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
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.
She's very, very good under pressure. She doesn't get bothered by anything. That's why she's kind of hard for me to coach because when I talk to her, she don't listen because she's not affected by anything. I knew she was going to make the free throws.
No one ever talks about our defense. Our defense has always been good. But when you have great offensive players like I've coached the last 15 years, it's hard to concentrate on our defense. But our defense has been pretty good.
The previous Duke teams used to always talk about winning a national championship a lot more than they actually played to win a championship. This team is a little bit different. They don't talk as much about it. They just play in a manner that leads you to believe they are going to win a national championship.
The Brittany thing is a lot better than we could have even imagined. We could be sitting here right now talking about how the meniscus transplant didn't work as well as we liked and it doesn't look like she will play. That was a possibility. And here we're looking at it and - knock on wood - she hasn't had one incident with that since she started being able to do things. That came out way better than we anticipated.
The Brittany thing is a lot better than we could have even imagined, ... We could be sitting here right now talking about how the meniscus transplant didn't work as well as we liked and it doesn't look like she will play. That was a possibility. And here we're looking at it and - knock on wood - she hasn't had one incident with that since she started being able to do things. That came out way better than we anticipated.
This Duke team doesn't seem to talk as much about winning a championship. They just play in a manner that leads you to believe they can win one.
I know everybody has talked about parity the last couple of years, and it hasn't played out at the end of the season. But there does seem to be more even teams than in the past.
I can't tell you how many times I've been offered jobs in that league that no one ever knew about. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people seriously about jobs in that league. This one just happened to make it to that point ... to the newspapers.
I kind of like being on the road, everybody talks about being at home as this huge advantage. It can be, but the distractions at home can be huge, too.
He and I talk all the time about playing again and we probably will. They're a really good team to play. I think he runs the kind of program that I would enjoy matching up against from a competitive standpoint and from a personal standpoint that I have a lot of respect for him and I have a really good relationship with him. I would want to do it if we could.
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.