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
I remember saying that. It was right around the baseball playoffs. I always thought it was pretty cool how a manager would send a pitcher ahead to the next city to wait for his team. I wanted to give Will the opportunity to do that. Why sit around for five months doing nothing? I figured she could be up there scouting out the hotels and restaurants and sightseeing tours for us.
I know we didn't win the regular season, but I don't know how finishing second was all that great when you have to get the winner of South Florida-Notre Dame in the first round. I'm saying to myself, the four teams with a bye, this is what we get for a great season. I'm not sure that's ever been the case. They've come into this league and dramatically altered the landscape. They certainly have benefited and we have benefited from it also.
It's not something that you really consciously spend any time at all thinking about, or gauging your reaction. It's kind of like a spontaneous thing that happens if you ever get a phone call saying you've been selected.
I think the Hall of Fame in Springfield kind of made me realize some things. ... There's a lot of people in the Hall of Fame that are dead. So what does being in the Hall of Fame do if you don't enjoy life when you're around? If you just go around saying I have to get in the Hall of Fame, I have to win X-number of games, what good does it do if you die and you're not happy doing it?
It's different than it was two years ago. People buy into teams and into personalities. We were coming off a national championship and we had the dominant personality in the country. Now we're coming off losing in the Sweet 16 and we have a bunch of nice kids that are just happy to be here. Maybe I'm going to have to rile some people up, start saying and doing stuff that stirs the pot a bit.
It's different than it was two years ago, ... People buy into teams and into personalities. We were coming off a national championship and we had the dominant personality in the country. Now we're coming off losing in the Sweet 16 and we have a bunch of nice kids that are just happy to be here. Maybe I'm going to have to rile some people up, start saying and doing stuff that stirs the pot a bit.
I was afraid of that. We came off some of the games we just had and we were feeling pretty good. We're playing a game where their No.1 player is hurt, and physically we're not 100 percent coming out of the road trip. You put all those things in the mix, it made for one lousy game.
I thought we could get away with not playing Ann. I thought we were in pretty good shape at 12-4. I didn't know that was the highlight of the first half ? getting to 12.
I thought we executed the game pretty well for thirty-some minutes. This is as much as a complete game as we've had in a really long time.
I thought that we executed our game plan pretty well for about 30-some minutes. This was as much of a complete game as we've had in a long, long time and I'm really happy for our guys.
I think we know pretty well after this trip that we?re pretty good. We?re not as good as you want to be yet, but we?re pretty good.
I think we have a pretty good record in the NCAA tournament regardless of where we play. So the fact that we've won a lot of games here is probably indicative that we've had a lot of really good teams.
I thought Renee set the tone in the second half by how aggressive she was. She was looking to score and make a play every time down the floor.
I think that fear factor stuff is gone. I just don't think anybody in the country is afraid of anybody anymore. Teams just think they can walk in any building and win any game.