The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Auriemma goes for victory No. 1,000 vs. Oklahoma
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: OKLAHOMA VS. UCONN, TODAY, 7 P.M. (CBSSN) Major milestone imminent for Hall of Fame coach
There’s a certain amount of buzz leading into the next game that Geno Auriemma is coaching simply because the Hall of Fame UConn women’s basketball coach is on the verge of going somewhere only a select few coaches have gone before.
Stories are appearing in publications in Connecticut and around the country about the impending milestone. His players figure to have a surprise or two in store at Mohegan Sun Arena for Auriemma and associate head coach Chris Dailey if the top-ranked Huskies topple Oklahoma on Tuesday in the Hall of Fame Holiday Showcase (7 p.m., CBSSN). But for Auriemma, it is simply business as usual even as he takes aim at his 1,000th career win.
“There hasn’t been anything different at my house these last 10 days, there is nobody coming over, nobody calling, nobody sending stuff, no balloons,” Auriemma said after Monday’s practice. “My kids, my grandkids, everyone in my family if you ask them what is going on this week? Oh, Christmas is Monday, for whatever reason. CD (Dailey) and I have talked about it one time and it might have been today. Today she asked me a question about it and we both laughed.”
Auriemma joked that his one mention to his team about the upcoming achievement was followed by perhaps the team’s worst practice of the young season.
However, there is no downplaying the significance of the achievement.
The late, great Pat Summitt was the first NCAA women’s basketball coach to win 1,000 games, accomplishing the feat in her 35th season at Tennessee back in 2009. Current Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer joined the club in February. Now, not only Auriemma but North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell could win their 1,000th career game on Tuesday.
“How many people have done it period?” Auriemma said. “It is obviously a difficult thing to accomplish because so few people have done it, it has happened so few times and you think about coaching 1,000 games much less winning 1,000 games and doing it all at one school.”
Summitt holds the mark for fewest games needed to win 1,000 games, getting there in her 1,186th game. A win against Oklahoma would improve Auriemma’s record to 1,000-135.
“It is just kind of amazing the
things that they have accomplished, it is unheard what they’ve done,” UConn junior forward Napheesa Collier said. “I am proud to be here and proud of them and what they have done.”
Auriemma was recently asked to dig up some of the basketballs from his previous milestone victories but admitted he doesn’t know where some of them are. Win No. 400 was one he remembers because he was greeted by a host of former players when the team returned from Illinois. He deadpanned that the greatest milestone was beginning his career at UConn with seven straight wins which at the time was the program record.
These days he admits he finds it easier to rattle off his 10 most disappointing losses rather than his 10 most memorable victories.
Perhaps more than any other milestone he has approached, this one has come with the realization that there won’t be too many seasons left for him at UConn.
“I do know I am closer to the end than I am the beginning but how long that is, I don’t know,” said Dailey, who has been with Auriemma for the previous 999 victories. “If we can continue to get the kinds of kids we want to get, the kinds of people we want to be associated with, it is a pretty good job to have. If there comes a time when we cant find those kids, and I don’t mean to win national championships but to enjoy what we do every day, then I think we’ll know it is time to change careers.”
Auriemma said in the last couple of years the rumors that he is closing in on retirement have been used by some programs fighting it out with UConn for top recruits.
“Now I keep asking them first, ‘you have any questions like when I am going to retire,’” Auriemma said. “Well, now that you brought it up ... I am sure that is what people are going to bring up. One of the things I said to one of those kids who asked me that who is a really good kid, a fun kid to be around, I said well maybe the coach who asked you that question maybe I’ll be around longer than they will because I have (outlasted) a lot of coaches. It has come up way more in the last two years than it ever has.
“I don’t think there is a time that I am looking at right now and say, I can see it (retirement) coming, I don’t see it,” Auriemma said. “I’ve always said to (assistant coaches) Shea (Ralph), CD (Dailey) and Marisa (Moseley) that depending on the kind of kids that we get, that will depend on how much longer we coach. If all of a sudden we can’t get the kind of kids that can’t live up to the kind of standards that we have here then that would be a signal, but each year we keep getting them.”
There have been plenty of people weighing in on the secret to Auriemma’s success and why he’s won a record 11 national titles, has the three longest winning streaks in women’s NCAA Division I history, has seen his Huskies go 799-54 since he won game No. 200. Who better to give an opinion on that than Dailey?
“He just knows people, he knows how to get the best out of you guys, the best out of the players,” Dailey said. “He is really good with people and that is his biggest strength off the court. On the court, he has a great vision on the offensive end of the court. His ability to have a vision in his head of what the offense is supposed to look like and then getting it to look like that separates him from other coaches. He is always one step ahead of the next trend.”
Katie Lou Samuelson is the leading scorer on this current UConn team and is benefiting from Auriemma’s offensive vision. Samuelson knows a thing or two about 1,000-win milestones as her older sister Karlie was the team’s leading scorer with 21 points when Stanford defeated USC 58-42 on Feb. 3 to give VanDerveer her 1,000th career victory.
“They had a great time when it happened,” Samuelson said. “I talked to CD about it, look at the Samuelsons helping out with it. It is something I am (excited to) be able to experience, something that significant because it doesn’t happen that often.”