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
It has been a ridiculous three weeks in terms of my thought process. During all that time when the Final Four was going on, flying out to California, Hall of Fame, all of that, there was a lot going on personally for me where I'm trying to sort out how long am I going to do this? Where am I going to go from here? What else am I going to do?
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.
I think because of Diana (Taurasi playing for the Mercury), circumstances are different in this one, ... Maybe people sense that the climate is different at Connecticut than it was in the past.
I think Barbara, Ann and Will are going to really grab it and say I want this to finish right. I think they are and that?s going to go a long way.
I think it takes some of the luster off the regular season championship. Now, it doesn't carry as much weight as it used to. Some years, there are breaks in the schedule. Some years are tougher than normal. It's not conducive to having a regular season champion.
I think this is the first time in my life I have been rendered speechless.
I think we came out of the game feeling that Pitt lost rather than we won. We didn't really come out here and beat Pitt like we did so many other times.