We’ve already covered the Dan Shaughnessy idiocy, so there’s no need for more #hottakes from us on that. But Geno Auriemma doesn’t care about what we have or have not written and he unleashed some fire on Monday after his team’s Elite Eight win over Texas. It doesn’t fit in anything else I’m writing, so here you go. Here is Geno at his finest:
On his impact on the game:
“Remember last year when I, dumb me, I was asked a question about men’s basketball and I said it’s a joke. Because I was just repeating something that a men’s basketball coach told me like five minutes earlier. Bad choice of words by me. Well, during the summer they changed a lot of rules, right? And the game’s never been better, right?”
On talk show callers:
“All those people that call in to the talk shows? You know the sad part about it? I guarantee you, none of them have ever been half as successful at what they do as Stewie’s been. Because the guys that are really good, the guys that are great, they don’t have time to call stupid radio stations. They’re busy being great. They’re busy being great.”
On if Texas going on a run is good for the game:
“So, during their run, yeah, during their run, when they were going really good, I remember sitting down and going, you know, this is really great for women’s basketball. Now those guys can shut the hell up. I was thinking that. Not really. Not really. I’m thinking, you know what’s good for Connecticut basketball? We need to go on a 12-0 run.”
On how he stays motivated:
“The motivator for me and my coaching staff, I think, is the players. It’s the players. They don’t want to hear that it’s old hat for you. They don’t want to hear that it’s routine. It’s like a mother and father that have three, four, five kids, that fourth and fifth kid doesn’t want to hear it’s routine. They want to be treated with a lot of respect. Like, hey, what about me? I already did that with four other kids, I don’t care.”
BONUS (non-idiot related): On freshman Napheesa Collier
“Yeah, you know, we like the kid. I think if you asked her, like, name a play that Connecticut runs, she might say, you know, Bye Bye Birdie or something.”
