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The Same River Twice: A Season with Geno Auriemma and the Connecticut Huskies
A former staff writer at "Sports Illustrated" spends the 2000-2001 season with the defending NCAA champion University of Connecticut women's basketball team.
285 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 2002
42 people want to read
About the author
John Walters
33 books2 followersJohn Walters is a writer and author, primarily of sports. He worked at Sports Illustrated for 15 years, and also at NBC Sports where he won two Sports Emmys for his on-air writing at the Athens and Beijing Olympics. He has also worked at AOL Fanhouse and The Daily, as well as waited at a popular Manhattan steakhouse. Walters is the author of The Same River Twice: A Season With Geno Auriemma and the Connecticut Huskies. He is the founder of mediumhappy.com, a pop culture blog that he updates daily. He holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied pre-med and rowed crew.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 16, 2023
A good inside look at a season for UConn. I was impressed that the author is not a CT native but captured the state and our fascination with our Huskies well. His observation that middle aged and older residents see the clean cut Huskies as their daughters hit the mark.
Geno wants perfection. You can see it in his practice sessions. Every layup must go in or we do it all over again. Team must get 90 % of free throws or they run. He is funny, sarcastic, and quite critical. He will criticize players in front of their teammates and to the media. That’s how he motivates. Sounds like a jerk and was never my tactic when coaching but everyone seems to love the guy and the team wants to please him (although it also seems that everyone at one point wanted to kill him). And, he loves his players. He is on them because he wants them to be their best. Still as one pointed out, he would not be so funny if he did not win. Geno admits that he came to UConn looking to trade up but there is little interest in male coaches. Duke told him to send a resume after he went 35-0 in 1995.
The drive for perfection is also evident in games. It is not enough to be the most talented team in the country. There is no denying that. He wants them to play the best. He has a long list of goals like how many offensive rebounds we want or how many 3 point attempts. They never have gotten all of them so there is always something to strive for.
Strategies - he wants to take 20 plus 3’s in a game. Defense first and he insists that everyone is talking during practice and in the game - that includes support from the bench. Team first. In the season covered, there were 8 different high scorers in the first 16 games. Passes of more than 15 feet drive him crazy and he constantly tried to get Diana T. to stop throwing no look passes at players who were not ready to receive the ball. On D the three rules are: We don’t switch on screens; we force the ball out of the middle; and we don’t let em dribble by us.
I was pleased to learn that most halftimes are spent trying to figure out how to not embarrass the other team. One time an opposing fan was yelling at Geno to put in his substitutes. “These are my subs!” he yelled back.
Coach Daley (CD) is the force behind the drive to have the women represent UConn well. There are only numbers on the uniforms, same socks at the same level, no visible tattoos, no jeans, no Teds, autographs must be legible (they practice), and a parking ticket or a lost athletic department laptop is a big deal. While not discussed in the book I think it has to be added that I do not recall there ever being a recruiting violation and the women have always shined in the classroom ( I can’t imagine how Sveta did it - learning English in a year and then going to University)
It is incredible to contemplate the rise of UConn women’s basketball. I used to work in the field house at the gates in Geno’s early days. Sometimes the women would play right before the men and our first job was to clear out the women’s fans before the men’s fans came in. Women’s games were free at the time!!! “Need to make room for the paying customers” was the attitude. Today, it is hard to get a good seat and as the book points out, they could charge for practice if they wanted to.
The season followed was an interesting one. One analyst claimed that the number 3 team in the country was the 6-10 players for UConn and even the critical Geno agreed. Taurasi was a freshman and came off the bench. Notre Dame beat them good which marked their arrival. They got beat by Tennessee in one of the all time best games. Even though they were 16-1 the coach and players at times seemed miserable. Winning, but not playing to potential. They got revenge by beating Notre Dame to win the conference tournament on a last second Sue Bird shot, but lost to Notre Dame in the Semi Finals. Injuries to Shea Ralph and Sveta did not help.
But this set the stage for 3 championships in the next three years.
The other interesting story here is how Geno became who he is. He came as a child to US with two illiterate parents and a father who never learned to speak English. As an 8 year old he went around town paying bills and conducting business on their behalf.
Geno wants perfection. You can see it in his practice sessions. Every layup must go in or we do it all over again. Team must get 90 % of free throws or they run. He is funny, sarcastic, and quite critical. He will criticize players in front of their teammates and to the media. That’s how he motivates. Sounds like a jerk and was never my tactic when coaching but everyone seems to love the guy and the team wants to please him (although it also seems that everyone at one point wanted to kill him). And, he loves his players. He is on them because he wants them to be their best. Still as one pointed out, he would not be so funny if he did not win. Geno admits that he came to UConn looking to trade up but there is little interest in male coaches. Duke told him to send a resume after he went 35-0 in 1995.
The drive for perfection is also evident in games. It is not enough to be the most talented team in the country. There is no denying that. He wants them to play the best. He has a long list of goals like how many offensive rebounds we want or how many 3 point attempts. They never have gotten all of them so there is always something to strive for.
Strategies - he wants to take 20 plus 3’s in a game. Defense first and he insists that everyone is talking during practice and in the game - that includes support from the bench. Team first. In the season covered, there were 8 different high scorers in the first 16 games. Passes of more than 15 feet drive him crazy and he constantly tried to get Diana T. to stop throwing no look passes at players who were not ready to receive the ball. On D the three rules are: We don’t switch on screens; we force the ball out of the middle; and we don’t let em dribble by us.
I was pleased to learn that most halftimes are spent trying to figure out how to not embarrass the other team. One time an opposing fan was yelling at Geno to put in his substitutes. “These are my subs!” he yelled back.
Coach Daley (CD) is the force behind the drive to have the women represent UConn well. There are only numbers on the uniforms, same socks at the same level, no visible tattoos, no jeans, no Teds, autographs must be legible (they practice), and a parking ticket or a lost athletic department laptop is a big deal. While not discussed in the book I think it has to be added that I do not recall there ever being a recruiting violation and the women have always shined in the classroom ( I can’t imagine how Sveta did it - learning English in a year and then going to University)
It is incredible to contemplate the rise of UConn women’s basketball. I used to work in the field house at the gates in Geno’s early days. Sometimes the women would play right before the men and our first job was to clear out the women’s fans before the men’s fans came in. Women’s games were free at the time!!! “Need to make room for the paying customers” was the attitude. Today, it is hard to get a good seat and as the book points out, they could charge for practice if they wanted to.
The season followed was an interesting one. One analyst claimed that the number 3 team in the country was the 6-10 players for UConn and even the critical Geno agreed. Taurasi was a freshman and came off the bench. Notre Dame beat them good which marked their arrival. They got beat by Tennessee in one of the all time best games. Even though they were 16-1 the coach and players at times seemed miserable. Winning, but not playing to potential. They got revenge by beating Notre Dame to win the conference tournament on a last second Sue Bird shot, but lost to Notre Dame in the Semi Finals. Injuries to Shea Ralph and Sveta did not help.
But this set the stage for 3 championships in the next three years.
The other interesting story here is how Geno became who he is. He came as a child to US with two illiterate parents and a father who never learned to speak English. As an 8 year old he went around town paying bills and conducting business on their behalf.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2008
As a Connecticut Husky fan, there's nothing better than getting a behind-the-scenes pass.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews