{"id":64380,"date":"2025-08-07T05:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T05:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/64380\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T05:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T05:47:10","slug":"when-18m-worth-geno-auriemma-said-i-got-issues-and-reflected-on-42-years-of-coaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/64380\/","title":{"rendered":"When $18M Worth Geno Auriemma Said \u201cI Got Issues\u201d and Reflected on 42 Years of Coaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma once weighed in on his challenges and looked back at his legendary coaching career. In Jan. 2019, Auriemma, who has a net worth of $18 million (per Celebrity Net Worth<\/a>), was a guest on Brett Ledbetter\u2019s show on the \u201cWhat Drives Winning\u201d YouTube channel, in which they had a question-and-answer forum in front of a crowd.<\/p>\n

In one significant part of the forum, Auriemma was asked by Ledbetter about his infamous quote in an article by Wright Thompson. The former had said, \u201cI got issues.\u201d Auriemma went on to explain that these issues are a recurring theme with everyone, and it helps shape what the rest of one\u2019s years may look like. In his case, he shared that there\u2019s a lot to his head coaching job that goes on behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we all have issues\u2026 Let\u2019s put it this way: how many people in this room are doing exactly what you set out to do your whole life? How many people said to themselves, \u2018You know, when I\u2019m whatever age, this is what I\u2019m going to be doing. Ten years from now, this is what I\u2019m going to be doing,’\u201d Auriemma said (8:32).<\/p>\n

He detailed that there will always be winners and losers in any field in life, no matter what.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have things that happen in our lives that take us to where we are today. Some of us get really good at what we\u2019re doing, and some of us struggle. That\u2019s the other part of coaching. We celebrate all the coaches who win, but all the coaches who win are beating other coaches,\u201d Auriemma added (9:33).<\/p>\n

He continued:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s another side to coaching that a lot of people don\u2019t talk about. The issue is, \u2018Okay, so now that I\u2019ve done this, what am I going to do? I want to do something else.\u2019 What? \u2018Well, you know, I just don\u2019t want to be doing this anymore. I don\u2019t want to coach anymore. Is that what my life is? Hanging around 18-year-olds, sitting in the gym in July, watching 18-year-old kids play basketball?’\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Auriemma and his UConn program concluded their 2024-25 campaign with flying colors by beating the 2024 national champions, the South Carolina Gamecocks, in this year\u2019s NCAA championship game by 23 points, 82-59, to win their 12th national title in history.<\/p>\n

The Huskies then continued their regular season dominance, ending the year with a 37-3 overall record (18-0 Big East).<\/p>\n

When Geno Auriemma shared some of the internal conversations he has had with himself<\/p>\n

Later in his explanation of his quote regarding his issues on Brett Ledbetter\u2019s show, Geno Auriemma was asked by the host about some of the internal conversations he may have had with himself throughout the years he has been coaching the UConn Huskies.<\/p>\n

Coach Auriemma said he lets go of a lot of things that are on his mind and always goes back to his purpose of coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe internal conversation is, \u2018Wow, you know, I\u2019ve been coaching for 42 years.\u2019 I\u2019m 64, so I\u2019ve been coaching since I was 22. I\u2019ve been doing it a long time.\u2019 But I think as you go on and on and on and on through coaching, you sometimes get, you wake up one morning and you go, \u2018Man, I\u2019ve spent more time with other people\u2019s kids than I have with my own kids, and those little bastards don\u2019t even appreciate it,’\u201d Auriemma said (10:33).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t say that out loud; I say that internally, right? And you say, \u2018Well, it\u2019s never about the money.\u2019 But, I make a lot of money. So, I\u2019m going to keep coaching. You have issues in understanding what reality is. We live in a fantasy world. We\u2019ve lost three games in the last four years, all three of them in overtime. People go, \u2018Oh, you can\u2019t win close games. Terrible late-game situations,’\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

Auriemma and the Huskies are now looking to go back-to-back in the 2025-26 college basketball season, as they pursue their 13th national title, even with the likes of star Paige Bueckers and veteran transferee Kaitlyn Chen moving to the WNBA.<\/p>\n

College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in\u00a0football<\/a>,\u00a0basketball<\/a>, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma once weighed in on his challenges and looked back at his legendary coaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-64380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}