The 72-year-old coach made his first ESPN broadcast booth appearance in nearly three decades Tuesday evening, providing color commentary as the network aired a primetime matchup between the New York Liberty and the Dallas Wings. A day earlier, during an appearance on Richard Deitsch’s “Sports Media” show, Auriemma revealed that he’s already laid the groundwork for launching his own podcast.
“It’s not necessarily about basketball at all,” Auriemma said of his podcast. “I bet you we’ve had maybe two basketball people on, the rest is about people who have reached a certain level of excellence and asking them things relative to that so that people watching can say, ‘Yeah, that applies to me too.’ It’s just fascinating for me to listen to these people, and I enjoy it because I’m curious. I’m always curious about other people.”
Auriemma also shared that 12 episodes of the podcast have already been recorded. As for a release timeline, Auriemma said, “Eventually, it will come out.”
It’s not the first time Auriemma has ventured into the podcast space. In 2017, the successful Huskies coach released “Holding Court with Geno Auriemma” just a few months after falling short of his fifth straight national title. Auriemma released 24 episodes of the podcast and attracted some fairly notable figures from across the worlds of sports, business and government, including Tiger Woods, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Kobe Bryant. However, the final installment was released in 2019, and has since been removed from iTunes, though the episodes remain available on Audible.
In the time since Auriemma’s initial talk show folded, podcasts have become an even larger staple of the American media diet, with many of the coach’s former players getting in on the action. Former Huskies star Azzi Fudd launched her “Fudd Around and Find Out” podcast last year, already amassing nearly 33,000 followers, and legendary point guard Sue Bird found similar success with her “A Touch More” podcast alongside former partner Megan Rapinoe.