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TAMPA, Fla.— Geno Auriemma has long been a dream maker. For young women with the highest basketball aspirations, he offers a path through UConn to the summit of the game.
“When you think of a 17-year-old that you’re sitting there talking to and you’re projecting them as freshmen and sophomores and juniors in college,” Auriemma was saying at the Final Four, where UConn was to play UCLA in the national semifinals late Friday night. “And where do I think they could be? How much impact they could have on our program and all those great things, when they’re there you realize there’s something special about them. Then fast-forward, and then to look up and realize that their wildest dreams have come true. I mean, what kid doesn’t shoot a basket when they’re 10 and think about winning a national championship, winning a gold medal?
” … And then somebody goes, ‘You know, you’re the best player in the country.'”
Dom Amore: For UConn, UCLA at Final Four, the mental game as important as the talent
There are “wildest dreams,” and then there is the ultimate basketball destination: Springfield, Mass., birthplace of the game, home of the Naismith Hall of Fame. Auriemma was inducted in 2006. Two of his players are already in: Rebecca Lobo, part of UConn’s surge to the top in 1995, and Swin Cash, of the great teams of the early 2000s.
The floodgates between Storrs to Springfield are about to open. Two more Huskies are among the finalists for induction, the Class of 2025 to be announced Saturday in San Antonio, Sue Bird and Maya Moore.
“… But I don’t know that any one of those kids ever came to UConn saying, ‘You know, I came here to make the Hall of Fame, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Auriemma said. “I don’t think anybody said that, except maybe Diana (Taurasi).”
Taurasi just retired from the WNBA, but she’s a lock once she becomes eligible. Bird and Moore are certain to make it, if not this time, then sooner rather than later.
The Hall inducts a varying number of new members each year, and and classes tend to be big – 13 in 2024. If a player is obviously a Hall of Famer, he or she does not have to wait long. Bird and Moore are unassailable candidates, as are the two others the Women’s Committee has been considering, Sylvia Fowles and Jennifer Azzi. All four could make it.
UConn was 150-4 during the years Moore, a forward, played in Storrs, winning championships in 2009 and ’10. When she went to the WNBA, she won Olympic gold medals with USA Basketball in 2012 and ’16, and FIBA World Championships in 2010 and ’14, and she won four championships in the WNBA with Minnesota. For a decade, it seemed she was at the White House more often than its occupant.
Dom Amore: Sue Bird’s Connecticut farewell is another indication she’s leaving basketball in style
And she might have accomplished still more in the game, but Moore, now 35, stepped away from the game at the peak of her career in 2019. Her commitment to social justice and prosecutorial reform led her to Jonathan Irons, fighting to prove his innocence after more than 20 years behind bars. With Moore’s determination, Irons proved he was wrongly convicted at age 18 and finally released. They are now married.
Moore was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame last year. The Naismith is the last stop on a journey of enormous consequence. Caitlin Clark and Paige Buckers both count Moore as an idol, so Moore’s influence will last decades beyond her playing days.
Bird, 44, a point guard, had a career marked by winning, efficiency and longevity. She missed most of her freshman year after tearing her ACL, but won two national championships, including the undefeated 2001-02 season, and produced an iconic moment with her buzzer beater against Notre Dame as a junior. UConn was 114-4 with her on its active roster.
She went on to win four WNBA championships with the Seattle Storm and five gold medals at the Olympics before retiring at age 40 in 2022. Like Moore, Bird is an idol and prototype for those who play her position.
“It’s everything you dream of, to follow in their footsteps,” Bueckers said, when both were announced as Naismith finalists. “Sue, I’ve gotten to build a great relationship with her, picking her brain, trying to learn more. Maya was huge for me, growing up in Minneapolis and watching the Lynx and their dynasty. She was everything I wanted to be as a player. When I was little, I aspired to be in their shoes and I wouldn’t have dreamt big if I didn’t have people like that to follow.”
Dom Amore: Paige Bueckers leaves Gampel Pavilion on top of her game. It was what ‘the night asked.’
If Bird and Moore double the number of Hall of Famers to come through the UConn women’s program, it’s only a matter of time before others follow, like Taurasi, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, currently two of the best players in the WNBA. Tina Charles, now with the CT Sun, has had a long, important career, college, pro and international. Among current Huskies, Bueckers, expected to be the No.1 pick in the WNBA Draft and a player of the year, is certainly on such a trajectory as she leaves UConn. Freshman Sarah Strong is off to as strong a start as one could imagine.
It’s some legacy for Auriemma, 71, in his 40th season, basically two complete starting lineups of Hall of Famers when the book of his history at UConn is finally closed.
“For me to see what’s happened out there with Rebecca and Swin and now Maya and Sue obviously being in the mix, that pretty much is bigger than, when you look back, than all the national championships,” he said. “They’re Hall of Famers for me, they’re Hall of Famers for their family, they’re Hall of Famers for everybody — they’re even Hall of Famers for UConn haters. That’s one thing they can all agree on. They’re Olympian Hall of Famers. They’re WNBA Hall of Famers. They’re college Hall of Famers. They’re Hall of Famers as people, most of all.”
