Since the 2004-2005 season...

[01Neaggrad02]

Over the past decade Geno has won 347 games, lost only 30, has 4 national titles, 7 straight final four appearances, and three perfect seasons. UCONN is a program all of it own! I know people want to say how great Pat Summitt is, and do not want to take away from her because of her illness, but what Geno has done has been beyond amazing. Geno is the best Women's College Basketball coach of all time. I wonder if the recruits are aware of how truly amazing he is.

Oh and FYI.. the 04-05 season was 25-8 and was the only time in the 21st century that Geno did not have a team with 30 wins.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Over the past decade Geno has won 347 games, lost only 30, has 4 national titles, 7 straight final four appearances, and three perfect seasons. UCONN is a program all of it own! I know people want to say how great Pat Summitt is, and do not want to take away from her because of her illness, but what Geno has done has been beyond amazing. Geno is the best Women's College Basketball coach of all time. I wonder if the recruits are aware of how truly amazing he is.

Oh and FYI.. the 04-05 season was 25-8 and was the only time in the 21st century that Geno did not have a team with 30 wins.

This is some of the stuff that I love. The statistics don't lie. When you consider that 04-05 season was AWFUL by Geno's standards and yet, how many coaches and programs would die to have had it? If you take that season away, his winning percentage is in the zone that no one else could relate to. There has never been a program that's come close to that type of winning and the only one that has a chance to approach it or beat it is, you guessed it, UCONN!

 

[01Neaggrad02]

With that season.. he is at a 92% win to loss ratio.

 

[Buzzyboy]

When you consider that it was (and is) considered special to EVER win 30 games, knowing that UConn only failed to do it once in the 21st century and their average wins per season far exceed 30 wins per, is amazing! Why would anyone want to go anywhere else when you have the best facilities (with the new practice facility), the best coaches and the best fans anywhere???? I know that there are some who want to be pioneers and make another school the NEXT UConn but that's almost an impossible proposition.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Beyond the fact that you can win championships at UConn, there's the fact that you have such a wonderful family atmosphere, you can and will improve appreciably (if you are willing to work incredibly hard) and your chances of going on to a career in the WNBA or overseas are enhanced greatly. There's also the fact that UConn is an outstanding educational institution. The only thing anyone could possibly say negatively is the winters can be a little tough, particularly for someone whose from a warmer climate.

 

[geneticrex]

What this program has done over the last 20 years is head and shoulders above any program in history.......

What this program has done over the last 10 years is the stuff video games are made of........

While there have been a number of powerhouse WBB programs around the country over the decades, there really is no comparison to what GA, his staff and his players have been able to accomplish and any attempt to compare those accomplishments to other institutions, is a stretch of Herculean measure.

If not for a handful of devastating season and career ending injuries to multiple All-American players and a "key" transfer, the numbers would go from looking silly, to looking like CGI.......and the best part is.......there's no end in sight.

 

[HuskeySlim]

Geno IS the best coach in wcbb. What is even more impressive is how he got there.
Everyone knows the story of what he and CD had to start with. The practice facility had a track around it, and I am sure the the leaking roof did not help much. I also remember Doris Burke saying Geno and CD had 1 rotary phone between them. Then you had ut dominating wcbb. Who would have given him even half a chance. But Geno did it, slowly at first, then BANG, it was '95 and folks across the country were asking questions, who is this guy Geno ? Who is this team from CT ?

For sure, I would put him up there with John Wooden as the greatest college coach in basketball history.

 

[01Neaggrad02]

If not for a handful of devastating season and career ending injuries to multiple All-American players and a "key" transfer, the numbers would go from looking silly, to looking like CGI..and the best part is..there's no end in sight.

1997-98 UCONN lost Ralph and Sales. If not mistaken they were favored to do really well in the tournament and had a chance to win it all.
2000-2001- UCONN lost Shea and Sveta. Had we had both, there is a very good chance we could have won it all.
2010-2011- I am curious if we had Samarie Walker with the team and she did not leave mid season... that and if I am not mistaken Caroline was out that season. What could have happened that season.

So there are at least three more seasons we could have done better with. 2010-2011 was Maya's senior season.

