Auriemma became the third NCAA basketball coach to win 1,200 games
The UConn women's basketball team has dealt with injures to multiple key players this season. Despite the setbacks, the Huskies still managed to record their 20th win of the season this week.
Wednesday's win over Seton Hall also marked longtime Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma's 1,200 win at the NCAA Division I level. All 1,200 of Auriemma's wins came during his ongoing tenure at UConn.
Auriemma joined former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer in the exclusive 1,200 wins club. Krzyzewski retired from coaching after the 2022 season, while VanDerveer has been the head coach at Stanford since 1985 and is a three-time national championship winning coach.
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UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma watches from the sideline as they take on the Seton Hall Pirates at XL Center in Hartford, Feb. 7, 2024. (David Butler II-USA Today Sports)
Star guard Paige Bueckers has been healthy this season and has certainly provided a boost for the Huskies. She missed 19 games her sophomore season after undergoing a procedure to repair an anterior tibial plateau fracture and a meniscus tear in her leg.
She returned to the lineup in 2022 and helped lift UConn to a national championship game appearance, before tearing her ACL in the following summer and missing her junior year.
UCONN'S GENO AURIEMMA FACES BACKLASH AFTER NIL RANT SEEMINGLY TAKES AIM AT SETON HALL TRANSFER
But, Bueckers' comeback is one of the rare pieces of good news the Huskies have had on the injury front, with Azzi Fudd and Aubrey Griffin being lost to injuries this season. Auriemma has also not been fond of having to navigate the emergence of name, image, and likeness.
But, Auriemma allowed himself to get a bit nostalgic as he reflected on reaching the career wins milestone during his postgame on-court interview.
UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma wins his 1,200th game after defeating the Seton Hall Pirates at XL Center on Feb. 7, 2024. (David Butler II-USA Today Sports)
"You know I was thinking about that before the game… not so much the wins, but the first time we played in this building. I don't know maybe 1986, 87 or something like that, it was part of a double header with the men," Auriemma recalled.
"We helped make something happen that never existed and no one ever thought it could happen. So I'm pretty proud of that."
Later during the postgame press conference, Auriemma decided to make a joke when he was asked if he plans to rack up enough wins to eventually land at the top of the all-time wins list.
"I would think more along the lines of single digits, not hundreds. This isn’t a casino ATM, you know? They spit out hundreds," Auriemma said.
"We helped make something happen that never existed and no one ever thought it could happen"
— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) February 8, 2024
Geno Auriemma talks with @ChelseaSherrod after his 1,200th career win: pic.twitter.com/AAXEhyPZv7
Auriemma added that he will be content with whatever win total he has when his coaching career comes to an end.
"It’s been my philosophy since the beginning that there isn’t a number that I’m searching for… that I’m trying to reach. There is no whale that I’m chasing and obsessed over. When it’s over, it’s over. And, whatever the number is at that time is what it’s going to be… I could probably say with a great deal of certainty that I’ll never be No. 1 in wins…"
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Chantz Martin is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.
