University of Connecticut Athletics
1,200 More Than A Number For Coach Auriemma
2/8/2024 2:56:00 PM | Women's Basketball
By PHIL CHARDIS
Special To uconnhuskies.com
HARTFORD – In typical Geno Auriemma fashion, the actual number didn't mean much to him. After all, was victory No. 1,200 really much different than No. 1,199 for the 39-year UConn women's basketball coach?
But as for what win No. 1,200 represents – the longevity, the sustained excellence, the remarkable growth of the sport not only statewide, but nationally, the hundreds of lives of players, coaches and fans impacted – that's what means the most to him. And that's why even before the 14,138 filed into the XL Center to view Wednesday's historic 67-34 victory over Seton Hall, Auriemma allowed himself a moment of reflection.
"I thought back to the first time we ever played in this building," he said. "It was a doubleheader with the men, and our game was like at 5 or 5:30 and I can't imagine there were 50 people in the building – counting the ushers and some parents who might have drove up. So, that part kind of hit home with me, that we've gone from that to this. That's probably the most rewarding thing – not only did none of this exist, but this was never even remotely thought possible and it's happened and I don't think CD (associate head coach Chris Dailey) and I could be any more grateful for how it's turned out."
Of Auriemma's 1,200 career victories, Dailey has been around for 1,200 of them, a fact that the head coach never fails to mention when anyone gets him talking about his UConn career.
"I knew very, very early, before I even took the job, that if she would agree to come here and coach with us, that we could be good," Auriemma said. "That decision, I think, made every other decision possible. Had I gotten that decision wrong, there would have been a whole lot of other wrong decisions going forward. By getting that one right, I think we set ourselves up for something like this to occur. I can honestly say that if she wasn't a part of this, it probably would not have happened."
Technically, it would not have happened had not then-UConn Athletic Director John Toner not taken a chance on a young assistant coach from Virginia in 1985 – much in the same way Toner took a chance on a young men's coach from Northeastern the following year – which set the stage for basketball success at UConn for decades to come. The building process, however, was left up to Auriemma (and Jim Calhoun). Safe to say they were good at it.
Ultimately, the 1,200 total is significant because so few have achieved it – just two other coaches, to be exact, Stanford's Tara VanDerveer (1,206 and counting) and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (1,202 and finished). Auriemma, the only coach to achieve all the victories at one school, is the fastest to reach 1,200 (in 1,360 games), just as he was the fastest to reach 800, 900, 1,000 and 1,100.
The 1,200 Celebration
— UConn Women's Basketball (@UConnWBB) February 9, 2024
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"I think it should mean a tremendous amount to any player that's ever played here," Auriemma said, "to know that they had a hand in all this."
Current star Paige Bueckers was able to speak eloquently on behalf of all those players.
"Coming here, being a part of this legacy, being a part of the program he and CD have built and all the alumns, it's just a blessing, it's amazing, it's what you dreamt of as a kid, is coming to be a part of this amazing program," Bueckers said. "It's a testament to what he's built here – the longevity of it, maintaining greatness. It's amazing to be a part of."
With No. 1,200 safely in the bank, the next logical question is how many more Auriemma can achieve. Even he doesn't know that answer.
"The challenge today is to prove not that you could do it -- I don't have to prove anything to anybody – except I have to prove to myself that I can still do it," he said. "And that's probably a harder fight then the one that we had back then, to prove to yourself that you can still do it.
"There isn't a number I'm trying to reach, there's not a whale I'm chasing, that I'm obsessed with. When it's over, it's over and whatever the number is, that's what it's going to be."
Because it was never really about a number at all.
