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Geno reflects on Final Four loss
His players had headed home earlier on Monday morning but UConn women's basketball coach, who is also the WBCA President, felt it was appropriate to stay behind. Auriemma was in attendance accepting Maya Moore's latest honor, the Naismith Player of the Year Award as well as the WBCA Player of the Year.
After giving his first acceptance speech at the WBCA awards dinner, Auriemma headed back stage and took time to reflect on the 18 hours that had transpired since UConn's dream of a third straight national title was ended by Notre Dame in Sunday's national semifinal.
"As you can imagine, it was difficult," Auriemma said. "It was difficult on them, difficult on the coaches. It was a very emotional time after the game. You have some kids who this is their first loss ever in the NCAA tournament, you've got seniors who were expecting to go out winning a national championship, you;ve got freshmen who think if you go out you automatically win the national championship so there were a lot of different emotions running through the locker room. It carried over to this morning and I amm sure it will last a little bit longer after they get home."
Another topic brought up was whether Baylor sophomore center Brittney Griner would be taking part in the upcoming USA Basketball national team training camp.
"I haven't heard anything yet," Auriemma said. "I put my ace recruiter Chris Dailey on her. I don't know what's going to come out of that. Chris gives me the standard line all the time 'hey, the kid loves me.' Well, I'll believe she loves you when I see her at training camp.
"It's not that much different that what the policy has been up until that point, we send out invitations, we talk to coaches about their players and see who responds back. I think anybody who wants to be a part of the team will come to the camp. I think if you come to training camp, you are going to end up having a great experience with the best players in the world. If you don't come to training camp, I don't think that means you don't have a chance to play in the Olympics. I do think training camp is a head start in that direction, no question. If Brittney can make it, if she is there, we'll get a chance to evaluate her beside some great players."
After giving his first acceptance speech at the WBCA awards dinner, Auriemma headed back stage and took time to reflect on the 18 hours that had transpired since UConn's dream of a third straight national title was ended by Notre Dame in Sunday's national semifinal.
"As you can imagine, it was difficult," Auriemma said. "It was difficult on them, difficult on the coaches. It was a very emotional time after the game. You have some kids who this is their first loss ever in the NCAA tournament, you've got seniors who were expecting to go out winning a national championship, you;ve got freshmen who think if you go out you automatically win the national championship so there were a lot of different emotions running through the locker room. It carried over to this morning and I amm sure it will last a little bit longer after they get home."
Another topic brought up was whether Baylor sophomore center Brittney Griner would be taking part in the upcoming USA Basketball national team training camp.
"I haven't heard anything yet," Auriemma said. "I put my ace recruiter Chris Dailey on her. I don't know what's going to come out of that. Chris gives me the standard line all the time 'hey, the kid loves me.' Well, I'll believe she loves you when I see her at training camp.
"It's not that much different that what the policy has been up until that point, we send out invitations, we talk to coaches about their players and see who responds back. I think anybody who wants to be a part of the team will come to the camp. I think if you come to training camp, you are going to end up having a great experience with the best players in the world. If you don't come to training camp, I don't think that means you don't have a chance to play in the Olympics. I do think training camp is a head start in that direction, no question. If Brittney can make it, if she is there, we'll get a chance to evaluate her beside some great players."
Labels: Geno Auriemma
posted by Jim Fuller at
9:10 AM
3 Comments:
It seems to me we might want to be celebrating a wonderful year! at the beginning of the season, or even right after Samari Walker left, how many of us would have said at that time, "if this team can somehow make the Final Four, it would be great!"
Geno himself warned us many times, "we have to play nearly perfectly all the time, we don't have very much margin at all."
The Notre Dame game was closer than it appeared; and to beat the same good team four times in one year? very tough.
Give Notre Dame credit for playing well and being well-coached.
Here is something I uncovered in three different places and combined into one list.
Division I schools to have both men's and women's basketball teams make the Final Four in the same season (nine times overall):
1983 Georgia
(neither team made final)
1999 Duke
- UConn men beat Duke men in the Final!
- Purdue women beat Duke women in the Final.
2002 Oklahoma
- UConn women beat Oklahoma women in the Final!
2003 Texas
(neither team made final)
2004 UConn
Only school to win both titles in same year!
2005 Michigan State
- Baylor women beat MSU women in Final
2006 LSU
(neither team made final)
2009 UConn - Women won
2011 UConn - Men won
We did it three of the nine times it was done, and on two other occasions we stopped other teams from winning, and we remain the only school to have won both in the same year.
Combined, UConn men and women now have ten NCAA titles, second only to UCLA.
UConn record in NCAA Championships:
Women 7-0 + Men 3-0 = Total 10-0
UConn record in NCAA Semi Finals:
Women 7-5 + Men 3-1 = Total 10-6
Not looking forward to the retirements of Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma.
It has been a magical ride.
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