GREENSBORO, N.C. — Forty years ago, when coaches Geno Auriemma and Chris Dailey took over at the University of Connecticut, it was an unsuccessful women’s program in the middle of nowhere. In conference play alone, the team went 3-13 in the 1984-85 season, an improvement from its cumulative 1-15 record from the previous two campaigns.
“When we started coaching together, we didn’t have anyone else that we could rely on to help us in the moment to build what we were trying to build, and we didn’t even know what we were trying to build. We were just trying to not finish last, right? We were trying not to finish last in the Big East,” Auriemma told media after a 69-58 win over No. 14 North Carolina Friday night. “We just wanted to finish somewhere between seven and five. Like, if we could do that, we thought that would be a huge win.”
The victory gives Auriemma — and, unofficially, associate head coach Chris Dailey — 1,216 wins in NCAA Division I play and ties the UConn tandem with retired Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer for the most wins in college basketball. In the duo’s first season together, they flirted with a .500 record at 12-15. The Huskies went 14-13 the following season, then 17-11, and 36…
