USA Women's National Team Quotes >> September 30, 2009

GENO AURIEMMA, USA Head Coach

What are you trying to get accomplished?
That's an interesting question. This is a very different scenario. We're not exactly having to get them in shape, they're all in great shape, most of them just finished playing obviously. We don't have to work on getting them competitive because they are all very, very competitive. I think our job is just to try and get them to get a feel for each other; Get a feel for how we want to play as a team, get comfortable on spots on the floor where they are normally comfortable. So I think from that stand point it is our job just to point them in the right direction. They're pros and they understand what it is we're trying to accomplish.

How comfortable is it for you having so many current and former UConn players, doing drills, knowing how you do things?
Yeah I noticed that today that the other players were kind of deferring to some of my guys early on in the drills so they could see…and it is sort of a comfort level for me. But at the end of the practice in the one competitive drill we did the five guys from Connecticut all lost so they may have played for me but it doesn't give them any advantage in this environment. I like to think the players that are here are all smart enough and they're all experienced enough that they only need to see things one time and they get. So it does make the teaching aspect go much quicker and it does allow us to do more things.

How excited were you to get going?
In this situation, in this position that I'm in, there's so much non basketball stuff that goes on as lot of times, and there so much…who's invited, who's not; who's coming, who's not; and who has to leave. Candace Parker's not here and she won't be here until Friday's practice, so to actually be on the floor, to be running drills and to do the things that we as coaches enjoy doing " yeah, we've waited a long time for this and today was exactly what I thought it would be. I wish we could practice again tonight but I don't think they would go for that.

A lot of stuff you ran today is similar stuff I've seen you run with the UConn guys, will you run a similar system?
I'm not going to change what I do and what I know. There will be some subtle things that we'll do differently to accommodate the level of talent that we have and that's always the case. We do that year to year, sometimes month to month, at Connecticut. A lot of these players fit the style of play that I like to coach. If I thought what we did at Connecticut wasn't suited for this group we wouldn't do it. I think the group that's here is really suited for the stuff that I like and I think they'll enjoy it, they'll have fun playing it and they'll come to appreciate why we win at Connecticut.

Anything surprise you today or was everything pretty much as you expected it would be?
I don't think there was anything really surprising other than reiterating what I already believe in the sense that I knew how competitive these guys would be; they're all really good offensive players; they all want to be good defensive players and I was pleasantly surprised with how receptive they were; and how they listened; how they paid attention; want to learn; want to get better; and want to do things right. But again, I think that's why they were invited. If they weren't like that they wouldn't be invited.

Is the purpose of this camp to start building the foundation for 2010 (World Championship) and 2012 (Olympics)?
Yeah, I think it is. Right now the short term goal is to make sure we take a really good group over to Russia and play in three games against three pretty good teams. But more long term, we're trying to identify who the players are who we want to work with and who want to work with us. So having them here gives them an opportunity to show us ‘hey coach, I need you to keep an eye on me for the next couple of years,' and it gives us a chance to say ‘hey look, we need you to do this, this and this so you'll fit in with our program' and the more of those players we have the better our whole program is, the more choices we have for the World Championship in 2010 the better program we have. What I like about it is there are so many young players that are only going to get better. Obviously Diana's (Taurasi) not here, Cappie's (Pondexter) not here and Tamika Catchings, so you're missing guys who have been a core part of this but it gives the other guys the opportunity to fill those spots because if they were here some people may not have that opportunity. So it works well for us to identify who some of those players are and it helps them kind of get a sense that if I want to play for the U.S. Olympic team this is what I've got to do; these are the people I've got to beat out, these are the people that I have to compete against. I'm excited for us and I'm excited for them.