2007-2008 season we lost Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene.. and that season we lost only two games. Kalana was amazing on D, and Mel was a shooter.. who knows. we might have had better luck against Stanford that season.

Geneticrex.. what other seasons are you thinking about? Injuries and "key" transfers?

 

[01Neaggrad02]

If UCONN wins next year.. Geno would have 10 titles in 20 years. That is one title every two years. How impressive would that be!

 

[geneticrex]

1997-98 UCONN lost Ralph and Sales. If not mistaken they were favored to do really well in the tournament and had a chance to win it all.
2000-2001- UCONN lost Shea and Sveta. Had we had both, there is a very good chance we could have won it all.
2010-2011- I am curious if we had Samarie Walker with the team and she did not leave mid season... that and if I am not mistaken Caroline was out that season. What could have happened that season.

So there are at least three more seasons we could have done better with. 2010-2011 was Maya's senior season.

2007-2008 season we lost Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene.. and that season we lost only two games. Kalana was amazing on D, and Mel was a shooter.. who knows. we might have had better luck against Stanford that season.

Geneticrex.. what other seasons are you thinking about? Injuries and "key" transfers?

The "key" transfer I was referring to was EDD.....

The loss of Ralph in the tournament to her 1st ACL was a huge loss for the team, both physically AND emotionally and it showed in the subsequent games. If I remember, Geno even admitted learning a lesson from that experience.

 

[Sonny44]

1997-98 UCONN lost Ralph and Sales. If not mistaken they were favored to do really well in the tournament and had a chance to win it all.
2000-2001- UCONN lost Shea and Sveta. Had we had both, there is a very good chance we could have won it all.
2010-2011- I am curious if we had Samarie Walker with the team and she did not leave mid season... that and if I am not mistaken Caroline was out that season. What could have happened that season.

So there are at least three more seasons we could have done better with. 2010-2011 was Maya's senior season.

2007-2008 season we lost Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene.. and that season we lost only two games. Kalana was amazing on D, and Mel was a shooter.. who knows. we might have had better luck against Stanford that season.

Geneticrex.. what other seasons are you thinking about? Injuries and "key" transfers?

Very true indeed, but all teams have injuries. Relatively, I'd say we can't complain.

 

[geneticrex]

Very true indeed, but all teams have injuries. Relatively, I'd say we can't complain.

No question all teams have both injuries and transfers, but the level of talent that UCONN has lost to injury and transfer, I'd venture to say, is at the top of the list over the period in question.

Ralph
Sales
Abrosimova
Bird
Greene
Doty
Thomas
Tuck
Della Donne

This partial list of players are so talented, they could comprise an undefeated national champion.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

With all the facts above it comes down to this, if a recruit chooses to go somewhere else than UCONN and they say that winning a National Championship and becoming the greatest WBB player they could possibly be, they are not being entirely truthful! Either playing near home or not being held to an incredible high standard day-in-and-day-out is the real reason! Since at the end of your college experience you'll usually leave home for the real world, going to UCONN and the chance to be the best should take precedence over being homesick. It truly is making the choice to be the best you can be or not!

 

[Buzzyboy]

Geno IS the best coach in wcbb. What is even more impressive is how he got there.
Everyone knows the story of what he and CD had to start with. The practice facility had a track around it, and I am sure the the leaking roof did not help much. I also remember Doris Burke saying Geno and CD had 1 rotary phone between them. Then you had ut dominating wcbb. Who would have given him even half a chance. But Geno did it, slowly at first, then BANG, it was '95 and folks across the country were asking questions, who is this guy Geno ? Who is this team from CT ?

For sure, I would put him up there with John Wooden as the greatest college coach in basketball history.

I like Coach Wooden but there is no comparison. The advantages that Wooden had over Geno were monumental. He had facilities that were great while the field house was an embarrassment. He had a prestigious university while UConn wasn't anything close to a nationally renowned university. He had a booster who paid top athletes money, bought them cars and other things to entice them to enroll at UCLA. How naïve could John Wooden have been not to know that these kids were getting "paid" to play for him???? Geno had to do it the hard way, brick by brick and build his reputation over the first ten to twelve years of his coaching career. Inevitably his reputation and the highly improved facilities along with UConn's emergence as a top flight public university have helped him greatly over these last 12 to 15 years. I know it's women's basketball but he took an embarrassing program and made it into a LEGENDARY program. Wooden was an outstanding coach but he had a lot of help along the way that Geno never had and he's dominated for a longer period of time than did Wooden.

