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
Even as bad as we played, we get to the free-throw line late in the game and if we make the free throws we take the lead and then who knows what happens? Our guys missed the free throws, they make them, they deserved to win.
You have to temper everything, you have to say that some of the passes that we threw, if they were thrown against teams that have great athletic ability, they might have been stolen. But you look at it and you say, ?How many turnovers should you have if you play Albany?? Well, seven is a good number.
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.
The one thing that she can do that is really, really amazing, compared to the other guys. She only has to see things once or twice and she?s got it. So you can throw her in a lot of different situations and she?s OK with it, which is kind of a comfort level for a coach.
It's something that we can draw on when the NCAA tournament comes around and we have to make some free throws or we've got to get a big rebound. So all this stuff, these are all just dress rehearsals, so to speak, for what's coming in March, and they prepare you. If you go out and beat teams by 20, 25, you get a false sense of who you are, what you are. I think we know pretty well after this trip that we're pretty good. We're not as good as you want to be yet, but we're pretty good.
We're not a great free throw shooting team but the fact that we could make that many free throws here when we had to make them, I think that's a great sign for our guys.
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.
Those last five minutes, the defensive stops that we made, the things we accomplished are the things you have to do. I think we made the plays. Offensively we got the ball where we wanted to get it. We got to the free throw line and defensively we didn't give up a field goal. That is a far cry from last Monday (against Rutgers). That is the nature of the game. You get it right and you feel great. You get it wrong you feel lousy.
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.
The time she broke her ankle standing still. Do you know how hard that is to do?
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.