Preparing for March starts now, he said.
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma saw a lot of numbers after his team defeated Marquette 89-53 on Wednesday that he must have loved.
The eighth game of the season with at least 80 points for the Huskies (11-0, 3-0 Big East). Never trailing at the end of the quarter for all 44 quarters this season. And 38.2% — the shooting percentage the No. 1 Huskies held Marquette (7-4, 2-1) to for the game.
"I thought defensively in the first quarter — most of the first half, actually — I thought we were really, really good. We made it tough for them to get anything easy and to get the looks that they wanted,” he told NBC Sports after the game in Hartford, Conn.
“You know, offensively, I thought we got a little bit sluggish at times. We had spurts where we looked really, really good, but overall ... our defense was really the big key to the win tonight."
But there also was some discontent with the numbers, especially the 16 turnovers the Huskies produced.
"I think I’m like pretty much every other coach in the country at this point. You know, we want to be able to rebound better,” he said. “We want to make sure that our half-court offense is operating more smoothly; I thought we were a little bit disjointed today. I also thought we did a poor job of taking care of the basketball.”
The box score
Auriemma’s team leaders did their job on Wednesday.
Sarah Strong scored 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including 3 of 4 from long distance, adding seven rebounds. Azzi Fudd tallied 14 points and freshman Blanca Quinonez added 12. Both Fudd and Quinonez were 5 of 10 from the floor, 2 of 4 from 3-point territory.
Skylar Forbes was the sole Marquette player to score in double figures with 17.
Preparing for March
The Huskies are the defending national champions and hope to repeat as NCAA Tournament winners. Auriemma said his team still has much improvement to make to be tourney ready.
“On the outside, it looks all great — we’ve got this, we’ve got that — but we have a pretty high standard here, obviously, and we’re nitpicking a little bit about what we need,” the 12-time title-winning coach said. “I don’t think if you stay the same as you were in November against Louisville in Annapolis, if you’re that same team come March, I don’t think you’re going to be good enough to win the games that we want to win.
“So, we’ve got the same issues as everybody else — we’ve got to get better — but when we’re good, we’re really, really, really good."
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