Luigi "Geno" Auriemma (born March 23, 1954) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of the UConn Huskies women's basketball team. Coach Auriemma is the winningest coach in college basketball history, any level, men's or women's, holding both records for most wins (1.216) and highest winning percentage among coaches with a minimum of 10 seasons (.882). Since becoming head coach in 1985, he has led UConn to 17 undefeated conference seasons (including eight consecutive), of which six were undefeated overall seasons, with 11 NCAADivision Inational championships, the most in women's college basketball history, and has won eight national Naismith College Coach of the Year awards.[2] Auriemma was the head coach of the United States women's national basketball team from 2009 through 2016, during which time his teams won the 2010 and 2014 World Championships, and gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, going undefeated in all four tournaments.[6] Auriemma was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
Auriemma emigrated with his family from Montella in Southern Italy to Norristown, Pennsylvania when he was seven years old, and he spent the rest of his childhood there. Auriemma had to teach himself English after coming to the United States.[7] After graduating from West Chester University in 1977, Auriemma was hired as an assistant coach[8] at Saint Joseph's University, where he worked in 1978 and 1979. Prior to coaching at Saint Joseph's University he began his career coaching women's basketball at Bishop McDevitt HS in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. He then took a two-year absence from college basketball, serving as an assistant coach at his former high school, Bishop Kenrick,[8] before assuming an assistant coaching position with the University of VirginiaCavaliers women's team in 1981. Auriemma became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994 at the age of 40,[9] noting in his autobiography that he finally decided to naturalize when his University of Connecticut team was slated to tour Italy that summer and he was concerned about potential problems, as he had never done any required national service in his birth country.[10]
For many years, Auriemma and his wife, Kathy, maintained a home in Avalon, New Jersey, to be near their parents in the Philadelphia area.[12]
University of Connecticut career
Prior to Auriemma's arrival in 1985, the Huskies women's basketball team had posted only one winning season in its history. The decision to hire Auriemma was part of the university's commitment to better fund women's sports.[13] Auriemma's was the final interview scheduled by the search staff. Most of the other candidates were highly qualified, and most were female. One of those included in the interview process was Chris Dailey, who would become Auriemma's assistant and is currently the associate head coach. Dailey was identified as the candidate most likely to receive an offer if Auriemma turned down the position.[14]
Connecticut quickly rose to prominence after Auriemma was hired in August 1985. After finishing 12–15 in Auriemma's first season (his only losing season), the Huskies notched their first-ever 20-win season, first conference title and first NCAA Tournament appearance. Connecticut has finished above .500 for 33 consecutive seasons, including six undefeated seasons (1994–95, 2001–02, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2013–14, and 2015–16) and three NCAA record streaks of 111, 90 and 70 consecutive wins.[15] On December 21, 2010, Auriemma led UConn to its 89th consecutive victory, one more than the all-time NCAA men's wins record of 88 held by UCLA;[16] the streak ended at 90 wins.[17][18] The Huskies subsequently broke their own record with an 111-game winning streak that began in 2014 and ended in 2017.[19] They have also appeared in every NCAA Tournament since 1989–as of the end of the 2023–24 season, the third-longest active consecutive appearances streak in Division I.[20]
At the end of the 2014–15 season, Auriemma's record as a head coach was 917–134, for an 87.3 winning percentage. That winning percentage is the highest among Division I active coaches.[21] His career at UConn also includes 20 seasons with 30 or more wins.[22] UConn has won eleven national championships under Auriemma (1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016)[23] and made the Final Four 21 times[22] (1991, 1995, 1996, 2000–2004, 2008–2019, 2024). Auriemma has also guided UConn to 21 conference regular season titles and 20 conference tournament titles. They lost 17 conference games in the last two decades of play in the Big East Conference, and have never lost a conference game since the old Big East reorganized as the American Athletic Conference in 2013.
