Tag: Geno Auriemma

Can Geno Auriemma fix UConn’s problems before March Madness?

UConn’s schedule is about to get much easier, but we’ll learn a lot from its game against Tennessee.

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be a glaring reason to sound the alarm about UConn women’s basketball.

The Huskies are 11-2 and ranked seventh in the latest AP Top 25 Poll and still look like contenders for the national championship because of two big reasons: Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong.

Bueckers is in what seemingly looks like a three-horse race for the National Player of the Year award, currently running alongside Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and USC’s Juju Watkins, with players like LSU’s Aneesah Morrow, TCU’s Hailey Van Lith and Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson trailing behind the front-running trio. Bueckers ranks second nationally in offensive win shares (2.4) and ninth in field goals made per game (8.2).

Strong, meanwhile, seems to be the best freshman in the country and someone who will contend for a spot on the All-American team, showing everyone why she was the highly coveted No. 1 recruit in the country. She’s ninth nationally in shooting percentage inside the arc (72.3), seventh in PER (42.4) and ninth in defensive win shares (1.0).

UConn has been celebrated this year for the play of Bueckers and Strong, and for the accomplishments of Geno Auriemma, who has now won more games than any other NCAA Division I men’s or women’s basketball coach.

But the Huskies do have problems. And if UConn aims to make a return to the Final Four in Tampa, Florida, they must be fixed.

The Huskies are atrocious at 3-point defense and rebounding, two things that teams typically need to be at least decent at to go far in the NCAA Tournament. Pick any metric and look at Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks from last season – they were among the best in any stat associated with rebounding and defending the deep ball.

UConn this season grabs a putrid 10.1 offensive rebounds per game, which ranks 254th nationally, while allowing a mediocre defensive rebounding rate of 68.7 percent to its opponents. The Huskies also let their opponents make 32.8 percent of their shots from 3-point land, which ranks 261st nationally. A year ago, when UConn made the Final Four and was one polarizing call away from appearing in the title game, it ranked in the top 40 in both 3-point defense and defensive rebounds allowed. This season, UConn isn’t good at either, much less elite.

In their loss to USC, the Huskies got outrebounded and allowed the Trojans to shoot a season-best 56.3 percent from behind the arc. In its loss to Notre Dame, UConn was again outrebounded and let the Irish shoot their second-best mark from 3-point land this season, 55.6 percent.

Notre Dame and USC – and teams like them – are the ones likely to be in Auriemma’s way as he chases a (what has proven to be elusive) 12th national championship. Without improvement on defense and the boards, the results will probably be the same.

UConn's Paige Bueckers shoots a 3-pointer against North Carolina on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C. (Mitchell Northam / For The Win)
UConn’s Paige Bueckers shoots a 3-pointer against North Carolina on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C. (Mitchell Northam / For The Win)

Another concern for the Huskies is the absence of a consistent third scoring option. Azzi Fudd’s status remains erratic and unreliable. Fudd has only played in seven games this season. She has, however, shown the flashes of greatness that made her the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2021 class, like when she poured in 18 points apiece in wins over both Louisville and Ole Miss.

But Fudd didn’t appear in UConn’s three biggest games this season: a win over North Carolina and those losses to Notre Dame and USC. She isn’t totally healthy and, unfortunately, might never be this season. If UConn can get Fudd for 20 minutes per game in the NCAA Tournament, that should be considered as a massive luxury.

In the meantime, the Huskies need someone else to prove their reliability as a scorer. Ashlynn Shade has shown it in spurts, and folks who paid attention to the Ivy League know that Kaitlyn Chen is capable of being an elite scoring option. In three seasons with the Tigers, Chen scored 15 points or more in 43 games, including a 22-point performance in a 2023 NCAA Tournament win over N.C. State. In her short stint at UConn so far, she has yet to top 14 points in a single game.

