{"id":226316,"date":"2026-03-30T00:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/226316\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T00:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:49:09","slug":"geno-auriemma-dances-with-cowboy-hat-after-uconn-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/226316\/","title":{"rendered":"Geno Auriemma dances with cowboy hat after UConn win"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 Very rarely does Geno Auriemma<\/a> break character on the court.<\/p>\n

The 72-year-old Hall of Fame head coach is known for his loud, angry and sometimes brazen sideline screams of frustration.<\/p>\n

So whenever he does drop his shoulders and let loose, everyone pays attention \u2014 and often joins in.<\/p>\n

Standing in a pile of confetti Sunday afternoon in Fort Worth, Auiremma danced, pranced and giddyupped with a large white\u00a0cowboy hat atop his head.<\/a>\u00a0He shook his shoulders, smiled and laughed as his UConn women\u2019s basketball<\/a> team joined in, egging him on and dancing alongside the Huskies\u2019 coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the dance moves,\u201d Azzi Fudd<\/a> said of Auriemma\u2019s antics. \u201c …When he is dancing, that is when you know he is happy, he is in a good mood, and he is proud. So seeing that puts a cherry on top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside Dickies Arena on Sunday, all arena staff and security wore cowboy hats \u2014 a nod to not only the host state of Texas but the arena itself, which was built in 2015 for the purpose of hosting rodeo-like events such as the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo \u2014 the oldest continuously running livestock show and rodeo (since 1986).<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth Regional staff gifted UConn a cream-colored cowboy hat with blue and white ribbons tied around the hatband and a branded Husky logo on the front.<\/p>\n

Auriemma and the Huskies took turns wearing the hat during their celebration following an Elite Eight win over rival Notre Dame<\/a>. Some pretended to toss an imaginary lasso while others pretended to giddyup and prance as if riding a horse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that the cowboy hat looked pretty good on him. It looked pretty natural,\u201d said Fudd.<\/p>\n

Freshman Gandy Malou-Mamel placed the hat on Auriemma\u2019s head after his postgame address to the fans. KK Arnold secured it and made sure it was facing the right direction. The Hall of Famer then proceeded to lean into the theme and start dancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing him excited and kind of goofy is really good for us, because he’s not usually like that,\u201d said Sarah Strong.<\/a> \u201cHe’s usually all serious or like anxious, grumpy. Just seeing him let loose and be his true self was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to rate Auriemma\u2019s dancing, freshman Blanca\u00a0Qui\u00f1onez said, \u201cI am going to say 7 out of 10. As a Latina, I know there is a lot of work to do. We have high standards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 Very rarely does Geno Auriemma break character on the court. The 72-year-old Hall of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[86570,86569,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-226316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-ct-insider","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}