Once the final buzzer of the UConn women's basketball team's 67-34 dominant win over Seton Hall on Wednesday sounded, it signaled the 1,200th Division 1 win of UConn head coach Geno Auriemma's career.
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This accomplishment joins Auriemma with former Duke men's coach Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) and Stanford women's coach Tara VanDerveer (1,206) as the only college coaches to ever reach the 1,200 mark — although Auriemma managed to do so in his 39th season, while it took Krzyzewski 47 seasons and VanDerveer 45.
Just the third to 1,200 wins and he did it the fastest.
There’s only one Geno Auriemma 🐐 pic.twitter.com/32wuvjZbVF
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) February 8, 2024
Considering that Auriemma is only 69 years old and would appear to have a lot more coaching ahead of him, one would imagine that he'll continue to add wins to his legendary record in the coming years. Yet, during a discussion with ESPN postgame, Auriemma made it sound like the end of his coaching days might be sooner than we expect.
"I could probably say, with a great deal of certainty, that I'll never be No. 1 in wins, I don't think that will happen," he said. "And I'm still going to enjoy my wine and I'm going to sleep good tonight."
This statement is rather alarming, given how close Auriemma is to overtaking VerDerveer for the record. Then again, VerDerveer is still coaching, and made it clear during her own record celebration ceremony just a few weeks ago that she doesn't plan on stepping away from the sidelines anytime soon.
Therefore, it appears that Auriemma heard what VerDerveer had to say, and realized that Stanford's legendary coach keep racking up wins after his coaching career comes to a close.
Auriemma was in a reflective mood after his win on Wednesday, saying to SNY TV's Chelsea Sherrod, "We created a subculture that didn't exist. It wasn't there. And through a lot of hard work and a lot of people putting a lot of hard work into it, a culture was born out of nothing."
Auriemma's wins record is unique in that all of his wins have been accrued at UConn, while Krzyzewski coached at Army before Duke, and VanDerveer spent time at Idaho and Ohio State before heading to Stanford.
Given that it sounds like we may not see Auriemma pacing UConn's sidelines much longer, let's be sure to enjoy his greatness while it we still can.
