Geno Auriemma Makes Candid Admission On UConn Retirement Timeline
Some women's basketball fans are wondering why Geno Auriemma is still coaching the UConn Huskies.
He has been the program's head coach for over four decades at this point, will be turning 72 years old on March 23, and the fact that he has won 12 national championships shows that he has nothing else to prove. In fact, UConn winning the national title last year seemed to be the perfect time for Auriemma to walk away, but he decided against doing so in favor of at least one more season coaching Azzi Fudd, Sarah Strong, and the rest of UConn's talented roster.
And this has seemingly been a wise decision, as UConn is coming off an undefeated regular season and is the favorite to win another national championship this year. Yet, it's clear that national championships aren't what keep Auriemma motivated.
Geno Auriemma Sends Clear Message About UConn Coaching Future
Auriemma made it clear that this season won't be the final one for him, regardless of how it ends, when speaking with Dom Amore of the Hartford Courant for a March 15 article.
“I’ve passed up two great opportunities to walk away. I don’t know if God is going to give me any more. He gave me a great opportunity in 2016, right? And I blew it. Then he gave me another great opportunity last year. They say it rarely ends the way you want it to end, and he gave me two great opportunities to end it the way I would want it to end," Auriemma said in the article.
“So I don’t know why in God’s name I’m defying him, I don’t know why. It’s a big risk. You come back again next year, and you’re not undefeated, you’re not one of the top two or three teams in the country and it’s, ‘Oh, the game’s passed him by, he’s old now.’ We listened to that for eight years, so I wonder if that narrative has left now," he added.
“Well, I mean, something could come up. But there isn’t anything right now where I’d say, ‘It’s up in the air whether I’ll be back next year.’ No. That’s not what I’m thinking. I would not have been on that plane Tuesday if I was not planning to be here.”
— Dom Amore (@AmoreCourant) March 15, 2026
Auriemma will step away at some point, which is why the college basketball community needs to enjoy him while he's still around.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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