UConn’s Geno Auriemma becomes NCAA all-time basketball wins leader

STORRS, Conn. — Geno Auriemma’s coaching career at UConn has already been defined by unparalleled feats. Eleven national titles. Twenty-three Final Four berths, including 15 in the past 16 years. Separate win streaks of 98 and 111 games.

And on Wednesday, in front of 60-plus former players and a sellout home crowd at Gampel Pavilion, Auriemma ascended yet another mountaintop when his Huskies routed Fairleigh Dickinson 85-41 to make him the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history.

Auriemma broke a tie he held since Friday with legendary Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who retired in April. His 1,217 wins are the most in NCAA history, women’s or men’s, for any division. The record-breaker was his 329th victory of at least 40 points — he’s had more than twice as many 40-point wins in his career as total losses (162).

“We never sat down and said hey let’s make a 40-year plan and see if we can make this happen,” Auriemma said. “It’s about coming here every day and trying to be better than we were yesterday.”

The game doubled as a celebration for Auriemma and longtime associate head coach Chris Dailey’s 40th season in Storrs. Red T-shirts and lighting adorned Gampel for the duo’s ruby anniversary. A fan fest with a goat petting zoo was held near the arena. Three different Auriemma- and Dailey-themed ice cream specials were sold at the school’s Dairy Bar. Program legends Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Maya Moore returned to their old stomping grounds to pay tribute to the coaching pair.

Auriemma and Dailey received ladders from Nike and Connecticut governor Ned Lamont presented a sign that said “Welcome to Connecticut, home of the winningest coach in basketball history.” His current team presented Auriemma with a framed jersey with the number 1,217 on it. The student section, during the final minute of the game, held up cards that spelled out 1,217.

“He gives credit to everybody around him, and he doesn’t really take it for himself,” Huskies star Paige Bueckers said. “But what he’s built here, it’s here because of him, so he definitely downplays it. He doesn’t want to do the whole thing: the celebration, the goats, the ice cream, it’s all extra to him. But he deserves it, and we want to celebrate him, because he doesn’t celebrate himself a lot. So everyone around him will make sure they do that job.”

The festivities weren’t merely a celebration of Auriemma and Dailey’s longevity, but also of their unparalleled excellence spanning generations. Even when the program wasn’t rattling off national championships, UConn was simply dominant: Auriemma’s .882 win percentage is an NCAA record. Half of his 162 losses came before his first championship in 1995.

It’s surreal to Auriemma, who turned 70 in March, that he’s still coaching. So, too, is what he’s managed to do in Storrs. When he took the job in 1985, he thought he would be at UConn for four years. Try four, 10 times over. And that’s what makes Wednesday even more special: Unlike VanDerveer and former Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski — the only other coaches to reach the 1,200 win mark — Auriemma has spent his entire head-coaching career at one school.

VanDerveer offered her congratulations to Auriemma after the game.

“This is yet another outstanding milestone in a career filled with them for Geno Auriemma. The level of success he has maintained at UConn over four decades will never be duplicated,” she said in a statement. “But his tremendous legacy extends far beyond any number of wins. It lives in the lives of the countless young women he has positively influenced throughout his career. Congratulations to Geno and Chris on this incredible accomplishment.”

The past four years have been particularly trying for Auriemma. The COVID-19 pandemic took a toll, as did the program’s seemingly constant stream of injuries. During the 2022-23 season, he also dealt with health issues and grieved the death of his mother. Auriemma felt the urge to step away multiple times over the past few seasons, but never went through with it.

“Whatever the pull is,” he said Tuesday, “it’s still there.”

He’ll be the “happiest guy in the world” whenever he does decide to retire. But for now, he’s exactly where he belongs.

“As long as I’m here and I walk in this building and I see the players here and I see the people that work in my little world and how we all kind of motivate each other,” Auriemma said, “there’s no other place I would want to be.”

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.