Geno Auriemma has etched his name among the all-time greats in college basketball, with 11 NCAA championships and a string of legendary WNBA stars under his wing. He is still going strong in his 40th season. You’d think that would make him the happiest coach alive. But behind the facade lies a coach who isn’t really happy with himself.
The UConn Huskies opened up about how his early coaching days were filled with joy and a pure love for the game. When he started at Virginia and later joined UConn in 1985, he found happiness in mentoring players who looked up to him, just like those high school kids back in the day.
But with time, things changed. Reflecting on his journey, he confessed, “I became an angry coach. I lost the joy of coaching; I lost the connection to the players… I got caught up in having to prove myself rather than just the joy of helping them.”
Sure, the results were flawless—championships, records, and accolades—but for the 70-year-old coach, something was missing. “That didn’t exactly make me happier as a coach,” he admitted on What Drives Winning. When the Italian-born head coach first arrived at UConn in 1985, the program had barely made a mark, with just one winning season in its history.
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