How Geno's softer approach helped UConn recover vs Tennessee

For the first time since November, UConn found itself in a close game on Sunday against Tennessee.

The Huskies jumped out to a 16-point lead in the first quarter, only for the Vols to roar back and pull ahead just over 10 minutes later. The hosts gave up a 10-0 run and went over five minutes without a basket. Tennessee dictated play on both ends of the court.

“We were playing so fast and so out of control. I hadn't seen that this year — and we’ve played some really good teams,” Geno Auriemma said.

“We just got lax,” Azzi Fudd added. “Everything that they were getting was just mess-ups on our part — miscommunications, no communication, little things, mental lapses.”

UConn recovered just enough to go into halftime tied at 42 apiece. In the past, Auriemma would’ve ripped into his team in the locker room.

“I'm like the front-end loader of pouring it on my entire career. If we go into the locker room and it's going bad and everything's on fire, I'm bringing the gasoline hose, and I’m just adding to it,” he said. “With some teams, in past years, it really got them to a place where I needed them to be.”

But at age 71 in his 41st season as UConn’s head coach, Auriemma has adapted his coaching style. He realized that screaming and yelling no longer had the intended effect. Sometimes, it only compounded the problem.

“I've noticed that when things are starting to go sideways like that, I can make it worse if I pour it on,” he said. “They're already frustrated with how it's going, and if I pour it on, they just get worse and worse and worse.

So Auriemma changed. Instead of a fear-based motivational style, he adopted one rooted in inspiration.

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.