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

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Geno Auriemma, head coach to the University of Connecticut women's basketball team.

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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.  '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.  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%.  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.'  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 . . .  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.  

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.

 
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