The Dynasty: UConn Huskies (2026) s01e03 Episode Script
Episode 3
1
[cheering in distance]
[Auriemma] Remember now.
Handle the pressure,
stay calm, stay connected, all right?
But don't take that foot off the gas.
We gotta go.
Together on three. One, two, three.
[all] Together!
[broadcaster 1] UConn, their 111-game
win streak is on the line.
Twelve seconds to go in the overtime.
It'll be Mississippi State ball.
Tied at 64.
[broadcaster 2] Can Mississippi State
pull off what would be the biggest upset
in the history of this sport?
[broadcaster 1]
William on the drive. Pull-up!
- [buzzer rings]
- [broadcaster 1] Got it!
- She got it! She got it!
- [fans screaming]
[broadcaster 1]
One of the great upsets in history!
Mississippi State has ended the streak.
At 111 consecutive games, it's over.
We lost in 2017.
And the following year, it happened again.
[broadcaster 1] Notre Dame survives
and wins it in overtime.
And it happened again the following year.
The Irish put down
the Huskies for a second straight year.
You know, what comes up must come down…
[chuckles] …at some point.
We won so many games,
and then there is this, like,
what people would describe as a drought.
[sports pundit 1]
Are UConn's dominant days over?
[sports pundit 2]
Hey, you know, it's good.
Maybe Geno Auriemma
has lost his Midas touch.
[news anchor 2]
They are not invincible anymore.
UConn's still the villain, and it's
being celebrated when UConn loses.
"Good, they deserve it. They've already
won too much. It's about time."
[MacMullan] There's no dynasty anymore.
It was just a period
where the playing field was being leveled.
And I think Geno realized the rest of the
college basketball world was catching up.
[Auriemma] Now people are saying,
"You'll never win another one."
The game has passed UConn by.
Winning is like a mist that covers you.
And as the sun comes out, it goes away.
Quickly.
Losing…
losing is not a mist.
Losing is like
the entire universe
is strapped around your head,
and it just sits there forever.
It's never going away.
You're Sisyphus.
You're pushing that goddamn rock
up the hill every day,
every day, trying to fix the problem.
[suspenseful music plays]
[commentator 1] Welcome
to the Lindbergh Center
at Hopkins High School
for a state tournament caliber matchup
in girls basketball.
[PA announcer] Number one, Paige Bueckers.
[audience cheering]
[news anchor 1] The last name
looks like Bueckers.
It's pronounced Beckers,
but Paige has a nickname too.
"Paige Buckets."
[news anchor 1] At this tournament
over the weekend,
everyone wanted to get a glimpse
of the number one high school player
in the country.
[Bueckers] As soon as I picked up the ball
from a very young age,
I was under the spotlight of trying
to fulfill, like, what these people
think you're gonna be
and the comparisons and the expectations.
I'm a really outgoing person.
And yeah, follow my TikTok.
Follow that before I get famous.
[Auriemma] Recruiting Paige, it was a…
a new experience for me.
Everybody's telling me that she's got
thousands and thousands of followers.
And I'm like why?
You mean, every 13-year-old in…
in America is fascinated
with Paige Bueckers.
- [fan 1] Paige Bueckers!
- [fan 2] Right here, right here.
[Auriemma] I started learning
these kids are influencers.
People know everything about her.
I think maybe because of all that,
you start to get this,
"I'm it, man. I'm the it girl."
But honestly,
- Paige's confidence, attitude…
- [Bueckers] Yes!
…it was
exactly what we needed.
[commentator]
Bueckers putting on a show here.
When I was young, I kinda just knew UConn
and winning national championships
was basically the same thing, so
it was just everything that I wanted
to be in terms of getting better,
competing for national championships.
[players shouting]
Now, we go three-man weave,
shoot a bank shot, and we box out.
- Pay attention.
- [players shouting]
[Bueckers] I just remember
through the recruiting process
when I would come to UConn,
I think what stood out from him
was just how honest he was
when he started coaching me.
The second he started watching me.
So I knew how tough he was.
I told him I want that type of coaching.
Like, I don't… I don't fear it.
I kinda crave it.
[news anchor] Paige Bueckers is
the number one high school recruit
in the class of 2020,
and she's committed to UConn.
All anybody wants to talk about…
…is the freshman in the starting lineup,
Paige Bueckers.
- [commentator 1] Bueckers!
- [commentator 2] Wow.
[Auriemma] When she stepped on the floor,
in her mind, nobody's better than her.
In her mind, there's nothing she can't do.
[commentator] Paige Bueckers,
one of the great debut seasons.
And I think the great ones…
the great, great, great ones,
that's where they live.
[commentator] Bueckers, the leaner. Yeah.
[Auriemma] And yet, at the same time,
she was a pain in the ass to coach.
[Philippou] During her freshman year,
Paige slaps Geno on the ass.
[laughing]
And he turns around, and he's like…
"This is… this is my star player?
This… Like, this is the kid
I'm… I'm dealing with now?"
[commentator] I'm not sure even
Taurasi got away with that as a freshman.
[Auriemma] Paige and those guys,
they were lucky I didn't coach them
- when I was 35…
- [Paige yelps]
…40, not 65 or 66.
'Cause it would've been…
it would've been a bloodbath. [chuckles]
[Philippou] Paige. She just had this way
about her. Ready to joke with Geno.
But everyone started
to realize Paige was the real deal.
They can win multiple
national championships.
She's gonna be the one
who ends the drought.
[commentator] She is an absolute gamer.
[Philippou] It's frightening
how good she's gonna be.
- [Paige groans]
- [commentator] Ooh.
[commentator 2] That did not look good
as Paige Bueckers's knee buckled.
And now all of a sudden, there's concern
for the best player on UConn.
[Bueckers] My left leg planted,
and it gave out.
It was a torn meniscus.
That was, like, my first knee issue.
Then in the summer, I was playing pickup.
My left leg just gave out again.
[gulps] I felt, like, more of a pop,
and I knew something was not right.
[news anchor] Brutal news.
Bueckers suffered a torn ACL
and will miss the 2022-23 season.
[Bueckers] The pain was there,
but it was more the fear of,
what if I don't ever come back the same?
There were panic attacks at night. Like,
chest tightening, shortness of breath.
[inhales sharply]
This huge weight on my shoulders,
um, and I think it got to a point
where it was just too much
and the weight crushed me.
[Lobo] There were huge expectations
for Paige Bueckers.
Over the years at UConn,
for the star,
has the crown gotten heavier?
Of course.
But the thing was it wasn't just Paige,
it was like this period of time
where it felt like
there was some sort of a curse.
[commentator] Aaliyah Edwards gets knocked
backwards into the right knee
of UConn's leading scorer, Azzi Fudd.
[commentator 2] We got a player down.
It's Dorka Juhász.
[commentator 3] Edwards is down
and in pain. Oh, no.
[Lobo] Everybody was getting hurt.
