It should come as no surprise to those who know Geno Auriemma that his Connecticut Huskies beat the defending national champions, the Tennessee Lady Vols, as well as the highly-ranked Georgia Lady Bulldogs this month. Always with an eye toward his destination, Auriemma has carefully plotted his course on the fine line between tough competition and confidence-building.
But who is Geno Auriemma, beyond his coaching record? What does he think about the current state of the game? Where is he headed? Where has he been?
One of the first things we wanted to know from Auriemma was at what point in time he thought UConn had turned the corner to being a good program instead of just a good team. Auriemma can remember the moment. "In 1990, we had a chance to play a number of good teams. We beat Penn State out in the tournament at Iowa, and we played Stanford, which had [Jennifer] Azzi. We didn't win, but we played them tough. These were definite signs. But when we beat [second ranked] Auburn in 1990, I knew that we were over the hump."
Coming to UConn in 1985 from his position at the University of Virginia as an assistant coach, Auriemma registered his first winning season right away, and he and the Huskies haven't looked back since. After taking the team to its first NCAA tournament in his fourth season just two years later, the Huskies found their way to the promised land of the Final Four. Then, Auriemma helped make history in 1995, with UConn finishing a perfect 35-0, winning the national championship, and in the process, helping to bring more media attention to women's basketball.
The year the Huskies beat Auburn, they finished the year in New Orleans, losing to Virginia in the national semifinal, a matchup against Auriemma's former boss, Debbie Ryan. They would meet again in 1995 in the East Region Finals. Had her any of her coaching style rubbed off on him? Auriemma is perfectly clear on that score: "We're two completely different people with two different coaching styles."
Recalling that second game with Virginia, "It was the most important game in the history of our program and it was one of the most difficult," said Auriemma. "There was a lot of pressure on the team. We were at home and we were undefeated, and everyone just expected us to win."
Just as halftime began in that game, Auriemma almost got himself booted from the game for yelling at the officials. Associate Head Coach Chris Dailey restrained him, and certainly kept him in the game. Dailey is important to the program in other ways, too. "She's been here for 12 years, and knows what it took to build the program. She's recruited most of the players." He thinks that togther they have built the program to the point where anyone could take it over and do a good job, but if he could pick anybody, to work with, it would certainly be Dailey.
As to the constant criticism of UConn's schedule, in some cases, Auriemma thinks that the criticism is deserved. One of the ways a conference, or a team gains respect nationally is by beating top-ranked teams. But, unless those teams will schedule you, respect like that is hard to come by. Auriemma noted that he has tried to schedule games he felt would be best for his team and program, and one of the greatest scheduling sucesses was the series with Tennessee. But some teams refuse to play UConn. Auriemma didn't name specific names within the conference but said, "Some teams have no desire to play you. ACC teams won't play us, even though we like to go down there and they have good teams.
And while it is said that tough regular season games will lead to a tougher team come postseason, one ready for elite competition, Auriemma only partially agrees: "It depends on the team -- with an experienced team, you should challenge them, it builds momentum. A young team can have its confidence destroyed."
The team plays in the Big East, which isn't considered a top conference. However, Auriemma points out that "Notre Dame is a big boost. There aren't a lot of high profile schools in the conference like some conferences that have big name football teams." Auriemma also noted that in the last five years, the Big East has sent five different teams to the Sweet Sixteen.
The team with the best future in the Big East Conference, aside from UConn and Notre Dame, is West Virginia, according to Auriemma. "Suzy [Walvius] has a very good team, and she has built a very good program," praised Auriemma. He also mentioned Georgetown and Rutgers as teams with bright futures.
So far, only women have coached the Olympic teams. But few teams in this decade have enjoyed the sucess that UConn has under Auriemma, considered one of the nation's top coaches. When asked if he thought a male coach should be offered the opportunity to coach an Olympic team, Auriemma said that at this point, gender shouldn't be an issue; they should take the best interested coach. When asked about his own aspirations in that direction Auriemma was noncommital. "I am not sure of my own interest level," he said.
As to changes in the college game, Auriemma thinks that the international rules could be successfully implemented with good results. "Move the three-point line back and widen the lane, and that would open the floor and allow for more offensive movement. The post players would be forced to move more without the ball, and they would need to develop more skills to be effective," he proposed.
And speaking of post players and UConn, one cannot help but think of Kara Wolters, one of the most dominant presences in the post today. Auriemma doesn't stint on praising her, calling her the best player in the game today. But what if he had to stop her? "Well, Kara is one of the most difficult players to defend. She has good footwork, she is very agile, has a good court sense, and has good hands. You can't match up with her one on one -- you need to play excellent team defense and be willing to give up other things from other players."
One of the most dynamic and exciting personalities in women's college basketball today, Geno Auriemma is also one of the best coaches. But perhaps more importantly, he is a quality person who cares about his players, sometimes going so far as to sit players, even starters, if he thinks that they need to refocus their efforts on their academic work. Fans of UConn should consider themselves lucky that years ago, an assistant coach from Virginia decided to come north.
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