UConnCat
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I like Carl's story because he includes more than Geno's response to Shaughnessy; Carl also includes Geno's response to the frequent question: tell me again, why haven't you moved on to coach men?
Enjoy this, or better yet, enjoy the video. BTW, I think Geno answers his own question about why basketball is the only sport in which the women are compared to the men. It's because the guys doing the comparing (and denigrating) play or played basketball. They all think they can play better than the women. Geno's response to them at the end is terrific.
"So, whoever those men are that coach those professional women's tennis players, if they were any good they would be coaching men's tennis players, right?" Auriemma said. "It's the world that we live in. When I coached high school, when I coached high school girls, I was 21 years old. A guy asked me to do him a favor, so I did. I didn't go, 'You know what, some day I want to be talking to a guy from the L.A. Times about John Wooden.'
"I did it because I like the game and I thought this could be fun. So I did it and it was fun. And we won some games. And then when Phil Martelli, the coach of Saint Joseph's (University in Philadelphia) asked me to be his assistant, I said that could be fun. So I did it. And I thought, this could be fun for the rest of my life. I could teach school and coach high school boys. This could be a lot of fun for the rest of my life.
"Then he said, 'Why don't you go to University of Virginia and be an assistant women's coach?' I said, that could be fun. I've never been to Charlottesville, I'd never been at a school like UVa. Let me try it. And then when I got the job at Connecticut, I thought, yeah, this could be really cool. So, now, you know, 30, 40 years later, I'm sitting here and I'm thinking, 'Wow, I didn't realize so many people thought that was a dumb idea. That I got it all wrong. That I should be doing something completely different because I'm a guy.' It just, I'm always baffled by, especially in basketball, why everything has to be compared to the men. Why?
"I have never heard Serena Williams have to answer a question, 'Well if you're any good, stop beating all those women. Why don't you play Roger Federer?' That's not the point, is it? You just compete against the people you compete against. And that should be good enough. And that's one of the problems that I have with our Olympic team. I coach the most dominant women's national team in the world. We've won five straight gold medals. And yet we're never good enough because we're at the same venue as the greatest team in the world with the greatest players in the world.
"So we're always being compared to that. Yet no one ever compares our women's World Cup soccer team to our men. But no matter what Diana Taurasi does, no matter what Seimone Augustus does, no matter what any of those kids do, 'Well, you're not LeBron (James). Yeah, you're pretty good, but you're not Kevin Durant.' You kidding me? And all the guys and all the people that are saying that, neither are you. As a matter of fact, you're not Diana Taurasi even.
"So we don't appreciate people for how good they are and what a good job they do, we always have to compare it to something. And it's only in women's basketball. It's the only sport where that happens. The only sport, day in, day out, year in, year out, we're faced with those questions and those comparisons. No other sport is. No other athlete is ever subjected to the same thing as a women's basketball player. And Breanna Stewart, when she gets to the WNBA, or if she makes the Olympic team, 'Yeah, she's good, but she couldn't beat Kevin Durant.' Every day. Every day. Every day. And after a while -- I'm proud of the way those kids handle themselves -- you just get tired of answering those questions.
"You get tired of all the idiot guys that played JV basketball weighing in their two cents going, 'UConn couldn't beat a good high school boys basketball team.' Right, the one you couldn't play on, probably. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And I really admire how hard they play and how competitive they are, and how passionate they are and I have even more respect for them as I get older because of how little respect some people have for what they do."
https://www.sny.tv/uconn/news/aurie...aughnessy-and-coaching-men-question/169294800
Enjoy this, or better yet, enjoy the video. BTW, I think Geno answers his own question about why basketball is the only sport in which the women are compared to the men. It's because the guys doing the comparing (and denigrating) play or played basketball. They all think they can play better than the women. Geno's response to them at the end is terrific.
"So, whoever those men are that coach those professional women's tennis players, if they were any good they would be coaching men's tennis players, right?" Auriemma said. "It's the world that we live in. When I coached high school, when I coached high school girls, I was 21 years old. A guy asked me to do him a favor, so I did. I didn't go, 'You know what, some day I want to be talking to a guy from the L.A. Times about John Wooden.'
"I did it because I like the game and I thought this could be fun. So I did it and it was fun. And we won some games. And then when Phil Martelli, the coach of Saint Joseph's (University in Philadelphia) asked me to be his assistant, I said that could be fun. So I did it. And I thought, this could be fun for the rest of my life. I could teach school and coach high school boys. This could be a lot of fun for the rest of my life.
"Then he said, 'Why don't you go to University of Virginia and be an assistant women's coach?' I said, that could be fun. I've never been to Charlottesville, I'd never been at a school like UVa. Let me try it. And then when I got the job at Connecticut, I thought, yeah, this could be really cool. So, now, you know, 30, 40 years later, I'm sitting here and I'm thinking, 'Wow, I didn't realize so many people thought that was a dumb idea. That I got it all wrong. That I should be doing something completely different because I'm a guy.' It just, I'm always baffled by, especially in basketball, why everything has to be compared to the men. Why?
"I have never heard Serena Williams have to answer a question, 'Well if you're any good, stop beating all those women. Why don't you play Roger Federer?' That's not the point, is it? You just compete against the people you compete against. And that should be good enough. And that's one of the problems that I have with our Olympic team. I coach the most dominant women's national team in the world. We've won five straight gold medals. And yet we're never good enough because we're at the same venue as the greatest team in the world with the greatest players in the world.
"So we're always being compared to that. Yet no one ever compares our women's World Cup soccer team to our men. But no matter what Diana Taurasi does, no matter what Seimone Augustus does, no matter what any of those kids do, 'Well, you're not LeBron (James). Yeah, you're pretty good, but you're not Kevin Durant.' You kidding me? And all the guys and all the people that are saying that, neither are you. As a matter of fact, you're not Diana Taurasi even.
"So we don't appreciate people for how good they are and what a good job they do, we always have to compare it to something. And it's only in women's basketball. It's the only sport where that happens. The only sport, day in, day out, year in, year out, we're faced with those questions and those comparisons. No other sport is. No other athlete is ever subjected to the same thing as a women's basketball player. And Breanna Stewart, when she gets to the WNBA, or if she makes the Olympic team, 'Yeah, she's good, but she couldn't beat Kevin Durant.' Every day. Every day. Every day. And after a while -- I'm proud of the way those kids handle themselves -- you just get tired of answering those questions.
"You get tired of all the idiot guys that played JV basketball weighing in their two cents going, 'UConn couldn't beat a good high school boys basketball team.' Right, the one you couldn't play on, probably. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And I really admire how hard they play and how competitive they are, and how passionate they are and I have even more respect for them as I get older because of how little respect some people have for what they do."
https://www.sny.tv/uconn/news/aurie...aughnessy-and-coaching-men-question/169294800
