Great coaches are celebrated for their resilience in the face of adversity, and Geno Auriemma exemplifies this trait perfectly. Over his nearly four-decade tenure with the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team, he encountered numerous challenges but always confronted them head-on.
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Recently, Sue Bird recounted a particularly inspiring moment from her time playing under Auriemma, showcasing his remarkable ability to lead and motivate through even the toughest situations.
On the 7PM In Brooklyn podcast, Sue shared a story from one of her freshman or sophomore year games against the Tennessee Volunteers. She remembered how trailing at halftime made Auriemma lose his composure. However, his subsequent offbeat locker room speech failed to reflect that. Instead of motivating the players, his words made them giggle as Bird recalled,
“We’re playing against Tennessee… First half is not great… He [Geno Auriemma] walks in the locker room and he goes, ‘Do you see this? [a three-finger hand gesture with the thumb and index finger forming a tight, small circle]… This is all your a**holes right now’… He goes on a whole thing about, ‘You’re playing tight, you look scared’… And then he says that… You can’t laugh but you’re laughing”.
This moment captured the intense rivalry between the two teams. This began during the 1995 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament when Auriemma’s Huskies defeated Pat Summitt’s Volunteers 70–64 to clinch their first-ever title. Shortly after, the latter dominated the circuit by securing three consecutive championships.
By the time Bird joined the Huskies in 1998, this rivalry had peaked. So, with so much at stake, the team’s shortcomings in that game undoubtedly stung Auriemma’s pride. This dynamic also likely contributed to his unexpected reaction.
The head coach undoubtedly knew what he was doing. Instead of crushing the players’ morale and confidence before an important second half, he chose an unconventional approach to get through to them.
Over time, these quirky antics became a key part of his coaching methods, as Bird saw them in action again while representing Team USA.
While preparing for a FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, Bird and her teammates played scrimmages against their top competitor, Australia, just a day after the WNBA All-Star weekend. That time around, Team USA suffered a humbling 20-point loss after struggling to control the game.
This defeat lingered until the World Cup, prompting then-head coach Auriemma to use it as a motivational tool. During the pre-game speech against Australia, he reminded the players of this past humiliation to bring the best out of his players. Reflecting on this moment, Bird mentioned,
“He’s like, ‘Last time we played this team, they owned you. Beat you by 20… Made you guys look stupid… But you know what they didn’t know, you were all f***ing hungover. Let’s go beat their a**'”.
This trick worked wonders as Team USA went on to win the tie. Moreover, they built on this momentum to bring home the gold medal. So, moments like this only point to the legacy Auriemma has left behind, turning him into an iconic figure in basketball history.