With the win in 2016, Auriemma passed UCLA men's coach John Wooden for most college basketball championships, and the Huskies became the first Division I women's basketball team to win four straight national championships.[24]
The team has been especially successful on its home court in the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on the UConn campus in Storrs, Connecticut, and in the larger XL Center in Hartford; they tied an NCAA women's basketball record with 69 consecutive home wins between 2000 and 2003. That record was broken in 2011. The last home loss was to Villanova in the game that ended their 70-game winning streak. Moreover, between Auriemma's arrival and the close of the 2005 season, UConn won 295 games versus just 31 losses. The team set Big East Conference records for both single-game and season-long attendance.
Since achieving its first #1 ranking in the 1994–95 season, UConn under Auriemma is 186–10 when playing as the nation's #1 team. At the end of the 2009–10 season, he had a record of 127–52 against top 25 opponents and a 57–35 record against top 10 opponents. He won his 600th game on New Year's Eve 2006, accomplishing the feat in 716 games, tying him with Phillip Kahler for the fastest women's basketball coach to reach that milestone. Auriemma won his 700th game on November 27, 2009, in 822 total games, becoming the fastest head coach to that milestone in the history of college basketball at any level, men or women. He is now one of eight active women's college basketball coaches to have 700 or more wins.[21] Auriemma became the sixth coach in women's basketball history to reach 800 career victories on March 6, 2012, also reaching 800 career wins faster than any coach in the history of college basketball men or women at any division level in just 928 career games. On February 3, 2015, Auriemma notched his 900th victory in only 1,034 games, reaching this milestone also faster than any college coach in history. Auriemma was a member of the inaugural class (2006) of inductees to the University of Connecticut women's basketball Huskies of Honor recognition program.[25] Auriemma's 2013–2018 salary is $10.9 million.[26] Auriemma reached his 1,200th career win against Seton Hill on February 7, 2024.
Staged shot incident
Auriemma created controversy in 1998 when he arranged with Villanova coach Harry Perretta to orchestrate a shot at the beginning of their scheduled game. University of Connecticut's top player, Nykesha Sales, was two points short of breaking the team record for most points in a career when she ruptured her right Achilles tendon in the second to last game of the season against Notre Dame. When the following game, against Villanova, began, Villanova players allowed Connecticut to win the tip off and then pass the ball down to Sales who was standing underneath the basket. She laid the ball in to break the record. Connecticut players then stood back and allowed Villanova an uncontested layup of their own before beginning regular play.[27]
Rivalries
The rivalry between the Huskies and the University of TennesseeLady Vols extended to Auriemma's relationship with Volunteers counterpart Pat Summitt.[28] The two, through print and broadcast media, were often at odds. At the end of the 2009–10 season, Auriemma had slightly surpassed Summitt among active Division I coaches for career winning percentage, with Auriemma at 85.8 and Summitt at 84.1.[29] In 2007, Summitt, who believed Auriemma had used less-than-honorable tactics in his successful recruitment of Maya Moore, canceled the yearly game between the two programs.[30] After Summitt announced her diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's disease in 2011, the two mended their relationship, with Auriemma donating ten thousand dollars to Summitt's Alzheimer's foundation.[31] Summitt retired in 2012 and died in 2016.
Former UConn men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun has been called Auriemma's "unfriendly rival", and he once mocked the women's team's fan base as the "world's largest nursing home."[32] When asked about their relationship in 2001, Auriemma said, "Jim has a problem with anyone else's success, not just ours. Do we get along? No, but we don't have to."[33]
United States women's national basketball team
Auriemma and the 2012 U.S. Women's Olympic basketball team meet president Barack Obama.
