• U.S.

Q&A: UConn Women’s Basketball Coach Geno Auriemma

21 minute read
Sean Gregory

On Dec. 19, the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team, coached by Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma, will match up against Ohio State in the Maggie Dixon Classic in New York City. A win would give UConn its 88th straight victory, a record mark that would tie the venerated streak that John Wooden’s UCLA teams put together in the early 1970s. They could then break UCLA’s streak with a win Dec. 21, against Florida State.

In late November, Auriemma sat with TIME for several lengthy, colorful conversations about a range of issues, including how UConn’s streak should be viewed by sports fans, how coaching young women has changed over the decades, and why he doesn’t coddle his players.

(See the Top 10 Sports Moments of 2010.)

Do you think your streak will be as revered as the UCLA streak?
No. But it shouldn’t be that I’m eclipsing John Wooden. It shouldn’t be Geno Auriemma, and the University of Connecticut, owns the longest winning streak in the history of basketball. No. It’s men’s basketball, and women’s basketball. But we’ve accomplished something that most people can only dream of accomplishing.

Everything should be celebrated equally. So you have the male chauvinist guys going, ‘How dare they compare what they’re doing to what the men did. Then you’ve got the women’s side going, ‘well, it should be celebrated, because if the women beat the men’s record, it’s our record.’ Maybe the men feel threatened and the women are insecure. I don’t know if one has to be at the expense of the other.

There’s some sexism to it, and why is it acceptable? Are you downplaying what we’ve done because it’s just a bunch of women’s basketball players doing it against women’s competition? That’s a sexist opinion. But again, we’re not here to carry the banner. We’re just trying to win basketball games. We’re not here to slay the dragon of UCLA. I made a lot of money betting against my friends about UCLA winning those championships. So I’m the last guy who is going downplay UCLA winning. Every freaking year. You’re in high school — ‘yo, I bet you 10 bucks UCLA wins the national championship.’ Come on! That was the easiest money you could ever win.

What are some of the biggest challenges that come with coaching women’s basketball?
One of the hardest things is that they have no frame of reference. They don’t play enough. I challenge you to find 8, 9, 10 girls in a playground, just playing basketball. That stuff doesn’t exist. You have to teach them everything.

I’d say 99.9% of the women’s game is played below the rim. Footwork and positioning and all that stuff is so crucial, because you can’t just throw the ball up on the rim. It makes coaching a little more challenging, but in a sense more rewarding, because they have they sort of learned everything from you and your staff. That’s a good feeling.

(See more about the educational challenges facing NCAA basketball.)

They’ll listen more. They won’t try to physically overpower you. They need each other to score, and that’s what so good about it. That’s the beauty of it. They know they need each other, so the game looks like, ‘hey, cut and screen, that was really good teamwork.’ Well, they need it. If they tried to do it on their own, they wouldn’t be successful. Whereas a lot of really good guy players think, ‘I don’t need anybody to score, just give me the freaking ball, clear out.’

What’s different about coaching women’s basketball now, as opposed to when you first got the UConn job in 1985?
The attention span is that big [holds fingers together]. Kids today, they don’t interact with people as much. So their ability to communicate, connect, for extended periods of time, isn’t as great. They spend so much time with their things [fake types on fake Blackberry] that they communicate that way. And then if you want to put it in your pocket and walk away, you put it in your pocket and walk away.

So my guess is there’s not enough interaction with other human beings, where you can kind of follow things. How often do you think they do that during the course of a day? Listen for five minutes? Or I’ll say, ‘I want you to talk, and I’ll listen. What have you got to say?’ ‘Meh meh meh meh meh.’ But then you check their whatever the hell it is, and they’ve written things that long [hands wide].

‘You tell me what’s going on? Meh meh meh meh meh.’ ‘Can you speak up please? Meh meh meh meh meh.’ Are you s—ing me?

On the court, their expectations of themselves are higher. There’s a much better sense of ‘I want to be really good.’ They are much better physically, they’ve played more basketball, and there are more opportunities for them to play at a younger age, against better competition. It’s all organized obviously, but this idea of ‘I can get a college scholarship, I might be able to be a pro someday,’ all those things didn’t exist 25 years ago. They have made kids train harder, compete harder, and push themselves harder while they are in high school.

