Geno Auriemma opens up on accepting Huskies job

UConn Huskies women’s basketball head coach, Geno Auriemma, talked about when he was hired for this job. He has been in this job since 1985, leading the team to 35 NCAA appearances.

FOX broadcaster John Fanta shared a video on social media. In the video, Geno Auriemma describes, while driving around Connecticut, the time of his hiring at UConn when things were not well at the program.

“Maybe that’s why they got me. They gave me the job. Because I said that I would hire CD (Chris Dailey, the associate head coach for UConn since 1988),” said Auriemma.

He talked ab

out how difficult it was to bring Dailey from Rutgers to a program that was in “bad” shape. He explained how UConn’s state was awful during the time of his visit.

“You weren’t coming here for anything other than go to school and play basketball. The dorms were lousy, our gym was lousy. Our gym was so bad they didn’t even show it to me,” said Geno Auriemma. (Time Stamp 1:05).

“They didn’t even go, hey, by the way, here’s where we play our games. I had no idea. Here’s your locker room. Nothing. Zero,” he added.

After the visit to the program, Geno Auriemma was asked to go for a ride. In the videos, he felt nostalgic as he drove by the same place again and remembered everything, including the weather, was the same that day.

“It’s amazing. It’s really eerie that it was exactly like this. I mean, the sky was the same. The amount of rain that we’re getting right now is the same. It was exactly the same. It’s really if you close your eyes, you would think that we’re back,” said Auriemma.

After his hiring, things completely changed for UConn women’s basketball as he led the team to 11 NCCA championships. He also led UConn to 17 undefeated conference seasons, eight undefeated seasons, and six undefeated overall seasons.

As a result, Geno Auriemma was named the Naismith College Coach of the Year eight times during his time there and became one of the best coaches in the world.

Geno Auriemma talks about the old-fashioned Dunkin’ Donuts while signing the UConn deal

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Later in the video, Geno Auriemma was seen driving to the Dunkin Donuts where he went for a coffee and a donut 40 years ago.

“Dunkin’ Donuts, it’s still there. This is it. We each ordered coffee and two old fashioned donuts, who are just like John. No fluff, no sprinkles, no frosting, no cream inside. Plain and to the point,” said Auriemma while ordering himself a coffee cake muffin.

It was the moment when Auriemma was asked to be the head coach of UConn without screwing it up. And the rest as they say is history as he developed UConn into one of the most successful women’s college basketball programs.