GENO AURIEMMA INTERVIEW

Discuss your coaching philosophy and the secret to your success at Connecticut...
It's go out and recruit the best players in the country, get them to come to UConn, coach the hell out of them, make sure they become college All-Americans and win national championships.

If a young first year coach is seeking your advice on how to begin building a winning program what would you tell them...
If I was starting, I would start by recruiting the kind of kids I want to coach, not the kind of kids that would help me win.  I wouldn't make any concessions and recruit players that I thought could get me in trouble but could help us win.  So I would not sacrifice winning for the building blocks of the program.

I'm not saying that would work for everybody but that is how we did it at UConn.  When I started here it took us six years to sign a high school All-American.  In those six years, we won a lot of games and won championships, but we did it with solid building blocks as opposed to having to compromise the kind of people for the expectation of winning.

What is your motivation after 28 years...
28yrs later, I don't feel like I have to prove anything to anybody except my players.  I have to prove to my players that I'm as good as I told them I was when I was recruiting them and I have to prove to my players that I can help them get better.  I can help you get better, win championships, and I can help you become the kind of player you want to be.  Proving that to my players is my motivation.