The comment that Geno Auriemma made last Thursday about why he believes the number of female coaches in college basketball is declining drew significant criticism.
“There’s a reason why there’s not as many opportunities for women,” Auriemma said. “Not as many women want to coach. It’s quite simple.” He went on to explain what he believed were the reasons for this, including that more career opportunities are now available to women, and that women might instead prefer “a normal life.”
As his daughter Ally Auriemma argued, Auriemma’s perspective was “limited.” It missed the long history of sexism that has led to unequal opportunity for women, including situations like that experienced by Kara Lawson, who recently revealed that she was repeatedly rebuffed by the Sacramento Kings when merely attempting to gain the necessary experience to enter the coaching field.
For that reason, Auriemma’s words are subject to criticism. That simply comes with the territory of being a public coach for the highest-profile women’s basketball team.
But on Monday, the debate crossed beyond criticizing Auriemma’s opinion and became an ad hominem attack after a member of the Female Coaching Network, an independent sports organization comprised of female coaches, began questioning what Auriemma has done to promote the game, rather than the substance of his perspective.
The following question was posed on the Female Coaching Network website: “What really does Geno do to advance the game outside of UConn? Someone educate me, please?” The post went on to point out Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer’s outstanding efforts to “support and counsel women coaches who are having trouble getting back into the resume pools,” and argued that Auriemma simply “talks into the microphone about women ‘not wanting to coach.’”
The lack of female coaches in the women’s game is a serious issue that deserves to be questioned and addressed, particularly by organizations like the Female Coaching Network. But in the eyes of many who have worked with him, Auriemma’s impact on the game isn’t, nor should it be, up for debate. To them, casting doubt on Auriemma’s role in advancing women’s basketball overlooks the immeasurable influence Auriemma, his coaching staff, and his players have had on the growth of women’s basketball in nearly every facet.
DePaul women’s basketball coach Doug Bruno called the suggestion that Auriemma has not done enough to promote the game “not accurate” in an interview with The Summit on Monday. Bruno also responded to the post on the Female Coaching Network website and included a detailed list of efforts Auriemma has made to better the quality of women’s basketball.
“Fighting for equality for women’s sports and women’s basketball is a fight that men and women should be fighting shoulder-to-shoulder. Geno is not the enemy here,” Bruno said. “Geno happens to be a staunch supporter of equality for this game, and he’s built a platform through professional coaching excellence.”
That platform consists of various levels, from his program’s success, his mentorship of other coaches, and his ability to prepare his players for life after UConn.
Pat Summitt put women’s basketball on the map dating back to the 1980s. For the last two decades, Auriemma and Associate Head Coach Chris Dailey have expanded the roots Summitt originally laid and redefined what it means to be successful, not just in women’s basketball, but in sports as a whole. The proof is in the wins, banners, and broken records. 11 national championships. 111 game win streak. Six perfect seasons. 18 Final Fours.
This doesn’t even account for the run Auriemma has enjoyed on the international level, collecting two Olympic gold medals for USA Basketball and two FIBA world championship wins.
In March, the 16-seeded University at Albany drew UConn as its first round matchup in the NCAA tournament. The shocked reaction of the team during the selection show went viral, but Albany’s head coach Joanne McNamee embraced the opportunity, citing the chance to play UConn as aspirational.
“Before Pat Summitt’s retirement and passing, it was Tennessee and Connecticut across the board,” McNamee told The Summitt on Monday. “Now, it’s more just Connecticut. All kids have to have a team to look up to. And right now, that’s Connecticut because of their consistency in being able to dominate the sport, and is the orchestrator of that.”
Empirically, UConn’s dominance hasn’t just benefitted Auriemma’s program. It’s promoted recognition for women’s basketball across the board. The women’s game is celebrated as the main attraction by fans in Connecticut, the second-largest local market following this year’s NCAA tournament. Beyond that, UConn has generated interest across the nation. Earlier this season, UConn’s 100th straight victory against South Carolina became the highest rated men’s or women’s regular season matchup on ESPN2 this season. Last Friday, the UConn and Mississippi State matchup was the most streamed women’s Final Four game in the history of the tournament.