How has recruiting changed?
We haven’t had to compromise. There’s not one kid, on our team now, that’s been in our program, that came here with any promises of, ‘if you come here, we’re going to give you this, this, this, and this and you’re going to get that, that, and that. That’s never happened here, and it never will happen. I mean, there’s no point in trying to convince kids to come here. Kids either already know that, or they’re never going to know. And if they don’t think this is the best place for them, why do I want them? They’re not smart enough to come here.

I just say, ‘I think you can play for us, I think you can be a really good player. But don’t ask me how many minutes you are gong to play, don’t ask me what position you’re going to play, don’t ask me what my role is. You know, you come, you go to practice, and after about a month or two in practice, you’ll tell me what your role is.

I’ll tell you another thing. There are more kids who want guarantees. Where as you go back, you know, you’re recruiting kids, they are so over the top because you are offering a scholarship, so grateful, so appreciative. Now it’s like, all right, what can you do for me?

Is there more parental involvement?
Absolutely. ‘You don’t understand show good my daughter is. What she can do for you.’ There are kids we don’t take simply because we don’t like their parents. We get a kid visit campus, good kid, good player. And we spend minimum amount of time with the mother and the father and listen to what they say and how they say it, what their expectation level is. Then we just go, ‘we’re not recruiting that kids anymore.’

There’s way more of that. Before, that would have been isolated incident. Now, it’s more prevalent than it’s ever been.

Men’s basketball is plagued by stories of street agents and AAU coaches trying to squeeze money out of colleges for their best players, of coaches breaking recruiting rules to gain an advantage. Do you see such a seedy underbelly developing in women’s basketball?
There’s starting to be one. People are talking during the summer — who is giving who money? Who is buying whom things? Which AAU guy is getting free dinners and free gear? Which kid goes to camp and gets three warm-ups and gets picked MVP of the camp and gets four pairs of shoes and five travel bags full of stuff? Â Yeah, you hear all that stuff. And again, as more coaches are being paid more money, and expectations are to do things, it’s natural that stuff goes with that. It’s a sign of women’s basketball success that people are trying to break rules to get players to try to win.

As a man coaching women’s basketball, do you think you have any advantages?
Advantages, hmm. The best way I can describe it, is this … what are the advantages of being a dad, as opposed to being a mom? So you’ve got kids in your house, what are the advantages that you have, what can you do with your kids that your wife can’t do? What can she do that you can’t do? How can she relate to kids like you can’t? So do I have any advantages? I don’t know that I have any.

As a guy, are you perhaps more intimidating to young women? Or more likely to be respected as a father figure?
I don’t think so. I just think there are some male coaches who coach women’s basketball that don’t get anybody’s respect, that don’t win. And their players don’t improve. And there are some women who coach women’s basketball, who are not respected, whose teams don’t win games and whose players don’t improve. To me it’s like the teaching profession. You walk in the classroom, you either get male teacher or a female teacher. Your chances of getting a great one or a poor one have nothing to do with them being male or female.

Do you have any disadvantages as a guy?
I don’t see any disadvantages whatsoever on my end. I’ve been lucky enough in 25 years to put together a staff that, you hope, encompasses all the things to make kids comfortable in your environment [Auriemma has three female assistants, including associate head coach Chris Dailey, who has been working with Auriemma since he started at UConn]. You’ve got this personality type, that personality type. Â

Is it good for women’s basketball that UConn is so dominant?
Is it good? Well, it’s good because you’re here talking to me. If we weren’t you wouldn’t. It’s good that more people are going to weigh in on whether it’s good or bad, whereas if we weren’t doing this, there wouldn’t be a discussion. I’m in airports all over the country, and guys are like, ‘yo, coach, congratulations on the streak.’ That’s good. People are talking about it, people are interested in it, want to follow it. Then there are those who are like, ‘yeah, I’m not interested, they win all the time, who cares, I’m sick of them winning.’ I understand that too, I’m OK with that.

When Microsoft came out with what they did at the very beginning, everyone went ‘what the hell is that s—? Who thought of that?’ And they did it, and they did it better than anybody else, and they so far outdistanced their nearest competitors. Was that bad? Yeah it was bad because you couldn’t do anything with your computer unless they were involved. Look what’s happened now. Look who’s taken over the world of computers? Apple. And they were almost bankrupt.

I’m saying that once you start to outdistance the competition some people are going to give in and say, ‘I’m getting out of that business.’ And there are a couple of other people who are going to say, you know, I’m going to take the lessons I learned from how they did it, I’m going to do it better than them. And I’m going out there to kick their ass. And that certainly elevates everything.

