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
comfort compared level ok situations throw twice
The one thing that she can do that is really, really amazing, compared to the other guys. She only has to see things once or twice and she?s got it. So you can throw her in a lot of different situations and she?s OK with it, which is kind of a comfort level for a coach.
anyone country knows shot trust
When she's calm, she knows where she's going and we get her in the right spot. I don't think there's anyone in the country that I would trust to make a big shot more than her.
ball difficult guard knows people post
When Megan was a freshman, it wasn't that difficult (to guard her) because she didn't know the ins and outs of getting other people involved. Now that she's a senior, it's difficult because she knows how to get her own shot, she knows how to score, and she can get the ball to the big post players.
bad constant fair final good hard perception players sure understand
Fair or unfair, at Connecticut it's not good enough just to win. There's a perception that if we don't go to the Final Four, it's a bad season. I want the players to understand that the one constant in our program, is that we want to make sure we play hard and have fun.
fate kids locker lucky ready room
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.
coached game good group impact peaks seniors separate single team themselves time
I told them before the (Providence) game started, every team that I've ever coached that was consistently good had seniors that were very, very consistent. And it's time now for this group to kind of separate themselves and say, 'Hey, it's time for me to have an impact every single game and not be in those peaks and valleys.' I think they've all kind of made that progression.
confidence good instill job open shoot time
I told them any time you are open and it's your shot, it's a good shot. I think my job is to instill confidence in shooters. The only way to instill confidence is to tell them every time you are open - shoot it. If we get an open look we are going to make the most of them.
call happens phone saying spend thinking time
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.
amount confidence fully lose players responsibility understand
It's not like you ever lose confidence or give up on people. I think players sometimes don't understand fully the amount of responsibility on their shoulders. As seniors, you have to take on that responsibility.
good life living looking win
For 15 years, I've been living the life of all things looking great, and now everything's a struggle. But it's good that we can still win when it's a struggle.
bit far guys hard team wait word
It's too hard to get to; it's too far away. My guys get plane-sick when they come over those mountains, so we would have to wait 'til we get a team with a little bit more ... what's the word ... intestinal fortitude.
bring crowd energy expect ncaa playing time tournament
You think about playing in the NCAA tournament and playing at this level, there'd be a lot more energy in the crowd and that's not the case. You have to bring your own, and it's not what you would expect at this time of year.
belong bracket chance everybody gets prove starting tough whether
Everybody can say all they want about who's in a tough bracket and who's not, but starting this weekend, everybody gets a chance to prove whether they belong there or not.
incredible
That's probably the most incredible stat you ever want to see in your life.