[commentator 1]
The issue for Geno Auriemma…
He simply doesn't have a sub right now.
I think he's put in everybody
that's available.
[Auriemma] Every day it was something.
One more injury. One more guy missing.
It just became a blur.
[tense music plays]
[MacMullan] For Geno,
I think the job was getting harder,
and I think people realized,
UConn's mortal.
And Geno's mortal.
[somber music plays]
[Jenkins] You can't win forever.
We all get beat in the end by time,
we get beat by illness,
we get beat by fatigue.
Um, there's no charmed ending for anybody,
and I saw that in Pat.
Hall of fame college basketball
coach Pat Summitt died today at 64.
Her career was cut short
by Alzheimer's disease.
[news anchor 1] She lifted the sport
on her shoulders.
[news anchor 2] There's no doubt
she would have still been coaching.
But I think without Pat,
Geno must have felt an incredible void.
[news anchor] Geno Auriemma said
today in a statement,
"I was shocked and saddened."
[Auriemma]
For a while there, it was, you know,
Geno and Pat, Pat and Geno,
Geno and Pat, Pat and Geno.
Um, yeah, it wasn't the same.
I miss…
I miss having her there.
When this happened with Pat,
it's a contemporary of yours,
and it really hits home.
We were different people.
Grow up differently,
maybe view the world differently,
but at the same time, as competitors,
we were the same in a lot of ways.
[Jenkins] I think that there's
a buried love between great competitors.
Pat and Geno, they couldn't see it
for themselves necessarily,
but I know for a fact
that's what Pat felt at the end.
Love for Geno.
[speaks indistinctly]
[Lobo] When you look kind of
at that time period,
I remember sitting there
watching Coach and thinking,
"Oh, my gosh, how much longer
is he gonna be doing this?"
You know, 'cause he didn't…
he just didn't look like
the same person on the sidelines.
Do I ever question why…
why am I doing this? Of course.
It's easy to give up
when you keep coming up short.
[commentator] Now it's Connecticut,
down one,
a trip to the title game on the line.
Five seconds left. Looking for Bueckers,
and an offensive foul!
And that will do it.
Caitlin Clark and Iowa will face
undefeated South Carolina.
After my injuries,
I was supposed to come in
and bring the dynasty back,
but I couldn't.
[audience chanting] Overrated! Overrated!
I mean, at UConn, everywhere you look
in that building, it's a…
national championship around you.
All the banners, who won,
how many do they have.
Paige Beckner,
or however they hell you say her name,
is overrated, bro.
[Auriemma] She would get killed
on social media.
People make comparisons.
Even to a point where I thought
one time, I should take all those
names of all those All-Americans
off the wall.
[Bueckers] At UConn,
all you see is success.
So going into my last year,
I just had this burden of like,
to not win a national championship.
I was so afraid of what people
were gonna think of me.
[cheering]
[commentator 1] It is a circus atmosphere
at Gampel Pavilion
in Storrs tonight
as we honor Geno Auriemma.
[commentator 2] Now it may have been
nine years since his last championship,
but with 1,217 career wins,
tonight, Geno Auriemma
is the all-time winningest coach.
[PA announcer] Thank you, Geno,
for 40 incredible seasons!
[audience cheering]
[news reporter] What does it mean
to be able to achieve something like this
in front of your former players
and a very passionate fan base?
Yeah, you couldn't ask for a better…
you know, a better scenario,
to be honest with you.
Yeah.
You know, early in my career,
I really, really, really…
enjoyed and looked forward
to those types of things.
And as time has gone by…
[smacks lips] …I don't.
[commentator] You're the GOAT.
There's no question.
[fans chanting] Geno! Geno! Geno!
People celebrate because
they want to acknowledge.
So, I knew…
I know why everybody was doing it,
and I know what it meant.
Here's the winningest basketball coach
in history of college basketball!
Geno Auriemma!
[Auriemma] But to me,
it was like, this reminder.
We haven't won in nine years.
At my age, I did start to think,
"I don't know that I'm cut out for this."
We always put this jersey on
to represent you.
I would have conversations with him
all the time about, you know, retirement.
And he goes, "Yeah, but you wanna end it
this way." And I would always tell him,
"Coach, you don't get
to pick the way it ends.
It just ends. It just ends, sometimes."
[Auriemma] But when you've
done something for 40, 50 years,
you know, you're supposed to have
this big feeling of accomplishment.
You're not supposed to have this
burning need that I have to keep going.
But I do.
This the one thing
that keeps me going back.
[audience] Geno! Geno! Geno! Geno! Geno!
[Auriemma] I'm excited to see what
can happen, but right now it hasn't yet.
We haven't had our full team
in three years,
so I think there's a lot
of excitement about,
you know, what would we look like
if we had everybody available.
Uh, and it's Paige's last year.
There's a lot of expectation.
There's a lot of pressure that can come
with not getting a title at UConn
and throwing everything
into this one year, but, yeah,
I'm looking to get the ball more
on my hands, be a playmaker,
and leave no regrets out on the floor.
[reporter] With a… a young team,
how important is leadership to you
and just really asserting
yourself this year?
[somber music plays]
Hey, get over here, goddamn it.
What is that?
What is that? Talk to each other.
Go!
For Paige, as the team leader,
there was never any question, physically,
about what she could do.
It was always, "Where is she mentally?"
Paige. Paige. Hold up!
Come on, that's twice now.
I didn't say anything the first time.
Fucking Paige. She hasn't heard
a fucking word we've said this morning.
[Dailey] Geno, it's the first day.
It was a challenge
for my entire five years
of finding my own unique way of leading.
Keep talking. Keep talking.
[speaks indistinctly]
[Auriemma] Part of the issue was that
she had this incredible sense of loyalty.
She loved her teammates.
It's all great.
But at the same time, if you're loyal,
that doesn't preclude you
from also being hard on them
and demanding on them.
[Auriemma] I kept reminding Paige,
"You're the so-called leader of the team.
If someone wants to be a leader,
it can't just be "I love you."
When you step on the floor,
in order to win…
[players] Together.
[Auriemma] …you invariably
are gonna piss people off."
[commentator] Bueckers… yes!
[Auriemma] As an individual player,
she was playing great.
Talent-wise, she was one
of the best players
in the history of Connecticut basketball.
But as a team…
Hey! Five-out!
…we came up short.
Five-out!
[commentator] …gives to Bueckers
with 12 seconds to go.
[commentator] Bueckers…
for Strong… for three!
- No! USC with a massive win!
- [buzzer rings]
[Bueckers] Coach questioned my ability
to get the best out of my teammates,
but I'm not the type to,
like, cuss somebody out
and, like, kick 'em off the court and…
be an asshole in a sense.
What did we talk about?
What did we talk about, Paige?
Just, like, comparing how I would lead
versus how, like, Diana would lead.
Like, no two people are the same.
But at some point,
you just get sick and tired of hearing it
because you're, like, you're trying
your best, you're trying your hardest.
