Auriemma Looking for 900th Win

Auriemma has no plans to retire from coaching anytime soon.

Geno Auriemma has accomplished just about everything there is to accomplish in women's college basketball. He's won nine national championships, myriad conference titles, and now he's one game away from winning No. 900. Auriemma and the Huskies will get that chance on Tuesday when they face Cincinnati at the XL Center.

“He has an unbelievable basketball mind,” Cincy assistant and former UConn player Jamelle Elliott told SNY.com. “I’ve always respected the fact that he doesn’t coach his players like women or girls but like basketball players. He doesn’t get too caught up in how they are feeling that day or their emotions or their sensitivity. When you step on the floor, he expects you to be a basketball player. He treats you as such. That is something that I think all of his players, as well as his colleagues, respect about him.

“I’m not surprised that he has had this success because I have been able to see how invested he is in the game of basketball, his players and ultimately in making sure that UConn remains successful.”

So how long will Auriemma, who is in his 30th season, keep grinding?

“You just never know," he told SNY.com. "I think time has a way … I’ve almost felt like it is like the ocean. You just kind of keep getting pushed forward, getting pushed forward, getting pushed forward. Trying to stop isn’t easy. I can see why so many people are in it for so long. Trying to stop goes against everything you believe in, everything you’ve ever done. Most coaches that I know that have been doing it for a long time, they haven’t done anything else in a long time. So this is what you know best. This is what you enjoy the best. But there is going to come a time when all of a sudden I can’t really give it what it deserves.”

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