HARTFORD, Conn — Geno Auriemma made history on Wednesday night when he became the third – and fastest – Division I college basketball coach to reach 1,200 wins.
The Hall of Famer hit the milestone after the Huskies beat Seton Hall, 67 to 34, at a sold-out game at the XL Center in Hartford.
Aaliyah Edwards scored 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds as No. 11 UConn gave head coach Geno Auriemma his milestone win.
Freshman Ashlynn Shade hit five 3-pointers and scored 17 points and Paige Bueckers had 11 of her 13 in the second half for the Huskies (20-4, 12-0 Big East), who reached 20 wins for the 31st consecutive season.
Auriemma joins former Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski (1,202 wins) and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer (1,206), who received widespread acclaim last month when she became the winningest coach in college basketball history.
RELATED: Auriemma says players and winning championships are more important to him than reaching 1,200 wins
The Huskies coach is the fastest to reach the milestone in his 39th season – and he’s done it at a single school. Krzyzewski coached for 47 years at Duke and Army and VanDerveer, who is in her 45th season as head coach, was at Idaho and Ohio State before Stanford.
Auriemma arrived in Storrs in 1985 with a program that had just one winning season and turned it into a perennial title contender. In addition to 11 titles, the Huskies have also been to 22 Final Fours and recorded six perfect seasons.
Ahead of Wednesday’s game, Auriemma downplayed his accomplishment.
“I like to think that our basketball program is going to be more remembered for the 11 national championships that we have, rather than the number of wins that I have or may get down the road,” he said.
Current star Paige Bueckers, the 2021 National Player of the Year, said she came to the school specifically because she wanted to play for Auriemma, just like her childhood basketball heroes.
“From the start, he expects the same out of every single player; he builds a relationship with every single player,” she said. “And he demands greatness and you can see it in the championships and the success here, the total number of wins, the players he produces for the pros, the Olympics.”
Auriemma has been cryptic when asked how long he might continue to coach, but said it will have a lot to do with the quality of the young women he can recruit to the school and nothing to do with how many wins he ends up with.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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