by draining a 3-pointer, Auriemma walked across the court and gathered the team around him.
"Do you think this is going to fix itself," Auriemma bellowed to the team members before continuing to challenge the team's competitive fire. When he was done, practice was over. The 5-spot drill which has signaled the end of UConn's practices was not used as the players headed off the court to do a weight-lifting session.
"It is February and as we get closer to March we want to make sure that when you make substitutions, you get people in and out of the lineup that productivity doesn't change that much and we are still not there yet," Auriemma said. "We still have a core group of guys that when they are on the floor things happen with a certain sense of precision, we get the shot we want, we get the screen set the way we want and things happen. We are not quite there yet that they continue like that regardless of what the substitution (pattern). We have to keep working on that and we have to get better at that as the season winds down."
When we were allowed into Gampel to witness practice I saw the Huskies run eight possessions in the half-court without scoring and as a matter of fact, other than a missed layup by Dolson they weren't even close to converting before the Mosqueda-Lewis 3-pointer. Even that wasn't so much accomplished with great execution as she took a handoff from Hartley, made one dribble and fired up a contested 3.
Considering how little the Huskies have been challenged in recent games, it is only natural that Auriemma turned up the pressure in practice especially with a game against No. 1 Baylor quickly approaching.
"You always have to take what Coach says and listen to it, embrace it and then respond to it," UConn center Stefanie Dolson said. "We might have had a bad practice but tomorrow we have to come out and work just as hard and harder to prove to him and respond to what happened today.
"We always say that we make practice 10 times harder than the game is going to be because it is going to prepare us for those games "
Labels: Bria Hartley, Geno Auriemma, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Shea Ralph, Stefanie Dolson
posted by Jim Fuller at
6:42 PM
1 Comments:
The drop off with the subs is amazing. When Banks came in the drop off was minimal and defense picked up.
Jefferson, of late, has given some moments of really good scoring. Defense is a bit lacking. She allows fast players get between her and the basket she is guarding.
Stewie--can be amazing. But at this moment in time, she should know to focus on the rim, accept the hit, and score. I dont think she's made more than one 3 in a game in over a month. So why shoot them??
The Kinder and Gentler Geno didn't last too long did it??
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