Geno Auriemma | Part III — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:04I think you're sitting where a lot of
2. 0:07coaches want to be and they're chasing
3. 0:10things that you have and that's why I'd
4. 0:13like to go during this last part is just
5. 0:15because one of the things that you said
6. 0:18to me as you thought that winning might
7. 0:20have been the thing that drove John
8. 0:21wouldn't know mm-hmm talk to me about
9. 0:24that I think if you read his book not
10. 0:27his book the one that Seth Davis wrote I
11. 0:31think what comes across is the the
12. 0:36burden of winning and it gets heavy and
13. 0:42if he was coaching today it'd be even
14. 0:44worse and I think at that time that
15. 0:52having to win you know a national
16. 0:55championship followed by another and
17. 0:58another and another and another and
18. 1:00another I think it's seven in a row I
19. 1:04think if you read the book it's one of
20. 1:09the best books his assistant swears that
21. 1:13when they were in Lew else in this house
22. 1:15Kareem abdul-jabbar when they were in
23. 1:17Lew else in this house that John Wooden
24. 1:19tried really really hard to make sure he
25. 1:22didn't come to UCLA he tried that
26. 1:24unrecruited because he knew that if I
27. 1:28signed this guy that means three more
28. 1:30years we have to go undefeated and I'm
29. 1:33not sure you wanted to deal with that
30. 1:34you know when we started this season the
31. 1:38schedule that we set up short of
32. 1:44throwing a game which you know you can't
33. 1:48do I mean this isn't you know your
34. 1:56opinion or South American soccer where
35. 1:58you know sure of like throwing the game
36. 2:02I would have done anything to lose in
37. 2:06November and December two three four or
38. 2:09five times I could care less I was
39. 2:11praying for somebody to be there is pray
40. 2:15to the point like in a very first game
41. 2:17against
42. 2:18stay I'm sitting it there's like two
43. 2:19minutes left and I'm like we're gonna
44. 2:22lose you know
45. 2:24like I was so happy that our players
46. 2:27were going to experience something that
47. 2:30some of them have never experienced in
48. 2:32college and we won that they am gaining
49. 2:36I was really pissed but we win the game
50. 2:39at the end one of the kids you know in
51. 2:41the fisa collier blocks a shot and win
52. 2:43the game at the end now I'm like they
53. 2:46just dodged a bullet now we got Baylor
54. 2:47in two days we're gonna get smoked we go
55. 2:51in and we beat their brains in because
56. 2:54you know they helped us I hate to say
57. 2:57that I don't know Baylor people in here
58. 2:58but they helped us a little bit and we
59. 3:00end up winning again and I go I don't
60. 3:03worry when we go to another name of it
61. 3:04and we beat them and we just keep
62. 3:07winning and winning and I go home and I
63. 3:09am more miserable after every game
64. 3:11because what else do I got to do to lose
65. 3:15and those kids just kept winning and
66. 3:18went now meanwhile I'm going to practice
67. 3:19telling them nobody can beat us I said
68. 3:23you know what we might not have stewey
69. 3:25we don't have Moriah Jefferson we don't
70. 3:26have Morgan tuck you know what all
71. 3:28people want to talk about is who we
72. 3:29don't have screw that man you know what
73. 3:31we have here we have Connecticut
74. 3:33basketball players and as long as we
75. 3:34have Connecticut basketball players
76. 3:36playing Connecticut basketball nobody's
77. 3:38going to beat us you got that and then
78. 3:39we were playing I would go home oh
79. 3:40please that just be the day we lose you
80. 3:43know and it just never happened and then
81. 3:46by the time you get to the Final Four
82. 3:48and it actually we played our worst game
83. 3:51and the other guys played great and
84. 3:53still it's in overtime and when that kid
85. 3:55made that shot I was like finally and
86. 4:01everybody said what a great sport he is
87. 4:02a great sport I was just happy we lost I
88. 4:04could care less who it was that one how
89. 4:07does it get to that point for you if you
90. 4:10keep if you keep putting in unlimited
91. 4:14amounts of winning it's like having an
92. 4:17unlimited amount of money you know and
93. 4:20you have a piggy bank and you stuff it
94. 4:23with money and what did you have to do
95. 4:24to get that money not a lot you just
96. 4:26have it and you just keep stuffing it in
97. 4:28there stuffing it in there and stuffing
98. 4:30it in there
99. 4:31and and after a while somebody goes yo
100. 4:33here's five million dollars
101. 4:35alright jam it in there alright here's
102. 4:37ten million and you go after a while the
103. 4:40numbers mean nothing to you
104. 4:41zero it's just shove it in it
105. 4:45and after a while the winning became
106. 4:48like every win feels the same you never
107. 4:52got a chance to like get excited about a
108. 4:54win alright so maybe there was three or
109. 4:56four games that you've you know got real
110. 4:58excited about but the rest of the time
111. 4:59it was just business as usual good job
112. 5:03man that was great see you guys tomorrow
113. 5:05so you're conjuring up things to say in
114. 5:08the locker room and at practice you're
115. 5:10coaching through winning which is not
116. 5:11easy to do now what are you gonna tell
117. 5:14kids when they win every game by 40 and
118. 5:16don't matter if you're playing the
119. 5:18second best team in the country or not