Some days, I would have wanted
to have a conversation like,
"Dawg, you need to chill out."
Here we go!
[player 1] Come on! Good, good!
[Bueckers] I think it's really important
to have somebody to confide in
that is understanding
of what I was going through.
Azzi ended up joining the team
my sophomore year.
- No, sorry, sorry.
- [Fudd chuckles]
Best player in the nation right here.
Big dubs. We need some more respect.
It kind of just meshed,
um, as soon as we met.
'Cause it was bad. [speaks indistinctly]
[Bueckers] She's sweet. She's genuine.
She has a huge caring heart.
Her in the… [speaks indistinctly]
We got… Kind of felt like a spark,
a little bit different
than what would just be
considered a normal friendship.
Paige and I are a couple, and everyone
closest to us that was important knew
but it was kind of one of those things.
It's just… it's private.
Not a secret, but it's private.
We had conversations
about, like, everything that was going on.
[Auriemma] Everybody's got
a fucking excuse,
and that's why they don't get better.
- Everybody's got a fucking excuse.
- Hey, Paige, see the ball! See the ball!
[Fudd] When things weren't going right,
it was usually all Paige's fault.
She had said to me… She was like,
"I came back for my fifth year
because I thought, like,
we're gonna have things figured out,
and it was gonna be fun."
And she basically said, like,
"It's the exact opposite of that."
Hold up. Hold up.
Why would you chase the guy
when Ice already had him?
With me and Coach, it was like,
probably, a couple of weeks of us just,
like, not talking to each other,
just showing up to practice
and existing.
[Auriemma] Now we're not talking
to each other.
But if you don't want to be coached,
and if you think you can do this
by yourself, go ahead.
I'm not gonna lose the rest of the team
'cause I'm spending all my energy
trying to coach you.
That's not how it works.
By the time kids get to be seniors
at Connecticut, you're helping me coach.
[audience cheering]
[commentator] In Knoxville,
a fired-up atmosphere
getting ready for Tennessee
and Connecticut.
These two programs have laid
the foundation for women's basketball.
People used to make a big,
big deal about this game.
All year round, "When is
the Connecticut-Tennessee game?"
Just do what we normally do, right?
We know exactly what's gonna happen,
and how we're gonna handle it.
All right, let's go.
We gotta go right now. Right now.
[audience cheering]
[Auriemma] Us being back there…
just feeling the fever pitch
from the crowd.
Being in that kind of an environment,
you have to have toughness,
you have to have great leadership,
and you need people to step up.
So, yeah it was a big moment for Paige.
But our lack of leadership…
it showed up even more
in the Tennessee game.
[commentator] Remember, Tennessee
has not beaten Connecticut since 2007.
And now Spencer, a steal,
all alone, lays it in.
[Auriemma] We're not talking,
and we're making mistakes.
We gotta be more connected to our guys.
Definitely, emotions were high. I feel
like everybody's head was everywhere.
[commentator] Here's Cooper,
putting Bueckers in the pick and roll.
Cooper lays it in.
[Arnold] Kinda, like,
not knowing where to go.
[commentator] 13-0 run for Tennessee.
[Arnold] I feel like
we let the crowd seep in as well.
[commentator] Feel like we're back
in the late '90s.
[Bueckers] We were making
those mistakes that we can't make
at this point of the season.
[commentator] Inside of a minute to go,
Tennessee by three.
And at the end of the day, I felt like
I was letting my team down.
[commentator] Here is Strong
off the inbound.
Connecticut has to move quickly. Backdoor.
Fudd unable to lay it in, kicks it out.
Four seconds left.
Bueckers's hoist.
And for the first time since 2007,
Tennessee has defeated Connecticut!
[Fudd] It was kinda just like this shock.
We've really just lost.
They were a good team,
but we should have won.
[Bueckers] We were at full strength,
with everybody available that game,
and we just, like,
kind of embarrassed ourselves.
Okay, everybody in. Let's go. We've got
a lot of work to do when we get home.
Together on three. One, two, three.
- [all] Together.
- [Elliott] We got a lot of games to play.
Stay together, guys.
That was the hardest loss,
I think, in quite some time.
Hey, Paige!
[Auriemma] Bottom line is,
Paige needed to change.
There comes a point where
losing has to really, really,
really hurt to your core,
to who you are as a human being.
I could tell on Paige's face
it didn't hurt enough
for her to change
and be a different person,
a different kind of leader,
a different kind of player.
And it has to hurt.
So I took a risk.
And I said, "She's either gonna quit,
or she's gonna change."
So I tried to hurt her like losing hurts.
[Strong] The film session the next day
after the Tennessee loss…
I don't know, it was…
very awkward to be in there.
I wasn't expecting him
to kinda attack Paige like that.
He was just yelling at her and…
I don't know, just saying really…
like, hurtful things to her.
It was just really shocking to me.
[no audible dialogue]
The film session was brutal.
He really got after me
in front of my teammates.
- It became a little personal.
- [mouthing words] Said no fouls.
[Bueckers] He questioned
who I was as a human.
He said, why would my teammates follow me,
and why would I be a person
that they look up to?
That was pretty devastating.
Like, you can say what you want
about me as an individual.
Like, I'm a bad basketball player,
I'm dumb, I'm stupid, I'm…
Whatever you wanna say,
but as soon as you question, like,
my love for my teammates,
that hit me hardest.
I just kinda questioned,
"Did I even wanna be there anymore?"
[coach] Seven, eight, nine, ten.
[MacMullan] That was the fine line
I think that Geno has always walked.
Because you can't lose the players.
You can push them, you can drill them,
you can break them down,
but you can't lose 'em.
You can't break them so much
that they can't be fixed again.
There's no use going over anything
that I said yesterday, okay?
If you got the message,
then you got the message. Okay?
- Let's go.
- [players exclaim] Yes, sir. Let's go.
[chattering]
It was hard for me to understand at first.
But when I really dug deep
on why he's saying it,
it was like,
"What is he trying to get out of me?
What are we trying to accomplish?
And can we accomplish them
if me and him aren't on the same page?"
And so, we had a players-only meeting
where we just have all of our players
in a room together.
Players-only meeting.
And when was this in the season?
February.
October, November, December, January.
So it took you four months
to have a players-only meeting
where you could talk about, "This is what…
This is what we're gonna do."
Really?
For me, it was telling them
that I'm going to be better.
But I just wanted the underclassmen
to understand
that I'm going to be challenging you
and holding you accountable.
Paige got us together
and was kinda talking about, like,
how awful that Tennessee game was.
[Fudd] We don't usually get
that from Paige.
She's always trying
to stay positive and uplift.
She doesn't ever wanna show that…
that other side.
And so, uh, we knew that it was
basically crunch time in a sense.
Like, we needed to figure it out fast
because we had another big game coming up.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator 1]
18,000 here at Colonial Life Arena
for the Huskies and the Gamecocks.
[commentator 2] This has certainly become
one of the best rivalries
in women's college basketball.
