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
That would be pretty ironic, wouldn't it? Maybe it's meant to be that way. Hard to say, but it would be pretty neat. How about she's in the starting lineup at the Final Four and knocks in the first play of the game and scores 30 and is the MVP and rides off into sunset? You never know how it's going to be.
She's careless and when you're careless all of a sudden it starts to chip away at your confidence because you start making just enough mistakes that are just careless mistakes. Some of it is just that you've got to be more attentive and your intensity level's got to be a lot higher. We need Renee to play at a real high level in order for this team to move forward.
She finally realized that the more I do for others, the better it is for me, and in the end she ends up being better than she's ever been. I think you grow as a person when you start doing things for other people. So college was good for Barbara. The University of Connecticut was good for Barbara. And Barbara was good for the University of Connecticut.
(Turner) had an unbelievable night. There comes a point and time when you're a senior when you have to start to assert yourself. Usually those times are on the road.
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.
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.
We're in a good bracket with good teams like everybody else is. Say all you want about who's in a tough bracket, who's not? The bottom line is, starting this weekend everybody will get to a chance to prove whether they belong there or not.
As long as we play good defense, we have a chance to win the game. We're starting to believe in each other a little bit.
Just having her out there gives us a little sense of confidence. We were missing that most of the first half. That's why it's so important for her and Mel to make shots, because if they're not making them, all kinds of crazy things start happening.
Last year I didn't like the fact that you never what the starting lineup was going to be. I'd like it settled by the time the first game comes around. I'd like to be settled. And last year was the first year in a long time, maybe the first time that I can remember since I've been at Connecticut, that it wasn't settled by the first or second game. It never seemed to get itself settled.
Renee is making a real case to be the starting point guard. She makes things happen. She makes plays. She's assertive. She acts like she's a real good player and that goes a long way into believing you're a real good player.
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.
I know that when she gets it going you can't guard her. She can make the three. She can take you off the dribble. She is as strong as anybody else on the court. She has the mentality of a scorer. And she defends. To me,every good team starts with a good point guard.