TAMPA, Fla. — No coach has won more NCAA basketball titles than UConn’s Geno Auriemma, who has 11. But his most recent was in 2016, and he has had some painful losses in the women’s Final Four since.
Yet headed into his 13th NCAA championship game at his 24th Final Four, Auriemma said the tough defeats themselves don’t bother him as much as some of the choices he made in those games. He hopes to push all the right buttons when facing South Carolina on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC).
“I’ve lost more Final Fours for my team than they have, because coaches make decisions about what to do with their team,” Auriemma said Saturday. “And if you make the right decision, you win.”
The Huskies won four consecutive NCAA titles behind star Breanna Stewart from 2013 to 2016. In 2017 and 2018, UConn lost by two points in overtime in the national semifinals to buzzer-beating shots by Mississippi State’s Morgan William and Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale, respectively.
“I don’t look at those two as heartbreaking frustrations,” Auriemma said. “I would have if I didn’t make two decisions in both of those games that I think have more to do with us losing than those two buzzer-beaters.
“So that’s the frustration that I take away from that: ‘Why do you keep screwing it up for these guys?'”
Auriemma didn’t specify the decisions he made. But he acknowledged coaches often can’t be completely sure if the decision was right or wrong until they see the outcome.
In 2019, the Huskies lost again to Notre Dame in the national semifinals, that time by five points. A 10-point loss to underdog Arizona in the 2021 national semis was one of UConn’s biggest surprise defeats.
In 2022, the Huskies faced South Carolina in the title game; UConn was a slight underdog going in, and the Huskies’ injuries and illness made that even more the case. South Carolina dominated 64-49.
UConn star guard Paige Bueckers suffered a knee injury in the summer of 2022 and didn’t play in the 2023 NCAA tournament, when the Huskies’ streak of making 14 consecutive Final Fours was broken.
Last year, a late moving screen call against UConn senior Aaliyah Edwards helped doom UConn to yet another two-point national semifinal loss, this one to Iowa.
Now, UConn again is knocking on the door of a championship. And after dealing with multiple season-changing injuries to players such as Bueckers and Azzi Fudd in recent years, Auriemma said what he is feeling best about with this Final Four team is that the players are healthy.
“The fact that we sort of have a chance to be able to manipulate the game a little bit better than we had before, that’s rewarding,” Auriemma said. “That makes up for all the heartache and all the trauma and tribulations that we have had to go through.”