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
More important than the win, we came out with a sense that we're pretty tough, pretty resilient. I don't know if we could have been like that awhile back. We've come a long way. I don't think this trip could have gone any better for us.
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.
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.
If you want to win the conference, every road trip is important. It is not just all pomp and circumstance on the road now where you just show up, go to a great dinner the night before, roll in and win by 30 and leave. Those days are over. There are some tough kids in our league.
If you want to win the conference, every road trip is important.
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.
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.
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.
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.