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“When you think of a 17-year-old that you’re sitting there talking to and you’re projecting them as freshmen and sophomores and juniors in college,” Auriemma was saying at the Final Four, where UConn was to play UCLA in the national semifinals late Friday night. “And where do I think they could be? How much impact they could have on our program and all those great things, when they’re there you realize there’s something special about them. Then fast-forward, and then to look up and realize that their wildest dreams have come true. I mean, what kid doesn’t shoot a basket when they’re 10 and think about winning a national championship, winning a gold medal?
” … And then somebody goes, ‘You know, you’re the best player in the country.'”
Dom Amore: For UConn, UCLA at Final Four, the mental game as important as the talent
There are “wildest dreams,” and then there is the ultimate basketball destination: Springfield, Mass., birthplace of the game, home of the Naismith Hall of Fame. Auriemma was inducted in 2006. Two of his players are already in: Rebecca Lobo, part of UConn’s surge to the top in 1995, and Swin Cash, of the great teams of the early 2000s.
The floodgates between Storrs to Springfield are about to open. Two more Huskies are among the finalists for induction, the Class of 2025 to be announced Saturday in San Antonio, Sue Bird and Maya Moore.
“… But I don’t know that any one of those kids ever came to UConn saying, ‘You know, I came here to make the Hall of Fame, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Auriemma said. “I don’t think anybody said that, except maybe Diana (Taurasi).”
Taurasi just retired from the WNBA, but she’s a lock once she becomes eligible. Bird and Moore are certain to make it, if not this time, then sooner rather than later.
The Hall inducts a varying number of new members each year, and and classes tend to be big – 13 in 2024. If a player is obviously a Hall of Famer, he or she does not have to wait long. Bird and Moore are unassailable candidates, as are the two others the Women’s Committee has been considering, Sylvia Fowles and Jennifer Azzi. All four could make it.
UConn was 150-4 during the years Moore, a forward, played in Storrs, winning championships in 2009 and ’10. When she went to the WNBA, she won Olympic gold medals with USA Basketball in 2012 and ’16, and FIBA World Championships in 2010 and ’14, and she won four championships in the WNBA with Minnesota. For a decade, it seemed she was at the White House more often than its occupant.
Dom Amore: Sue Bird’s Connecticut farewell is another indication she’s leaving basketball in style
And she might have accomplished still more in the game, but Moore, now 35, stepped away from the game at the peak of her career in 2019. Her commitment to social justice and prosecutorial reform led her to Jonathan Irons, fighting to prove his innocence after more than 20 years behind bars. With Moore’s determination, Irons proved he was wrongly convicted at age 18 and finally released. They are now married.
Moore was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame last year. The Naismith is the last stop on a journey of enormous consequence. Caitlin Clark and Paige Buckers both count Moore as an idol, so Moore’s influence will last decades beyond her playing days.
Bird, 44, a point guard, had a career marked by winning, efficiency and longevity. She missed most of her freshman year after tearing her ACL, but won two national championships, including the undefeated 2001-02 season, and produced an iconic moment with her buzzer beater against Notre Dame as a junior. UConn was 114-4 with her on its active roster.
She went on to win four WNBA championships with the Seattle Storm and five gold medals at the Olympics before retiring at age 40 in 2022. Like Moore, Bird is an idol and prototype for those who play her position.
“It’s everything you dream of, to follow in their footsteps,” Bueckers said, when both were announced as Naismith finalists. “Sue, I’ve gotten to build a great relationship with her, picking her brain, trying to learn more. Maya was huge for me, growing up in Minneapolis and watching the Lynx and their dynasty. She was everything I wanted to be as a player. When I was little, I aspired to be in their shoes and I wouldn’t have dreamt big if I didn’t have people like that to follow.”
Dom Amore: Paige Bueckers leaves Gampel Pavilion on top of her game. It was what ‘the night asked.’
If Bird and Moore double the number of Hall of Famers to come through the UConn women’s program, it’s only a matter of time before others follow, like Taurasi, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, currently two of the best players in the WNBA. Tina Charles, now with the CT Sun, has had a long, important career, college, pro and international. Among current Huskies, Bueckers, expected to be the No.1 pick in the WNBA Draft and a player of the year, is certainly on such a trajectory as she leaves UConn. Freshman Sarah Strong is off to as strong a start as one could imagine.
It’s some legacy for Auriemma, 71, in his 40th season, basically two complete starting lineups of Hall of Famers when the book of his history at UConn is finally closed.
“For me to see what’s happened out there with Rebecca and Swin and now Maya and Sue obviously being in the mix, that pretty much is bigger than, when you look back, than all the national championships,” he said. “They’re Hall of Famers for me, they’re Hall of Famers for their family, they’re Hall of Famers for everybody — they’re even Hall of Famers for UConn haters. That’s one thing they can all agree on. They’re Olympian Hall of Famers. They’re WNBA Hall of Famers. They’re college Hall of Famers. They’re Hall of Famers as people, most of all.”
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