 

[Buzzyboy]

With all the facts above it comes down to this, if a recruit chooses to go somewhere else than UCONN and they say that winning a National Championship and becoming the greatest WBB player they could possibly be, they are not being entirely truthful! Either playing near home or not being held to an incredible high standard day-in-and-day-out is the real reason! Since at the end of your college experience you'll usually leave home for the real world, going to UCONN and the chance to be the best should take precedence over being homesick. It truly is making the choice to be the best you can be or not!

Oversimplification. There are many, many reasons that a student athlete may prefer playing somewhere else. It could be academics, it could be climate, it could be attending college with a significant friend or relative or playing opportunities or many other reasons that I can't even fathom at this moment. There are many variables that could build a case for someone to attend a school other than UConn even though you or I might not consider them significant enough ourselves. What we think is totally irrelevant because it's these kids and their parents that make the final call. What you say is almost scary because it sounds like you're saying if they decide not to come here they're either afraid to leave the nest or they're afraid of hard work and discipline. If that was what Geno was selling in his home visits, I think a lot of the kids who came here over the years might have reconsidered. That attitude shows no respect at all.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Oversimplification. There are many, many reasons that a student athlete may prefer playing somewhere else. It could be academics, it could be climate, it could be attending college with a significant friend or relative or playing opportunities or many other reasons that I can't even fathom at this moment. There are many variables that could build a case for someone to attend a school other than UConn even though you or I might not consider them significant enough ourselves. What we think is totally irrelevant because it's these kids and their parents that make the final call. What you say is almost scary because it sounds like you're saying if they decide not to come here they're either afraid to leave the nest or they're afraid of hard work and discipline. If that was what Geno was selling in his home visits, I think a lot of the kids who came here over the years might have reconsidered. That attitude shows no respect at all.

Thank you for saying it. There are innumerable benefits to attending UConn for a WBB player. Unquestionably, you get a good education, you have the best coaching a player can have and the best opportunity to win multiple national championships. If you have the talent (and almost all UConn players do) you have an excellent opportunity for success in the WNBA.

That said, this opportunity is only available to a very select few, and I would suggest that a significant percentage of the recruits Geno wants he gets, although as we know not all of them. For the ones that have the opportunity and yet choose to go elsewhere, it is almost certainly not a case of disrespecting UConn. Heck, it may be something as simple as noted - wanting to remain near to home for a variety of reasons, which is no disgrace. And as to the hard work and discipline, most programs require a great deal of both.

And really, for each player that "got away" or whatever you want to call it - who played for UConn do you want to replace?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I like Coach Wooden but there is no comparison.

Here I think it is difficult to make the comparison - men's basketball of the Wooden era and WBB of the UConn era are not comparable in my opinion. Who knows if Wooden could be anywhere near as successful as he was in today's game on either side?

Geno's dominance in the coaching of WBB is cemented in place. There was a period where he and Pat were both able to be considered for the "greatest" title, but clearly Geno has made it his own. That said, it doesn't demean what Pat did or make her unworthy of her Hall of Fame status or great reputation.

More amazing than the fact that Geno has been so dominant for so much of his career, but there doesn't seem to be any challengers currently coaching. This doesn't mean that there are not other coaches that are going to have great careers, but there really doesn't seem to be anyone that is going to challenge his record down the road.

 

[semper]

If EDD had not left the program, we would have certainly won most of those ND games; can you imagine?....but never mind. I'm over it; Stewie has healed my wounds.

 

[geneticrex]

If EDD had not left the program, we would have certainly won most of those ND games; can you imagine?....but never mind. I'm over it; Stewie has healed my wounds.

No question....

The transfers of EDD, Walker and McCormack depleted UCONN's frontcourt during ND's little miracle run of last second victories and unlike professional sports, there is no way to immediately recover via the recruiting cycle.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Very true indeed, but all teams have injuries. Relatively, I'd say we can't complain.