The good news for the Huskies is that they’re about to have a bunch of get-right games as Big East play begins. The league is, put nicely, not very good this season. ESPN’s Charlie Creme projects that just two Big East teams – UConn and Creighton – will make the NCAA Tournament this season. The only other Big East team aside from the Huskies and Bluejays in the NET top 50 this season is St. John’s.

Smashed into UConn’s Big East slate is a pair of challenges with SEC teams, Tennessee and South Carolina. The Huskies should be riding an 11-game win streak by the time they travel to Knoxville for a Feb. 6 matchup with Kim Caldwell’s new-look Volunteers – a game where UConn’s 3-point defense and rebounding will surely be put to the test. Tennessee leads the nation in 3-pointers made (149) and attempted (452), and they’re also first nationally in offensive rebounds per game (21.7), and second in defensive rebounding rate (53.3). This run-and-gun style of play – with an emphasis on defense and putting up as many 3-pointers as possible – has the Vols undefeated so far in Caldwell’s first season at the helm.

The rekindling of the UConn-Tennessee rivalry this year will either expose the Huskies’ worst flaws or prove that they can overcome them.

And it will tell us whether Auriemma can work his mid-season coaching magic at least one more time as he approaches his 71st birthday.

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USC women’s basketball’s victory over UConn proves last season wasn’t a one-off

USC showed real staying power in women’s college basketball by beating UConn. The Trojans are here to stay. They’re not going anywhere.

On Saturday night, USC women’s basketball took down UConn 72-70 in a highly-anticipated, top-10 showdown.

It was a statement victory for Lindsay Gottlieb and the Trojans. Coming off of last season’s Slite Eight run, USC entered 2024-2025 with the program’s highest expectations in decades. However, in their only other game of the season against a top 15 opponent, the Women of Troy were upset at home by Notre Dame.

Heading into Saturday’s matchup, the 2024-2025 USC team had yet to prove that they could beat an elite opponent. Against UConn, the Trojans did just that, putting together a gutsy performance to grind out a victory on the road in a hostile environment.

In addition to earning a major resume boost, USC made a statement by beating UConn. They proved that last season’s run to the Elite Eight was not a one-off.

Last season was obviously an incredible one for the USC women’s basketball program. While the expectation was that the Women of Troy would build off of that success, you can never be certain of such in today’s landscape of college sports. While USC returned superstar Juju Watkins and added several key players in the transfer portal, the Trojans did lose three of five starters from last year’s team.

Saturday night, however, but to bed the notion that the Women of Troy would be a one-hit wonder. By taking down the sport’s premier program of the past two decades, USC proved that this program under Gottlieb is a force to be reckoned with. And if the current trend is any indication, that will be the case for years to come.

UConn honored Geno Auriemma becoming NCAA basketball’s all-time winningest coach with a literal goat

Goat meets goat.

With a UConn women’s basketball home win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday night, Geno Auriemma became the NCAA’s all-time winningest basketball coach.

It’s a remarkable achievement for the basketball coaching great who now has a startling 1,217 wins on his record that eclipses any other NCAA basketball coach.

After the game, UConn honored its “goat” by bringing out an actual goat to commemorate such a special moment for Auriemma and the school.

Auriemma seemed delighted to see the goat on his historic night, as this is a pretty cool gesture from UConn to enshrine its “goat” after so many years of excellence.

As for the actual goat, we hope he gots lots of love and some lettuce to eat.

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Geno Auriemma, Courtney Banghart explain what makes UConn’s Paige Bueckers great

“I think she’s the most difficult player to guard in America,” Geno Auriemma said.

Paige Bueckers caught the inbounds pass and began sprinting up the left side of the court, with North Carolina’s Grace Townsend draped all over her like a blanket. The clock was winding down in the first quarter and Bueckers, UConn’s star guard, wanted to see if she could get one more shot up.

She stopped right in front of Tar Heels’ coach Courtney Banghart, pumped, jumped and fired over Townsend. It was an awkward-looking attempt, as the senior was leaning to her left, but there was nothing ugly about how the ball sailed through the air.

