SPELL OF THE UCONN.

Geno Auriemma has everyone jumping through hoops in Storrs, CT

Women basketball's Yankee Doodle Dandy from Storrs, CT, never saw a baseball, a basketball, or rode in a car until he was eight years old.

They didn't have such things in the tiny village of Montello in Italy, where he was born, and the only sport and the only vehicle he ever saw were soccer and a horse-drawn cart.

Then, suddenly, he, his parents, sister, and brother were living in a little house in Norristown, PA with his uncle, aunt, and all their children.

It was a happy household -- seven children and four parents. The Auriemmas spoke no English, but they were awed by the running water, electricity, automobiles, and legal tender.

Shortly thereafter, another aunt, uncle, and three children moved into the happy household and now there were 10 children, plus six adults in the three-bedroom house.

"It was a fabulous background for a child who would someday become a coach," Geno Auriemma says.

"You learn to figure things out: what to give up, how to get along, and to never complain. Look at my basketball team at Connecticut: They have to do this everyday in practice!"

Like the millions of immigrant kids before him, Young Geno quickly found acceptance through sport. Baseball became his favorite sport in Norristown, just outside of Philadelphia. And when the summer and early fall gave way to winter he turned to basketball.

Basketball was huge in the Philadelphia area, what with the intense public and catholic school leagues, the local Big Five colleges, and all kinds of pro, semi-pro, and Y teams.

Basketball became Geno's game and he played and worked at it diligently. But, as an undersized guard, he never really got great at it. He kept going out for his high school team (Bishop Kenrick in Norristown) and kept being cut.

That was the story of his basketball life in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. In the 10th grade, he finally made the team. It was a big moment in his life. He loved the discipline of the game, the fun it provided, the noise -- everything about it.

Upon graduation from Kenrick, Geno moved on to nearby Montgomery Community College and then West Chester University, where he majored in political science and did not make the basketball team.

But he never lost his love of the game. After earning his degree, he began working as a full-time teacher and a weekend roofer. Most significantly, however, he began attending summer camps and clinics; and seriously began thinking of coaching. He had the right kind of love for the game, the intelligence, the feel for it, the discipline, and the basic toughness.

He eventually was offered a coaching job at Bishop McDevitt in Philadelphia, where he did well enough to be wooed back to his alma mater, Bishop Kenrick, as an assistant boys' basketball coach.

Geno was now ready for his first big move -- assistant women's basketball coach at St. Joseph's College, a Big Five power in Philadelphia.

His work ethic and tough, intelligent coaching brought him to the attention of the University of Virginia, a member of the big-time Atlantic Coast Conference. Over the next four years (1981-85), he helped the Cavalier women amass a 74-39 record.

One spring morning in 1985, his phone rang. It was John Toner, the A.D. at the U. of Connecticut. Women's basketball had been in an 11-year slump in Storrs, CT, and Toner wanted to talk about it with Geno. Would Geno meet him at the local Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast?

The two met at the counter and began talking basketball over coffee and donuts.

It didn't take long. Toner whipped out a single sheet of paper. It was a contract to coach basketball at Connecticut for $28,229 a year. It was pretty good money for the time and the place. (Sixteen years later Geno renewed his contract for five years and $2.95 million -- a nice raise.)

This is the time in every huge success story that you whip out that time-honored bromide... "and the rest is history."

Geno began building his prodigious winner slowly, but strongly. He went 12-15 in his first season (1985) and then launched his parade of winners: 14-13 in 1986, 17-11 in 1987, and then a monstrous succession of 20-game and 30-game winners. (You can check them out in the accompanying Record Chart.)

Everything, believes Geno, starts with a work ethic:

"I've always thought that you work as hard as you can and sometimes you'll get lucky. And sometimes you won't. My father never got lucky. He didn't own a car until he was 55 years old, and he worked in a steel mill all his life.

"Me, I got lucky. It was the right time, with women's basketball becoming popular, and we were in the right place: close enough to ESPN, to New York City, to an enormous amount of people who love the game and will pay to see it."

What is the source o/his basketball philosophy?

"Having spent the early years of my life in Italy, I have always loved soccer for its fluidity and improvisation. Which is why I like the international brand of basketball, where the players are in charge, where the rigidity of chalkboard planning is enhanced with spontaneity and anticipation.

"I think basketball should be played in the same free-flowing way, where things develop 2-3 passes down the road, where everyone is anticipating, playing off each other.

"It's like jazz. There's got to be structure, but there also has to be freedom, where players have a chance to improvise."

Who were the main influences that turned Auriemma toward coaching?