[commentator 1]
Fifteenth meeting all-time.
South Carolina
has won five of the last six.
[Lobo] South Carolina, they are
the defending national champion
and the team that has had UConn's number
the past number of years.
The programs do not like one another.
The fan bases
do not particularly like one another.
I don't know that there's love lost
between Coach Auriemma and Dawn Staley.
[Stephen A. Smith]
We all love and respect Geno Auriemma
and the great job that he's done
throughout the decades,
but what Dawn Staley has done
in South Carolina has been special.
[commentator 2] And South Carolina
has won the national championship!
[commentator 3] South Carolina
has captured
its second national championship!
[commentator 3]
Dawn Staley now with three.
[Staley] UConn is not only a great team,
they're a great tradition.
They're a part
of our women's basketball history
that you really can't take
that away from them.
[inhales deeply] But it was divinely
ordered for us to be champions today.
[crowd cheering]
[Bueckers] The rise of South Carolina
and just their dominance
the past couple of years, it became, like,
"Oh, this is becoming the new dynasty,
and this is becoming
the team that competes
for a national championship
every single year."
So, you know that
in the back of your mind,
and it kinda plays mind games with you.
[commentator 1] UConn,
South Carolina from Columbia.
Margin for error in this game,
not much for the Huskies.
[commentator 2] The difficult part is
South Carolina has won 71
straight games at home.
[commentator 1] And here we go.
Bueckers on the attack.
Pull-up three, it is good,
Paige Bueckers is on the board
in Columbia.
[Fudd] I think that everyone could kinda
feel that extra sense of urgency.
It might be a bloodbath,
or we're gonna go in for a fight.
[commentator 1] El Alfy. Oh, nice handle!
And the finish. Okay, 6'5".
Everybody was locked in.
I was like, "Okay, um,
this is what I need to do.
Everything has to go exactly right."
[commentator 1] Shade…
Connecticut piping hot from three.
It is not often that you see
South Carolina down like this.
UConn, because of the way they played
from the jump,
totally took that home court advantage
and dynamic away from South Carolina.
[commentator 1] An absolutely
dominant opening half
from Connecticut here in Columbia.
We gotta stick to the fucking game plan
'cause this is what we do.
We play one good half,
and in the second half, we lose our shit.
So we gotta play a full 40 minutes.
Twenty more minutes, and they're done.
You know, you could see it
on their body language,
the way that they're running the floor,
not running the floor,
not helping each other, not huddling.
They're not together.
So let's stay together
and stay in our game plan.
[commentator 3]
Big mountain to climb for South Carolina.
[Strong] I would say I saw a change
in Paige in the South Carolina game.
She was more assertive
with her leadership.
Vocally or on the court,
she didn't really give us room for error.
[Auriemma] At some point in their careers,
all the really, really, really high-level
players, they get to that point.
When what they say is way more important
than what the coach said.
Way more important.
[commentator 1] A dominant performance
from the Connecticut Huskies.
[Auriemma]
And that was the first time, I think,
where all the pieces
sort of started to fit.
[commentator 1] Bueckers buries the three.
[Auriemma]
Now we know what we're capable of.
[commentator 1] And that will do it.
And South Carolina's 71-game
home winning streak
is going to end here today.
[cheering] Yeah!
Hey, in all seriousness,
if we play like this, full 40 minutes…
We play like this, we can win it all.
So don't… No drop-off from here.
There's, um… [sniffles]
…probably one of two feelings
that you can have.
What-What is it?
It's like a rewarding feeling.
- A rewarding feeling?
- Mm-hmm.
- Like you deserved it. Right?
- Mm-hmm.
When you deserve something
and you've worked your ass off for it,
feels really good.
Feels really good.
[inhales sharply]
The other way you can feel is,
"What the fuck? This is who we are.
This is what we do to people."
Now, you've never felt that.
A lot of you guys have never felt that.
Oh.
Every single person in this room right now
should feel
incredibly proud of yourselves.
Incredibly proud of yourselves.
Because you guys helped each other today.
[sighs] Somehow, I don't know why…
I, like, um, I don't know, this…
This whole trip, I just… I just thought
something like this was gonna happen.
I didn't wanna say it, and I think
you guys knew that too, right?
Yeah. You knew something like this
was gonna happen. Fuck yeah!
[cheering]
- Together on three. One, two, three.
- Together!
[Bueckers] Going into
my last NCAA tournament, I felt like,
"Damn, like this is the last chance
to win this whole thing."
[announcer] Paige Bueckers!
"How do I give everything
I have left to this last season?"
[commentator 1] Get ready
for a Sweet 16 matchup.
Bueckers pull-up, it is good!
Paige Bueckers taking over!
Tournament record, 40 points.
Been a different level of aggression,
which Geno Auriemma
has tried to get out of Paige for a while.
[commentator 2] There's something
different about this team.
The vibe about them.
[pundit]
But I don't have them as the favorite.
[commentator 3]
Is UConn really a championship contender?
[commentator 3] It's just hard to tell.
[commentator 5] The Huskies
have their work cut out for them,
but we've seen this team
has the talent to do it.
Final Four, let's go!
See you there, Paige.
[commentator 1] Final Four action.
A trip to the national championship
on the line.
[cheering]
[reporter] We've never seen
what we saw from UConn.
[commentator 2]
UConn advances to title game.
It's UConn and South Carolina.
They'll meet for the second time
for all the marbles.
- [speaks indistinctly]
- We good?
- Good?
- We good?
Good.
You got them in the right
place at the right time.
- No, you do.
- Look at these guys.
You do. You do.
- You do.
- How's it been?
It's hard, huh? The longer you're in it,
the harder it gets.
- I might be out before you. [laughs]
- No! No, no, no, no…
They'll throw me out
if we don't win tomorrow. [laughs]
- Have a good one, Geno.
- I'll see you.
[Philippou] Talking to Geno
going into that championship game,
I think he did want to
be able to prove to himself and to others
that he could win in this era.
South Carolina is the new face,
the new dynasty, more or less,
in women's basketball,
while UConn was the old guard trying
to finally get back on the mountaintop.
- It's going to be really physical.
- Yep.
Both ends. They're gonna try to bully you
and beat the shit out of you.
Plain and simple. They're gonna hold you.
They're gonna grab you.
They're gonna try to bully you.
And everything's going to be a contact.
And don't be bitching to the refs.
Just fuck with them in return, okay?
[Philippou]
But also at the end of the day,
he wanted to do it for Paige Bueckers.
If she didn't win the national
championship that season,
she would be the best UConn player
to never win a title.
Number one thing,
you gotta be able to punch these guys
in the mouth every fucking possession.
You gotta be able to punch them
in the face every possession.
Physically.
And offensively, we gotta punish them
by pushing the ball, pushing the ball,
pushing the ball,
- and don't stop, all right?
- Let's go.