Buzzer. Swish.

Bueckers watched the ball fall through the hoop, then turned towards the North Carolina bench as her confident walk morphed into a jubilant skip.

It was one of the many highlight-worthy plays Bueckers had on Friday night in front of an announced crowd of 10,467 fans at the historic Greensboro Coliseum, where the No. 2 Huskies beat the No. 14 Tar Heels 69-58.

Bueckers led all scorers with a season-high 29 points on 12-of-21 shooting to go along with four rebounds, four assists and two steals – and zero turnovers – in 37 minutes of action. It was the first road game of the season for UConn and a memorable performance by the two-time consensus All-American in what is presumed to be by many her final year in college basketball.

“Paige is really special,” Banghart said after the game. “We’ve got an opportunity to watch a generational player for a couple more games before she goes on to the pros. She’s an exceptional player. She’s unselfish. We focus our defense on her. I think she doesn’t push, she doesn’t force, she has teammates she trusts and utilizes them well.”

When asked about Banghart’s “generational” label regarding Bueckers, UConn coach Geno Auriemma responded in a way that only he could.

“Well, I’ve been around a lot of generations, so I’ve had a lot of generational players, that people described as generational,” Auriemma said with a smile on the night that one of his former stars, Sue Bird, would be announced to the Basketball Hall of Fame. In the victory over UNC, Auriemma also tied Tara VanDerveer for college basketball’s all-time wins record.

“I guess this is true,” the 70-year-old Auriemma continued. “So, what makes them that? The ability to perform at an incredibly high level, and an even higher level than you expect. And you already expect the most, and yet, (Bueckers) gives you even more than that. And I think that’s probably the best description I can give you, is that she never fails to live up to your expectations of her, and then even goes above that. Some people are just born with that gift, and she has the gift. Some people squander those gifts. Every day, she works really hard to polish those gifts.”

By using freshman Sarah Strong as a moving human shield at times to knock down 3-pointers off her screens, driving towards the rim with precision and certainty, and dishing neck-breaking assists to Huskies’ shooters like Kaitlyn Chen, this outing from Bueckers was one where she reminded everyone that she is still one of the best players – if not the best – in college basketball.

While Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese got all the attention last season, and many pointing to USC’s JuJu Watkins and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo as the sport’s rising stars, it’s worth remembering that Bueckers was the National Player of the Year as a freshman, before a knee injury forced her to miss a season-and-a-half of action. Last season, over 38 games, Bueckers ranked fifth nationally in PER (40.1), second in win shares (8.9) and 10th in scoring (22.2) as she powered the Huskies to a Big East title and a Final Four berth.

“I really do believe that, unless you foul her every time, that’s the only way you’re going to stop her from doing what she wants to do. That’s it,” Auriemma said of Bueckers. “I think she’s the most difficult player to guard in America. There may be nights like tonight where she’s going to have to be.”

This season for the Huskies feels like championship-or-bust. With Bueckers leading the way and a stellar supporting cast around her, it feels incredibly likely that we’ll see UConn playing at the Final Four in Tampa in April.

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When will UConn’s Geno Auriemma break college basketball’s all-time wins record?

Here’s when Geno Auriemma could make college basketball history.

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma is on pace to make college basketball history this season. If you’re here, you’re probably wondering when he could break the sport’s all-time wins record.

Here’s the answer: Per Maggie Vanoni of CT Insider, if UConn wins its first four games of the season, Geno will surpass the current record holder Tara VanDerveer (1,216) on November 20 when the Huskies play the FDU Knights, pushing him to 1,217 total career wins.

The fantastic thing is that UConn seemingly expects him to do it that night because several former players will already be on hand that day to celebrate the school’s national championships, and tickets to that game are already sold out.

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UConn’s Geno Auriemma blasts current NIL landscape in rant about a broken system

Geno Auriemma is ranting about the NIL system — again.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma went on another rant about the NIL landscape and offered his solutions to fix the system.