I agree that all teams at one point or another lose players and we've done that innumerable times over the years. However, to lose two All-Americans (Svet and Shea), particularly that late in the season, is a tremendous loss to overcome. I can't think of any team that has ever had quite that severe a loss, particularly at a time when there is little or no time to compensate for said loss!

 

[01Neaggrad02]

If EDD had not left the program, we would have certainly won most of those ND games; can you imagine?....but never mind. I'm over it; Stewie has healed my wounds.

Had EDD not transfered, she would have left the year Tiffany Hayes left. In that season UCONN was beat by Notre Dame three times, but we won the Big East Tourney that year over them. So UCONN was 1-3 against ND that year.

The following year EDD would have been gone... and we were again 1-3 against ND but this time that 1 was the Final FOUR and we all know the rest of course the 2012-2013 year one loss was by a point, the Big East Tourney by 2 points, and one in overtime and the other was in triple overtime by 9 but UCONN had Dolson, Hartly, and Tuck all foul out of the game,and they only had Kayla McBride foul out... And UCONN was given a Technical foul in the first half of that game which had it not been called could have changed the entire outcome of the game. Kaleena played all 55 minutes of that game!!!!!


Oh and I wanted to edit this, because looking at everything Notre Dame outscored UCONN going into the Final Four by 12 points in the three prior games total. And lets not forget in that triple overtime game UCONN I believe had to play all three overtimes with Stef or Bria... and then in the third overtime lost Morgan..... and by that time... in the third overtime most of the points were free throws... but I digress. So ND outscored UCONN by 12 in those three games.. and UCONN outscored ND by 18 in the final four.

So overall ND won 3 out of 4 games that season, but UCONN scored 6 more points all season long, and won the National Title which I think is slightly more important

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

I agree that all teams at one point or another lose players and we've done that innumerable times over the years. However, to lose two All-Americans (Svet and Shea), particularly that late in the season, is a tremendous loss to overcome. I can't think of any team that has ever had quite that severe a loss, particularly at a time when there is little or no time to compensate for said loss!

Buzzyboy- - I agree totally that the loss of both Svet & Shea at that time probably cost UCONN the Nat'l Title! Geno has said several times that that 2000-2001 team was in his mind the greatest team that he's had at UCONN with seven All-Americans and multi talented bench players! Even though they lost to ND earlier in the season, he felt with both Svet & Shea at full speed no-one would have beaten that team in the NCAA's, they were so focused! And he also stated that the 2 players being healthy would have kept the load off DT's shoulders that happened in the FF semi's, where she went 1 for 15!

 

[Buzzyboy]

Had EDD not transfered, she would have left the year Tiffany Hayes left. In that season UCONN was beat by Notre Dame three times, but we won the Big East Tourney that year over them. So UCONN was 1-3 against ND that year.

The following year EDD would have been gone... and we were again 1-3 against ND but this time that 1 was the Final FOUR and we all know the rest of course the 2012-2013 year one loss was by a point, the Big East Tourney by 2 points, and one in overtime and the other was in triple overtime by 9 but UCONN had Dolson, Hartly, and Tuck all foul out of the game,and they only had Kayla McBride foul out... And UCONN was given a Technical foul in the first half of that game which had it not been called could have changed the entire outcome of the game. Kaleena played all 55 minutes of that game!!!!!


Oh and I wanted to edit this, because looking at everything Notre Dame outscored UCONN going into the Final Four by 12 points in the three prior games total. And lets not forget in that triple overtime game UCONN I believe had to play all three overtimes with Stef or Bria... and then in the third overtime lost Morgan..... and by that time... in the third overtime most of the points were free throws... but I digress. So ND outscored UCONN by 12 in those three games.. and UCONN outscored ND by 18 in the final four.

So overall ND won 3 out of 4 games that season, but UCONN scored 6 more points all season long, and won the National Title which I think is slightly more important

What I remember about that triple overtime loss is that both in regulation and in overtime (one of them) UConn had the lead and then lost the ability to make foul shots. Usually very reliable foul shooters "bricked" foul shots, probably from fatigue. Also Kayla McBride made a hail mary three point shot that bounced off the rim and came down and back through the basket to send the game into overtime. A totally unconscious and lucky shot but it happens, from time to time. No way was Notre Dame the better team that year but the luck of the Irish was with them until we destroyed them in the Final Four!