How he recruits: Geno Auriemma spotted in Bay Area

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – The head coach of the top college team flew across the country to see the top high school team on Wednesday night.

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With a rare five-day break between games, Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma was Mountain View, California to see Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) High School, the consensus No. 1 high school team, and their top-ranked 2019 guard/forward Haley Jones as they took on Saint Francis (Mountain View) High School.

“The schedules are so hard to match up — when do we have off, and when are they playing? It doesn’t give you many opportunities,” Auriemma told The Summitt. “This particular time, we have the whole week off. So, we took a couple days off from practice and it fit in perfectly.”

After the Huskies beat Louisville in a nationally-televised game Monday, Auriemma said his whole staff was out recruiting Tuesday, which he said “almost never happens.” He was in Minnesota on Tuesday before flying to the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday.

It was there that he got to see Jones, a 6’1 wing who’s currently ranked fifth for 2019 recruits by ESPN, drop a triple-double on Wednesday night, tallying 25 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists and five steals. While NCAA rules do not allow Auriemma to comment on her, the opposing coach on the evening, Saint Francis’ Sami Field-Polisso, raved about her.

“The thing that separates Haley more than anybody I’ve ever seen is her versatility,” Field-Polisso said. “She can shoot from the perimeter – really quick release, catches it in the air, really just a beautiful 3-pointer. She can go off the bounce and score in the midrange, she’s got so many different finishes.

“What’s amazing is, when you watch her, she scores in so many different ways. She can go in and post up, or off the dribble, or coming around a screen, catch-and-shoots, in transition, free throws, put-backs. It’s impossible to guard. Nobody in high school can successfully stop her from scoring.”

Just about every top program in the country is interested in Jones, who is averaging 21.3 points and 9.6 rebounds per game this season. Mitty head coach Sue Phillips talked at length with Auriemma after the game, and Phillips said Jones has shown exemplary character as she’s gone through the process.

“The way that she’s carried herself as an outstanding citizen – in the classroom, on the basketball coach and around campus,” Phillips said. “Her recruitment is just an extension of the way she conducts her business here. She’s always had a great sense of humility and a terrific perspective on recruiting. She never takes herself too seriously.”

With the recruiting calendar current in an evaluation period before moving in the contact period in the month of March, 2019 prospects like Jones will start hearing more and more from coaches like Auriemma.

And, on a night where the coaches of the No. 1 high school and college teams in the nation got together, Auriemma just enjoyed being able to watch a game he wasn’t coaching.

“I enjoy getting out and seeing games,” Auriemma said. “There’s so many good players out here, year in and year out. I thought it would be a great opportunity to do that.”