[Auriemma] For Paige,
I don't know that any other player
has had that kind of journey,
where there's been that many…
you know, that many hurdles.
[fans cheering]
[Auriemma] Hopefully,
she'll ride off into the sunset.
A conquering hero.
But hope is not a strategy, right?
[commentator 1] Welcome to the NCAA
Women's Championship in Tampa, Florida.
[reporter 1] Showdown between two titans
going head to head.
The Huskies have won 11 NCAA titles
but haven't won it all since 2016.
[reporter 2] Paige Bueckers is starving
to be cutting down the nets.
[reporter 3] Anything less than a national
championship is a disappointment.
How much pressure is on her to get a win?
[Bueckers] Leading up to the game,
the emotions
of wanting it so bad got to me.
I had done all this work
mentally, physically.
How much I invested into that season,
how much at some points in the season
I didn't wanna do it anymore.
All those emotions just caught up to me,
and like…
If I did it like this
and we don't win, like…
I didn't know how I would react.
[player cheering] Let's go.
[Auriemma] I like where we are as a team.
I think the biggest thing that we've g…
we've gained
over the last month, especially…
an incredible trust in each other
that we didn't have
early in the season, right?
And that's gonna carry you today.
The trust and the belief in yourself
and that you believe in each other.
- So let's kick their ass. Let's go.
- [cheering]
- Together on three. One, two, three.
- Together.
Let's go. It says right here.
"Play hard. Play smart. Have fun."
Play hard, you play stupid,
there's no fun.
[commentator 1] And the national
championship game is underway.
Good denial here from South Carolina.
Bueckers. That pass stolen by Edwards.
[Bueckers] They came out
aggressive defensively.
They tried to kind of
take me out of the game.
[commentator 1] Fulwiley leads the break.
And Feagin lays it in.
I remember the first quarter just being
back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth.
[commentator 1] Johnson connects.
[commentator 2] That is an outstanding
sign for South Carolina.
But I just remember calling huddles,
and we were just calm.
[commentator 1] Chen, attacking, bouncing.
El Alfy lay.
[Bueckers] My teammates started
making plays for me.
[commentator 1] Fudd, leaning and hitting!
We just had this confidence
that nothing in that game
that was thrown our way could break us off
of who we are.
[commentator 1] In to Strong.
Bueckers to the corner. Shade… Connects!
Strong, eight points, eight boards.
Fulwiley again has Fudd steal it away.
Azzi Fudd to the cup!
[buzzer rings]
And that will do it for the first half.
Connecticut a ten-point lead
after two quarters.
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.
[Elliott] Twenty more minutes, man.
- Ay, ay, ay.
- Plus, we gotta talk about
what we not taking advantage of.
[Auriemma]
She just stands there! Get back.
Watch. Sarah's playing. You think
she would go set a screen for somebody?
[Valley] Okay.
- Christ almighty.
- [Valley] Thank you.
How do you go from Friday night
to this bullshit? Look at that play.
- She was about to chase her up there.
- Right.
Look. And now put your fucking hand up.
Run it back.
That's the problem.
Now we turning and watching.
Yes, we have to turn and box out.
[chattering]
[Valley] We are not boxing out,
and we need to box out to rebound.
Look, 20 minutes has gone. It's history.
Nothing we can do about it.
I thought our defense was fantastic.
Our rebounding sucked. Okay?
So now we play defense like we did.
We rebound the shit out of it.
Second half.
This is it. This is it.
- All right, let's go.
- Go! Let's go!
Together on three. One, two, three.
- Together!
- Together!
[commentator 1]
Connecticut seeking a 12th title,
and their first since 2016.
Here's Bueckers. Her jumper, it is good!
In the corner, Fudd. You bet!
Azzi Fudd is on fire!
Bueckers, backdoor. Puts it in!
It's raining blue in Tampa.
The lead is 30!
[Ralph] I remember watching them play
in that moment.
It just reminds me, as players at UConn
there is a heaviness that exists
when the expectations are just so high.
But there's something inside that program
that has made women's basketball better,
has made women better,
has made all of us better.
[Taurasi] I think in all these stories,
through the championships
and all the different classes,
all the workouts, all the practices,
all the moments
we have to look in the mirror
and face all the things
that you hate about yourself…
There's just this moment
of, like, "it is worth it."
It is… [stutters] It actually is worth it.
All of it's worth it. All of it.
[commentator 1] Bueckers gives it up.
Strong… You bet!
[Moore] I think one of the reasons
we have so much success is because
we're actually pursuing
that feeling of being great together.
And that's the-the drug, the high,
the feeling that you chase.
Coach has a very unique way
of getting the best out of his players.
And at times, it was difficult
being able to handle that burden.
But to be in that moment where
it all paid off on the biggest stage…
[commentator 1] UConn on the doorstep
of title number 12.
I think that just completely
changed my life.
[commentator 1] And there's the buzzer!
It's an even dozen
for Geno Auriemma and Connecticut!
The final page in the book of Bueckers!
Now I'm crying. [sniffles]
Now I'm crying. Now I'm crying.
I love you.
- [Bueckers crying] I hate you.
- I love you.
[blows]
Yeah, no, that was just, uh…
Everything that we had been through
up until that point,
like, just the emotions of it, and just
like everything coming together.
The times where we hated each other,
where we loved each other.
Everything that me and Coach
had been through up to that point,
it was just, like, embodied in that hug.
Coach Auriemma, it's been a while.
I mean, they've all been gratifying,
don't get me wrong,
but this one here,
because of the way it came about
and what's been involved,
it's been a long time
since I've been that emotional
when a player has walked
off the court. [sniffles]
We saw that hug with Paige.
All that she's been through.
All that she's fought through.
When you were in that hug, Coach,
what are you saying to her?
"I love you."
That's all I could say. "I love you."
- Hey.
- [laughs]
[Auriemma] It's pretty emotional.
- The journey just ended…
- Yay!
[Auriemma] …and you've
been part of that journey with her.
But those moments
are what you play for, really.
Those moments
are why you stay in coaching.
I think all my former players
that are here…
Um, you know when you cut down the nets
and everybody gets a little piece of it?
I wish we had enough nets
that every one of them got a piece of it
'cause that's how much they mean to us.
["Wrecking Ball" playing]
[MacMullan] You look back on
where this all started at UConn.
Hold. Hold it!
[MacMullan] Geno's methods,
they've been questioned.
If it was easy, everybody would be
undefeated and number one.
But the results can't be questioned.
[crowd cheering]
[MacMullan]
Geno breaks you down to nothing.
We are lazy!
[MacMullan] But it comes March,
and he says, "Hey, get up.
Here's your crown. Here's your scepter.
Go ahead, rule the world."
I really hope you know
- how much you mean to me.
- I know.
I'm so grateful for everything.
We're never gonna see another coach
at one school
win as many games as Coach Auriemma has.
See, all that getting yelled at
is not so bad?
- No, it's all worth it.
- [laughing]
It's just not gonna happen.
