The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Working hard to make it look easy
‘Championship only thing that matters now,’ Auriemma tells civic group
CROMWELL — After 20 years coaching the Huskies, Geno Auriemma has learned a lot about losing.
The funny thing about losing, said the UConn women’s basketball head coach who keynoted Monday’s Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce member breakfast, is Connecticut is the only place where you get more appreciation if you lose.
“This year, for the first time, we have the highest amount of [fans], and what we’ve been able to generate for the university in the last 10 years is hard to explain,” Auriemma said. “Because we lost. If I’d have known we were going to be this popular, I would have lost a lot sooner.”
Auriemma, a Manchester resident, spoke at the Radisson Hotel Cromwell ahead of the NCAA tournament bracket release Monday night.
“News flash: The Connecticut women’s basketball team did not win the NCAA championship last year,” said Gary Vallo, CEO of MiddleOak, who spoke before Auriemma. “Here’s a word of advice from all of us here to our friends at South Carolina, Mississippi State, Louisville, Notre Dame: Be careful what you wish for.”
Under Auriemma’s guidance, the Huskies have been transformed from a program with only one winning season to its current state: 11 national titles, 18 Final Fours, six perfect seasons (1995, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2016) and 45 conference titles.
With those accomplishments, Vallo said not many appreciate the opinions of “snarky critics.”
“They suggest the culture of sustained excellence that signifies UConn women’s basketball — and their ‘annoying habit’ of winning nearly every game — is simply a result of getting good players,” he said.
Auriemma has the uncanny ability to recruit players “willing to sacrifice individual glory for the benefit of the team,” Vallo said.
“That is not an easy sell in an era of sports star narcissism and especially to 17-year-old starter players who have been put on a pedestal since grade school,” Vallo said. “But then again, nothing about sustained excellence is easy.”
Auriemma cited dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who practiced five hours a day to perfect their craft. When Rogers asked her husband why the couple had to perform a routine over and over again, Astaire gave her sage advice, he said: “We have to work this hard to make it look that easy.”
The Huskies are willing to make that sacrifice, Auriemma said.
“Nothing about his comes natural,” he said. “It’s really, really hard.”
He marveled at some of the juniors on the team who have lost only a single game in their time at UConn.
“There are a lot coaches that lose more in a week than those kids have lost in their career,” he said. “Which by all measures makes no sense whatsoever. That’s why everybody hates us.”
To his chagrin, even his mother, a UConn fanatic, holds that opinion. Auriemma, who wants to live up to his mother’s standards, told her one time he was worried about the upcoming game.
“‘So you lose, that’s no big deal. It’s a game and you lose. You don’t have to win every time — that’s why everybody hates you,’” she said.
The UConn women have been the No. 1 seed in the tournament since 2006 — that’s 12 straight years, Auriemma said he was reminded of by a newspaper article.
“The championship is the only thing that matters now, and it starts tonight,” he said. “All that stuff means nothing if we don’t win the next six games.”
“It’s not so much the wins and the national championships, which are very important,” said Chamber President Larry McHugh in introducing Auriemma. “But more importantly to Geno is the fact that he is so grounded, and he’s never really forgotten his family, where he’s from, the type of individual he is. He gives back constantly constantly.
“I’m really proud of Geno — the man,” McHugh said.
The women are undeterred in their quest to be tops this year during March Madness, Vallo said.
“The 2018 Huskies aren’t
on a mission to defend a winning streak created by teams past, but rather to create their own legacy. And they are really tipped off,” he said, drawing out the last five words.
The basketball players are eager to represent the university for nothing other than to be coached by Auriemma, Vallo said.
“They’re certainly not drawn by the exciting nightlife and fabulous weather of Storrs, Connecticut, only to be yelled at by you,” he told the coach.
Auriemma is always worried about not winning he said.
“I’m afraid to go home if we lose,” he joked.
He recalled a man he knows who bet on the team during last year’s tournament.
“I called him and I said, ‘You’ve got to be out of your mind. Do you know we’re a 39-point favorite?’
“You’ve got to be crazy to throw money around like that,” Auriemma told him.
Slightly irritated, the man replied “How about you just coach your team and you let me worry about making money?”
Youtube and social media have caused youth to try to live up to impossible standards beginning at a very young age, Auriemma said.
“We’d be able to recruit much easier, because the kids would have a sense of whether they’re any good or not, and I wouldn’t be getting little videos about ‘This is the No. 5-rated sixth-grader in the country.’ ”
He asked the audience to imagine him asking a man about his profession.
“‘I rate sixth-graders,’” he deadpanned. “Now, kids in sixth grade say ‘I’m one of the top sixth-graders in the country. That’s what’s happening out there.’”
An audience member asked the coach how he planned to sustain another winning streak after seniors Kia Nurse and Gabby Williams graduate.
“They are going to be to irreplaceable in a lot of ways, so we’ve got be a little bit different,” he said.
He then moved to the insistence of some people that he pick a great rebounder for the women’s team.
“We’re recruiting great scorers from high school, and then we make them play defense,” Auriemma said. “The last time I checked it’s called basketball. You’ve got to put the ball in the basket in order to win.”