UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma made history Wednesday, earning his 1,217th career victory in an 85-41 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson. It is the most victories by any coach in the history of college basketball, passing longtime Stanford women’s coach Tara VanDerveer.

Since taking over the Huskies’ women’s basketball program in 1985, Auriemma has been responsible for creating and overseeing one of the greatest dynasties in American sports. UConn women’s basketball transcends sports itself in many ways, and has become synonymous with a much broader ideas of triumph and dominance.

“You’re surrounded by it every single day,” UConn star Paige Bueckers said earlier this week. “You walk through this gym, you walk through these hallways, the greatness that’s on the walls, the greatness that’s in the practice facility, in Gampel as well, there’s obviously a legacy that you want to live up to and uphold what they’ve built and the coaching staff has built.”

There are countless ways to frame Auriemma’s awe-inspiring success at UConn. The team has appeared in every single NCAA Tournament since the 1988-89 season. The Huskies won three straight titles between 2001 and 2004 and another four straight between 2012 and 2016. In back-to-back championship campaigns between 2008 and 2010, they went undefeated with a 78-0 combined record. Since the 2013-14 season, they have a 184-3 record in conference games. 

As a coach, Auriemma has won 11 championships and made 22 Final Four appearances. Now in his 40th season, he has won more than 88% of his games, earning a 1,217-162 record. It is has been an overwhelmingly successful run, one in which Auriemma turned an obscure program in a largely unappreciated sport into a national powerhouse and household name.

An army of the greatest women’s basketball players of all time have ended up in Auriemma’s gym over the years, often at the same time. Kerry Bascom put the team on the map in the late 1980s, becoming UConn’s first All-American. Nykesha Sales, Rebecca Lobo, Jennifer Rizzotti and Kara Wolters combined to form the program’s first super-team, which won Auriemma’s first championship in 1995. 

Before they became WNBA icons, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi were UConn teammates in the early 2000s. Tina Charles and Maya Moore picked up where they left off later in the decade. Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck became the first basketball players, male or female, to win four NCAA championships when the program went on another tear in the 2010s. All were recruited by Auriemma.

“We never sat down and said, ‘Hey let’s make a 40-year plan and see if we can make this happen,'” Auriemma said after his record-breaking win Wednesday. “It’s about coming here every day and trying to be better than we were yesterday.”

Alongside names like VanDerveer, Pat Summitt, Kim Mulkey and Dawn Staley, Auriemma is an undeniable pioneer in women’s basketball. A man in a leadership position typically reserved for women, he received several offers to coach in men’s basketball over the years but never made the switch. By staying with the Huskies, many have credited him with elevating the status of women’s basketball by respecting his role in it.

Despite earning a historic achievement Wednesday night, Auriemma will only have so much time to look back on his legendary career. There’s plenty on the horizon. His 40th season will also be the last collegiate season for Bueckers, the presumptive first-overall pick in next year’s WNBA Draft. The team has been reloading for several years in search of yet another NCAA Championship. With Auriemma at the helm and a star like Bueckers on the floor, the Huskies remain one of the safest bets in the game.

The most prolific coach in recent college basketball history could soon make the jump to the NBA. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday morning that the Los Angeles Lakers are targeting UConn’s Dan Hurley to fill their current coaching vacancy.

Hurley, who has coached the Huskies since 2018, has seen historic success during his short tenure at the University. After completing a short rebuild, he led the team to back-to-back national championships in 2023 and 2024, becoming the first since former Florida coach Billy Donovan to do so. After demonstrating a superior basketball IQ and rapid adaptation to a changing NIL-driven landscape, he has garnered attention and respect from the entire basketball world.

If he decides to take his talents to the pros, Hurley will join a short list of college coaches who went on to run an NBA squad; from there, he would hope to be a part of an even shorter list who saw success in the league. Of the eight coaches who went from the NCAA to the NBA, it can really only be said that two of them were “successful.”

Following the titles in Gainesville, Donovan joined the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015 where he coached for five seasons, boasting a win percentage just north of 60% and a playoff berth in each season. He has since served as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, where he has experienced a less memorable tenure, leading the Bulls to just a lone playoff appearance in 2022 and a win percentage under 50% in 3 of 4 seasons since taking over.

More notably, Brad Stevens followed up his Cinderella seasons at Butler and traveled to Boston, where he took over the Celtics’ coaching staff in 2013. He turned the Celtics back into an NBA powerhouse, leading them to the playoffs each year beyond his first season. Following the 2020-21 season, Stevens chose to step down as head coach and has since served as the president of basketball operations for the team.

While Hurley has transformed the UConn basketball program and installed a high level of play, outstanding work ethic and sense of comradery at the college level, history questions whether this effect will translate over to basketball’s biggest stage.  The ability to teach, coach, and lead 18-year-olds who are playing because they love the game of basketball is a very different world than having to control the emotions and personalities of NBA stars, grizzled veterans and young players looking to make a name for themselves.

