Geno Auriemma wasn’t blindsided by assistant coach Jamelle Elliott’s decision to step down and pursue other opportunities outside basketball. On Tuesday at his annual Fore The Kids charity golf tournament, he revealed that her exit had been “a couple of years in the making.”

Elliott spent 11 years as an assistant with the Huskies from 1998 to 2009 before leaving to become the head coach at Cincinnati. When her tenure there ended in 2018, she returned to Storrs but took a job as an associate athletic director to launch the National C Club, the school’s student-athlete alumni organization. Elliott only re-joined Auriemma’s staff on an interim basis when Jasmine Lister unexpectedly left the team midway through the 2019-20 campaign. She stayed on permanently that offseason.

Given the circumstances surrounding Elliott’s return, Auriemma knew she wouldn’t hang around forever.

“I think she's been looking for her next thing, the next challenge,” he said. “After she left Cincinnati (in 2018), I don't think there was ever this burning desire to get back into coaching. I kind of almost forced her into it when [Lister] left. I was like, ‘Come on,’ and so she did it. She was an administrator when that happened and I think she really enjoyed being able to cover a lot of bases rather than just the grind of the basketball part.”

Now, Elliott is launching her own business as a leadership consultant. She announced the venture on Tuesday and offers “keynotes, advisory and leadership development for leaders ready to make excellence the standard,” according to her website.

Meanwhile, UConn will turn its attention towards finding Elliott’s replacement. Auriemma indicated that “there’s always people that you keep in the back of your mind,” in case a spot on staff opens, but the Huskies will have to “hope they’re available.” One aspect of the job that’s not a requirement? Having some connection to the program.

“Sometimes that helps,” Auriemma said. “I think more importantly is the ability to connect with kids, being a good teacher, having a network recruiting-wise — all those things. If they do have some ties to the program, I think that's a benefit, but it's not a requirement.”

On the official job posting, UConn requires candidates to have five or more years of experience coaching at the Division I level across multiple schools, though it prefers someone with 10+ years of DI experience who reached the Final Four as a player and also played professionally.

Whoever it is — Nykesha Sales (most recently at Georgia) and Willnett Crockett (USC) both fit the bill — Auriemma is confident the new hire will live up to the program’s high standards.

“It's not going to be that easy to fill that spot… but like I told the players, we'll find somebody pretty good. We'll find somebody better than good,” he said. “It's a great time to be here. There’s a lot of great stuff going on.”

UConn still isn’t sure when Marine Dursus will get to campus. The freshman from France is the only player who hasn’t joined the team for summer workouts this month.

“Every time I think I have a timeline, it changes,” Auriemma explained. “At one time, it was going to be next week. Then next week came, and it's going to be next week (after that). So I hope we can get that cleared up. It's nothing on our end, unfortunately. It's all on their end. As everybody knows from reading the paper and listening to news, it’s not the easiest thing in the world right now to get into this country.”

Although UConn never formally announced it, the team has joined most major college football and men’s college basketball programs by appointing a general manager. The title belongs to Carley Mooney, a longtime staffer with the Huskies who received the promotion in September of 2025.

She previously served as an undergraduate student manager as well as graduate assistant, assistant director of women’s basketball administration, and director of recruiting operations and student-athlete development for the program.

“She does all NIL-related stuff,” Auriemma explained.

UConn works with Shane Kelley, the NIL General Manager for Storrs Central. A longtime sports agent who most famously represented tennis legend Caroline Wozniacki, he often serves as a liaison between the program and player agents.

“Whenever there's an issue, we have our agent talk to their agent, and they do agent talk,” Auriemma said.

UConn men’s basketball and football both have general managers. Tom Moore serves in the role for Dan Hurley’s squad while Zach Potter does so for the new football staff.

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