Maria Conlon: ‘Where has all the toughness gone?’
The message, via Facebook, arrived sometime Thursday. “Mike,” former UConn guard Maria Conlon wrote, “you made me quite famous last week, LOL. Hope you are well.”
And what transpired the next day was the most enjoyable one-hour phone conversation of the new year.
The two-minute drill background: I lost my sunny disposition last week upon hearing national pundits anoint Iowa’s Caitlin Clark as women’s college basketball’s GOAT (greatest of all time). A popular narrative: Clark’s path to becoming the NCAA career scoring leader and leading Iowa to its success has been more difficult because she’s not surrounded by much talent.
I took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “Diana Taurasi won a national championship with Maria Conlon at point guard, for (heaven’s) sake.”
And then the torch met the Sunoco truck. A number of hot-and-bothered old teammates, friends and assorted pundits took to X, rushing to Conlon’s defense. I rather enjoyed being an irritant, especially because the entire point wasn’t to belittle Conlon (who I’ve always liked), but to show Taurasi won without elite talent around her, too.
Conlon took it all in the intended spirit. And then followed it up with a phone call, revealing how she’s become a deep, insightful young coach whose wisdom and wit already approach Geno Auriemma levels.
Conlon, who once led Notre Dame of Fairfield to a state title, is coaching at the Westport-based Greens Farms Academy prep school.
“A nice story would actually be about teaching this current generation that toughness is actually what made Diana great,” Conlon said.
“This generation is going down a horrible path. I built an entire course about some of this. I’m partnering with a nonprofit to educate these kids. I’m really passionate about the topic. Talent is awesome but toughness is imperative.”
A working definition of “toughness” is amorphous. Here is Conlon’s take:
“Toughness in purest form is being comfortable with being uncomfortable,” she said. “It’s easy to be tough when everything is going your way. When things are uncomfortable, your true toughness comes out.
“Those years at UConn were hard. But having to do the things we did from an adversity standpoint is what kept us together. Toughness isn’t al