Auriemma was named head coach of the US women's team that competed in the Junior World Championship in Brno, Czech Republic in July 2001. The team won its first five games, including a record-setting win against Mali. The 97–27 final score represented the largest margin of victory by a USA team in Junior World Championship history. The preliminary round results qualified the team for the medal rounds, where they faced the host team, the Czech Republic. With a home crowd cheering them on, the Czech team won 92–88 and went on to beat Russia 82–80 to win the gold medal. The US team beat Australia 77–72 to win the bronze medal. Diana Taurasi was the leading scorer for the US with 19.3 points per game, while Alana Beard was close behind with 18.0 points per game. Nicole Powell was the leading rebounder for the US, with seven rebounds per game.[34]
Auriemma was named head coach of the US women's national team in preparation for competition in the 2010 World Championships and 2012 Olympics. Because many team members were still playing in the WNBA until just prior to the World Championship, the team had only one day of practice with the entire team before leaving for Ostrava and Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. Despite this, the team won its first game against Greece by 26 points. The team continued to dominate with victory margins exceeding 20 points in the first five games. Several players shared scoring honors, with Swin Cash, Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Lindsay Whalen, and Sylvia Fowles all ending as high scorer in the first few games. The sixth game was against undefeated Australia — the USA jumped out to a 24-point lead and won 83–75. Team USA won its next two games by over 30 points, then faced the host team, the Czech Republic, in the championship game. They had a five-point lead at halftime, which was cut to three points, but the Czechs never got closer. Team USA won the championship and gold medal.[35] At the 2012 Olympics, Auriemma's team went 8–0 and won the gold medal game over France 86–50. Their closest match of the Olympics – and the only game in which their margin of victory was less than 25 points – was an 86–73 win in the semi-finals over eventual Bronze Medal winner Australia.
Auriemma was again named head coach of the US women's basketball team for the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women and the 2016 Summer Olympics.[36] In the 2014 World Championship, his team went 6–0 and won the gold medal, outscoring their opponents 553–380 over the six games – an average margin of victory of almost 30 points per game.
National championPostseason invitational champion Conference regular season championConference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season championDivision regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion
Auriemma is close friends with former Saint Joseph's University basketball head coach Phil Martelli[38] and his son, Mike Auriemma, attended and played basketball at Saint Joseph's.[39]
Auriemma served as an assistant coach to the gold medalist 2000 U.S. Olympic Team. On April 15, 2009, he was selected to lead USA Basketball Women's National Team in the 2010 FIBA World Championship in the Czech Republic and the London 2012 Summer Olympics.[40]
Auriemma is a member of the Board of Directors of the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.[41]
Auriemma is a member of the board of directors at Connecticut Children's Foundation, Inc. and hosts a charity series of events, Geno for the Kids, every year benefiting Connecticut Children's Medical Center.
Auriemma has parlayed his heritage and his love of Italian cuisine into lines of wines and sauces along with several restaurants in Connecticut.[42]
Most wins among NCAA basketball coaches, any level, men's or women's (1,216)[51]
Highest winning percentage among NCAA basketball coaches (minimum 10 seasons), any level, men's or women's (.882)[52]
Most NCAA Division I Championships, men's or women's (11)
Most NCAA Division I Final Fours, men's or women's (23)
Most NCAA Division I Elite Eights, men's or women's (28)
Most NCAA Division I Sweet Sixteen, men's or women's (31)
Most NCAA Division I Tournament wins, men's or women's (137)
Fastest coach to 800, 900, 1,000, 1,100 and 1,200 wins, any level, men's or women's
With men's coaches Jim Calhoun (2004) and Kevin Ollie (2014), the only coaches at the same Division I school to win the men's and women's NCAA Tournaments in the same season
Patricia Susan Summitt was an American women's college basketball head coach and college basketball player. As a coach, she acquired 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at the time of her retirement. She served as the head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012.
The women's basketball rivalry between the Lady Volunteers of the University of Tennessee and the UConn Huskies of the University of Connecticut is one of the fiercest rivalries in college basketball, and could be considered one of the first to reach national consciousness out of the women's game. The matchup features two long-tenured and media savvy coaches generally acknowledged among the top five ever in their sport, over two dozen players who went on to play in the WNBA, and two programs that have combined for 19 national championships. Their head-to-head matchups were consistently the top-rated games in the college women's field.
The UConn Huskies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut, with its main campus located in Storrs, Connecticut. The school is a member of the NCAA's Division I and the Big East Conference.
Ann "Muffet" McGraw is an American former college basketball coach, who served as the head women's basketball coach at Notre Dame from 1987 to 2020, compiling a 848–252 (.771) record over 33 seasons.
The UConn Huskies women's basketball team is the college basketball program representing the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut, in NCAA Division I women's basketball competition. They currently play in the Big East Conference.
