UConn's Geno Auriemma Breaks Down the Team's Demanding Standard
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The Huskies are undefeated overall, perfect in conference play, and carrying a 12-game win streak this season. Their last game was against No. 11 Iowa at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The Huskies went on to win 90–64 over the Hawkeyes.
Staying undefeated despite facing teams like USC, Louisville, Michigan, and Ohio State is not easy. That control, Geno Auriemma insists, isn’t accidental. In fact, it is a result of a standard that Auriemma and Dan Hurley have built in Storrs.
“I don’t know. I think the best thing I can say is that other people say it best, and that’s the way it should be,” Auriemma said. “The people we compete against, the people who emulate us for whatever reason, the people who are inspired by our program and what we’ve done and how we’ve done it, they get to define what that standard is."
"I know what it is for us and for our team. We’ve talked about it a lot. The pressure to win is incredible at UConn. The pressure to play a certain way is incredible at UConn. But you don’t have that many players in the pros and you don’t have that many Olympians unless they love playing under that kind of pressure.”
That pressure has shaped everything Auriemma has built in Storrs. He arrived before the 1985–86 season at a program with a single winning year. Now, it's almost four decades later, Auriemma has 12 national championships, 24 Final Fours, six perfect seasons, and more than 1,200 career wins, the most in college basketball history to his name.
Auriemma has also developed players like Paige Bueckers, Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, and others. Evidently, the UConn standard has produced results and players that will go down in history as iconic.
“So the standard is the standard, and we play to it as many nights as we can. Whatever the other team thinks, we’re kind of flattered when they say that. I’m happy that people recognize it. But like somebody told me a long time ago, when you’re really, really good at something, just shut up. Other people say it for you. When you’re good, really good, other people can’t wait to tell you or tell others that you’re really good. And that means more than anything else,” added Auriemma.
Azzi Fudd Adds About UConn’s Non-Negotiable Standard
That expectation showed up again on the road against No. 16 Southern California. UConn won 79–51, breaking the Trojans’ 20-game home winning streak. After USC led 9–8, UConn made a 24–2 run that put the game out of reach before halftime.
For Azzi Fudd, the consistency wasn’t surprising. In fact, she credited the same to something that's brewed and instilled in Storrs.
“We have the best coaches in the country, and they expect a certain standard of play, whether it’s in practice, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” Fudd said. “He expects us to play the same way with the same intensity every single day…Just holding us to that expectation, that standard, we then hold each other to that standard. It doesn’t matter if we’re up, if we’re down, or who we’re playing. We’re trying to play UConn basketball… getting better each game, playing together, being smart, and building."
That, more than the record, explains why UConn is still undefeated and why the standard keeps showing up, no matter the stage.
-fd44250df32912986cc6690f0b8bfa32.png "Shivani Menon")
Shivani Menon is a sports journalist with a background in Mass Communication and a passion for storytelling. She has written for EssentiallySports, College Sports Network, and PFSN, covering Olympic sports like track and field, gymnastics, and alpine skiing, as well as college football, basketball, March Madness, and the NBL Draft. When she's not reporting, she's either on the road chasing sunsets or getting lost in the rhythms of electronic soundscapes.