Auriemma faces old pal Foster tonight
Just call tonight's game at Chattanooga the start of the Geno Auriemma friendship tour.
UConn's Hall of Fame women's basketball coach has developed strong bonds with some of his fellow coaches over the years, but it would not be a stretch to say that there are few people he holds in higher regard than Chattanooga coach Jim Foster and DePaul's Doug Bruno.
With Memphis in the American Athletic Conference, the prospects of traveling to the state of Tennessee for a game isn't quite as noteworthy as it might have been a couple years
6:30 p.m., McKenzie Arena (SNY)
back, but still the game at McKenzie Arena does have some added meaning simply because of who will be on the opposing bench.
It was Foster who gave Auriemma his first college coaching job back in the late 1970s at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Foster's input was also of paramount importance in landing Auriemma an assistant coach position at Virginia. That job was the final stepping stone for Auriemma to head north and take a UConn team with one winning record in program history and turn it into one of the dominant forces in the history of women's college athletics.
When Foster, who has been bringing in and beating top-flight competition since he took over the Chattanooga program in 2013, brought up the idea of having the Huskies play at Chattanooga, Auriemma was happy to oblige.
The time has come for the old friends to meet up on the basketball court for the first time since Auriemma's Huskies beat Foster's Ohio State team 81-50 on Dec. 19, 2010 at
the Maggie Dixon Classic in Madison Square Garden.
"At this stage in my life, I look at him and say 'man, that is what coaching does to you?'" Auriemma said. "He is way different from when I met him 40 years ago. His wife Donna, their children have been a big part of our family for 40 years, and who's to say where I would have ended up had he not convinced me to work with him at that high school (Bishop McDevitt). "
In Foster's first season at Chattanooga, he helped his team take down a pair of Southeastern Conference teams (Alabama and Auburn) at McKenzie Arena. Last year the Mocs posted home wins over perennial powers Tennessee and Stanford and almost beat a very good South Florida team. Now the three-time defending national champions come to town.
"It's hard to play against someone like that," Foster said after Saturday's 61-46 win over UT-Martin.
"We're good friends and we've shared a lot of things from when our families were young and growing up. We've spent a lot of time together over the holidays and such. I'll be happy to see him."