It's virtually, mathematically impossible.
Now the question is, "Are you retiring?"
Fuck yeah, I'm retiring.
We should.
If I was smart,
I would've said into the mic.
"I'm out. I'm done. See you.
Arrivederci."
["Wrecking Ball" continues]
And we fucking did it!
[players whooping]
[Auriemma] And a lot of people say,
"Well, what about two in a row?
You know you could do another one."
But when's it end?
It's gotta end sometime.
I don't have a voice, but, uh… [sniffles]
…it's hard to imagine all this, you know?
Question is, what makes it the end?
When does the actual story end?
You never know.
["Wrecking Ball" continues]
[cheering in distance]
[Auriemma] Remember now.
Handle the pressure,
stay calm, stay connected, all right?
But don't take that foot off the gas.
We gotta go.
Together on three. One, two, three.
[all] Together!
[broadcaster 1] UConn, their 111-game
win streak is on the line.
Twelve seconds to go in the overtime.
It'll be Mississippi State ball.
Tied at 64.
[broadcaster 2] Can Mississippi State
pull off what would be the biggest upset
in the history of this sport?
[broadcaster 1]
William on the drive. Pull-up!
- [buzzer rings]
- [broadcaster 1] Got it!
- She got it! She got it!
- [fans screaming]
[broadcaster 1]
One of the great upsets in history!
Mississippi State has ended the streak.
At 111 consecutive games, it's over.
We lost in 2017.
And the following year, it happened again.
[broadcaster 1] Notre Dame survives
and wins it in overtime.
And it happened again the following year.
The Irish put down
the Huskies for a second straight year.
You know, what comes up must come down…
[chuckles] …at some point.
We won so many games,
and then there is this, like,
what people would describe as a drought.
[sports pundit 1]
Are UConn's dominant days over?
[sports pundit 2]
Hey, you know, it's good.
Maybe Geno Auriemma
has lost his Midas touch.
[news anchor 2]
They are not invincible anymore.
UConn's still the villain, and it's
being celebrated when UConn loses.
"Good, they deserve it. They've already
won too much. It's about time."
[MacMullan] There's no dynasty anymore.
It was just a period
where the playing field was being leveled.
And I think Geno realized the rest of the
college basketball world was catching up.
[Auriemma] Now people are saying,
"You'll never win another one."
The game has passed UConn by.
Winning is like a mist that covers you.
And as the sun comes out, it goes away.
Quickly.
Losing…
losing is not a mist.
Losing is like
the entire universe
is strapped around your head,
and it just sits there forever.
It's never going away.
You're Sisyphus.
You're pushing that goddamn rock
up the hill every day,
every day, trying to fix the problem.
[suspenseful music plays]
[commentator 1] Welcome
to the Lindbergh Center
at Hopkins High School
for a state tournament caliber matchup
in girls basketball.
[PA announcer] Number one, Paige Bueckers.
[audience cheering]
[news anchor 1] The last name
looks like Bueckers.
It's pronounced Beckers,
but Paige has a nickname too.
"Paige Buckets."
[news anchor 1] At this tournament
over the weekend,
everyone wanted to get a glimpse
of the number one high school player
in the country.
[Bueckers] As soon as I picked up the ball
from a very young age,
I was under the spotlight of trying
to fulfill, like, what these people
think you're gonna be
and the comparisons and the expectations.
I'm a really outgoing person.
And yeah, follow my TikTok.
Follow that before I get famous.
[Auriemma] Recruiting Paige, it was a…
a new experience for me.
Everybody's telling me that she's got
thousands and thousands of followers.
And I'm like why?
You mean, every 13-year-old in…
in America is fascinated
with Paige Bueckers.
- [fan 1] Paige Bueckers!
- [fan 2] Right here, right here.
[Auriemma] I started learning
these kids are influencers.
People know everything about her.
I think maybe because of all that,
you start to get this,
"I'm it, man. I'm the it girl."
But honestly,
- Paige's confidence, attitude…
- [Bueckers] Yes!
…it was
exactly what we needed.
[commentator]
Bueckers putting on a show here.
When I was young, I kinda just knew UConn
and winning national championships
was basically the same thing, so
it was just everything that I wanted
to be in terms of getting better,
competing for national championships.
[players shouting]
Now, we go three-man weave,
shoot a bank shot, and we box out.
- Pay attention.
- [players shouting]
[Bueckers] I just remember
through the recruiting process
when I would come to UConn,
I think what stood out from him
was just how honest he was
when he started coaching me.
The second he started watching me.
So I knew how tough he was.
I told him I want that type of coaching.
Like, I don't… I don't fear it.
I kinda crave it.
[news anchor] Paige Bueckers is
the number one high school recruit
in the class of 2020,
and she's committed to UConn.
All anybody wants to talk about…
…is the freshman in the starting lineup,
Paige Bueckers.
- [commentator 1] Bueckers!
- [commentator 2] Wow.
[Auriemma] When she stepped on the floor,
in her mind, nobody's better than her.
In her mind, there's nothing she can't do.
[commentator] Paige Bueckers,
one of the great debut seasons.
And I think the great ones…
the great, great, great ones,
that's where they live.
[commentator] Bueckers, the leaner. Yeah.
[Auriemma] And yet, at the same time,
she was a pain in the ass to coach.
[Philippou] During her freshman year,
Paige slaps Geno on the ass.
[laughing]
And he turns around, and he's like…
"This is… this is my star player?
This… Like, this is the kid
I'm… I'm dealing with now?"
[commentator] I'm not sure even
Taurasi got away with that as a freshman.
[Auriemma] Paige and those guys,
they were lucky I didn't coach them
- when I was 35…
- [Paige yelps]
…40, not 65 or 66.
'Cause it would've been…
it would've been a bloodbath. [chuckles]
[Philippou] Paige. She just had this way
about her. Ready to joke with Geno.
But everyone started
to realize Paige was the real deal.
They can win multiple
national championships.
She's gonna be the one
who ends the drought.
[commentator] She is an absolute gamer.
[Philippou] It's frightening
how good she's gonna be.
- [Paige groans]
- [commentator] Ooh.
[commentator 2] That did not look good
as Paige Bueckers's knee buckled.
And now all of a sudden, there's concern
for the best player on UConn.
[Bueckers] My left leg planted,
and it gave out.
It was a torn meniscus.
That was, like, my first knee issue.
Then in the summer, I was playing pickup.
My left leg just gave out again.
[gulps] I felt, like, more of a pop,
and I knew something was not right.
[news anchor] Brutal news.
Bueckers suffered a torn ACL
and will miss the 2022-23 season.
[Bueckers] The pain was there,
but it was more the fear of,
what if I don't ever come back the same?
There were panic attacks at night. Like,
chest tightening, shortness of breath.
[inhales sharply]
This huge weight on my shoulders,
um, and I think it got to a point
where it was just too much
and the weight crushed me.
[Lobo] There were huge expectations
for Paige Bueckers.
