In his 40 years as the coach of the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team, Geno Auriemma has accomplished nearly everything there is to accomplish in the sport. He has won a record-setting 11 NCAA national titles, has mentored players who have become legitimate WNBA stars like Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore, and is the winningest college basketball coach of all time with 1,221 victories to date.
On “The Psychology of Feedback” episode of “What Drives Winning,” Geno Auriemma talked about how the success he has achieved over the years can get his mind wandering into different places as well as how the same success can get to him.
“The only thing worse than losing is winning all the time,” Auriemma said. “You’ve never experienced that, but I have. What happens is, you get into this mindset that I am being defined by how much I win and that I’m associated with winning. Losing then becomes a personal affront to who you are.
“You have to be careful with that. Winning didn’t define you, but you allowed it to define you.”
Geno Auriemma then shared how one can continue his winning ways without getting “intoxicated.”
“In order to continue winning, you have to separate yourself and look at the reasons why you’re winning,” he said. “Most of them do not include you 100%. You’re a part of the winning, but the minute you start to think you’re the biggest reason why you’re winning, I think that’s when you do get drunk on your own success.”
Geno Auriemma talks about being intoxicated with winning
Now at age 70, Geno Auriemma is still UConn’s lead strategist. He celebrated his 40th year in the program with associate coach Chris Daily on Nov. 20 by leading the Huskies to an 85-41 shutdown of the FDU Knights.
The legendary coach has vowed to never let all his accomplishments get into his head and drive his ego out of control. But he did admit that in the entirety of his coaching career, he had been the most egotistic from 1995 to 2004—then the Huskies won the NCAA title in 1995, lost in the national tournament for the next four years, and then won the title again in three of the following four years.
“During that time, events conspired against us winning 10 years in a row,” Auriemma said. “That’s what I thought ’cause we had the best team in the country all 10 years. So, I thought the only reason we’re not winning 10 national championships in a row is because we’ve been unfortunate.”
It has been eight years since UConn won a national title, but it seems like Geno Auriemma now has a more mature outlook when it comes to winning.
Currently, Geno Auriemma is coaching Paige Bueckers, who might be in her final run with the Huskies as she readies herself for a career in the WNBA. He also has a rising star in Sarah Strong, who has become one of the freshmen to watch out for this season.
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The Huskies are currently 8-0 and will look to extend their winning streak against the eighth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-2) on Thursday.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
