{"id":241612,"date":"2026-03-29T02:31:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/241612\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T02:31:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:31:30","slug":"geno-auriemma-criticizes-ncaas-womens-double-regional-format-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/241612\/","title":{"rendered":"Geno Auriemma criticizes NCAA\u2019s women\u2019s double\u2011regional format \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn coach Geno Auriemma is ripping the double-regional format being used in the\u00a0women’s NCAA Tournament,<\/a> saying it doesn’t make sense for the teams still playing or for efforts to grow the game.<\/p>\n

Auriemma brought up attendance, bad shooting percentages and teams having to come to the arena early and late on the same day while taking aim at the format that’s in place for a fourth year, and set to continue for at least five more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think the first question you\u2019d have to ask is why did they go from four (sites) to two. What was the rationale?\u201d the 12-time national champion coach said Saturday. \u201cIf they can explain it legitimately and then prove that it works, then great. So what was the reason?\u201d<\/p>\n

The NCAA said in a statement to The Associated Press that attendance and ticket sales are up since the move to two regional sites, and an analysis by the women’s basketball committee determined a return to four sites likely would mean fewer bids and smaller markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women’s basketball committee will continue to work with student-athletes, coaches, athletic directors and other college sports leaders in doing what’s best to grow the game,\u201d the NCAA said.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0defending national champion Huskies\u00a0(37-0), the overall No. 1 seed, play Notre Dame (25-10) in the Fort Worth Regional 1 final Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Huskies held their required media availability Saturday morning, after the Fighting Irish had already completed their session and before two Sweet 16 games in Fort Worth Regional 3 were played at Dickies Arena. UConn and Notre Dame both had scheduled practice times there later in the evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we had to get our kids up, come over here. You already knew who we were playing last night, but we can\u2019t get on the court, and neither can the other teams,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cDoes anybody who makes these decisions ever ask the coaches and the players, hey, does this work?\u201d<\/p>\n

AP All-America teammates\u00a0Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong agreed with their coach’s strong sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s trying to figure that out right now. Every team is going through that,\u201d Fudd said. \u201cThere\u2019s no excuse in that. So we\u2019ll figure it out. We\u2019re making it work, but it definitely isn\u2019t the most ideal setup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auriemma, the winningest men’s or women’s NCAA basketball coach with 1,287 victories, didn’t wait for a question from reporters to share his thoughts on the format, opening his session reading off a piece of paper these numbers: 4 for 20, 4 for 22, 1 for 17, 5 for 17, 4 for 16, 7 for 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the 3-point shooting (Friday) across the country. How many arenas are we going to sell out with that (expletive)?\u201d he said. \u201cNow, maybe it was just a bad day shooting by everybody. These are all teams that average probably 30 (percent), over 30, for the season. Know what time our shootaround was (Friday)? Six in the morning, 6:20, I think, for half an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also mentioned the total combined attendance (18,821 announced) at the two venues Friday, in Fort Worth and\u00a0Sacramento, California.<\/p>\n

UCLA coach Cori Close, whose team is the top seed in Sacramento Regional 2 and\u00a0plays Duke in an Elite Eight game\u00a0on Sunday, said it is important to get maximum exposure and coverage while also looking for the best setup to have high-level basketball played on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that I was in favor of going to the two regional sites when that happened,\u201d Close said. \u201cI think every year we should look and go, where are we in our game, how did this play out efficiency-wise, from a student-athlete well-being side, is there some ways in which we can organize to make things a little bit more cohesive so teams aren\u2019t going back and forth from media coverage to practices later and those kinds of things?\u201d<\/p>\n

Auriemma said there is a lack of input from coaches, and that nothing changes even when the NCAA sends representatives to schools every year after the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully I\u2019m speaking for the other coaches. Some coaches might think I\u2019m full of it. And this is not about UConn. I hope everybody understands that,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not about us, because you know, we\u2019ve managed to go to the Final Four and win national championships no matter where they\u2019re played, when they\u2019re played, what time they\u2019re played, whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is a level of frustration right now among the coaches that\u2019s higher than any time I\u2019ve ever seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDiana Taurasi surprised future UConn center Olivia Vukosa with the Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year Award.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Duke\u00a0coach Kara Lawson would like more practice time on the game court, especially more than the designated half-hour on game days for shootarounds, which routinely last about an hour the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be the only thing I\u2019d change. I mean two regionals, I think the arena thing is the thing that\u2019s hard,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we\u2019re in the same city, it\u2019s that we don\u2019t get long enough practice or shootaround times in the venue for your most important games of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the second day in a row, Auriemma mentioned new rims and new basketballs being used during\u00a0NCAA Tournament games, and the impact those have on shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s hard to make shots in the postseason. They just break out these new baskets, new rims, and then it gets in the kids’ heads,\u201d Auriemma said Friday after\u00a0UConn’s 63-42 win over North Carolina, in which the teams were a combined 8 of 42 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

The coach on Saturday again brought up \u201cnew basketballs right out of the box\u201d and the rims.<\/p>\n

\u201cGot people dribbling the ball off their feet. You got people missing layups all over the place. You bounce the ball, and it goes up to the ceiling. There\u2019s just no concept of how basketball is played,\u201d he said. \u201cNot that I have any of the answers. Believe me, I just have questions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UConn coach Geno Auriemma is ripping the double-regional format being used in the\u00a0women’s NCAA Tournament, saying it doesn’t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,20730],"class_list":{"0":"post-241612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-la","9":"tag-la-headlines","10":"tag-la-news","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","13":"tag-los-angeles-news","14":"tag-march-madness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}