Many fans would like to think that most NBA players are adaptable and will buy into a coach’s system and style. The reality, however, can be vastly different. NBA players have occasionally made a habit of playing as if they are above the staff around them.  Fans and insiders alike often complain about those who play for the names on the back of the jersey. It’s not completely unjustified to think in such a way.

In the NBA, players’ livelihoods are entirely dependent on what they do on the court; the meaning of team accomplishments can become diluted. Hurley may come to the same realization that many former college coaches have made in the league — they’re no longer in control.  

Hurley’s game plan and execution at UConn was reliant on outsmarting other teams. This is no knock on him or his teams at UConn, but taking a similar approach in professional basketball would be immensely difficult. The vast majority of players Hurley’s hypothetical Lakers would face on any given night in the NBA are better than any player he had to coach against during his tenure at Connecticut. 

If any coach can adapt to this challenge, it’s Hurley, who has come a long way since his days coaching high school ball. Still, it is going to take a lot more than Hurley simply drawing up the X’s and O’s; the players are going to need to buy in and execute them, which is unfortunately not guaranteed in the league’s current state.

Big East Tournament tickets went on sale on following the start of conference play Tuesday. The Big East Conference Championship is a four-round tournament that takes place from March 11-14. The winner will be guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament. This is especially helpful to teams who are “on the bubble” of making it into the tournament and need more recognition or exposure to be selected for a bid.

GET DEALS ON BIG EAST TOURNAMENT TICKETS HERE!

The tournament will be held in Madison Square Garden and the format will take place over four separate rounds. Each team is seeded depending on their record in conference play. The first round pits the lowest four seeds against each other. For example, No. 8 faces No. 9 and No. 7 plays No. 10. The top six teams all receive a first round bye.  In the second round, the winner of the eight vs. nine-game plays the top seed, and the winner of the seven vs. 10 game plays the second seed. The 4th and 5th seeds face each other, and the 3rd and 6th seeds also play against each other. The winners of these four games play in the semifinals. The two teams that advance from the semifinals then play in a championship game. All games are single elimination.

The Big East Conference was created in 1979 with seven accomplished “basketball” schools came together from the East Coast and New England including Syracuse, Georgetown and UConn. A year after that Villanova joined the conference.

In 2013 the NCAA shook up the conferences and made the Big East a non-football conference. UConn was sent to the American conference and Syracuse left for the ACC. Xavier, Creighton and Butler were the newest members added in 2013.

Last year Villanova won the tournament defeating Seton Hall in the final game, 74-72. Georgetown and UConn are tied for the most Big East Tournament Championships with 7.

While the odds for the Big East Tournament haven’t been released yet, these are the odds for the regular season conference champion, according to FanDuel:

1. Villanova Odds to Win Big East: (+150)

2. Xavier Odds to Win Big East: (+550)

3. Marquette Odds to Win Big East: (+700)

4. Creighton Odds to Win Big East: (+1000)

5. Butler Odds to Win Big East: (+1300)

6. Providence Odds to Win Big East: (+1300)

7. Georgetown Odds to Win Big East: (+1500)

8. St. John’s Odds to Win Big East: (+4000)

9. DePaul Odds to Win Big East: (+5000)

10. Seton Hall Odds to Win Big East: (N/A)

After a somewhat short-lived vacation playing as an American Athletic Conference member, sources believe UConn‘s sports teams plans to rejoin the Big East before the year finishes out. Although the votes confirming the move from UConn’s trustee board remain momentarily not cast, a meeting and later official announcement appears likely during the upcoming week.

Amid the speculation, UConn expectedly gave little insight to the situation as they released a statement saying, “Our responsibility to always be mindful of what is in the best interest of our student athletes, our fans and our future. With that being said, we have been and remain proud members of the American Athletic Conference.”

This transition back poises to benefit their men’s basketball program above all, as the school enjoyed multiple successful years while playing talented competition during the school’s first tenure as a Big East team. With the UConn’s women’s basketball squad steamrolling teams en route to a national championship nearly every year, this move offers little change, as the new Big East competition they’ll face will likely fail to challenge them in accordance with the nation’s other teams. However, a large question mark consequently looms over UConn’s football team now. With football’s continued absence from the Big East, UConn may loose their football program entirely. Other options such as keeping the football program within the AAC or as an independent program remain possible, yet highly unlikely, due to their insignificant chance to turn in profit for the school.

SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2019- TRIBUTE SLIDESHOW

If these rumors surrounding UConn come into fruition, they’ll face off against more prominent teams such as Seton Hall, Marquette, Providence, Xavier and others. The conference’s most recently successful team, Villanova, who won men’s basketball championships in 2016 and 2018, rounds out the new fraternity of potential opponents that generally play to far higher levels than the less impressive AAC teams.

