GREENSBORO, N.C. — UConn’s Geno Auriemma sounded extra concerned about getting his staff able to contend for a nationwide championship than including one other teaching milestone to a Corridor of Fame profession.
Even on the evening he tied the NCAA Division I document for teaching victories in males’s and girls’s basketball.
The 70-year-old Auriemma earned his 1,216th win Friday evening as his No. 2 Huskies beat No. 14 North Carolina 69-58. That matched Tara VanDerveer, who retired in April after 38 seasons at Stanford.
“I am extra of how do I put [the players] in place to allow them to really feel like I really feel, like I have been very lucky to get a whole lot of issues come my method,” Auriemma mentioned. “And so they got here hoping to get a few of these issues. So I simply maintain the concentrate on that on a regular basis. And no matter occurs on my finish occurs.”
His document with the Huskies is 1,216-162, good for an 88.2% win share to go together with 11 nationwide championships — most just lately in 2016. He can break the document Wednesday in opposition to Fairleigh Dickinson.
“It is the explanation you got here to UConn, to play beneath him,” preseason All-American Paige Bueckers mentioned. “So it has been a dream come true, and we’re tremendous happy with him. I do know he does not discuss himself an excessive amount of, just a bit bit.
“To be part of this, it is superb, and it speaks to the longevity of what he is constructed right here at UConn — the historical past, the gamers, the success, the nationwide championships. So it means all the things to play for UConn and play for him.”
Tar Heels coach Courtney Banghart was fast to reward Auriemma, too. She informed reporters Thursday about assembly with Auriemma as a graduate assistant coach at Dartmouth as a part of her thesis on teaching management, a gathering that left an impression on Banghart as she mulled changing into a coach after her taking part in profession.
Among the many now-46-year-old Banghart’s takeaways: Auriemma’s authenticity is “a superpower.”
“He deserves his flowers,” she mentioned, including: “He lifts others up. He has introduced folks with him. So that you’re speaking to a Geno fan.”
Mike Krzyzewski, who retired in 2022, holds the document in males’s basketball with 1,202 victories at Military and Duke. Auriemma, VanDerveer and Krzyzewski are the one Division I coaches to succeed in the 1,200-win plateau, and Auriemma is the one one to spend his total profession at one college. VanDerveer coached at Idaho and Ohio State earlier than Stanford.
Bueckers scored 29 factors within the UConn win, together with 16 within the first quarter. She made 12 of 21 pictures from the sphere with 4 3-pointers, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. It was her tenth 25-point recreation in opposition to an AP-ranked opponent, transferring her previous Breanna Stewart to rank No. 2 amongst UConn girls’s gamers. Maya Moore leads the way in which with 19.
Huskies freshman Sarah Robust had 14 factors, 13 rebounds and 6 assists.
Indya Nivar had 15 factors and 9 rebounds to steer the Tar Heels (3-1), who shot 36% from the sphere and made 7 of 24 3-pointers.
UNC trailed by 21 however clawed its method again to inside placing vary at 61-52 on Nivar’s layup with 7:03 left. The Tar Heels then had 5 straight empty possessions earlier than UConn obtained a stick-back from Jana El Alfy and Bueckers obtained free on a lower for a layup that pushed the margin again to 13 with 3:16 remaining.
UNC now has misplaced seven straight within the collection, with its final win coming in January 2007.
Data from The Related Press was used on this report.