UConn coach Geno Auriemma reflected on being the oldest coach to win a Division I basketball title, saying wins like this make it worth sticking around.
— UConn coach Geno Auriemma joked about being the oldest coach to win a Division I basketball title, women’s or men’s, after his Huskies got the program’s 12th on Sunday.
«Well, all those other coaches had the good sense to not stick around until they were 71», Auriemma said following an 82-59 win over South Carolina at Amalie Arena.
He also won his 10th championship in this venue, in 2015. Then the Huskies won again in 2016 in Indianapolis for a fourth straight title, ending Breanna Stewart’s amazing UConn career.
«There was a big part of my inner circle of people that I trust that were hoping that after the Stewie fourth-in-a-row that I should have called it a day back then», Auriemma said. «That would have been apropos, I guess — ride off into the sunset.
«But . you make the decision you’re not finished yet, and then three, four years go by and people start telling you that UConn is not UConn anymore and it’s somebody else’s turn. And then five years go by, and six years go by, and seven years go by.»
In all, eight years and seven NCAA tournaments passed (the 2020 tournament was cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic) between the end of Stewart’s reign and Sunday’s championship. During that time, UConn still got to the Final Four every year but one (2023, when Paige Bueckers was out with a knee injury) but the championships went to South Carolina (three), Notre Dame, Baylor, Stanford and LSU.
