SNY will be airing an in-depth interview with Geno Auriemma on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. as part of its SNY Spotlight series. Here are some of the topics host Gary Apple touched on with the Hall of Fame coach.

Gary Apple (Host): “Did you enjoy the attention during the streak”
Geno: “No, no I didn’t enjoy it because it’s not real, the attention I think that the game got I thought was real good, I thought people were talking about women’s basketball that ordinarily would never talk about it. So in that sense it was good, but the constant questions about the streak, for me, for the players, for everybody, that got old really, really fast.”

Geno: “My personal feeling is no other college team has won 90-games in a row, and we have, so if you want to say “wow that’s like one of the greatest things that’s ever happened in college sports” I’m good with that. If you want to say something other than that, it’s fine. I happen to think that down the road, years down the road, we will come to see how incredible it was.”

Gary Apple (Host): “Was there any sense of relief when you lost at Stanford?”
Geno: “Yeah I think after the game I wasn’t as upset about the loss as I normally would be, I was more upset with the way we played.”

Host: “I read in your book that in 1997 when your dad passed away you got to the house and your mom told you that he was gone.”
Geno: “Yeah I walked in and I think for the first time, ever, I saw my mother kind of lose her composure and kind of break down, because from the time I was born I don’t ever, ever, ever remember my mother losing her composure. I never remember her being less than this pillar of strength and that’s when I knew, not only did I lose my father but there was a whole big piece of here that was gone and at that point is when it really hit me. I think I got most emotional when I saw the way my mother reacted rather then when I saw my father because I had prepared myself for that because he had been sick for a while, but when I saw the affect it had on my mother that probably had the biggest affect on me, that’s probably a moment I will never forget.”


Host: “How did you build this into one of the great sports franchises in, really when you break it down, in history?”
Geno: When we started there was 200 people at our very first game, and that’s counting people working there, family, friends, both teams, the officials, people at the scorers table. So you get 200 people there, 250 max and I coached like my life depended on it and so did my coaching staff and my players played like, you know, this possession means whether we were going to be able to eat tomorrow or not, that’s kind of how hard we played. And then we kind of started winning and we started to attract a little bit better of a player and then we won more but it was always a struggle. It wasn’t until 1995 when Rebecca Lobo got here and we had that special team that it all turned.

Host: “Rebecca was the one?”
Geno: “I think so, I think uh the fact that she was a local kid, she was the first All-American we signed. Everyone in the country wanted her, she’s 6’5”, she can pass, she can dribble, can shoot, she’s smart, tremendously personably and came in and all of a sudden we started winning.”

Host: “Who is the best player you’ve had?
Geno: “Best ever? Diana Taurasi”


In another television note of interest, there will be a camera trained on UConn's Maya Moore at all times during Monday's game against Oklahoma.

Here is part of the release from ESPN pertaining to this issue:
As part of the Big Monday games, Connecticut’s Maya Moore and Baylor’s Brittney Griner will have a camera solely dedicated to each player while they are on the court. In addition to segments during the game, ESPN3.com will provide fans with both isolated camera views of nation’s top two players.

These games are part of the fourth annual February Frenzy, in which ESPN supports the Kay Yow Cancer Fund in partnership with The V Foundation and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) for women’s cancer research, Sunday, Feb. 13, and Monday, Feb. 14. The Fund is named in memory of legendary North Carolina State women’s basketball coach Kay Yow, who died Jan. 24, 2009, after a courageous battle with cancer.

Making for two of the biggest days of women’s basketball regular-season play, February Frenzy will showcase eight regionalized games in high definition within two ESPN2 telecast windows Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET and 5 p.m., plus a game on ESPNU at 6 p.m. Also included in the frenzy are two Big Monday Presented by Bud Light games on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. During the games, ESPN will encourage fans to contribute to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund in partnership with The V Foundation and WBCA via The V Foundation at 1-800-4JimmyV or the foundation website at www.jimmyv.org.