It’s better for the world of women’s basketball, once you get past the jealousy of it, the ‘here’s a guy who thinks he’s better than everybody else, he’s an egomaniac, he’s arrogant, he’s this.’ Get past all the bulls— that you think I am, I’m not, or what my program is, or what my program is not, get past all that crap, and then say, ‘you know what, there’s something there. And if I want to build a program, I want to do something, that would be a good place to start looking.’

Do you think there are coaches in the men’s game who don’t respect or appreciate what you’ve accomplished, because you’ve done it in women’s basketball?
Probably. I have a lot of friends who coach at all different levels. What they think of me is probably really important. Â What the other guys think about me — that’s one area where I’ve grown up a little bit. That I’m not as concerned what people think of me anymore.

You’ve had a complicated relationship with Pat Summitt, the Hall of Fame coach from the University of Tennessee. At a media event this fall, she talked about how she’d never compromise her recruiting ethics. Many interpreted those remarks as a shot at Tennessee men’s coach Bruce Pearl, who took a pay cut because of recruiting violations. But she later told an interviewer: “I didn’t have Bruce Pearl on my mind. I probably had Connecticut on my mind. There’s a reason we don’t play them.†Care to respond?
No.

To be fair, you’ve said some things that have upset Summitt and Tennessee. For example, in a speech last year, a newspaper quoted you saying: “You know, some rivalries are one-sided. And you know how women can be. Sometimes they get their thumb up their butt and don’t want to play you anymore.
I was misquoted. That’s why everybody got all bent out of shape. When is the last time you heard someone say ‘thumb up their butt?’ How about never? What I actually said was, ‘you know how some women get, some people get, they get a bug up their butt, and then you can’t deal with them.’ That’s what I said. People can live with that, right?

Hey, you say things and it’s something fun, nothing serious. Certainly not as serious as calling somebody a cheater. Put it that way.

In your 26 years coaching young women, share with our readers the lessons you’ve learned about women.
They’re competitive. They can handle constructive criticism. They’re tough as nails. They want to be on a team. They want responsibility. They love a challenge. All the things that men think women are not, I’ve found to be…bull.

There’s a reason why so many women are showing up as CEOs and prominent politics and judges … given the opportunity, I’ll tell you what, there’s a toughness there that you don’t see.

The stereotype would say you should treat women players with a “gentler hand†than men. But are known for being brutally honest and tough on your players. Why do you coach that way?
If a woman is a girlie girl, a sissy girl, I can’t deal with that. I don’t think you have to coddle them at all. I think you have to be forthright with them, tell them the truth. Â ‘Do you want to be looked upon as an athlete, or do you want to be looked upon as a girlie girl playing basketball. Do you want to be a real athlete?’ ‘Yes, coach.’ ‘Then this is what real athletes do. You want to be a real basketball player, or do you want to be a girl’s basketball player? Because real basketball players, male or female, are able to do this. And if you can do this, you know what? We made a real basketball player out of you. Â If you can’t, then you’re always going to be a girl’s basketball player.’ Doesn’t it benefit a kid to hear that?

Because guess what? We’re spending $30,000 for you to come here. We’re flying first class charters. I want to say, ‘throw the pass right here.’ [puts hands up] is that too hard? Am I asking you to go in the lab and cure cancer? Am I asking you to find a way to save Haiti? No. I’m asking, when a guy puts a hand up — put the ball right there. And if you’re a kid don’t you want that expectation of you? Instead of, ‘Come on sweetheart. Try to hit them in the hands next time.’

Your current and former players talk about how, in practice, you will often make them play against six or seven players on defense, so that things seem easier in the game. You make them feel uncomfortable. Why do you coach like that?
I think that’s how, ultimately, the best learning takes place. When you’re really put in uncomfortable situations, where you’re given very little information in the beginning, and you’ve got to figure out the rest. I think sometimes we spoon feed information to people, so they don’t have to think of anything on their own. I think you really can find out a lot about players when you stack the odds against them. And you see what their reaction is. It’s almost, ok, what’s the look in their eye? Ahh — this kid’s a fighter. You’re going four against five, and it’s like, ‘oh, so you don’t think we can beat six of them? Know what I mean?’

