Geno Auriemma Reflects on Four Decades at UConn

How do you coach the players different? How do you have to approach, you know, work differently today, coach, than you did 30 years ago? Well, you know, one thing that I've always done is to try to use humor to get my point across so it doesn't come across as bad as it sounds. Back then, players, the players that I inherited, the players that I had my first three or four years, five years here were really good kids. Don't get me wrong. And after our fourth year, we won a big championship. So we had some good players. Eighty eight, eighty nine, ninety, ninety one. We had some really good players. But once we got Rebecca in ninety one, we Rebecca Lobo, we started getting a different kind of kid that was, you know, big time recruits, so to speak. But today, today, I think the the players are not used to the demands at home, in school, that I think players were used to. So it's not their fault that everybody goes, oh, the players, they're coddled. I mean, they're entitled or that. No, they're not. Basically, they're just byproducts of their environment. And the environment that they've grown up in is people allowing like whatever happens, happens. Anything goes. Don't worry about it. You know, and I don't know that you can win basketball games being like that. So it's just it's different, but we're figuring it out little by little. Yeah, I mean, obviously it's sports, one of those things. The results are right there. You know, in many cases, many ways it's black and white and you are still having, you know, incredible success. Coach, you've seen other big time coaches say, hey, I don't I don't like the way the new setup is and I'm just going to retire. You know, I don't need the paycheck. I'm just I'm going to walk away. But you haven't done that, coach. So are you still enjoying it? Even even despite, you know, a system that maybe people don't love these days? Are you still loving this, coach? Because you don't have to do this. No, you're right. You're right. I think those coaches that decided, hey, I've done my thing. I've had enough. I agree with them. I think that is for a lot of coaches, all of us. Yeah, it's this is a lot. Yeah. And it's not good. And it doesn't benefit anybody. I don't care how much. And I'm in favor of paying them. I'm in favor of, you know, the whole NIL thing. I don't care about that. That's great. But this this is not sustainable. And I think a lot of these coaches, rightly so, say, look, I somebody else can deal with this. I, I can't deal with it. Me, I'm still I'm still able to manage it. And when I can't, then I'll do the same thing. If somebody said, coach, hey, you know, we swipe the pen, you're you know, you're you're the kind of the boss of the NCAA, what you say goes, what would you do to straighten this thing out, coach? Well, we were saying earlier that you have to you have to let people that are adults in the room, if we can find some, to say these are these are the rules that we're going to abide by. And there's going to be no exceptions. There's going to be no getting around them. And there are severe consequences if you if you don't follow the rules. If you break the rules, there's severe consequence. There can't be. Here's revenue sharing. It's 40 million. But if you can wink, wink, you can get the 70 million. Well, we're not going to be able to do that. Hey, you can transfer four times. Don't worry about it. Well, that's a problem. A kid can't be a free agent every year. Right. Absolutely. You know, we've we've we've got to make it so that people can compete, not win national championships every year, but they have to be able to compete at the level that they want to compete at. And, you know, somebody just asked me, look what it's doing to mid majors. A lot of them. Yeah. But you can't keep a kid that nobody you recruit a kid that nobody recruited. The kid blows up as player of the year in the league. I come along and I steal the kid because I can give him more money. Right. Well, we should do like soccer in Europe. I should have to pay the school in order to take that kid. Now, at least those schools, at least those schools can then become something different. Hey, come play for me. I'm going to coach you, make you better, and then you can get a big paycheck.