Geno Auriemma has always been a huge advocate for women’s basketball, famously saying that he doesn’t just coach women, he coaches basketball players who happen to be women. And recently, we saw how the landscape of women’s college basketball has completely transformed—something that was almost unimaginable just a few years ago. With the game growing rapidly, Auriemma shared his thoughts on the rise of women’s basketball and its sustainability.
The Huskies head coach reflected on the past, explaining how, if you were a UConn fan, you thought UConn was the best team in the country, and that was the team you followed, period. “If there was another game on that didn’t involve UConn, you were probably apt to not watch it,” he said.
But now, he noted, that’s changed. “People are becoming women’s basketball fans, as opposed to just following my team.” He acknowledged that today, the attention is no longer just on one team but on the entire sport. Auriemma also credited the rise of star players like Caitlin Clark for the increase in popularity.
While he noted that “there’s not more stars than there were back then,” he pointed out that there’s now much more attention on those stars. “You saw some of my teams, okay. There’s not more stars than there were back then, but there’s more attention paid to the stars that are out there,” he explained.
It’s a long clip, but here is @UConnWBB’s Geno Auriemma’s thoughts on the growing popularity of college basketball, especially women’s college basketball:
There was a long line of fans waiting to get into the Finneran Pavilion to see Paige Bueckers. Auriemma discusses the… pic.twitter.com/3e5XXKpR8q
— David Szczepanski (@WXVUDavidS) January 5, 2025
The exposure these stars are getting has certainly contributed to the larger crowds. And though he didn’t take the name, Caitlin Clark is leading the march. Moreover, the HC also expressed confidence in the game’s sustainability, emphasizing that social media has played a huge role in spreading women’s basketball to a global audience.
“Back when those other superstars, those Hall of Famers that I coached, when they played, it wasn’t social media,” he said. “Now, that picture, that clip is all over the world. And that’s made the game way more widespread than it used to be.” With social media’s global market size value of 251.45 billion dollars, Auriemma believes the game’s growth isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.
(This story is developing)
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