Colleagues, competitors on UConn coach: ‘He doesn’t get enough credit’

I don’t think he gets enough credit for how innovative he is offensively. We’ve won 11 national championships and done it differently every time. But his greatest gift as a coach, without question, is his ability to read people.” — Chris Dailey, Connecticut associate head coach What he does better than anyone else in the country is inspire — his team, his coaching staff, everyone around him. He created a culture at a school that didn’t have one. They were practically playing in a barn when he got there. He started from the very bottom, and now he’s taken it to the very top.” — Debbie Ryan, former Virginia women’s coach I love taking my team to watch his team, because I think you should see excellence up close. He lifted a whole sport and put it into the public domain. I’ve never understood people who say they’re bad for the game — what is wrong with greatness?” — Phil Martelli, Saint Joseph’s men’s basketball coach Part of his importance to women’s basketball is that he’s a man. Unfortunately, we have to fight against a lot of sexism in our sport and the reality of the world we live in is that — positive or negative — him being a man, it validates our sport to other men.” — Sue Bird, Connecticut All-American point guard Winning 1,000 games, how many people have done it? It’s pretty special. But what he doesn’t get enough credit for is developing women coaches. His assistants are all women, and he’s helped other women get jobs. He’s keeping the pipeline of young women coaches going, and that’s a real positive in our game.” — Tara VanDerveer, Stanford women’s coach He built on legacies of other giants in the game and lifted women’s basketball into greater notoriety and equality. One of the things he’s criticized for is that he’s so good, he makes the rest of women’s basketball seem inadequate. Truth be told, he’s challenging not just the rest of college basketball, but the entire world, to meet the standard he sets.” — Retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of USA Basketball Pat Summitt helped change (women’s basketball), and then all the sudden, there’s a man coaching, and he challenged their (Tennessee) program. Together, they helped vault college basketball, and (Connecticut’s) been able to sustain it. … What coach (John) Wooden did with men’s basketball is like what Geno’s been able to do with all these championships.” — Mike Krzyzewski, Duke men’s coach For a game that’s played underneath the rim and predicated on teamwork, passing and being selfless, his teams can be a thing of beauty. The amount of respect for what he’s done transcends the game — it’s not just about women’s basketball, it’s about the game of Jen basketball.” — Rizzotti, George Washington women’s basketball coach and former UConn point guard You look at (Gregg) Popovich, or (Bill) Belichick or Geno, they just never relax. But the thing with those other guys is, if the Spurs don’t win an NBA title or the Patriots don’t win a Super Bowl, no one goes crazy. Geno is expected to win a championship or go undefeated. And if he doesn’t, it’s like, what’s wrong with UConn, what’s wrong with Geno? I know how hard it is to win, and if you’re able to win consistently, you’re a different Charles breed.” — Barkley, Naismith Hall of Famer