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 think if we would have played Wednesday, or Thursday, it might not have been as good as it was (vs. ND). I think we needed some time. It was more of just kind of getting our heads, rather than our bodies, right.
We needed some time. The only days we did anything was Friday and Saturday. Both of the days were more of just getting our heads rather than our bodies ready. We had a talk last night with the team and a lot of really good things came out.
We needed to get a big lead and execute to withstand the pressure that was coming. That's the way we've beaten them in the past. But we let one play go into another into another and it just completely got away from us.
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).
She played way more than I wanted her to play. I was hoping that we could limit her minutes. Ann will take (today) off and go Monday (against LSU) and then take Tuesday, Wednesday off and we'll see what happens next week. But we needed all those minutes (Saturday).
One or two people can't get you to where you want to go. The Yankees can get to the World Series almost every year. But one or two guys really have to step up for them to win it. We needed just a little bit more tonight.
Today we were smart enough (to win). We ran out of timeouts and we did a lot of good things the last two minutes that we needed to do. Everybody feels real good about it right now.
The really good teams, the way they separate themselves is they play well on the road. I'm really happy with our guys, because we answered a lot of different challenges tonight. When we needed a stop, we got one. If we needed a turnover, we got one. When we needed a bucket ... I liked the way we responded to all the things thrown at us.
We answered a lot of different challenges tonight. When we needed a stop, we got one. If we needed a turnover, we got one. ... I like the way we responded to all the things that were thrown at us, and I think this has the makings of a tremendous environment for the Big East.
In some ways, Ann has always been looked upon as the Andy Pettitte of women's basketball. Everybody else was always the star, but when you really needed something she always gave it to you. And people just take it for granted. That's just Ann. What's she great at? Nothing. But she's really good in every area.
We weren't sure whether or not it was real serious or mildly serious or whatever. When we got back, it was X-rayed and there's no fractures. It's just a bad ankle sprain and she's definitely out for Saturday and then we'll take it from there.
We got the big lead and we had a chance, when pressure came, to really make some plays to extend it. But we let one play lead to another to another to another. It just got completely away from us. I guess credit their defense, but I was just looking at the stat sheet.
I've seen (Strother) go through stretches where nothing's gone in, but she had that one stretch where she made everything. It all evens itself out, I think. I think all she needs is a couple to drop. ... She'll come around.
The strength of your league is what is going on in the middle. We have always been good at the top. But we will have teams finishing 10th, 11th 12th in our league who are pretty darned good, and I don't know that anybody else has that.