HARTFORD, Conn. — Geno Auriemma held a discussion with the UConn women’s basketball team on Tuesday morning in which he invoked a lesson he learned from Svetlana Abrosimova, who played for the Huskies from 1997 to 2001.
“Stop talking about what you’re gonna do, stop talking about what you hope happens and what happened last year and how you felt,” Auriemma said while speaking to media at his annual Geno For The Kids charity golf event later on Tuesday. “Now that you put that out there, that’s it. It’s over with, it’s done with.”
Everybody knows the goal at UConn is to win a national championship every year, he and his coaching staff explained. You don’t have to talk about it.
“It’s more important what we see every day, not what we hear,” Auriemma said. “This isn’t a 1970s rock band out for their 60th tour and they have to give every tour a name. Everybody’s got ‘redeem team’ and everybody’s got ‘reload team’ and everybody’s got ‘unfinished business team’ and everybody’s got all this stuff going out there, you know. Maybe we’re not very social media savvy. How about we just shut the (bleep) up and win games? How about we just do that? Maybe that’s what the tour should be. Shut the (bleep) up and win games.”
UConn certainly seems to be hungry for redemption after being burdened by injuries across the entire roster each of the last two years. One could also make the argument that this team is reloading by bringing in a talented freshman class of guards KK Arnold, Ashlynn Shade and Qadence Samuels, along with redshirt freshmen Ice Brady and Jana El Alfy. And this group of Huskies surely might feel like it has unfinished business after losing to Ohio State in the Sweet 16 last season, marking the program’s earliest postseason exit since 2005.
But take all that away to keep in line with Auriemma’s expletive-filled mantra that’s already picking up steam with the fan base online — shirts already appear to be in the process of being made by some fans with the unofficial slogan for the 2023-24 season — and one has to wonder Auriemma’s thoughts on the potential of this team.
“I would say back to how healthy everybody is, other than Ayanna (Patterson), who just had a procedure done on her knee — and it’s kind of reminiscent of what Morgan Tuck had years ago — other than that and Amari [DeBerry’s] situation has been kind of ongoing for over a year now, this is probably the best that we’ve been in quite some time,” Auriemma said. “When you think about it, if we are fortunate enough to have everybody all season long, I couldn’t even tell you what’s the potential because I haven’t seen it. I haven’t seen it. And we haven’t done enough as a team to kind of have seen it at this point. I would hope that by, you know, obviously when we get back from our trip, we’ll have a much better idea of what we’re dealing with.
“But if you just go by how committed they are right now and the intensity level and the energy level and just the vibe that’s going through the building, it’s at a different level than it has been the last couple of years.”
Auriemma didn’t specify what procedure Patterson had on her knee, but said the goal is for the sophomore forward to take things easy this summer with recovery.
“As of right now, here it is in mid June, late June, I don’t think she’ll be playing and being 100 percent for our trip (in August),” Auriemma said. “Beyond that, we expect her to be ready for the season for sure. We just don’t know exactly when that will be.”
Auriemma also discussed the recovery of Paige Bueckers, who sat out all of last season with an ACL tear in her left knee. The redshirt junior guard told him she’s 90% there physically and he thinks when she returns will be a matter of when she feels mentally ready.
“This is the best she’s ever been,” Auriemma said of Bueckers. “The strongest she’s ever been, the fittest she’s ever been. This is the most time she has spent working on her body, her mind, just taking care of herself. And usually a lot of this stuff for these kids doesn’t happen till they get to the pros, because they’re not mature enough to understand what this means.
“… So I think she’s way ahead. And maybe that’s what the year off did, it showed her, if you want a long career, this is how you’re going to have to go about it from here on in. Injuries, no injuries, it doesn’t matter, this is what you’re going to have to do. She’s embraced it and I’ve never seen her better either as playing one on one, two or two or three on three. What she’s doing in the weight room, just her whole, the way she walks around, the way everybody looks up to her and the way everybody hangs on every word she says. There’s just a maturity about her.”
And Bueckers also seems to be all in on Auriemma’s new “How about we shut the f--- up and win games?” mantra, tweeting “I like it coach” with a laughing emoji later on Tuesday afternoon.