120. 5:19so after a while the wins became you
121. 5:24were numb to the winning you're
122. 5:26stone-faced well I sent you the Pat
123. 5:29Riley article it's amazing article the
124. 5:32demons that he's chasing and we all have
125. 5:33them obviously and this unbelievable
126. 5:37desire to win at all you know win win
127. 5:39win win to chase and not even winning
128. 5:43sometimes just chase that perfect game
129. 5:45you know it's like you know Captain Ahab
130. 5:48I guess we're chasing that perfect fish
131. 5:50and you got to get it you got to get it
132. 5:52you got to get it and if you keep
133. 5:54getting it the chase is over down so
134. 5:57what do you have left so for us you know
135. 6:01there needed to be like the chase needed
136. 6:04to start over again and I'm happy that
137. 6:07next year we start fresh we start with
138. 6:10without the winning streak without the
139. 6:12Ford national championships in a row
140. 6:14without people talking about you know
141. 6:16they're going to win 250 in a row stop
142. 6:19it we just start like everybody else
143. 6:22zero and zero and now for the first time
144. 6:26in their college careers some of my
145. 6:28players felt what it feels like to lose
146. 6:31the game you shouldn't have to wait to
147. 6:34your junior year in college to lose a
148. 6:35game seriously right
149. 6:39man Oh some teams that lose more games
150. 6:41in a week than we lose in two years
151. 6:43that's not normal
152. 6:46and what do you feel like your biggest
153. 6:48internal conflict is at this point your
154. 6:50career the internal conflict yeah the
155. 6:55battle that I have with myself is what's
156. 6:59the point now what's the point like what
157. 7:04am I gonna do that hasn't been done what
158. 7:08are you gonna ask me to do that I
159. 7:09haven't done it's hard for me to answer
160. 7:13that question now I was saying this at
161. 7:16our Leadership Conference when you've
162. 7:18already done more than anyone else has
163. 7:20ever done and you say to yourself I'm
164. 7:23gonna do more how's that possible it's
165. 7:27it's it's it's a scary it's a scary
166. 7:30thought to think that you can because
167. 7:33that's an arrogant thought I always said
168. 7:36this and I'm not speaking out of turn
169. 7:39because he's a friend of mine but I
170. 7:40always thought that was the beginning of
171. 7:42Tigers downfall and I told him that when
172. 7:47in the year 2000 he was the best player
173. 7:48that ever picked up a golf club you
174. 7:50couldn't beat him in a million years
175. 7:52the other guys could never beat him all
176. 7:55you had to do was play as a game and the
177. 7:57best players in the world were playing
178. 7:58for second place they knew it he knew it
179. 8:00everybody knowing and somebody asked
180. 8:03them where do you go from here you won I
181. 8:05don't know eight out of the last ten
182. 8:07majors whatever it was he goes I can get
183. 8:10a lot better I went it's over because
184. 8:14now you start tinkering with stuff
185. 8:17that's perfect
186. 8:18it's like you've already built the
187. 8:19perfect car everything's perfect and now
188. 8:23you're gonna bring it in the garage and
189. 8:25try to make it better
190. 8:26that's a scary proposition because
191. 8:28there's a better chance you're going to
192. 8:30screw it up then you're actually gonna
193. 8:32make it better so for me it's like how
194. 8:35do helm I want to make this better than
195. 8:37it is and it scares me well and so maybe
196. 8:42we can end with these two I love asking
197. 8:43those questions if you were gonna fill
198. 8:45the sentence in
199. 8:47the truth about achievement is the truth
200. 8:52about achievement is you can't plan for
201. 8:59it you can't sit here today and tell me
202. 9:05what you're going to achieve in the next
203. 9:07five years you can tell me what you're
204. 9:10gonna achieve tomorrow tonight tomorrow
205. 9:14maybe the next day that's it but
206. 9:17thinking that you can think that far
207. 9:20ahead and plan that far ahead and not
208. 9:24have anything you get in the way I don't
209. 9:30think you can plan for it I think you
210. 9:31have to just prepare yourself this is
211. 9:34what I always like to tell my players in
212. 9:36our coach you have to prepare yourself
213. 9:38that if you're lucky and fake taps you
214. 9:43on the shoulder and says it's your turn
215. 9:46dude you better be ready if you're not
216. 9:51there's no guarantee that's gonna tap
217. 9:53you again it may never tap you again
218. 9:55you've done we lost a moment if fate
219. 9:58saps you when you're not ready that's
220. 10:00your fault if you're always ready and
221. 10:02faith never taps you on the shoulder
222. 10:04nothing you can do about that
223. 10:07the key to fulfillment the key to
224. 10:10fulfillment
225. 10:12don't try to fill it don't try to fill
226. 10:17it we spend our lives filling filling
227. 10:22everything that we have we have to fill
228. 10:23it fill it with stuff fill it with
229. 10:26things filled with money
230. 10:27fill it with awards fill it with you
231. 10:30know adulation recognition whatever the
232. 10:33case may be we want to we want to have a
233. 10:35full life and then we're stuffed full
234. 10:40and we can't live a happy life the key
235. 10:44to fulfillment is be nimble enough that
236. 10:47you can actually enjoy it let's give it
237. 10:51up for genome
238. 10:55thank you appreciate
239. 10:59[Applause]
240. 11:01you