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Despite self-doubts, Geno shows why he's still the greatest coach of all time

Auriemma put together one of the best coaching jobs of his career to lead UConn back to the top.

Author

Daniel Connolly
April 10, 2025

Photo: Ian Bethune

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Despite self-doubts, Geno shows why he's still the greatest coach of all time

Over the last few seasons, most of UConn’s defining streaks died. The Huskies’ run of 240 consecutive wins over unranked opponents came to an end at Georgia Tech on Dec. 9, 2021. Later that season, they dropped their first conference game in nine years. In 2022-23, UConn lost back to back games for the first time since 1993 then failed to make the Final Four after 14 straight appearances.

The Huskies had to get used to something that had become incredibly unfamiliar: Losing. They dropped six games in 2021-22 — most in a single season since 2004-05 — then followed it up with the same number in 2022-23 and 2023-24. UConn’s 18 defeats were its most over a three year span since 1991-1994, when it piled up 25 losses.

In the meantime, the Huskies’ championship drought stretched on. They surpassed the five-year mark — previously the longest they’d gone without a national title since winning the first in 1995 — and later lost in the championship game for the first time in 2022. As UConn entered the 2024-25 campaign, nine seasons had passed since the program last won it all.

Amid all the struggles, Geno Auriemma started to wonder whether the game had passed him by.

“There were so many times I would go home and I would say, ‘I don’t think I’m as good as a coach as I used to be. I don’t think I’m as able to do what these players need in today’s world. I don’t know that I can do that,’” he told the Dan Patrick Show. “It really made me question, ‘Am I still the right person to be doing this at this time in my career at a place like UConn where championships are the standard?’”

In reality, Auriemma did some of his best coaching during that stretch. The Huskies reached the national title game in 2022 while dealing with a cascade of injuries. The next season, they stayed afloat and still made it to the Sweet Sixteen even though Paige Bueckers missed the entire year and Azzi Fudd sat out most of the regular season. In 2023-24, UConn began the ensuing campaign with a (mostly) full roster, only to have injuries decimate it in the first month. From there, it had to rework everything on the fly and still ended up in the Final Four with two freshmen in the starting lineup.

Despite all UConn went through, the bottom never fell out. Still, doubt crept into Auriemma’s mind, “which is crazy because we’re going to the Final Four every year,” he said.

Through it all, Auriemma believed that once the Huskies were healthy again, everything would work out. On Sunday, he was proven right when UConn won its 12th national championship after historically dominant march through the NCAA Tournament.

In doing so, Auriemma showed why he’s still the best coach in college basketball.

While the Huskies ended up on top, that wasn’t a foregone conclusion — especially when the season began. Although they had plenty of talent on paper, they had just as many question marks. Fudd had played just 17 games over the previous two seasons due to injury. Sarah Strong was still an unproven freshman. They didn’t have an obvious answer in the low post.

Most of all, UConn lacked experience, which manifested itself in inconsistency early on. The Huskies played a couple good quarters each game but never sustained it for all 40 minutes. They handled top-25 teams such as UNC and Ole Miss but weren’t up for the task against top-10 teams in Notre Dame and USC.

Even after UConn lost those two games in December, Auriemma remained patient. He held off from crushing his team in the media, instead going out of his way to find positive from the defeats.

Then came the loss at Tennessee in February. The Huskies blew a halftime lead, couldn’t make a layup and continued a concerning trend of melting in the biggest moments of the biggest games. There seemed to be something fundamentally wrong with the team — a problem that went beyond basketball.

At long last, Auriemma unleashed. He called out Bueckers for a “horrible game”, said El Alfy needed to grow up and criticized his team’s lack of competitiveness.

That marked the low point of the season. From there, UConn’s ascent towards a championship began. Three games later, the Huskies pounded South Carolina by 29 on its home court. They closed the regular season strong and then rolled through the Big East Tournament.

When the NCAA Tournament began, UConn took its game to another level. The Huskies destroyed Arkansas State and South Dakota State in the first two rounds then handled Oklahoma despite a halftime deficit.

In the Elite Eight, Auriemma put his genius on full display. After UConn went up by as many 19, USC responded and pulled within five entering the fourth quarter. The Huskies desperately needed a basket.

The easy choice would’ve been Bueckers, who had 40 points the previous game and had already put up 20 points through 30 minutes, but Auriemma cast an eye towards the future. He drew up a 3-pointer for Fudd even though she started 0-9 against the Trojans. The coach wanted to get her going not just to finish strong in the regional final but to hopefully spark her for the Final Four as well.

“At some point, somebody else’s gotta make a shot (besides Bueckers),” Auriemma explained. “Maybe this will be the moment. If it goes in, then maybe that gets her going and helps us next week, too. Who knows? So [it was a] hunch.”

He designed an elevator screen to get Fudd an open shot at the top of the arc and she buried it. From there, UConn cruised a 78-64 victory and Fudd never looked back. Over the final nine quarters of the tournament, she racked up 51 points on 19-34 (55.9 percent) shooting.

Fudd could’ve figured it out on her own but Auriemma didn’t leave it to chance. She went on to win Final Four Most Outstanding Player as UConn blew through UCLA and South Carolina to win the national championship.

“We as coaches felt like Azzi was the key to the tournament,” he said after the championship.

By the end, the Huskies were impossible to beat — Bueckers, Fudd and Strong did the heavy lifting while everyone else chipped in with their own contributions.

They peaked at the perfect time with their two best performances coming in the two most important games of the season. UConn took a long time to put it all together but by the end, it played as well as any team in program history. That’s a credit to the coach. The Huskies always had the talent — he made sure they reached their ceiling.

As UConn slogged through injury after injury over the last few years, people danced on its grave and declared the dynasty dead. Even Auriemma doubted whether he could lead the Huskies.

Despite it all, he put together one of the best coaching jobs of his career to lead UConn back to the top.

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