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Best of both worlds
In the last couple of days since news of Geno Auriemma accepting the head coaching gig for the U.S. Senior Women's National team through the 2012 Olympics, I have received anxious inquiries from UConn fans curious how his appointment will impact his coaching duties with the Huskies.
The answer is - not a heck of a lot. It would be naive to think that Auriemma will be able to devote as much time to the program over the next three years as he would have without the added responsibility of heading the effort to lead the U.S. to a fifth straight Olympic gold medal. But let's make one thing perfectly clear, the landscape of USA Basketball has changed since 1996 when Stanford's Tara VanDerveer took off the entire college season because of her national-team commitments.
"I don't anticipate taking any time off," Auriemma said. "My first priority is making sure that the players that I have in the program that we have here get my full attention. The only difference that I see is any time that I would have off from coaching UConn now is on. I'm OK with that."
Certainly there will be some recruiting trips Auriemma may have to miss and the biggest impact may be felt during the preseason both next year and in 2012. From Sept. 23-Oct. 3, 2010 Auriemma will be in the Czech Republic coaching the U.S. team in the FIBA World Championships. Normally, it would have been a time he would have been working with his staff preparing for the start of practice to officially start in mid-October. If the U.S. wins that tournament, it will gain entry into the Olympics automatically. If that is not the case, then Auriemma would need to led the squad into an Olympic qualifying tournament in 2011. With the Olympic basketball tournament set for July 27-Aug. 12, there won't be any exhibition games between U.S. college teams and the U.S. squad in 2012 as was the case four years ago.
Whatever the time commitment, Auriemma will receive the support he needs from his veteran coaching staff headed by associate head coach Chris Dailey.
"I think whatever it is, we'll get it done," Dailey said. "Hopefully if we can get our recruiting and commitments done early so that is not a concern but it certainly doesn't hurt to have the Olympic coach as your head coach. I don't see it really impacting us that way. We will be here and do whatever needs to be done."
Perhaps nobody was more in Auriemma's corner during this process than Carol Callan, USA Basketball's Women's National Team Director who traveled with Auriemma during three of the UConn coach's former coaching stints with USA Basketball.
"Record aside, six national championships aside, the experience with us personally he knows how to take terrific players and get them to play at an even higher level," Callan said. "He knows how to be the hunted and take a team that is expected to win and have them win but win in a basketball pure way and win. He does have a real soft spot in his heart for this country. When he took teams overseas, he made them see the big picture and that to me is still part of what we do. They are appreciative of whatever food is put in front of them, they say thank you, they work hard to earn the respect of opponents, they compete in a sportsmanlike way. The culture he has created here is the culture of USA Basketball. I think we have a tradition of that."
Callan said the task of calling the three assistants on the 2008 Olympic team (the Connecticur Sun's Mike Thibault, South Carolina's Dawn Staley and Gail Goestenkors of Texas) to tell them of Auriemma's appointment was not easy considering the loyalty and professional manner in which they served in their roles.
"I had a chance to talk all three," Callan said. "I think because it is early enough and we hadn't said we were going to do this, I don't think they were expecting a call from me to say 'hey, you were going to be the coach.' But, I think we owe it to them, they have committed a lot of time to us and probably will in the future. They were all - to a person - very good about (saying) 'thank you' and 'I appreciate the call' and they said they do want to be kept in line for future teams. Geno coached eight years ago for us so it is not like there is any pecking order."
There is no rush for selecting Auriemma's assistants. It will be a mix of WNBA and college coaches, male and female with at least one minority on the staff. This will not be an overnight process. Certainly Auriemma's good friends and USA Basketball mainstays Doug Bruno of DePaul and Sherri Coale of Oklahoma will have their names mentioned. Between the various USA Basketball teams, there are no lack of candidates to draw on. One of the main requirements is for the coaching to be a head coach so don't look for Auriemma's own UConn staff to be in the mix.
