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
ability beneath certainly deserved incentive recognized takes
I don?t think she deserved any more than that, but it?s certainly beneath her ability. So, hopefully, she takes it as kind of an incentive to want to do more, want to be recognized for being better than that.
coming conference difficult easy game life lose minutes takes work
Obviously, coming off a game like that, we've got a lot of work to do. It's never easy to lose, and especially difficult to lose when a conference championship is at stake. It's magnified when we play as well as we did for 15 minutes and then go completely the other way. It takes the life out of you completely.
care coming confidence everybody guarded harder knew obviously playing shots takes
They are obviously playing with a lot of confidence right now. They are going to be harder to play against, because before you knew Meg was going to take 20 shots. If you guarded her that takes care of that. Now you don't know where the shots are coming from, they are coming from everywhere. Everybody is contributing.
anybody chance finish minutes next percent run takes three time whereas whether win
Whereas before, we didn't know whether we could go on a run like that and get up big on some teams. Now we know that. And we also know that if they come back, we've got what it takes to finish the job. Whether we do or not next time we're in that situation, I don't know. I don't think anybody comes through 100 percent of the time. ... As long as we have a chance to win with three minutes to go, I like our chances.
breaks carry conducive regular season takes tougher weight
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.
ankle bad definitely saturday serious sure whether
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.
credit extend guess lead looking plays pressure
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.
couple gone itself needs seen stretch
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.
anybody darned finishing good league strength teams
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.
ankle broke hard standing time
The time she broke her ankle standing still. Do you know how hard that is to do?
defend guard
I still don't think we can guard her. But what you can do is make her have to guard you. We made it so she had to defend in the lane.
five great last maybe moments tournament
I sense that this year, there have been more near-upsets and more great moments in this tournament than maybe the last five combined. Which is a sign, I think, that we are going in the right direction.
answer believe duke feels leads lose manner national plays question situation sure win
I've been in their situation enough times where you come in and you feel like you've got every answer to every question that comes up. And you know the only way you can lose is if you don't play to your ability. I'm sure Duke feels the same way. (Duke) plays in a manner that leads you to believe they're going to win a national championship.
best celebrate coaching direct fortunate good hard lucky neck net odd opportunity people personal perspective players stand stuff winning
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.