Editor's Note: Dick Weiss, a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame, has covered college sports in Philadelphia and New York for more than 40 years. He will be providing regular commentary for the American Athletic Conference during the 2014-15 season.
Geno Auriemma and UConn long ago established themselves as the gold standard in women's basketball. As the Huskies claim their 10th NCAA title, the question is where they rank among the elite in all sports
by Dick Weiss
Even though he has now coached the UConn' women's basketball team to 10 national championships and is undefeated in NCAA title games, Naismith Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma shies away from any comparisons to the late John Wooden, who won 10 titles in 12 years with UCLA's men's team between 1964 and 1975.
He hasn't reached that iconic stage yet. But he is getting close and is already being talked about as the best women's college basketball coach in history after a 63-53 victory over Notre Dame this week in Tampa. Who knows how many more championships the 60-year old Auriemma can wrack up before he settles into retirement.
“I’ll be the first to say, I’m not John Wooden,” Auriemma said in his postgame interview with ESPN. “I’ve got a bunch of friends that would tell you that I’m right. I’m not. But as I said the other day, I just think what we’ve done here the last 20 years is pretty remarkable in its own right.
“I’ll let the people who write the history decide where I fit in.”
It is unfair to compare men's and women's basketball. They are two different sports. But the pride of the American Athletic Conference has become a true dynasty, surpassing Tennessee, which won eight championships from 1987 through 1998 under Pat Summit and dominating their sport in an era where six different men's basketball teams have won titles in the last eight years.
“I just know that in our sport, from 1995 to today, what we've done against our peers is as good if not better than anybody else has done in their sport against their peers,” Auriemma said. “I don't care whether it's harder in that sport or this sport or that sport.
“I understand all that. Don't get me wrong. But given the rules that we play with, with all the people we compete against, I'm pretty proud we've done it the way we've done it for as long as we've done it.”
But 10 seems like a significant number.
There have been other dynasties in the modern era of college sports. Iowa wrestling won 11 national championships in 12 years from 1975 to 1986 and nine titles in 10 years between 1991 and 2000. Alabama football won three BCS titles in four years in 2009, 2011 and 2012. North Carolina women's soccer won nine consecutive national titles from 1986 through 1994.
Auriemma, who also won a gold medal as the 2012 U.S. Olympic coach, has won three consecutive championships twice – from 2002-04 and again from 2013-15 – has coached four undefeated teams (in 2002 2009, 2010 and 2014), and won a record 90 consecutive games from Nov. 16, 2008, to Dec. 30, 2010.
He has turned Storrs, Connecticut, into a destination for the best players in the country. His latest masterpiece is 6-4 junior Breanna Stewart, a younger version of Cheryl Miller, who led the United States to a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics and is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the game in this country.
Stewart, the Naismith Player of the Year, scored just eight points and was limited to just eight shots against Notre Dame after suffering a first-half ankle injury, but she grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked four shots. She was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player for the third straight year. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the only men's player to achieve that honor.
“There just hasn't been a player like Stewie in the women's game in a long, long time,” Auriemma said. “She might be two inches taller than Cheryl Miller and Cheryl Miller was one of best players I saw. Stewie's the kind of player that women's basketball probably hasn't seen.”
Stewart came to UConn with the goal of winning four straight national championships.
“You can't win four without winning three'' said Stewart.
Why not?
The Huskies lose Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Kiah Stokes to graduation but they have four starters -- Stewart, junior point guard Moriah Jefferson, 6-2 sophomore forward Morgan Tuck and freshman guard Kia Nurse - back plus another blockbuster recruiting class that includes 6-3 guard Katie Lou Samuelson from Mater Dei High in California, the No. 1 prospect in this country. She will join 6-1 guard Napheesa Collier of Incarnate Word in St. Louis and 6-2 forward De’Janae Boykin from Maryland.
Jefferson, who won the Nancy Leiberman award as the nation's top point guard, gave UConn a huge lift, making up for her 0-for-8 shooting performance in an early season win over the Irish by scoring 15 points and locking up Notre Dame star guard Jewell Loyd, who had 12 points but shot just 4 for 18, missing all eight of her shots in the second half.
“She should have been the MOP,” said Stewart of her classmate Jefferson.
Mosqueda-Lewis also had 15 points and came up with big field goals when the Huskies needed her most.
Auriemma won his title one night after fellow USA Basketball Olympic coach Mike Krzyzewski won his fifth men's championship at Duke.
“Our dad was very proud of Geno and Mike and how, throughout their years as collegiate head basketball coaches. they have diligently led their student-athletes to be successful on the court, in the classroom and in their lives” Wooden's children Nan and Jim Wooden said in a statement.
For Auriemma, it was one of his most rewarding seasons, given the fact this team thought it could coast through the season.
“I know we've won a lot of these but I don't know that I've ever been more proud of a group of kids than I am of this group because I didn't trust them in the beginning of the season.”
An early season overtime loss at Stanford that broke a 48-game winning streak forced the players to re-examine their work ethic and realize they had to practice harder if they wanted to achieve their ultimate goal of continuing a proud legacy.
“Each day they got more trustworthy themselves,” Auriemma admitted.