This isn’t the first time the women’s basketball coach has expressed disapproval of how NIL currently works. He landed in hot water in January after lamenting the transfer portal’s challenges. During a speech, fans thought he was seemingly taking a swipe at a former player who transferred to another school.

Earlier this week, Auriemma was asked about suggestions he might have to fix NIL. Geno didn’t appear upset about NIL itself or any players getting paid. He’s seemingly frustrated that the NCAA hasn’t crafted any rules yet to fix some of the issues. Here’s what he said: (See the clip below/19:26 mark of the YouTube video. Warning: NSFW language):

“Do we keep the charade of student athlete and amateurism? Or do we call it what it is — semi-professional, pay-for-play sports? Keep the charade of student-athlete…Let’s just call it what it is. We’re gonna pay these guys to play basketball…and then let’s make it a business and figure out how do we manage this business.”

“Other sports have done it…They sign kids to contracts, and then you’re bound to your contract…Let’s do it. You already got kids holding out. You already got guys playing and going, ‘I ain’t playing until I get more money’. So, we become professional sports. Let’s say it, and let’s act it. And let’s stop the charade…”

“Let’s sign kids to a contract, and let’s put a buy-out in. Let’s make it a business because that’s exactly what it is. That would fix it. And let’s have a salary cap…”

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Geno Auriemma doesn’t believe Caitlin Clark is built for the WNBA’s physicality

“She’s just not built for the physicality of this league.”

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma is doubling down on his comments about Caitlin Clark being targeted. But this time, he says that Caitlin Clark — and even Paige Bueckers — don’t have bodies that are built for the WNBA.

Geno Auriemma isn’t mincing words about his feelings about the Caitlin Clark-WNBA discourse. Earlier this week, he mentioned that he felt Clark was being targeted because of her immense talent and the visibility she is creating for the WNBA.

On Thursday, while visiting the Dan Patrick show, Auriemma was asked how he believes Clark is handling the WNBA’s physicality. That’s when he also expressed that Caitlin does not have the body frame built for the WNBA: (See the 2:22 mark of the clip below.):

“I think she’s handling [it] great. I think she talks a lot of [expletive], and she gets a lot of [expletive] back. So, she deserves everything she gets because she gives it as good as she gets it. She’s just not built for the physicality of this league, and she’s not quick enough to get away from the physicality.”

“There’s a lot of learning curve like Diana said, and when she gets it, she has elite skills that are gonna really help her. But she needs to be on a better team, and she needs to be more experienced…”

When asked if Paige Bueckers had the build to play in the WNBA, Geno didn’t hesitate to share his thoughts rather bluntly:

“No. But her game is different…I think the subtleties of her game will translate. However, her rookie year, she will get it as bad as Caitlin’s getting it right now.”

For the full interview, including Auriemma’s rant about Caitlin Clark’s fanbase, see the YouTube video below.

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Geno Auriemma said he feels Caitlin Clark is being ‘targeted’ by other WNBA players

Geno Auriemma said he feels that Caitlin Clark is being “targeted” by other WNBA players.

Legendary UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma shared his feelings this week that Indiana Fever rookie guard Caitlin Clark is being “targeted” by other players in the WNBA.

The discourse surrounding Clark has taken over the sporting world since Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter checked her with a hard foul on Saturday.

The takes on the foul have varied from quite considered to scorching hot, and Auriemma is siding with the idea that Clark has been treated unfairly by the WNBA veterans who may be envious of how the spotlight is firmly on her to start her professional career.

During Tuesday’s UConn Coaches Road Show, Auriemma voiced his concern that Clark is indeed being “targeted” because of who she is and what she represents.

“Every rookie has to go through the growing pains of being a professional basketball player,” Auriemma told reporters. “The more attention you get, and [in] today’s world, attention is number one, and attention brings money. So, is she facing the rookie challenge, the rookie hardships that are inherent with being a rookie? Yes. She’s also being targeted.”