UConn basically founded the Big East as an initial member during the conference’s creation in 1979. UConn initially left the conference, following other departing teams such as Pittsburg, Syracuse, St. John’s, Georgetown and others, hoping the move would work to generate more money for their basketball programs. However, after some experiment years building up little momentum apart the smaller and less prominent AAC, UConn appears to be coming home.

The Connecticut women huskies basketball team is back in the Final Four for the 11th straight year.

UConn vs. South Carolina women’s basketball game score

Coach Geno Auriemma’s top-seeded squad crushed No. 2 South Carolina — the defending NCAA women’s champions — 94-65 in Albany on Monday night, led by Crystal Dangerfield.

The team extended its own record for consecutive NCAA Final Four appearances, and broke a tie with John Wooden and the UCLA men’s team (1967-76) for the overall Division I record.

Last year, the UConn women suffered a last-second overtime loss to Mississippi State in the semifinals. The defeat ended a 111-game win streak and run of four consecutive national titles. Mississippi State lost to South Carolina to give the female Gamecocks their first-ever national title. Their coach announced they would not visit the White House despite being invited.

Next up for UConn will be a matchup against Notre Dame on Friday night in Columbus, Ohio.

“Every team starts the season saying that’s our goal to go to the Final Four. For us, it’s an opportunity to go back to where we felt like we didn’t really give our best effort,” Auriemma said. “We lost to a really good team. Happened in a way that was really, really disappointing. I know that we were anxious to go back and put ourselves in that same situation and see how much we’ve changed since last year.”

The Huskies (36-0) — the 2016 national champs — displayed some impressive three-point shooting on Monday.

Dangerfield scored 19 of her 21 points in the first half. Gabby Williams added 23 points as UConn finished with the most points in school history for this round of the NCAA Tournament.

“Tonight, my teammates did a great job of finding me when I was open and I was able to knock those shots in early,” Dangerfield said.

Katie Lou Samuelson scored 17 points and Napheesa Collier had 16 as UConn shot 59 percent (37-of-63) from the field.

Senior A’ja Wilson scored 27 points for South Carolina (29-7), but it wasn’t enough. Coach Dawn Staley acknowledged how great a team UConn is.

“We got beat by a really good UConn team,” Staley said. “We didn’t have enough to compete in the way we would have liked to. Now all is well in women’s basketball.”

Last week, Mark Turgeon’s Maryland Terrapins fell short of beating their former conference rival UNC. They were able to get a marquee win on Tuesday night, however, beating UCONN at Madison Square Garden 76-66.

In the first half, though, the Terps were in control; they led by as much as 20 and never really looked in trouble. The second half was a complete reversal, however, as UCONN roared back to within three points.

The Maryland defense, which was torn apart by North Carolina and solidified and held the Huskies on. They also got a little help from the Huskies, themselves, as Kevin Ollie picked up a technical foul in the final minutes, allowing the Terrapins to rebuild a lead.

Freshman big man Diamond Stone also announced himself on the big stage. The 6’11”, 255-pound freshman looked dominant on the interior and finished the game with 16 points and nine rebounds. While he has previously looked strong against the likes of Mount St. Mary’s, Rider, Cleveland State and St. Francis (Pa.), a good showing against UCONN has to provide hope that he can contribute in bigger games down the stretch.

Photo: Diamond Stone #33 of the Maryland Terrapins fouls Theo Pinson #1 of the North Carolina Tar Heels during their game at the Dean Smith Center on December 1, 2015 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina won 89-81. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

It’s a familiar duo headlining the national title game in the 2015 NCAA Women’s Final Four, as all that stands in UConn’s way to another national title is Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish punched their ticket to the National Championship in a 66-65 thriller over South Carolina in the Women’s Final Four’s first semifinal. Star Jewell Loyd led the way for the Irish with 22 points, but the only two points out of Madison Cable proved to be the most vital, as her putback put the Irish on top in the final minute. After holding off the Gamecocks on the final possession, the Irish came away with the victory. This will be Notre Dame’s fourth appearance in the National Championship in five years, though they have gone 0-3 in those prior games.

Notre Dame’s hurdle to getting their first title since 2001? Geno Auriemma and his Connecticut Huskies crew, who once again made easy work of an opponent by taking down Maryland, who was also a 1-seed, by a score of 81-58 in their semifinal. Breanna Stewart, who many see as the best player in the nation, put in 25 points in the victory. UConn is by no means a stranger to the Women’s Final Four stage, as they’ll be looking to win their 10th national championship and their third in a row. The Huskies are also 9-0 in previous national title games. A win in this year’s title game will give Auriemma his 10th championship and would tie him with legendary UCLA men’s head coach John Wooden for the most all-time NCAA basketball championships.

UConn and Notre Dame will play for the NCAA championship in Tampa on Tuesday night. The game will be at 8:30 and can be seen on ESPN.