[cardfan1996]

Geno to a certain degree is standing on the shoulders of Pat and Tara.  He also had the advantage of being a good story for a sports network 43 miles from Storrs.  Being 140 miles from NYC also got them a lot of good media coverage in 1995.  Rebecca Lobo on Letterman.   If the Whalers hadn't left Hartford in 1997 and/or in 1999 the Patriots hadn't pulled out of the deal to move to Hartford would UConn have gotten all the media coverage that helped a few critical recruits choose UConn over Tennessee?

Geno is an excellent coach and I like people with his straight-shooting, tell it as it personality.  He has done a lot for women's basketball and even without the media fawning over him in the late 90's and early aughts, would have been one of the top 3 coaches.  The media attention that to a certain degree he lucked into helped him make 5 finals fours between 2000 and 2004 and win 4 championships, that helped UConn get the reputation of the school to go to if you wanted to win a championship and play in the WNBA.

He has done a lot for the game.  The rule changes of going to 4Q's, advancing the ball on a timeout, and 10 second clock are his suggestions.  I like his suggestion of the women using the men's ball.   

I stuck around Maples after Stanford broke UConn's winning streak. I saw Geno after leaving the post game press conference stop and talk to a young UConn fan after giving her an autograph.  Lot of respect for doing that.

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Edited to add: Recruiting is part of being the “best coach” to me. Tara doesn’t have the pool Pat and Geno has but she has had roster full of McDonalds All-Americans. She has also lost out on her share of program defining point guards over the years even though they got into Stanford: Sue Bird, Diggins, likely Juju too. Who else?

Kara Lawson's Dad wanted her to go to Stanford and her Mom wanted her to go to Duke and she chose Tennessee.  Another "what-if" about what would the landscape of college basketball been if Stanford's guards 1999-2003 were Lawson/Carey with a two year overlap with Nicole Powell?

We have lost a few recruits over the years to admission standards as well.

I didn’t know about Lawson. Love her. But can you imagine Diggins paired with Nneka for 4 years? I want to cry.

The difference between Tara and Geno in my mind comes down to the hysterical storytelling of Diana Taurasi, the greatest WBB player in the history of the game. Diana really wanted to go to Stanford really bad according to her. But someone (could have been Tara, could have been someone else) told Diana she was “not Stanford material.” I am going to give that person the benefit of doubt and say it was probably Diana’s grades. But still, there were a lot of possible responses other than you are “not Stanford material.” If you recruit them in the 9th grade, you could work with them on their grades, and expectations. You could say “we would really really love to have you here, but Admissions is so tough and we tried really hard and couldn’t make it happen. But we really hope you stay in California and play in the PAC-10 (you know, since you are suppose to be an ambassador of West coast hoops).”

Contrast that approach with Geno who made so many cross country trips to see Diana and was in her house so much that her mother wondered when he would leave and could they ask him to leave.

He had a vision of what Diana would become, maybe not the best player ever, but he knew. He knew.

[cardfan1996]

Geno to a certain degree is standing on the shoulders of Pat and Tara.  He also had the advantage of being a good story for a sports network 43 miles from Storrs.  Being 140 miles from NYC also got them a lot of good media coverage in 1995.  Rebecca Lobo on Letterman.   If the Whalers hadn't left Hartford in 1997 and/or in 1999 the Patriots hadn't pulled out of the deal to move to Hartford would UConn have gotten all the media coverage that helped a few critical recruits choose UConn over Tennessee?

Geno is an excellent coach and I like people with his straight-shooting, tell it as it personality.  He has done a lot for women's basketball and even without the media fawning over him in the late 90's and early aughts, would have been one of the top 3 coaches.  The media attention that to a certain degree he lucked into helped him make 5 finals fours between 2000 and 2004 and win 4 championships, that helped UConn get the reputation of the school to go to if you wanted to win a championship and play in the WNBA.

He has done a lot for the game.  The rule changes of going to 4Q's, advancing the ball on a timeout, and 10 second clock are his suggestions.  I like his suggestion of the women using the men's ball.   

I stuck around Maples after Stanford broke UConn's winning streak. I saw Geno after leaving the post game press conference stop and talk to a young UConn fan after giving her an autograph.  Lot of respect for doing that.

---

Edited to add: Recruiting is part of being the “best coach” to me. Tara doesn’t have the pool Pat and Geno has but she has had roster full of McDonalds All-Americans. She has also lost out on her share of program defining point guards over the years even though they got into Stanford: Sue Bird, Diggins, likely Juju too. Who else?

Kara Lawson's Dad wanted her to go to Stanford and her Mom wanted her to go to Duke and she chose Tennessee.  Another "what-if" about what would the landscape of college basketball been if Stanford's guards 1999-2003 were Lawson/Carey with a two year overlap with Nicole Powell?

We have lost a few recruits over the years to admission standards as well.

I didn’t know about Lawson. Love her. But can you imagine Diggins paired with Nneka for 4 years? I want to cry.

The difference between Tara and Geno in my mind comes down to the hysterical storytelling of Diana Taurasi, the greatest WBB player in the history of the game. Diana really wanted to go to Stanford really bad according to her. But someone (could have been Tara, could have been someone else) told Diana she was “not Stanford material.” I am going to give that person the benefit of doubt and say it was probably Diana’s grades. But still, there were a lot of possible responses other than you are “not Stanford material.” If you recruit them in the 9th grade, you could work with them on their grades, and expectations. You could say “we would really really love to have you here, but Admissions is so tough and we tried really hard and couldn’t make it happen. But we really hope you stay in California and play in the PAC-10 (you know, since you are suppose to be an ambassador of West coast hoops).”

Contrast that approach with Geno who made so many cross country trips to see Diana and was in her house so much that her mother wondered when he would leave and could they ask him to leave.

He had a vision of what Diana would become, maybe not the best player ever, but he knew. He knew.