Geno Auriemma

Geno Auriemma
Luigi "Geno" Auriemma is an Italian-born American college basketball coach and the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. He has led UConn to eleven NCAA Division I national championships, a feat matched by no one else in college basketball, and has won seven national Naismith College Coach of the Year awards. Auriemma has been the head coach of the United States women's national basketball team since 2009, during which time his teams won the 2010...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth23 March 1954
CityMontella, Italy
One of the dangers when you play so many games like this is you get lulled into bad habits. That first half we were just content to go up and down and trade baskets. Army did exactly what I thought they would do. They were patient, they run their stuff, they grind it out.
I can't tell you how many times I've been offered jobs in that league that no one ever knew about. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people seriously about jobs in that league. This one just happened to make it to that point ... to the newspapers.
Sometimes you just have to hope they play bad.
Her conditioning is so-so. I think the rest was really good. But the rest kind of hurts you conditioning-wise because I don't care how long you ride the bike or are in the training room working out or in the pool, you've got to (get in) basketball shape playing basketball. We'll see how many (minutes) she can go and the same thing New Year's Eve (against Army) and then go from there.
It?s just so overwhelming because as a kid you go to the Hall of Fame, you look around and you read everything and you just never imagine seeing your picture or your stuff right there. It probably won?t really, really hit me until induction weekend, when it?s going to be unbelievable probably.
The thing that gets us in trouble like the first half is we play too fast. One of the terms I use with our guys is, we play like our hair's on fire. We just run around. The second half we were much more under control.
Sometimes you get it right and you have to kind of enjoy the moment. That last five minutes, the defensive stops that we made, the things that we accomplished, that's what good teams have to do.
I am not looking to go anywhere. I am not looking to run away from anything. I am not looking to find greener pastures. That is not the case at all.
My opinion of the whole thing is it's a joke. The coach of that team should have his head examined.
I've been in their situation enough times where you come in and you feel like you've got every answer to every question that comes up. And you know the only way you can lose is if you don't play to your ability. I'm sure Duke feels the same way. (Duke) plays in a manner that leads you to believe they're going to win a national championship.
I said going into the game they're going to get 60. I told the coaches that; I told the team that. And I never in a million years thought that we couldn't get 60.
That first half, they played us as well as any team has played us. I like the way we responded to that situation when they took the lead. I hope that sets us up well for Tuesday night.
I don't remember us ever being in a situation where I thought we had it won, then lost it, thought we had it won, then lost it. It was really an amazing game. It's a shame any of those kids had to be on the other side of that. I would think in the 21 years I've been at Connecticut, I don't remember more than one or two games that turned out like this.
I told the kids in the locker room that if you're lucky in life, sometimes fate taps you on the shoulder. You want to be ready and we were ready.