“Lack of media coverage in this country is one of the real places of gender discrimination. To see the women’s game celebrated because of Connecticut’s excellence is not bad. It’s good for women’s basketball,” Bruno said. “The greatest story that we had last weekend wouldn’t have existed if there weren’t 111 wins, and Mississippi State wouldn’t have had an upset if there wasn’t a Goliath to be slain.”
Amid complaints about UConn’s dominance, Auriemma has been vocal in calling out the gender bias in fanfare for the women’s game. Following UConn’s 90th consecutive win against USF, which tied a previous streak set in 2010, Auriemma recognized the double standard surrounding UCLA’s 88-game win streak and UConn’s then 90-game streak.
“It’s male and female,” Auriemma said at the time. “For all the people coming out of the woodwork to complain we’re not UCLA and you’re not John Wooden. We don’t have any UCLA signs in that gym. I don’t have anything in common with Coach Wooden. I never said that . No one in our program ever said that. But it became, ‘How dare you compare those two.’ Everyone jumped on that bandwagon.”
After UConn’s record-breaking 91st win in January against SMU, Auriemma immediately pointed out to ESPN’s Holly Rowe post-game that women’s basketball does not get the respect it deserves.
Dismissing Auriemma’s role in advancing women’s basketball also discounts his influence on the coaching community itself. Over the years, he has recruited several of his former players, including Shea Ralph, Jen Rizzotti, and Jamelle Elliott to coach alongside him both at UConn and USA Basketball, and consistently maintained an all female coaching staff. Several of his former assistants and players have gone on to head coaching jobs of their own.
In March, Tonya Cardoza, a former assistant coach at UConn and current head coach of Temple women’s basketball, attributed her success in part to Auriemma when she accepted the award for co-coach of the year in the American Conference.
“One thing about me, I don’t forget where I come from. Geno, Jamelle, and CD are part of the reason I’m standing up here. For fourteen years, I was able to be with them, and learn from them. They helped me grow as a person and as a coach, and I’m very grateful for my time spent with them,” Cardoza said.
Outside the network of his former players and assistants, Auriemma has also provided opportunities to all coaches by opening his practices to those who wish to observe and learn from his program’s methods. Additionally, as Bruno pointed out, Auriemma served for six years as the president of the Women’s Basketball Coaching Association and on various committees within the WBCA, and invested substantially in The Center for Coaching Excellence, a workshop dedicated to assisting coaches in bettering their craft.
“The fact that he opens up his doors and says, ‘hey, if you want to be like us, you can take anything we do and learn from it,’ that’s pretty respectable,” McNamee said. “If I could ever make it with scheduling, I would love to sit in at one of practices.”
But it’s Auriemma’s players who evince the true essence of how he has grown the game. Due to his insistence, his players have enjoyed a 100% graduation rate in his 31 years as head coach. Those players include the likes of Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart, who have all gone on to define excellence in the professional game. While he can’t take full credit for the strong women these athletes have become, he can certainly take credit for supporting them, mentoring them, and helping them find their paths.
In July, USA Basketball played Australia at Madison Square Garden in an exhibition tournament before the Rio Olympics. There was a moment in the pressroom when Charles was questioned about her efforts to use her platform to take a stand on social justice issues, including the debate surrounding police shootings. After Charles responded, Auriemma added this, without prompting:
“That’s a great answer,” he said. “You know, Tina has a lot going for her. That’s a great answer. I’m proud of you, Tina.”
Charles quietly smiled, looked at her coach, and thanked him.
“His statements were made into, ‘well, he’s anti-woman,’” Bruno explained. “That’s not the case. He works to educate his players over and above basketball, and about so many aspects of life.”