STORRS, Conn. – Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma thinks too much emphasis on winning can backfire. And there is no better example for him than the end of the Huskies’ 70-game winning streak.
Connecticut is heading to the Final Four in Atlanta, and Auriemma hopes his team has learned from its loss to Villanova in the Big East tournament. If the Huskies are to beat Texas on Sunday and repeat as national champions, Auriemma said, they have to concentrate on the game itself – not the outcome.
“The minute we started putting the emphasis on winning, that changed our whole approach to the game,” he said Thursday. “And when we lost the Villanova game, we came home and we took those 10 days to get back to playing the game of basketball the way we like to play it.”
This season, Auriemma wanted to slowly develop his inexperienced team.
“You’re supposed to have growing pains,” he said. “And when you have growing pains, you’re supposed to suffer a little bit, and you’re supposed to get knocked on your butt and have to pick yourself back up and check yourself in the mirror. Do a real character check and all that stuff.”
That never happened.
“We never got a chance to do that, and so we kept winning and winning and winning,” he said, as if it were a bad thing.
Now, UConn faces a Texas team on a 17-game winning streak. That’s just fine with Auriemma. He loves the idea painting his team as an underdog. “I think 70 in a row is gone, and we have won four in a row, and Texas has won 17 in a row,” he said. “So they are huge favorite going into the game.”
UConn coach, star capture AP awards
ATLANTA – Geno Auriemma and Diana Taurasi earned AP coach and player of the year awards Saturday for leading Connecticut to a record winning streak and its fourth straight Final Four.
It’s the fourth AP coaching award for Auriemma, who had only Taurasi back as a starter from last season’s unbeaten national championship team.
But he blended in freshmen and role players from last season’s club to fashion a 35-1 record. Connecticut plays Texas on Sunday night in the national tournament semifinals.
Along the way, UConn set an NCAA women’s record by winning 70 straight games, a streak ended by Villanova in the Big East tournament final.
“If you ask me, ‘How’d you do that?’ I would tell you, ‘I don’t know,”‘ Auriemma said. “If you ask (the players), ‘How did you do that?’ they’d say, ‘I don’t know.’ We just kind of go out and play.”
“But I always keep my fingers crossed.”
Auriemma received 20 of the 44 votes from the national media panel that chooses the weekly AP Top 25. LSU’s Sue Gunter had eight votes, Texas’ Jody Conradt six and Villanova’s Harry Perretta five.
Auriemma, 499-99 in 18 seasons at UConn, also won the AP award in 1995, 1997 and 2000. No other coach has won it more
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