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Geno Auriemma - Postgame after 40yr and 1217 wins · Coaches Corner

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  Speaker 1: Which just a few questions.
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  Speaker 2: I'll ask you.
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  Speaker 3: So.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they love you, they love you.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: They love me, they love me today. Yeah, true, that's true.
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  Speaker 1: There are a lot of days those of us here
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  Speaker 1: didn't love you, I'll tell you that.
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  Speaker 2: But we're here. Feeling is mutual. Well, think about it.
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  Speaker 1: I mean we've talked a lot. You've been here since
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  Speaker 1: your fortieth season. Gamble wasn't built when you arrived, but
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  Speaker 1: obviously you knew this was coming, right ten thousand people,
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  Speaker 1: the greatest fans in the country. I mean you didn't.
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  Speaker 1: They didn't want to charge fans when Campbell first opened
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  Speaker 1: because they didn't think people would come. Right, Look what
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  Speaker 1: you guys have built. Yeah, what does one thousand? What
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  Speaker 1: does knowing all of that? What does can you put
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  Speaker 1: into words for us?
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  Speaker 2: What?
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  Speaker 1: One thousand?
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  Speaker 2: Why are you standing over there?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: It's it's I was asked earlier, how to explain it,
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  Speaker 2: How to explain you know, all these all these forty
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  Speaker 2: years and everything that went into the forty years, And
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  Speaker 2: it's not possible, obviously, in a short period of time too,
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  Speaker 2: to go over all the things that went into having
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  Speaker 2: this happen. We did never we never sat down and said, uh, hey,
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  Speaker 2: let's let's make a plan. Let's make a forty year
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  Speaker 2: plan and let's you know, let's let's let's see if
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  Speaker 2: we can make this happen. Uh Like D said, and
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  Speaker 2: Sue said, and Maya said, it's it's about just coming
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  Speaker 2: here every day and trying to be better than we
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  Speaker 2: were yesterday, and the frustrations that go along with that,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the fun things that go along with that, when you
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  Speaker 2: see players get better, when you see them do things
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  Speaker 2: that they didn't think they could do, when you see
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  Speaker 2: them cut down a neck because they just want a
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  Speaker 2: national championship. It's the things that they ended up getting
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  Speaker 2: when they came here that made it worthwhile to keep
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  Speaker 2: staying here. And the more that we stayed, the more
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  Speaker 2: they came, the more they accomplished, the more we wanted
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  Speaker 2: to stay, and the more we stayed, the more people came.
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  Speaker 2: So the best way to explain it is, there's probably
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  Speaker 2: I don't know how many. If there's sixty two, sixty three,
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  Speaker 2: sixty four, however many there are here, plus who's ever
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  Speaker 2: not here, there's one hundred and how many players We
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  Speaker 2: said we had one hundred whatever that number is, one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty one hundred and sixty hundred, So there's
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  Speaker 2: really one hundred and sixty stories that could explain how
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  Speaker 2: this all happened. And each player that played here has
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  Speaker 2: their own story. Some of it's a nightmare. Off it's
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  Speaker 2: a fairy tale, right, because you can't you can't draw
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  Speaker 2: up Stewie and Tuck and Mariah and that whole team.
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  Speaker 2: You can't draw up that story because that is a
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  Speaker 2: fairy tale. To go to college, play four years and
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  Speaker 2: win four national championships. That doesn't happen. But what also
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  Speaker 2: is a fairy tale is those kids that came here
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  Speaker 2: as walk ons and just wanted to be part of it,
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  Speaker 2: and yet they were treated just like they were the
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  Speaker 2: national player of the year coming out of high school.
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  Speaker 2: They were treated with the same level of respect as
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  Speaker 2: the best player in the country was. And then eventually
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  Speaker 2: they got a scholarship, and then they graduated and went
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  Speaker 2: on to do great things. And for those players, it
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  Speaker 2: truly was a fairy tale come true because they were
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  Speaker 2: never recruited, they were never thought of as playing at
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  Speaker 2: this level, and yet we gave them that opportunity, and
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: then they gave us that sense of this is what
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  Speaker 2: you're doing the people's lives, and no amount of championships
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  Speaker 2: and no amount of uh, you know, numbers or awards
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  Speaker 2: or anything like that can take the place of the
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  Speaker 2: lives that we've impacted, that they've allowed us to impact.
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  Speaker 2: That to me is the strongest part. Is I know,
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  Speaker 2: see Deep alluded to it. We've impacted one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: some lives, some great, some a little, and some a
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  Speaker 2: tiny bit. But we did have an impact on every
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  Speaker 2: single one. But they all had an impact on us,
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  Speaker 2: some a little, some a little more, and some great.
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  Speaker 2: But when it's when it's over, you know, whenever it is,
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  Speaker 2: whenever this is all over, what we'll remember is tonight
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  Speaker 2: we'll remember this. And I'll remember each and every one
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  Speaker 2: of my players that I've ever coached. I'll remember them
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  Speaker 2: when they were seventeen and the look in their eyes
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  Speaker 2: of coach, can you help me do this? And I said,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, I think I can, but you know,
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  Speaker 2: we'll see. And now we look back forty years later
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  Speaker 2: and I would say, I don't know how much I
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  Speaker 2: helped them get what they wanted, but they helped me
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  Speaker 2: get everything I wanted. So thank you. And the uh
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  Speaker 2: the uh you know, the un sung heroes that are
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: all here, you know, that work in our office, that
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  Speaker 2: all through the years. Sarah has been with us since
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  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five, you know, and so many other people
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  Speaker 2: have had a hand in all this. And my family's
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  Speaker 2: here for the first time a kind of old yeah,
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  Speaker 2: all that's left all of them together over.
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  Speaker 4: There, Jenna, Mike so, Jetta's kids.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got Kathy's over there, and Christian and Andrew
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  Speaker 2: and Luke, my grants kids, and Todd and my son
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  Speaker 2: in law, and Jenna and Alyssa, Michael, my son, Caitlin,
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  Speaker 2: his wife Gia, their daughter, my brother Fruge and Donado
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  Speaker 2: and Nicki and one of our practice players, Nicholas.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah tonight.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, my family has grown up here and
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  Speaker 2: uh Ceede and I have grown up here and you
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  Speaker 2: all have made it an incredibly, incredibly special there. There
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  Speaker 2: was a time, see these right when we had to
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  Speaker 2: bribe students to come to the games. We we encouraged
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  Speaker 2: them to come, and we were thrilled when they came
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  Speaker 2: because for these for these kids that played, they're your team,
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  Speaker 2: they're your teammates, you go to class with them, they
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  Speaker 2: know you, you know them, and they represent you even
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  Speaker 2: more than they represent these fans that that come and
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  Speaker 2: watch us. You know, you are Connecticut, you are the
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  Speaker 2: University of Connecticut, and that's what it was. I was
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: a little disappointed because the guys that have those uh yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I was a little disappointed because I thought you would
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  Speaker 2: streak along this red carpet and it would be all
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  Speaker 2: over ESPN.
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  Speaker 4: All right, four young men with blue body paint. That
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  Speaker 4: is Geno.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, here they go. He knows having a lot of
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  Speaker 3: fun with things. Boys got on high fives, all right,
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  Speaker 3: get out, get out. Yeah.