Geno Auriemma Is Not Judging Paige Bueckers' UConn Career on National Championships

Geno Auriemma made it clear what he thinks of Paige Bueckers' UConn career, championship or not.

Apr 4, 2024; Cleveland, OH, USA; UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma (left) and guard Paige Bueckers during press conference at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The UConn Huskies have established the most dominant program in NCAA women's basketball history. And head coach Geno Auriemma has presided over it.

Auriemma himself has coached the team to 11 national championships, though the most recent one came back in 2016. Which of course means current star Paige Bueckers is notably missing a title from her college resume.

This is something that has been brought up as a pressure point for Bueckers, with Auriemma previously alluding to the perception that Paige would go down as UConn's best player ever not to win it all if that indeed does turn out to be the case.

However, he made it clear that isn't the way he is judging her.

Auriemma spoke to the media Friday with Bueckers on the precipice of recording her 2,000th UConn point and was asked where he would put Bueckers in the pantheon of stars he has coached.

"This notion that you have to win a national championship or multiple national championships in order to be considered a generational type player or amazing type player, there are a lot of great players that have had amazing careers that have never won a national championship. That have never been to a Final Four. You can't use that as a gauge for where she would be," Auriemma answered per comments shared on The UConn Daily YouTube page.

He then added, "My thought process is, 'How much did she dominate the college basketball world during the four years that she played here?'"

The legendary coach went on to wonder what the Huskies would have looked like without her amid her tenure and asked, "How many great-great All-Americans has she played with? I don't want to say this but I think the number is zero," before catching himself and noting current Washington Mystics player Aaliyah Edwards did make an All-American team.

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Auriemma praised Paige for taking the squad to the Final Four every year she was healthy but also lamented on her behalf that there is a long list of legends from the school she is competing with in terms of Mount Rushmore position.

But Auriemma's point was clear—he is not judging Bueckers on national championships; even if that likely won't lessen her desire to win one.