Over the years at UConn,
for the star,
has the crown gotten heavier?
Of course.
But the thing was it wasn't just Paige,
it was like this period of time
where it felt like
there was some sort of a curse.
[commentator] Aaliyah Edwards gets knocked
backwards into the right knee
of UConn's leading scorer, Azzi Fudd.
[commentator 2] We got a player down.
It's Dorka Juhász.
[commentator 3] Edwards is down
and in pain. Oh, no.
[Lobo] Everybody was getting hurt.
[commentator 1]
The issue for Geno Auriemma…
He simply doesn't have a sub right now.
I think he's put in everybody
that's available.
[Auriemma] Every day it was something.
One more injury. One more guy missing.
It just became a blur.
[tense music plays]
[MacMullan] For Geno,
I think the job was getting harder,
and I think people realized,
UConn's mortal.
And Geno's mortal.
[somber music plays]
[Jenkins] You can't win forever.
We all get beat in the end by time,
we get beat by illness,
we get beat by fatigue.
Um, there's no charmed ending for anybody,
and I saw that in Pat.
Hall of fame college basketball
coach Pat Summitt died today at 64.
Her career was cut short
by Alzheimer's disease.
[news anchor 1] She lifted the sport
on her shoulders.
[news anchor 2] There's no doubt
she would have still been coaching.
But I think without Pat,
Geno must have felt an incredible void.
[news anchor] Geno Auriemma said
today in a statement,
"I was shocked and saddened."
[Auriemma]
For a while there, it was, you know,
Geno and Pat, Pat and Geno,
Geno and Pat, Pat and Geno.
Um, yeah, it wasn't the same.
I miss…
I miss having her there.
When this happened with Pat,
it's a contemporary of yours,
and it really hits home.
We were different people.
Grow up differently,
maybe view the world differently,
but at the same time, as competitors,
we were the same in a lot of ways.
[Jenkins] I think that there's
a buried love between great competitors.
Pat and Geno, they couldn't see it
for themselves necessarily,
but I know for a fact
that's what Pat felt at the end.
Love for Geno.
[speaks indistinctly]
[Lobo] When you look kind of
at that time period,
I remember sitting there
watching Coach and thinking,
"Oh, my gosh, how much longer
is he gonna be doing this?"
You know, 'cause he didn't…
he just didn't look like
the same person on the sidelines.
Do I ever question why…
why am I doing this? Of course.
It's easy to give up
when you keep coming up short.
[commentator] Now it's Connecticut,
down one,
a trip to the title game on the line.
Five seconds left. Looking for Bueckers,
and an offensive foul!
And that will do it.
Caitlin Clark and Iowa will face
undefeated South Carolina.
After my injuries,
I was supposed to come in
and bring the dynasty back,
but I couldn't.
[audience chanting] Overrated! Overrated!
I mean, at UConn, everywhere you look
in that building, it's a…
national championship around you.
All the banners, who won,
how many do they have.
Paige Beckner,
or however they hell you say her name,
is overrated, bro.
[Auriemma] She would get killed
on social media.
People make comparisons.
Even to a point where I thought
one time, I should take all those
names of all those All-Americans
off the wall.
[Bueckers] At UConn,
all you see is success.
So going into my last year,
I just had this burden of like,
to not win a national championship.
I was so afraid of what people
were gonna think of me.
[cheering]
[commentator 1] It is a circus atmosphere
at Gampel Pavilion
in Storrs tonight
as we honor Geno Auriemma.
[commentator 2] Now it may have been
nine years since his last championship,
but with 1,217 career wins,
tonight, Geno Auriemma
is the all-time winningest coach.
[PA announcer] Thank you, Geno,
for 40 incredible seasons!
[audience cheering]
[news reporter] What does it mean
to be able to achieve something like this
in front of your former players
and a very passionate fan base?
Yeah, you couldn't ask for a better…
you know, a better scenario,
to be honest with you.
Yeah.
You know, early in my career,
I really, really, really…
enjoyed and looked forward
to those types of things.
And as time has gone by…
[smacks lips] …I don't.
[commentator] You're the GOAT.
There's no question.
[fans chanting] Geno! Geno! Geno!
People celebrate because
they want to acknowledge.
So, I knew…
I know why everybody was doing it,
and I know what it meant.
Here's the winningest basketball coach
in history of college basketball!
Geno Auriemma!
[Auriemma] But to me,
it was like, this reminder.
We haven't won in nine years.
At my age, I did start to think,
"I don't know that I'm cut out for this."
We always put this jersey on
to represent you.
I would have conversations with him
all the time about, you know, retirement.
And he goes, "Yeah, but you wanna end it
this way." And I would always tell him,
"Coach, you don't get
to pick the way it ends.
It just ends. It just ends, sometimes."
[Auriemma] But when you've
done something for 40, 50 years,
you know, you're supposed to have
this big feeling of accomplishment.
You're not supposed to have this
burning need that I have to keep going.
But I do.
This the one thing
that keeps me going back.
[audience] Geno! Geno! Geno! Geno! Geno!
[Auriemma] I'm excited to see what
can happen, but right now it hasn't yet.
We haven't had our full team
in three years,
so I think there's a lot
of excitement about,
you know, what would we look like
if we had everybody available.
Uh, and it's Paige's last year.
There's a lot of expectation.
There's a lot of pressure that can come
with not getting a title at UConn
and throwing everything
into this one year, but, yeah,
I'm looking to get the ball more
on my hands, be a playmaker,
and leave no regrets out on the floor.
[reporter] With a… a young team,
how important is leadership to you
and just really asserting
yourself this year?
[somber music plays]
Hey, get over here, goddamn it.
What is that?
What is that? Talk to each other.
Go!
For Paige, as the team leader,
there was never any question, physically,
about what she could do.
It was always, "Where is she mentally?"
Paige. Paige. Hold up!
Come on, that's twice now.
I didn't say anything the first time.
Fucking Paige. She hasn't heard
a fucking word we've said this morning.
[Dailey] Geno, it's the first day.
It was a challenge
for my entire five years
of finding my own unique way of leading.
Keep talking. Keep talking.
[speaks indistinctly]
[Auriemma] Part of the issue was that
she had this incredible sense of loyalty.
She loved her teammates.
It's all great.
But at the same time, if you're loyal,
that doesn't preclude you
from also being hard on them
and demanding on them.
[Auriemma] I kept reminding Paige,
"You're the so-called leader of the team.
If someone wants to be a leader,
it can't just be "I love you."
When you step on the floor,
in order to win…
[players] Together.
[Auriemma] …you invariably
are gonna piss people off."
[commentator] Bueckers… yes!
[Auriemma] As an individual player,
she was playing great.
Talent-wise, she was one
of the best players
in the history of Connecticut basketball.
But as a team…
Hey! Five-out!
…we came up short.
Five-out!
[commentator] …gives to Bueckers
with 12 seconds to go.
[commentator] Bueckers…
for Strong… for three!
