Geno Auriemma becomes all-time wins NCAA leader: Diana Taurasi reacts

Geno Auriemma’s Hall of Fame resume includes 11 national championships and eight national coach of the year awards across his 40 seasons as the head coach of the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team.

Add all-time winningest coach in college basketball history to the list.

The UConn Huskies defeated Fairleigh Dickinson, 85-41, on Wednesday to secure Auriemma’s 1,217th career win. With the victory, Auriemma broke the all-time wins record for an NCAA college basketball coach by surpassing former Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer, who retired after last season with 1,216 career wins.

Many of Auriemma’s former players who helped him achieve the unprecedented feat returned to Storrs, Connecticut to witness history, including Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore-Irons.

“You told me the things I needed to hear to be a better person, a better teammate, a better basketball player,” said Taurasi, who played for UConn from 2000–04 and won three national championships under Auriemma. “As I see every one here, whether we played on the same team or decades apart, we always put this jersey on to represent you because we know how much you love this team, the game of basketball and your family.”

Taurasi continued: “Banners, Hall of Famers, MVPs, champions, players of the year, we always come back because of you, coach. … Don’t you ever forget that.”

Here’s how the basketball community reacted to Auriemma’s milestone:

Tara VanDerveer

Former Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who broke the previous all-time wins record in January, said Auriemma’s success “will never be duplicated.” Auriemma is one of four coaches to have compiled 1,000 Division-I wins — VanDerveer, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and the late Pat Summitt of Tennessee are the others.

Rebecca Lobo

“Tonight, Coach Auriemma broke the all-time wins record. He (and Chris Dailey) did it while changing 160 lives, including mine,” wrote Lobo, a Basketball Hall of Famer who played for UConn from 1991 to 1995.

Lobo, in an article published by ESPN, where she serves as a basketball analyst, added: “The number to focus on is 160. That is how many Huskies have played for coach Geno Auriemma. One hundred sixty women stepped onto UConn’s campus as 18-year-old kids and had their lives changed forever. There is a bond among the 160, among players of different generations, even those who have never met. Because we have the shared life experience of playing for the best coach in the history of the game. We have been yelled at. Forced to tears. We have been pushed to the limits of what we thought was possible. … Through all of that, we learned how to win. But not just win. Win the right way. We learned to communicate, to push through mental and physical barriers and to always put the team first.”

Sue Bird

“It was so simple — get better every day. That’s what you taught us,” said Sue Bird, who played for Auriemma from 1998 to 2002. “You created a foundation for all of us to go on and achieve things beyond college, both on and off the court. For that I am definitely forever grateful.”

Maya Moore-Irons

“You can’t make up family. Family is fought for. Family is forged. Family happens every day while trying to get better. I’m so grateful to be a part of this Huskies family,” said Moore-Irons, a Husky from 2007 to 2011. “I don’t know where I would be if I wasn’t shaped in my young adulthood by (Auriemma and longtime associate head coach Chris Dailey).”

Dan Hurley

UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley, who was on hand for Wednesday’s victory, said Auriemma is “one of the greatest to ever do it.” Other coaches at the University of Connecticut joined in with praise.

DePaul University

The DePaul women’s basketball program sent congratulations to Auriemma. Doug Bruno, head coach of the DePaul women’s basketball team, told USA TODAY Sports that Auriemma “built his program from the ground up.”

“People think he’s just this glamour puss walking around in front of TV cameras. No, he’s worked from the ground up, built his program from the ground up. Those great players weren’t just dropped on his doorstep — he established a program where they wanted to go.”

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said Auriemma displayed “40 seasons of excellence.” Lamont was part of the celebration in Storrs, Connecticut, and debuted a new road sign that will be put up around the state. It reads, “Welcome to Connecticut: Home of the Winningest Coach in Basketball History.”

Contributing: Lindsay Schnell

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.