Geno takes aim at NCAA tournament setup, prep

FORT WORTH, Texas — UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma once again ripped the NCAA for its choices surrounding the women’s basketball tournament, saying Saturday, “I just don’t understand some of the decisions that are made about our game when we’re trying to grow the goddamn game.”

Auriemma, a 12-time national champion and the sport’s winningest coach, opened his news conference the day before his team’s Elite Eight matchup against Notre Dame reiterating his frustration with the tournament’s two-site regional format. And after first bringing it up Friday following the Huskies’ 63-42 win over No. 4 seed North Carolina, he echoed his consternation that the NCAA brings in equipment for regionals that hasn’t been broken in.

“Does anybody who makes these decisions ever ask the coaches and the players, ‘Hey, does this work? Do you guys do this during the regular season? Is this normal?'” Auriemma said.

The coach has criticized the tournament’s move from a four-site regional format to a two-site one since the new system debuted in 2023. The NCAA told ESPN’s Michael Voepel this month that the two-site setup is guaranteed for at least five more seasons.

Having eight teams share one arena, Auriemma has pointed out, means each program ends up getting less practice time in the arena and on the game court. The Huskies’ Friday shootaround, for example, was not held at Dickies Arena.

“Know what time our shootaround was yesterday?” Auriemma said Saturday. “6:20, I think, for half an hour. This morning I just saw Notre Dame leaving, so they had media this morning. Their practice time is tonight at 5:30. … You know what time our practice time is? 6:30 tonight.”

Duke coach Kara Lawson also said she would like to see a longer shootaround for teams.

“I think you should only get a half-hour the day before the game [at the arena] and you should get an hour the day of the game of the shootaround because that’s a normal shootaround for us,” Lawson said. “So on your game day, everybody kind of gets their normal thing.

“… I mean, two regionals, I think the arena thing is the thing that’s hard. It’s not that we’re in the same city. It’s that we don’t get long enough practice or shootaround times in the venue for your most important games of the season.”

The NCAA’s intention in moving to a two-regional format was to create a better atmosphere with increased attendance, and it has said the system has drawn the highest attendance numbers in tournament history. NCAA vice president for women’s basketball Lynn Holzman told ESPN the NCAA views the positives of the format as outweighing the negatives, at least for now.

Auriemma referenced attendance totaling 18,000 across both regionals Friday, though neither game in Fort Worth — the regional with the closest proximity to the Huskies as the No. 1 overall seed — neared a sellout, nor did the ones in Sacramento, California. The coach has been in favor of more regional sites not just as a way of spreading out the teams but also to be more accessible to more fans in more places.

His opening statement Saturday also listed six of the 3-point performances from yesterday’s Sweet 16 games: 4-for-20 (UConn), 4-for-22 (North Carolina), 1-for-17 (Notre Dame), 5-for-18 (Vanderbilt), 4-for-16 (UCLA) and 7-for-26 (Duke) — tallies he believes are a product of teams shooting on brand-new baskets.

“How many arenas are we going to sell out with that bulls—?” Auriemma said.

“I think they bring in new baskets, new basketballs right out of the box,” he later continued. “Got people dribbling the ball off their feet. You got people missing layups all over the place. You bounce the ball and it goes up to the ceiling. There’s just no concept of how basketball is played.

“Not that I have any of the answers. Believe me, I just have questions.”

To Auriemma, the overarching problems are that he feels the NCAA doesn’t sufficiently take coaches’ input into consideration and that the organization needs to “give [itself] an out” if something doesn’t work.

UConn athletic director David Benedict took to X to back up his coach.

“[The] NCAA continues to make decisions that clearly don’t represent what’s best for the student athletes!” Benedict said in a post.

UCLA coach Cori Close said she was initially a supporter of the two-regional system but that now it was time to take another look at the setup.

“I think I understand exactly why we did this at the time, but I also think we have to be constantly nimble to go, does this serve our game best now? And is there any small tweaks that would make it run more efficiently?” Close said. “It’s a really hard combination to find.”

Huskies players stressed that any issues of the format aren’t an excuse for below-standard play and that all teams are dealing with the same quirks.

“I would just say it’s not ideal,” senior guard Azzi Fudd said. “The schedule, waking up early to do media and then can’t come back to this arena until later, just little things like that. But everyone’s trying to figure that out right now. Every team is going through that. There’s no excuse in that. So we’ll figure it out. We’re making it work, but it definitely isn’t the most ideal setup.”

Added junior guard Ashlynn Shade: “I did think it was a little frustrating… it’s a new gym, new balls, new atmosphere. It is kind of frustrating when you don’t get that much time [to get up enough shots on the game court].”

Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo was asked before Auriemma’s remarks Saturday whether she noticed anything different with the rims Friday.

“Oh my goodness. We were like 1-for-[17] from 3,” Hidalgo said. “We won the game, thank God… The rims were definitely a little tight and new.”

While Irish coach Niele Ivey spoke before Auriemma, she did not provide her thoughts on the matter. Auriemma said he thinks other coaches feel similarly to him.

“I think there’s a frustration,” he said. “Hopefully I’m speaking for the other coaches. Some coaches might think I’m full of it. And this is not about UConn. I hope everybody understands that. … I think there is a level of frustration right now among the coaches that’s higher than any time I’ve ever seen it.”

ESPN’s Kendra Andrews and Charlotte Gibson contributed to this report.