Baseball became the joy of Geno's life when he discovered Little League as a boy under a coach named Skag Cottman.

"Thank God for Skag Cottman, I'll never forget him until the day I die," Geno says. "He taught me everything about the game of baseball and the game of life."

Basketball became Geno's way of life as a bench sitter for Coach Buddy Gardler at Bishop Kenrick. He became fascinated with Gardler's year-round program and organized approach to the game. It was right out of the great St. Joseph's University tradition, where Gardler had learned it from Jack McKinney, one of the immortal coaching names in Philadelphia.

"Gardler had a true program and it probably shaped what I became as a coach," Geno says.

What did he derive from his experience playing and coaching high school basketball in Philadelphia?

"The intensity of those City Series and Catholic League games was amazing. Every possession was life and death, hand-to-hand combat. Maybe it was because we played with less-than-the-best athletes, but every cut, every screen, every move, every helpout, every rotation had to be perfect because we couldn't make up for it with athieticism."

How does he do his recruiting?

"Good things happen in various ways. Coaches call from around the country to tell us about good players. Generally, we began by checking out the players in the ninth grade and sometimes earlier. We go to all-star camps, AAU tournaments, summer leagues -- anywhere there might be players, and we track them through their high school careers."

How does it feel recruiting against Pat Summit for the top prospects in the country?

"I'm sure both of us have nightmares about it. It is very intense and competitive, and I guess success and failure are cyclical. Just as it is with all the major schools.

"I know the press frequently describes it as choosing between the mystique of Tennessee and the boot camp of Connecticut, but you can go crazy when a kid will visit your place and then phone to tell you, 'I loved the school. I loved you. I enjoyed the recruiting experience. And I'm going to Tennessee,'

"The truth is, I'm not for every kid and not every kid is for me. Kids usually pick sides pretty early. They are either on this side or that side and there is rarely any cross-over."

What kind of player does Auriemma look for?

"I look for good players who are also good kids. Active kids who don't complain. It's tough for freshmen coming into a program in which they are a little in awe of some things, and have me tell them to act like juniors. Why juniors? Because when I throw them into a game, I expect them to play like juniors.

"I do tend to get on my players. But not in a way that makes them feel bad. I want to make them think: How am I going to react to this or that? How am I going to stand up to this guy?

"I also like to insert a little humor. Sports and humor go well together and help kids assimilate with both the coach and each other.

"By 'good kids,' I also mean intelligent kids. I'm very proud of the fact that we have 100-percent graduation among the players who come here and complete their eligibility."

Does Auriemma have any strict guidelines that his players have to follow both on and off the court?

No jeans on team trips... no headsets to be worn in public... no visible tattoos .. clap hands standing in the layup lines during practice.

What does Auriemma have to say about the future of women's basketball?

"It will not be dunking, as some experts believe, but rather the development of tall, agile players who can play inside and outside, rebound and block shots underneath, shoot baskets from the perimeter, and pass and make moves from any spot on the floor.

"I don't like people constantly comparing the women's game with the men's game. You read things like: 'The men would kill the women in a game.'

"Well, they would. But who cares? The women don't have to play the men, any more than the Williams sisters have to play Sampras in order to win Wimbledon or the U.S. Open.

"But I remain happy with the thought that I have never seen an unoccupied seat in our 10,027-seat Gampel Pavilion."

Auriemma: A Record History

PERSONAL RECORDS

Coach of the Year (3)

NCAA Championships (2)

Undefeated Team (1)

Final Four Teams (4)

30+ Win Seasons (5)

20+ Win Seasons (6)

Big East Champions (9)

NCAA Appearances (12)

Career Winning Percentage (.805)

                              TEAM RECORDS
YEAR                      W-L   NATIONAL RANKING
1985-86                  12-15
1986-87                  14-13
1987-88                  17-11
1988-89                  24-6
1989-90                  25-6
1990-91                  29-6          3
1991-92                  23-11
1992-93                  18-11
1993-94                  30-3          3
1994-95                  35-0          1
1995-96                  34-4          2
1996-97                  33-1          1
1997-98                  34-3          3
1998-99                  29-5          6
1999-00                  36-1          1
2000-01 (as of 2/XX/01)
YEAR                     FINISH IN NCAA TOURNAMENT
1985-86
1986-87
1987-88
1988-89                          1st Round
1989-90                          2nd Round
1990-91                           Final 4
1991-92                          2nd Round
1992-93                          1st Round
1993-94                           Final 8
1994-95                          Champion
1995-96                           Final 4
1996-97                           Final 8
1997-98                           Final 8
1998-99                          Sweet 16
1999-00                          Champion
2000-01 (as of 2/XX/01)