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
As I look at stuff like this I say to myself, it's kind of odd because you always think of coaching as an opportunity for your players to stand up their on that podium and put the net around their neck and celebrate winning championships. You never think of yourself as being in that situation. You're only as good as the people that you get to direct, and if you're fortunate enough to have the best people to direct then you're one of the lucky few. I think that's kind of what this is all about. So it's hard for me to put it into perspective from a personal perspective.
Sometimes you think things and you hope they don't happen. But you kind of know that it's coming. You come off some of the games that we just had and you come home and you walk around like you're feeling pretty good. You're playing a team that's missing their best player, and probably physically we're not 100 percent coming out of that trip. So if you put all those things into the mix, it made for one really lousy performance by us.
I think, for now, it works. I think it?s the best way to get her some minutes. And going into conference play, if you were to ask me what you want other than obviously talent, the thing that you probably look for the most going into this part of the season is experience ? people who have been in that situation a few times.
I don't care if you have the best team in the country or are Cinderella, this is the hardest game to play in that you'll ever play in. The goal for most people is to have an experience of being in the Final Four. After you've been to the Final Four there's no experience like it, except winning a national championship.
I'd like to be able to dial it up when we needed it. Unfortunately, sometimes you keep waiting and waiting and it never happens. My hope is that some time in the next 24 hours we play as close to our ability as we can. Right now, I think we need to play one of the best games that we've played. I don't know where we are in terms of that, but I'd like to see us come close to that (tonight).
Obviously in the long term, as the season wears on, there's no way you can be as good a team without someone who is, I think, one of the best five players in the league. Meg can put up 20 points every night, and that has to be comforting. But this West Virginia team is still one of the best that I've seen. That team is very difficult to play against.
When Renee?s got the ball in her hands, the best play that we have is this. That?s the play I call. It?s not a secret play either, I cross my fingers and pray because anything can happen.
It's interesting when you know somebody when they're 17 and they come out of high school and spend some time with them on the college level. I remember the Duke game was one of the best games she ever had when I was there. Things like that just stick out in your mind.
You?re only as good as the people that you get to direct, and if you?re fortunate enough to have the best people to direct, then you?re one of the lucky few. I think that?s kind of what this is all about, so it?s hard for me to put it into perspective from a personal point of view.
Anybody that knows Rene, knows that she loves to say things that irritate people and she's one of the best in the country at it.
Renee set the tone in the second half by how aggressive she was, looking to score, looking to make a play every time down the court. When she's aggressive, she's as good as anybody. She's got all the skills, and her best games are on the road. That's a great sign.
Renee Montgomery had maybe the best game she's had since she's been at Connecticut. And I told her (Monday) she should transfer. I asked her, 'How does Mel Thomas have more steals than you? You've just got to get more involved. You've got to do more.' So (Tuesday) she's attacking the basket. She's stripping kids. She's playing like a basketball player. That makes all the difference in the world when you have guards that play like that.
If we play as well as we're capable of playing, we're going to win (tonight) regardless of what Rutgers does. If we don't play our 'A' or to the best of our ability, then there's a pretty good chance that if Rutgers plays well we're going to lose. And that's the way it should be when you play against a really good team. But, you know what? We're home. We're in our building. And the expectation level is we're going to win. That's the bottom line.
Starting next week, however many games we have left, if there's 20, then in 17 of those games, she's going to have to play like the best point guard in the country for us to win some of the games that we're going to have to win. That's a lot of pressure on a freshman.