Former UConn Huskies sensation and now Phoenix Mercury great Diana Taurasi had a heartfelt tribute for her college basketball mentor during his ceremony last year. Back in Nov. of last year, Taurasi was among the Huskies legends who made tributes to coach Geno Auriemma and associate head coach Chris Dailey during the 40th year anniversary of their partnership at UConn.
Also during that night, Auriemma and the 2024-25 Huskies defeated the FDU Knights by 44 points, 85-41, to give the tenured tactician his 1217th win as a head coach, surpassing Tennessee Volunteers’ Tara VanDerveer as the winningest college hoops coach of all time. With this, Taurasi, along with Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Rebecca Lobo, had a funny but awe-inspiring message for both Auriemma and Dailey.
“I really don’t know what to say. What can you say to coach Auriemma and CD that hasn’t been said before. The good, the bad and frankly, the stuff you don’t want to hear when you get here. And I think, out of everything, I want to thank you coach…You told me all the things I needed to hear to make me a better person, a better teammate, and a better basketball player,” Taurasi said. (7:16)
“All those little things day by day, week by week, month by month, you start building this confidence that you can be a better person every single day. I think as I see everyone here, whether we played on the same team or are decades apart, we always put this jersey on to represent you because we know how much you love this team, the game of basketball, and your family,” she added.
Taurasi then went on to talk about coach Geno Auriemma’s wife, Kathy, for all the inspiring and insightful conversations that were had with her to a roaring, applauding UConn crowd. She then revealed that she’d go to Kathy Auriemma whenever there were frustrations arising with coach Geno Auriemma himself, which helped her eventually form a deeper relationship with him.
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Diana Taurasi and Geno Auriemma won at both the college basketball and international levels
During Diana Taurasi’s time with coach Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies from the year 2000 to 2004, they won three national championships together, which contributed towards the Huskies’ illustrious national title three-peat in that decade. Two of those NCAA titles, Taurasi was the Most Outstanding Player in the 2003 and 2004 runs.
Along with their success together in the collegiate hoops level, Taurasi and Auriemma also won two Olympic gold medals as a tandem when Auriemma was the head coach of the Team USA women’s basketball squads that participated in the 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics.
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