Barbara In Rio Blog
by Dick Weiss for TheAmerican.org
RIO DE JANEIRO-- What's left for Geno Auriemma to accomplish?
He has secured his legacy over and over at UConn, becoming a brand name in The American, winning a record 11 NCAA championships and 90 consecutive games at one point en route to establishing a dynasty in Storrs. His accomplishments in international play are just as impressive. Since Auriemma became coach of the USA Basketball senior women's national team in 2009, he has won Olympic gold in 2012 and 2016 and world championships in 2010 and 2014. He has also produced nine elite players who have won 18 gold medals in six Olympics.
Their names read like a Who's Who of modern day women's basketball.
-- 1996. center Rebecca Lobo.
-- 2000. center Kara Wolters.
-- 2004. point guard Sue Bird, guard Diana Tarausi and forward Swin Cash.
-- 2008. Taurasi and Bird.
-- 2012. Swin Cash, center Tina Charles, center Asjha Jones, Bird, Tarausi and guard Maya Moore.
-- 2016. Taurasi, Moore, Bird, Charles, forward Breanna Stewart.
The pipeline of extraordinary talent he has developed has helped elevate this country's women's basketball to the highest level on the global stage, making a compelling case for Auriemma as the best coach in a team sport in the history of this country.
All five UConn players contributed as the United States defeated Spain, 101-72, here yesterday at Carioca Arena to earn the gold and put a punctuation mark on a brilliant tournament. Taurasi scored 21 points, making 5 of 7 3-point field goals and contributing three rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals in 26 minutes. Moore scored 14 points with five rebounds. Stewart, the likely WNBA Rookie of the Year, had 11 points. Charles had eight points and seven rebounds. And Bird, who was questionable for the game with a strained left knee, had three points in 16 minutes.
Auriemma, who started Taurasi, Bird, Moore and Charles, had an all-UConn lineup on the floor at the start of the second quarter. "I put Stewie in to get us some more movement. Then I realized it. I was like, 'I'm going to catch some backlash if they play bad,''' Auriemma said.
"Now,'' he added with a smile. "I hope someone took a picture so I sent it to recruits.''
Another challenge conquered.
"I started the four of them and no one said a thing,'' Auriemma said. "Aside from Stewie, who just graduated, the rest of them all made this team, not for what they did at UConn, but what they accomplished after college. They are dominant players.''
And Team USA is one of the most dominant teams ever in the Olympics. They are a beautiful team to watch.
Auriemma sees himself as just a cog in a huge wheel. USA Basketball has now won 49 consecutive games in Olympic competition. They are the closest thing the United States has to a basketball dynasty in the post-Wooden era.
"It took a while to get there,'' Auriemma said. "The game goes in cycles. At one time, it was the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Australia. Everybody kind of jockeyed for position but i think since 1996, there was a commitment to winning made by USA Basketball - 'This is how we're going to do it.' And they did it like that in 1996 and again in 2000 and on.
"It's the same players a lot of time. Other countries, it changes. Players leave, don't want to play, get old but they just can't do it.''
This Olympic team has nine players-- Taurasi, Bird, Charles, Moore, Sylvia Fowles, Seimone Augustus, Tamika Catchings, Angel McCoughtry and Lindsay Whalen -- with at least two Olympics on their resume. Taurasi, Bird and Catchings are playing in their fourth Games.
'We've been very fortunate for the most part that there is tremendous continuity,'' Auriemma said. "So there is never a lack of experience on our tam. it's huge in this sport. If i ever had the choice to take a real young kid, which you have to to get ready, or an experienced player who has been there before, I'm taking the one with experience. All the other teams are experienced. I prefer players who had been in college for four years, have gone to Europe to get accustomed to how those kids play over there, understand what the style is.
"That's the culture USA Basketball has built. I sit down and talk to Jim Tooley (the CEO/executive director of USA Basketball) all the time. His favorite line is 'It's not about winning until you lose.' You have to live with that every day. This is the U.S. We win gold medals. It's what we do.''
Auriemma does it with little more than a month to prepare. His secret to success? He understands how to coach-- and get the most out of-- professional women's players, whose commitment to hard work and unselfishness is their greatest character trait.
"This isn't necessarily like college where you can make your players do what you want them to do just by yelling at them,'' Auriemma said. "When you're raising kids, just raise your voice and you think that gets your point across. With these guys, they understand. So we just talk to them, telling them,"This is how we're going to play defense. This is how we're going to attack them.' They do the rest.'
"The beauty of coaching 12 elite offensive players is if you don't buy into defense, I'm not going to bench you. You are all going to get minutes but how may and the quality of your minutes is generally dependent on your commitment to defense. And they all buy into it. They are so unselfish.