Head coach of the UConn Women’s Basketball team, Geno Auriemma, has the potential to become the winningest coach in college basketball history, as his team faces the FDU Knights on Wednesday evening.
The Huskies are coming off their first ranked matchup over the UNC Tar Heels on Friday, where Auriemma secured the 1,216th win of his career, with the game resulting in a 69-58 final score.
With this win added to his 40-year long resume of accolades, he tied former Stanford Women’s Basketball coach, Tara VanDerveer as the winningest coach in college basketball history.
“40 years ago, UConn took a chance on me, those players early on took a chance on us [me and CD…]” Auriemma said to media personnel after the game against UNC. “They should feel incredibly proud because we built it out of nothing in a place, they said it couldn’t be built.
Breaking the record for Auriemma could not have come at a better time, because on Wednesday, UConn plans to honor Auriemma and his associate head coach Chris Dailey for their ruby anniversary behind the bench of this squad.
“It’s all extra to him, but he deserves it, and we want to celebrate him, because he doesn’t celebrate himself.” Red shirt senior Paige Bueckers said to media personnel, when asked about why Auriemma is downplaying the festivities.
Against UNC, Bueckers notched 29 points and was shooting an accuracy of 57.1%.
“Obviously. I think our zone offense could be a little bit better, and then our defense rebounding has got to get better.” Bueckers said to the media when asked what she thought about her team’s play through the first four games. “I always feel like in all areas of my game, continue to try to be a great leader, setting an example with how hard we play and the tournament you play and the intensity in the fire that we play with.”
In addition to Auriemma being celebrated, Dailey will also be honored, who Auriemma joked at the media, was the only one willing to take the job 40 years ago.
Dailey touched on how when she first arrived in Storrs, their team was in the field house with no secretary, and they shared a rotary phone with the men’s track team.
“We never looked at what we didn’t have. We always focused on what we had.” Dailey said to the media. “And at the beginning, we just had our vision and each other to kind of say, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ And we were able to convince enough people to believe that same dream and eventually, 40 years later, a lot more has happened than we ever thought would have.
To celebrate this achievement, close to 60 former players are expected to attend the game, as well.
A player on the Knights that the Huskies will have to look out for is freshman guard Ava Rinninger, who is averaging 14.6 points per game in five games played. In the Northeast Conference, the Knights were picked as No. 1 in the preseason poll and are coming off their first loss of the season, resulting in a 77-58 score last Sunday.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m., however, the 40th anniversary ceremony will take place beforehand and will promptly begin at 6:30 p.m. In addition, a fan fest will also begin at 4:00 p.m. in front of Gampel. If Husky fans cannot make it to Storrs but still want to tune in to this memorable night, they can do so by watching it live on SNY.