I ask only because one of your players brought it up . . . how do you deal with PMS?
Generally, the older your team is, the less you have to deal with it. Because you don’t see any changes whatsoever. We’ve got a game, we’ve got practice — you know what? Nobody gives a s—. I remember [former UConn star] Jen Rizzotti one year, when she was as freshman, lost her mind in a game against Georgetown. She fouled out, kicked a chair, the thing went flying end over end. I said, ‘are you kidding me? Are you serious? If I ever see you acting like this again, ever, I said I swear to God you won’t play.’ After she graduated she said, ‘you know what, I made up my mind then and there, I don’t care how it felt, he was never going to know about [PMS].’

It’ll be January or something, and I’ll say, ‘Hey, guys, the last couple of practices haven’t been right. This looks terrible. And if I’m not mistaken, at exactly this time last month, we went through the same nonsense. In case you haven’t checked the schedule, the Final Four is this time of month too. So you’d better figure it out before you get there, understand?’

Women’s basketball is much more relevant now than it was, say, 20 years ago, in large part because of the accomplishments of your teams. But the sport is still largely ignored by a large segment of fans. Why is that, and what can be done to bring more attention to the women’s game?
What isn’t popular around the country, and I don’t know if it ever will be, are women’s team’s sports. Women have always been viewed as individual athletes. Gymnastics, figure skating, tennis, track and field, you know? Where you can celebrate the individual. The women’s game has grown so much the last 20 years, and in an effort to continue to grow, you probably need some catalysts. They can be [current UConn star] Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, or it can be great teams that do unbelievable things.

It won’t be easy. Let me ask you a question. The players that play on the LPGA tour rank in what percent of the top golfers in the world? At least the top 1%. Â If the guys on the PGA Tour are Mount 0lympus, these people are not far behind. And who watches them? We’re a society now that is just consumed with the celebrity of things rather than the actual skill.

Do you think the best women’s players rank among the top 1% of basketball players in the world?
No. Anybody can pick up a basketball and be proficient at it. But you can pick up a golf club and not break 100, ever. If people around the country don’t appreciate how good a Paula Creamer is, not just because she’s cute and pretty, but because she can really hit a golf ball like a son of a bitch and play, if people can’t appreciate what she does, then what will ever make them appreciate what Maya Moore does? Because they’re going to look at Maya and look at Kobe and go “well, she’s not Kobe Bryant.†Well, f—, who is? Who is? I would challenge 90% of the people watching television, men or women, to come out here and do what Maya does. They couldn’t do it. But because at some point they played, they think ‘what’s the big deal? I made a jump shot. I took it to the basket when I was in high school. I did this, I did that.’

Just look at what the country is the accustomed to. The country is accustomed to be entertained. ‘I want to be entertained.’ Â Basketball, used to be, what? Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere. Willis Reed. Then all of a sudden it became f—ing Michael Jordan, Dr. J. So guys watching basketball see Bill Bradley, comes off a screen, catches the basketball – boom. How about Willis Reed? How he sets that screen, steps back, bing. Look at Havilcek, the way he’s always moving without the ball. Now . . . Â look at that f—ing guy fly from the three-point line. Over the rim! Now basketball took a whole different mystique. Ok, so now cut to the women’s game. Where’s the entertainment factor? Entertainment is watching Maya Moore be like Bill Bradley. And you say, ‘I used to like that.’ But now, if you aint going to leave the three point line, and do a 360, I aint f—ing watching.

Some people have said that you act arrogant — sometimes, the world kicked around is “asshole†— by design in order to take pressure of your players, to bring the heat on you. Is that true?
Well, 95% of it is who I am. [Laughs] I’m just being me. Cause you know what, I find humor in a lot of things. There’s a lot of stuff being thrown around, directed at everyone, including me, from every angle. So that’s just kind of how we are. And that doesn’t make it right, wrong , arrogant, not arrogant. We find a lot of things really funny, and we have a blast with it. It sometimes doesn’t sound right, but it’s never mean spirited. Â

If you break UCLA’s record, how do you think things will change for you?
For me, this will be like winning a national championship. But one more national championship doesn’t change my life one iota. For Maya Moore and the kids on the team, this would be the most unbelievable thing in the world. ‘I was on the team that set the winning streak.’ My players can walk around like they’re king of the world, on top of the Titanic, with Leonardo DiCaprio. That’s why I hope it does happen, because I know what it does for them. Their lives will never be the same. Never would be the same.

Â

More Must-Reads from TIME

Write to Sean Gregory at sean.gregory@time.com