The Hartford Courant, Saturday, Match 21, 2015
The Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper In The United States
TIME FOR A SHOT CLOCK ... AND OTHER REFORMS
Geno: Make H.S. Game Better
JEFF JACOBS
[email protected]
STORRS — Geno Auriemma is coach of the defending national college basketball champions. He remains coach of the Olympic gold medalists. Auriemma is also a Connecticut resident. And as the NCAA Division I women’s tournament starts this weekend at Gampel Pavilion, Auriemma is well aware that the state high school championships — both genders, all divisions — are at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Sure, he looks at the game from the top. He also looks at it from its roots. And on a Friday when he was asked about John Wooden, he spoke much more demonstratively about the high school game in Connecticut. Auriemma is concerned about the way it is played on the court and concerned about some of the ways the CIAC runs it off the court.
The man who figures to match Wooden’s record of 10 national championships this year worries that the Connecticut high school game in 2015 is too wooden. He hates that there is no shot clock, for instance. And for all the debate that has gone on about those 30 or 35 seconds recently, whose opinion should be better valued?
Yet it goes beyond the shot clock. So let’s step back for a moment, because like many things involving Auriemma, one question evolves into one answer and another and another. The initial question by John Holt from WFSB-TV was about the 20th anniversary of UConn’s first national title and the impact of two decades on young girls and women’s athletics in the state.
“I guess I felt the impact more in the ’90s and up until Diana Taurasi graduated in 2004,” Auriemma said. “I think that’s when it was most evident what was going on and how everyone reacted to it. It was unlike any place in the country.
“Unfortunately, even in spite of all that, I don’t think a lot is done in this state to help girls be better basketball players — guys for that matter. The rules being what they are, the size of the state being what it is, for as popular as girls basketball should be in this state, there are not a lot of high-level Division I players coming out of Connecticut year after year.”
As architect of the premier program in the nation, a Hall of Famer, a businessman, etc., we tend to see Auriemma more as a face on the wall next to Wooden’s in Springfield and a face on a jar of tomato sauce next to his mom. You can forget that Auriemma once coached his son Michael and Aaron Hernandez in AAU ball. You can forget that he once haunted state gyms in search of talent at Storrs. You can forget that his son-in-law Todd Stigliano coaches the New Britain boys’ team. He is invested.
He and Michael, once a star player at East Catholic-Manchester, went to the Weaver-East Catholic Class M semifinal the other night. Maybe that’s what set Auriemma talking Friday about things that clearly have been on his mind for some time.
“Two great teams, two great coaches,” Auriemma said of East Catholic’s Luke Reilly and Weaver’s Reggie Hatchett. “These two guys coached their brains out in that game. Those kids played their brains out. It should have been for the state championship.”
Weaver led 10-9 after the first quarter. East Catholic took only two shots in the second, sinking one. Weaver led 19-11 at the half and went on to win 53-45 and advance to the final against Notre Dame-Fairfield at 3 p.m. Saturday.
“Luke did exactly what I knew he’d do,” Auriemma said. “He held the ball. Just like his dad [Joe, the legendary coach at South Catholic] did before him years ago. Because you can. Just like Dean Smith did at Carolina. Those are the rules. He took advantage of the rules. In the second half, they just played, and it was as good a 16 minutes of basketball as I’ve seen in a long time at any level. I’m thinking why don’t they have a shot clock? You can still do some of the same things.
“Same thing on the girls side. You pick up the paper. Final score, 40-38. What did those kids do for two hours that day? They walked the ball up the court, stood there and listened to their coach call plays. How are they learning how to play? You go to some other states. They have a shot clock. They play.”
Later, Auriemma talked about how he met Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale. She was coaching Norman High and he was recruiting Stacy Hansmeyer. There was Hansmeyer working out. It was September.
“You go to states we recruit in and they’re allowed to get together in September and October,” Auriemma said. “Our kids can’t start until Thanksgiving weekend, and next year I think they’re pushing it back another week [the girls’ regular season will start Dec. 15].
In the meantime, there was St. Francis Brooklyn senior Sarah Benedetti talking Friday about how incredibly special it is to play Saturday night against UConn at Gampel Pavilion. Benedetti was named MVP after the Terriers won the NEC Tournament. She’s from Canton.
“It has honestly been a dream come true,” Benedetti said. “I grew up watching UConn. If someone were to tell me at the beginning of my college career that you would finish as a senior at Gampel Pavilion playing UConn, I would never have believed it.”
As a kid she’d come to UConn games with her travel team. She loved Taurasi. She loved Maya Moore. Her dad would try like crazy to get Sarah into the summer camp, but they’d sell out in 10 minutes. She never made it. One of her most cherished possessions is a photo from a decade ago when she posed with Auriemma after a game.
Benedetti’s high school team, Canton, is playing against Thomaston for the Class S state title Saturday morning at Mohegan Sun. You don’t think this weekend is special for her?
“I remembered when my son played in the state championship against Hillhouse [in Michael’s final high school game in 2007], the first and only time they had the tournament here,” Auriemma said. “He grew up here. I remember how excited he was to get a chance to play at Gampel. It has got to be an unbelievable feeling for her.”
The question that Auriemma has raised is this. Are we doing enough for all the Sarah Benedettis coming along?
“The publicity is there,” Auriemma said. “What you guys in the media do for girls high school basketball, compared to what I see in a lot of other places, I think the kids in this state get a lot of benefit out of us being pretty good.
“Maybe it’s because we’re a small state. Maybe it’s because the schools are small or maybe it’s because people don’t like change. Maybe it’s all those things. I just wished they changed some of the antiquated rules that don’t help the kids get better.”