Some accidents just turn out to be blessings in disguise! At least, Geno Auriemma was for the basketball world. And if you think about the UConn Huskies coach, arguably the most celebrated name in college basketball, you’d never guess that his legendary coaching career started by sheer chance. 

A Hall of Famer with 11 national championships and a slew of Olympic athletes under his belt got into women’s basketball completely by accident. It all started when Auriemma was just 21. In his own words, “I got into coaching by accident ’cause a guy kept bugging me to help him out a little bit. I had no interest in it whatsoever, especially coaching girls—no interest whatsoever.” 

That reluctant ‘yes’ set off a chain reaction leading him to reshape women’s basketball as we know it. The 7× WBCA National Coach of the Year’s coaching debut came at Bishop McDevitt High School in Pennsylvania, working with young female athletes for the first time. 

Later, he took a brief break, only to return as an assistant at his alma mater, Bishop Kenrick High. But things got serious when he joined the University of Virginia’s women’s basketball staff in 1981.

Four years later, the coach made what many call the best move of his career—joining the UConn Huskies. At the time, the program was almost invisible, with just one winning season in its history. Auriemma didn’t just turn it around; he catapulted the Storrs program into basketball royalty. 

His first season was a rough 12–15, but by his second, the Huskies claimed their first 20-win season, and soon, the championships started pouring in. The rest, as they say, is history. Six undefeated seasons, three record-breaking win streaks (including an insane 111 consecutive wins), and 11 NCAA titles.

Players like Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, and Breanna Stewart didn’t just win with him; they also went on to become icons of the W. Not to forget, the records haven’t stopped coming in yet. 

Just last week, the 70-year-old notched his 1,216th career win, tying Tara VanDerveer for the most victories in NCAA Division I basketball history across both men’s and women’s programs. While the accolades kept piling up, something else shifted in the head coach.

Auriemma’s honest confession as “an angry coach”

While talking about his journey on What Drives Winning, the Huskies HC admitted, “I became an angry coach. I lost the joy of coaching; I lost the connection to the players… I got caught up in having to prove myself rather than just the joy of helping them.”

Geno shared that he started as a coach who found joy in mentoring and uplifting his players, but over the years, the pressure to maintain perfection changed him. The mentor who once guided with a pure love for the game, found himself chasing results, and it took a toll.

But on the flip side, his players still adore him and his ‘tough love.’ UConn’s KK Arnold described him as “intense but deeply caring,” and that balance is what keeps him respected. Even as an “angry coach,” his ability to push his players to their best versions never wavered.

Now, he is set to send his yet another star, Paige Bueckers, to the pros. She is often called the next big thing and is poised to carry the UConn legacy forward. And that might be the most satisfying part for the coach, knowing that the game he fell into “by accident” is (in some ways) thriving because of him.