Shea Sydney Ralph is a former collegiate basketball player and current head coach for the Vanderbilt Commodores women's basketball team. She was previously an assistant coach at UConn from 2008 to 2021. Ralph was proficient in multiple sports, set state high school records in basketball, and earned multiple national player of the year awards in high school and college. She helped win a national championship as a player at the University of Connecticut in 2000 and won numerous individual awards, including the Sports Illustrated for Women Player of the Year and the Honda Sports Award for the best collegiate female athlete in basketball. She suffered five ACL injuries in her career, two of which led to sitting out the 1997–98 season. Ralph was drafted by the WNBA Utah Starzz, but recurring knee problems prevented her from embarking on a professional career. Ralph started her coaching career as an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh in 2003.
The 2008–09 Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2008–09 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. Coached by Geno Auriemma, the Huskies played their home games at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut, and on campus at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut, and are a member of the Big East Conference. They enjoyed an undefeated season and won their sixth NCAA championship by defeating the Louisville Cardinals, 76–54.
The 2009–10 Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2009–2010 NCAA Division I basketball season. The Huskies were coached by Geno Auriemma, as the Huskies played their home games at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the XL Center located in Hartford, Connecticut, and on campus at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut. The Huskies were a member of the Big East Conference and won their seventh NCAA championship against Stanford on April 6, 2010.
The 2001–02 Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2001–2002 NCAA Division I basketball season. Coached by Geno Auriemma, the Huskies played their home games at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut, and on campus at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut, and are a member of the Big East Conference. At the Big East women's basketball tournament, the Huskies won the championship by defeating Boston College 96–54. The Huskies won their third NCAA championship by defeating the Oklahoma Sooners, 82–70. The starting five of Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones, Tamika Williams, and Diana Taurasi are generally considered the greatest starting lineup in Women's College Basketball history.
Kalana Lanette Greene, is an American professional women's basketball guard, who last played for the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and CCC Polkowice in Poland. She played her college career at the University of Connecticut, where the Huskies were the 2009 and 2010 NCAA national Champions.
Bird at the Buzzer is a 2011 sports book written by Jeff Goldberg about the 2001 Big East Championship women's basketball game between the University of Connecticut and Notre Dame, a pivotal game in the rivalry between the two teams.
The 2014–15 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November and ended with the Final Four in Tampa, Florida, April 5–7. Practices officially began on October 3.
The 2015–16 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November and ended with the Final Four in Indianapolis, April 3–5. Practices officially began on October 3.
The 2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began on November 11, 2016 and ended with the Final Four title game in Dallas on April 2, 2017, won by South Carolina. Practices officially began on September 30, 2016.
The 1994–95 Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team represented the University of Connecticut (UConn) during the 1994–95 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Huskies, led by Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma in his 10th season at UConn, played their home games at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion and were members of the Big East Conference.
The 2020–21 UConn Huskies women's basketball team represented the University of Connecticut (UConn) during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Huskies, led by Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma in his 36th season at UConn, split their home games between Harry A. Gampel Pavilion and the XL Center and were members of the Big East Conference, which they joined for women's basketball that season. UConn was previously a member of the original Big East Conference from 1979 through 2013, and one of the original women's basketball teams of that league in 1982.
The 2021–22 UConn Huskies women's basketball team represented the University of Connecticut (UConn) during the 2021–22 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Huskies, led by Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma in his 37th season at UConn, split their home games between Harry A. Gampel Pavilion and the XL Center and were members of the Big East Conference, which they joined for women's basketball the previous season. UConn was a member of the original Big East Conference from 1979 through 2013, and one of the original women's basketball teams in that conference in 1982.
The 2023–24 UConn Huskies women's basketball team represented the University of Connecticut (UConn) during the 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Huskies, led by Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma in his 39th season at UConn, split their home games between Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on their campus in Storrs, and the XL Center in Hartford. UConn is a member of the Big East Conference, which it rejoined in the 2020–21 season; it had been a member of the original Big East Conference from 1979 through 2013, and one of the original women's basketball teams in that conference in 1982.
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