About a decade ago, UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma called out the naysayers and doubters of his storied program. In September 2015, Auriemma appeared on basketball analyst Zach Lowe’s “Grantland” podcast.
In one instance, Auriemma addressed those who thought that the Huskies had no competition. This was because Lowe asked Auriemma if he believed his team had become too good, given that they were the winningest squad in all of women’s basketball and that they were coming off a national championship three-peat, which eventually became a four-peat in 2016.
“Some of our fans are so goddamn stupid it’s unbelievable. They complain a lot of times that we have no competition and it’s boring. Then, if we play a really good team and don’t play our A-game, they b**ch that something’s wrong with UConn, ‘This kid’s not any good, that kid’s not any good, Geno Auriemma got outcoached by this coach.’ It’s unbelievable,” Auriemma was quoted as saying (via ESPN).
After 2016, however, Auriemma and UConn faced a nine-year national title drought. They won it all again in 2025. The Huskies did this by defeating the 2024 national champions, the South Carolina Gamecocks, by 23 points in this year’s NCAA title game, 82-59.
When Geno Auriemma Addressed a WNBA Coach Regarding UConn’s Dominance
In the same interview, Geno Auriemma shared with Zach Lowe that there was also doubt from the WNBA towards the UConn Huskies that he had heard about. The legendary coach took the time to address this as well, without holding back on his explanation.
“I heard this WNBA coach say, ‘I don’t like Connecticut. They’re bad for the game because they dominate so much. They get the best players and they kill everybody.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s the most idiotic statement I ever heard.’ That just goes to show you how ignorant some people are. Let’s say we get two high school All-Americans every year. Let’s just say, the people we beat also get two,” Auriemma explained.
“So, if there’s 20 kids that make first team All-American and they play in the McDonald’s All-American Game and we get two or three, what happens to the other 17 guys? So obviously, we’re doing something a little different than just getting the best players. No. 1, we get the right players, and we try to do the right thing by them,” he added.
Coach Auriemma and the Huskies now head into the 2025-26 season, looking to win back-to-back national championships, a feat they last achieved in the 2010s, from 2013 to 2016.
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