Women’s College Basketball and UConn are two terms that you will often hear together as they have dominated the scene and set the tone for others to follow. While programs like Duke, Notre Dame, and Tennessee have had their time at the top of women's college basketball, the Huskies are synonymous with winning in the past two decades.
Whether you started following them in their early years when they had nothing, jumped on the bandwagon in the middle of one of their amazing winning streaks, or are just starting to look into the game, there is a reason why hundreds of thousands of young girls dream of putting on that UConn jersey one day.
Let’s take a look at a few things that Coach Geno Auriemma and his staff have done to spend years dominating Women’s College Basketball.
Creating a Dominating Culture
With a 111-game winning streak that spanned from 2014-2017 and 108 of those wins being won by double-digits the culture of UConn Women’s Basketball isn’t just to win games it is to dominate them.
Understanding that when you become a UConn Lady Husky you are expected to be the best every night is not easy. Building the right formulas of nutrition, mental toughness, rest, and proper training to create athletes that can stand up to this level for entire seasons is not an easy feat.
Recruiting the Right Players
Finding the right players to buy into this dominating culture is the only way to create these amazing winning streaks. You have to find players that aren’t only talented basketball players but are students who have the character and discipline to eat, sleep and live basketball while they are on campus.
Being on a team like UConn is not always going to be fun. The pressure and microscope these athletes are under are constant and there is no room for error. When coaches are recruiting their players they are looking for athletes who can stand up to the kind of stressors this level takes and still perform at their best.
Building a Coaching Staff with the Same Vision
While Geno Auriemma might be the name most associated with UConn Women’s Basketball he hasn’t gotten to the top without a solid coaching staff beside him that has the same dominating visions.
Having these key contributors helping to build up the players and keeping the team operating in peak condition is the only way to have a program that can win 145 regular season conference games from 2013-2022.
While the Women’s College Basketball scene is always changing and in more recent years there has been a more competitive landscape with different teams catching up, the UConn Lady Huskies will always be known as one of the most dominating forces to have ever played the game.
With several of their players now playing in the WNBA, including two of the oldest and most successful names out there (Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi) there is no doubt that they know how to build a culture of dominance, and have players that buy into the game plan and have one of the top coaching staff in the league creating a perfect storm to dominate Women’s College Basketball.
