“I don’t know how much I helped them get what they wanted, but they helped me get everything I wanted,” UConn women’s basketball team head coach Geno Auriemma said to the crowd after his teams’ win on Wednesday night, solidifying him as the winningest coach in college basketball history.
A night that was meant to celebrate Auriemma and his associate head coach Chris Dailey was spun Auriemma’s way: by celebrating the generations of players they had coached in their tenure.
That’s just the kind of person he is.
Auriemma is known to be someone who doesn’t enjoy the spotlight, specifically emphasizing to the media at the beginning of the season that he’d rather have the 40th anniversary celebration on Zoom.
However, throughout his tenure behind the bench of the Huskies, he’s changed countless lives, from players to fans.
During a press conference ahead of the matchup on Tuesday afternoon, redshirt senior Paige Bueckers described Auriemma as the most impactful person in her life.
“Anytime I need something, I know I can go to them,” she said to media personnel Tuesday when asked about Auriemma and Dailey. “Any words of advice, anything I have questions on, just talking about school, how life is going, how my family is, they really care about us as people.”
Bueckers stated that when she first met Auriemma, she was nervous to talk to him, but over time he became very welcoming.
“It’s really a sisterhood here at UConn,” she said. “They’ll be there when you need them, when you need words of advice, when you need words of encouragement, when you need a pick me up, and just if you need anything. They’re always there to communicate with you and be there with you every step of the way.”
Two of the players Bueckers looks up to within the sisterhood are Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, who spoke about Auriemma’s effect on their lives after the game on Wednesday.
“Everybody is here in this building because in some way, shape or form you’ve impacted their lives,” Bird said about the coaches to the crowd at Gampel Pavilion. “All of these players are here, because you saw something in them.”
Bird emphasized to the fans that what Auriemma said after their win against the Tar Heels about how UConn, the players and the fans took a chance on him was “perfect.”
“To me what makes this place special is that you two [Auriemma and Dailey] believed in each other,” Bird said. “The special sauce of it all was that it was never about any of this. It was so simple; get better every day.”
Now, the bigger picture looks much different to former players compared to when they played for Auriemma, who is known to be extremely tough on his players. But they always come back.
“Mrs. A, I’ll always remember the conversations in your driveway where I said, ‘I’m done with this man.’ And you said, ‘Me too,” Taurasi said to fans about a conversation with Auriemma’s wife Cathy, further talking about Auriemma’s accomplishments. “We always come back because of you coach, don’t forget that.”
All in all, Auriemma’s legacy will always be ingrained in the history books of the Basketball Capital of the World, but that was not Auriemma’s focus. It was his former players that got him to where he needed to be.
“In the story of UConn women’s basketball, they all have a piece of it. And that makes me feel really, really, really good,” Auriemma said.
I don’t know how much I helped them get what they wanted, but they helped me get everything I wanted.
UConn Women’s Basketball Head Coach Geno Auriemma