'Everything they did was better': Geno on UConn's problems

UConn women’s basketball suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of the then-unranked, now No. 14, NC State Wolfpack on Sunday.

Plenty of factors contributed to the loss, but what hurt the most? Geno Auriemma diagnosed the Huskies’ biggest problems during his post-game press conference.

Quotes obtained via Pack Pride on YouTube.

The leading causes

“The two issues, for me, were big picture,” he said, via Pack Pride. “This was the worst offensive performance in terms of running our offense, in terms of ball movement, sharing the ball, moving without the ball, changing sides of the floor, one side to the other. It was like we were content to just stand. Maybe that's a lot of young guys being out on the floor or whatever.

“Defensively, we couldn't get stops at all.”

On offense, UConn assisted on just 15 of 33 buckets while three players — Paige Bueckers (27), Aaliyah Edwards (21) and Qadence Samuels (14) combined for 62 of the team’s 82 points.

Down the other end of the court, not only did the Huskies give up their most points in regulation since 2001, they allowed 30 points in the fourth quarter — most of any period in the game.

“I think those two things [cost us] more than anything else: Our offense was non-existent and defensively, we didn't get stops,” Auriemma said.

The supporting cast

For a team whose depth is supposed to be a strength, UConn didn’t get much outside of Bueckers, Edwards and Samuels. Azzi Fudd had nine points, Caroline Ducharme, Aubrey Griffin and KK Arnold each had two while Ice Brady didn’t score.

“Ice didn't have the kind of impact I was hoping she’d had this game. Neither did Aubrey, neither did Carol,” Auriemma aid. “We needed those guys to have an impact and they didn't. So that's really difficult for us.”

Fouling

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