TAMPA, Fla. — Geno Auriemma stood up one last time before this group of players and had a question for them.
“With about 29 seconds left, we cross midcourt and we’re dribbling it out, how’s that feeling?” he asked. “Nothing like it, right? … Nothing like it.”
For Auriemma, 71, it has been like that for a long time. He’s had the feeling before, and who would bet against his having it again? He’s won 12 championships now, the first coming at age 41 in 1995, the 12th three decades later, as the oldest coach in men’s or women’s basketball ever to win it, and it’s obvious the man does not know when to quit.
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That can be taken a few ways, but take it this way: he has never figured out just how he could look at players he’s recruited and tell them he’s going to walk away, never been able to stop amidst the fun he’s having — few have ever savored the off-the-court storytelling the way he does — and decide he’s had enough of it.
Hey, he’s still got it, so why give it up?
“Well, all those other coaches had the good sense to not stick around until they were 71,” Auriemma said, following the Huskies’ 82-59 dismantling of defending champ South Carolina in the NCAA final. “We all feel our age at some point. We don’t like to admit that we’re older because we still act younger because of the people that we’re dealing with. I know a lot of my friends that are my age that haven’t done what I’ve done with who I’ve done it with, and they look way older, act way older because they’ve lost the ability to be a kid because they’re not around kids. So, yeah, I may be 71 number-wise, but I think otherwise I’m more able to do stuff with those young people because I’m around them every day and they rub off on me.”
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Auriemma did think about stepping away after Breanna Stewart and company won their fourth title in a row in 2016, but he looked at Napheesa Collier and the players who’d be returning and quickly threw himself ...