Auriemma went on to mention all-time great NBA players like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and how, despite elevating the game and getting lots of attention, he feels they weren’t targeted for it (which is, of course, very debatable).

To Auriemma, people shouldn’t blame or treat Clark unfairly just because she’s the primary catalyst for a seismic moment of visibility for the WNBA and is getting a lion’s share of the attention.

“Appreciate the fact that now’s the time. I get it; I get it. It’s long overdue. Why are you blaming that kid?” Auriemma said. “It’s not her fault because you would trade places with her in a minute, but you are not there. You’re not her.”

You can hear his full response near the end of the video.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with Auriemma may not matter as Clark continues to adjust to the WNBA.

The most likely outcome of Carter’s hard foul will be the leagues’ referees watching Clark like a hawk and making sure she’s not taking too hard of fouls (and whistling them harshly when they happen).

The WNBA cannot afford her to get injured, particularly in a moment like this, so she’s probably going to get special treatment with the eyes of the sporting world on her game-in and game-out. Other WNBA players will also most likely be cautious on how they guard Clark as to avoid serious fouls.

However, it’s more than fine to feel Auriemma’s comments are a bit sensationalized, that Clark being given an extra focus by opponents might just be how you guard a generational player, not a point of jealousy.

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Nika Muhl thanked UConn’s Geno Auriemma in tear-jerking video ahead of her WNBA debut

Who is cutting onions in here?

UConn alumna Nika Muhl is off to make her mark in the WNBA. On April 15, the Seattle Storm selected Muhl 14th overall. Still, she hasn’t forgotten the people who have helped her arrive at this moment, including UConn head coach Geno Auriemma. Muhl recently paid Auriemma a visit to say goodbye to him, and you might want to grab your tissues.

Geno Auriemma has a different kind of relationship with his players. He’s tough on them but also believes in them so much. That didn’t change when Nika Muhl recently visited Geno. In a newly released video, Nika walks into Geno’s office and immediately calls him “Grampy” — an ode to his notorious old man ways and uncanny ability to resemble the grandfather from Up — before being on the receiving end of him trolling her.

However, before the clip is over, Nika can be heard pouring into Geno and sharing these heartfelt words:

“You changed my life. Your impact — I don’t think you’re aware of it…You’ve impacted so many people around me, including me. There’s never been a single person like you, and there never will be in the world. I hope you know how unique you are, how special you are.”

Geno Auriemma says changing the WNBA eligibility rules could ruin women’s college basketball

Geno Auriemma thinks WNBA eligibility rules should stay exactly as they are to preserve women’s college hoops.

Women’s college basketball is in a place of high interest right now after the careers of stars like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, LSU’s Angel Reese, South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso and UConn’s Paige Bueckers.

In fact, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James spoke recently about how that familiarity has generated more star power for the women’s side than the men’s side of the sport.

However, the odds of losing one of those premiere talents after a year could ruin the women’s college hoops altogether, at least to UConn coaching legend Geno Auriemma told ESPN Radio’s “UnSportsmanLike” this week.

As of 2022, domestic women’s college players who are graduating seniors or are at least 22 years old can be eligible for the WNBA Draft. Meanwhile, men’s college basketball players only have to play for a year pre-NBA before turning pro.

To Auriemma, giving women’s basketball athletes the chance to leave after only a year could prove catastrophic.

“It depends whether you want the game to grow or you want to kill it,” Auriemma shared on the show. “If you want to kill it, then let the kids leave after freshman year.

“On the men’s side, it’s become transactional. Everybody’s a free agent. Everybody’s a mercenary. It’s not the kids’ fault. … To me, what helped the women’s game grow is the people in Iowa got to grow up with Caitlin Clark. The people of Connecticut got to grow up with all of my great players. There’s something to be said for that.”

While we’re not sure what the future holds for WNBA eligibility, we do know that Auriemma joins the group who feels things should stay exactly as they are.

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