Geno defends selections for the Olympic team
STORRS — Geno Auriemma wasn’t solely responsible for constructing the U.S. Olympic team, but as part of the selection committee, he did have a say when it came to choosing who deserved to represent the squad in Tokyo.
As always, who did — or better yet, didn’t — make the roster elicited strong reactions, from satisfaction to outcry.
And naturally, it was Auriemma who seemed to bear the brunt of criticism.
“Wherever I am,” the UConn women’s basketball coach said, “that’s whose fault it is if you don’t like the team.”
Auriemma, in an availability with reporters Thursday outside Gampel Pavilion, dismissed suspicions that Los Angeles Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike was omitted from the roster in favor of UConn players.
Auriemma, who coached Team USA to gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Games, is now a special advisor. He’s joined on the committee by national team director Carol Callan, Minnesota Lynx assistant Katie Smith, WNBA head of league operations Bethany Donaphin, and Connecticut Sun head coach and general manager Curt Miller.
“What I find humorous was the two times I was the coach, it was UConn politics, UConn bias because of
Geno Auriemma,” he said. “Carol made a point to say, no, there’s a committee that picked the team. Now I’m not the coach and Geno Auriemma is still the (expletive) and I’m on the committee. So I think there’s a common thread there.”
The 30-year-old Ogwumike, who participated in USA Basketball’s pre-Olympic training program, is currently recovering from a knee sprain. Team USA coach Dawn Staley has pointed to Ogwumike’s health as the reason why she wasn’t among the 12 players selected.
UConn has five players on the roster, including a firsttime Olympian in Napheesa Collier. Joining Collier are Sue Bird, Tina Charles, Breanna Stewart, and Diana Taurasi.
Auriemma was also criticized in 2016 when Stewart made the team out of college, while Candace Parker was left off.
“What I think a lot of people don’t realize is once you start putting a team together and you have certain picks … you can’t just put them all out there individually and pick them out of thin air,” Auriemma said. “Once you put these four people on the team, you better complement them with the right other people.”
The U.S. has won six straight gold medals and hasn’t lost an Olympics game since 1992. The Americans are 66-3 all-time in Olympic play.
They’ll face a group of WNBA All-Stars on July 14 in Las Vegas in one of their final tune-ups before heading to Tokyo.
“There’s probably a lot of other players on that other team that you would say they’re good enough to be on that Olympic team, and they are. … There are more players today that are capable of being Olympians, so it’s much harder to pick the team now than it’s ever been,” Auriemma said.
Auriemma emphasized that point by recalling a Team USA-WNBA exhibition in 2012 at Mohegan Sun.
“It was the Olympic team versus the other 12,” he said. “They came in at halftime and asked me to cool it because it was getting so embarrassing. The gap between these players and these players was so wide. Well, that gap’s not there anymore. That gap’s not that wide anymore.”
UConn’s presence will extend beyond the U.S. squad, as it usually does. Kia Nurse and Aaliyah Edwards, a first-time Olympian, made Team Canada, while Gabby Williams and Bria Hartley are possibilities for France.
At 18, Edwards, a sophomore, is the youngest player on the team and is one of three still in college, joining South Carolina’s Laeticia Amihere and Arizona’s Shaina Pellington.
“This is a huge, huge step in her development,” he said. “She’s the youngest player on the team. I know that was one of her major, major goals. I couldn’t be happier for her. She has the body and she has the mentality and toughness to be on that level with those players. I don’t know that she has the experience, I don’t know that she has the subtleties that come from playing against 30-year-olds, but that’ll come.”