The only question I have is will any of the assistants have to take classes from Dailey on how to step in front of Auriemma when he erupts in disgust at an official?
The answer is - not a heck of a lot. It would be naive to think that Auriemma will be able to devote as much time to the program over the next three years as he would have without the added responsibility of heading the effort to lead the U.S. to a fifth straight Olympic gold medal. But let's make one thing perfectly clear, the landscape of USA Basketball has changed since 1996 when Stanford's Tara VanDerveer took off the entire college season because of her national-team commitments.
"I don't anticipate taking any time off," Auriemma said. "My first priority is making sure that the players that I have in the program that we have here get my full attention. The only difference that I see is any time that I would have off from coaching UConn now is on. I'm OK with that."
Certainly there will be some recruiting trips Auriemma may have to miss and the biggest impact may be felt during the preseason both next year and in 2012. From Sept. 23-Oct. 3, 2010 Auriemma will be in the Czech Republic coaching the U.S. team in the FIBA World Championships. Normally, it would have been a time he would have been working with his staff preparing for the start of practice to officially start in mid-October. If the U.S. wins that tournament, it will gain entry into the Olympics automatically. If that is not the case, then Auriemma would need to led the squad into an Olympic qualifying tournament in 2011. With the Olympic basketball tournament set for July 27-Aug. 12, there won't be any exhibition games between U.S. college teams and the U.S. squad in 2012 as was the case four years ago.
Whatever the time commitment, Auriemma will receive the support he needs from his veteran coaching staff headed by associate head coach Chris Dailey.
"I think whatever it is, we'll get it done," Dailey said. "Hopefully if we can get our recruiting and commitments done early so that is not a concern but it certainly doesn't hurt to have the Olympic coach as your head coach. I don't see it really impacting us that way. We will be here and do whatever needs to be done."
Perhaps nobody was more in Auriemma's corner during this process than Carol Callan, USA Basketball's Women's National Team Director who traveled with Auriemma during three of the UConn coach's former coaching stints with USA Basketball.
"Record aside, six national championships aside, the experience with us personally he knows how to take terrific players and get them to play at an even higher level," Callan said. "He knows how to be the hunted and take a team that is expected to win and have them win but win in a basketball pure way and win. He does have a real soft spot in his heart for this country. When he took teams overseas, he made them see the big picture and that to me is still part of what we do. They are appreciative of whatever food is put in front of them, they say thank you, they work hard to earn the respect of opponents, they compete in a sportsmanlike way. The culture he has created here is the culture of USA Basketball. I think we have a tradition of that."
Callan said the task of calling the three assistants on the 2008 Olympic team (the Connecticur Sun's Mike Thibault, South Carolina's Dawn Staley and Gail Goestenkors of Texas) to tell them of Auriemma's appointment was not easy considering the loyalty and professional manner in which they served in their roles.
"I had a chance to talk all three," Callan said. "I think because it is early enough and we hadn't said we were going to do this, I don't think they were expecting a call from me to say 'hey, you were going to be the coach.' But, I think we owe it to them, they have committed a lot of time to us and probably will in the future. They were all - to a person - very good about (saying) 'thank you' and 'I appreciate the call' and they said they do want to be kept in line for future teams. Geno coached eight years ago for us so it is not like there is any pecking order."
There is no rush for selecting Auriemma's assistants. It will be a mix of WNBA and college coaches, male and female with at least one minority on the staff. This will not be an overnight process. Certainly Auriemma's good friends and USA Basketball mainstays Doug Bruno of DePaul and Sherri Coale of Oklahoma will have their names mentioned. Between the various USA Basketball teams, there are no lack of candidates to draw on. One of the main requirements is for the coaching to be a head coach so don't look for Auriemma's own UConn staff to be in the mix.
The only question I have is will any of the assistants have to take classes from Dailey on how to step in front of Auriemma when he erupts in disgust at an official?
posted by Jim Fuller at
9:50 AM
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