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Showing posts with the label Uconn women's basketball

Geno Auriemma On Sustaining Excellence

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The game is supposed to be played a certain way, and its impossible to play that way, at the highest level, every second of everyday of every practice and game.  But, the pursuit of finding out how long you can sustain playing at the highest level is the difference maker. Just when it starts to fall, I tell the girls that this is about the time that a normal team starts to fall, and we aren't a normal team ... so let's go. - Geno Auriemma When your team experiences playing at a higher level, you have raised the bar for your team and the challenge is to consistently sustain that level of play and to never drop below that new bar that you have set for yourself.  The challenge, the purpose, the pursuit of excellence is about identifying what excellence looks like, experiencing it by performing on a level of excellence, and challenging yourself to sustain it as often and for as long as you can. 

Coach Auriemma on Feedback: Stop Treating Women Like Women

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It’s not even about winning or losing.  It’s about getting the best out of every player.  Being a woman does not change their job description.  You never go after somebody’s heart or their core; you go after what they did.  You coach actions.

UConn: March To Madness Episode 1

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Geno Auriemma and the UConn women’s basketball team is the subject of a 6 episode, weekly HBO special following their 2016-2017 season.   I have just watched the first episode, and it gave good insight into the mindset of the most successful coach in women’s college basketball history and what it takes to be a part of the game’s greatest program.   It had interviews from girls who helped build the program and from girls currently in the program.  Every girl that spoke, from legend Rebecca Lobo to freshman Crystal Dangerfield, mentioned how mentally tough that you have to be to play for Coach Auriemma.  They mention that his number one goal seems to be to get them to reach their full potential in the 4 years that he is with them.   Below I have some of the more memorable quotes from that first episode. The coolest thing about this is how all of the players seem so happy to be a part of the whole ‘UConn’ thing.   They all seem genuinely ha...

Practice Makes Perfect - Geno Auriemma and UCONN Basketball

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Notes from a behind the scenes look at a UConn women's basketball practice. 1 - Culture 2 - Good players 3 - Holding them accountable every second of every practice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIIInfIPnQA 0:10 - What we are trying to do is put you guys in situations where you get to see for yourself without being told.  There will be times we won’t have the opportunity to just stop the game and go okay, timeout and let’s talk this over. There are going to be times where you guys are going to have to figure it out on your own.  Certain individuals are going to have to step up and make big time plays.  Not when we are up 25, not in the first 5 minutes; I’m talking about when you’re in deep shit and everybody is so tired that you can’t see straight.  That’s when somebody has to make big plays. 1:05 – Nothing in a game can match the challenges that the players face during a typical Huskies practice. - Sue Bird 1:43 – I think our goal e...