- No! USC with a massive win!
- [buzzer rings]
[Bueckers] Coach questioned my ability
to get the best out of my teammates,
but I'm not the type to,
like, cuss somebody out
and, like, kick 'em off the court and…
be an asshole in a sense.
What did we talk about?
What did we talk about, Paige?
Just, like, comparing how I would lead
versus how, like, Diana would lead.
Like, no two people are the same.
But at some point,
you just get sick and tired of hearing it
because you're, like, you're trying
your best, you're trying your hardest.
Some days, I would have wanted
to have a conversation like,
"Dawg, you need to chill out."
Here we go!
[player 1] Come on! Good, good!
[Bueckers] I think it's really important
to have somebody to confide in
that is understanding
of what I was going through.
Azzi ended up joining the team
my sophomore year.
- No, sorry, sorry.
- [Fudd chuckles]
Best player in the nation right here.
Big dubs. We need some more respect.
It kind of just meshed,
um, as soon as we met.
'Cause it was bad. [speaks indistinctly]
[Bueckers] She's sweet. She's genuine.
She has a huge caring heart.
Her in the… [speaks indistinctly]
We got… Kind of felt like a spark,
a little bit different
than what would just be
considered a normal friendship.
Paige and I are a couple, and everyone
closest to us that was important knew
but it was kind of one of those things.
It's just… it's private.
Not a secret, but it's private.
We had conversations
about, like, everything that was going on.
[Auriemma] Everybody's got
a fucking excuse,
and that's why they don't get better.
- Everybody's got a fucking excuse.
- Hey, Paige, see the ball! See the ball!
[Fudd] When things weren't going right,
it was usually all Paige's fault.
She had said to me… She was like,
"I came back for my fifth year
because I thought, like,
we're gonna have things figured out,
and it was gonna be fun."
And she basically said, like,
"It's the exact opposite of that."
Hold up. Hold up.
Why would you chase the guy
when Ice already had him?
With me and Coach, it was like,
probably, a couple of weeks of us just,
like, not talking to each other,
just showing up to practice
and existing.
[Auriemma] Now we're not talking
to each other.
But if you don't want to be coached,
and if you think you can do this
by yourself, go ahead.
I'm not gonna lose the rest of the team
'cause I'm spending all my energy
trying to coach you.
That's not how it works.
By the time kids get to be seniors
at Connecticut, you're helping me coach.
[audience cheering]
[commentator] In Knoxville,
a fired-up atmosphere
getting ready for Tennessee
and Connecticut.
These two programs have laid
the foundation for women's basketball.
People used to make a big,
big deal about this game.
All year round, "When is
the Connecticut-Tennessee game?"
Just do what we normally do, right?
We know exactly what's gonna happen,
and how we're gonna handle it.
All right, let's go.
We gotta go right now. Right now.
[audience cheering]
[Auriemma] Us being back there…
just feeling the fever pitch
from the crowd.
Being in that kind of an environment,
you have to have toughness,
you have to have great leadership,
and you need people to step up.
So, yeah it was a big moment for Paige.
But our lack of leadership…
it showed up even more
in the Tennessee game.
[commentator] Remember, Tennessee
has not beaten Connecticut since 2007.
And now Spencer, a steal,
all alone, lays it in.
[Auriemma] We're not talking,
and we're making mistakes.
We gotta be more connected to our guys.
Definitely, emotions were high. I feel
like everybody's head was everywhere.
[commentator] Here's Cooper,
putting Bueckers in the pick and roll.
Cooper lays it in.
[Arnold] Kinda, like,
not knowing where to go.
[commentator] 13-0 run for Tennessee.
[Arnold] I feel like
we let the crowd seep in as well.
[commentator] Feel like we're back
in the late '90s.
[Bueckers] We were making
those mistakes that we can't make
at this point of the season.
[commentator] Inside of a minute to go,
Tennessee by three.
And at the end of the day, I felt like
I was letting my team down.
[commentator] Here is Strong
off the inbound.
Connecticut has to move quickly. Backdoor.
Fudd unable to lay it in, kicks it out.
Four seconds left.
Bueckers's hoist.
And for the first time since 2007,
Tennessee has defeated Connecticut!
[Fudd] It was kinda just like this shock.
We've really just lost.
They were a good team,
but we should have won.
[Bueckers] We were at full strength,
with everybody available that game,
and we just, like,
kind of embarrassed ourselves.
Okay, everybody in. Let's go. We've got
a lot of work to do when we get home.
Together on three. One, two, three.
- [all] Together.
- [Elliott] We got a lot of games to play.
Stay together, guys.
That was the hardest loss,
I think, in quite some time.
Hey, Paige!
[Auriemma] Bottom line is,
Paige needed to change.
There comes a point where
losing has to really, really,
really hurt to your core,
to who you are as a human being.
I could tell on Paige's face
it didn't hurt enough
for her to change
and be a different person,
a different kind of leader,
a different kind of player.
And it has to hurt.
So I took a risk.
And I said, "She's either gonna quit,
or she's gonna change."
So I tried to hurt her like losing hurts.
[Strong] The film session the next day
after the Tennessee loss…
I don't know, it was…
very awkward to be in there.
I wasn't expecting him
to kinda attack Paige like that.
He was just yelling at her and…
I don't know, just saying really…
like, hurtful things to her.
It was just really shocking to me.
[no audible dialogue]
The film session was brutal.
He really got after me
in front of my teammates.
- It became a little personal.
- [mouthing words] Said no fouls.
[Bueckers] He questioned
who I was as a human.
He said, why would my teammates follow me,
and why would I be a person
that they look up to?
That was pretty devastating.
Like, you can say what you want
about me as an individual.
Like, I'm a bad basketball player,
I'm dumb, I'm stupid, I'm…
Whatever you wanna say,
but as soon as you question, like,
my love for my teammates,
that hit me hardest.
I just kinda questioned,
"Did I even wanna be there anymore?"
[coach] Seven, eight, nine, ten.
[MacMullan] That was the fine line
I think that Geno has always walked.
Because you can't lose the players.
You can push them, you can drill them,
you can break them down,
but you can't lose 'em.
You can't break them so much
that they can't be fixed again.
There's no use going over anything
that I said yesterday, okay?
If you got the message,
then you got the message. Okay?
- Let's go.
- [players exclaim] Yes, sir. Let's go.
[chattering]
It was hard for me to understand at first.
But when I really dug deep
on why he's saying it,
it was like,
"What is he trying to get out of me?
What are we trying to accomplish?
And can we accomplish them
if me and him aren't on the same page?"
And so, we had a players-only meeting
where we just have all of our players
in a room together.
Players-only meeting.
And when was this in the season?
February.
October, November, December, January.
So it took you four months
to have a players-only meeting
where you could talk about, "This is what…
This is what we're gonna do."
Really?
For me, it was telling them
that I'm going to be better.
But I just wanted the underclassmen
to understand
that I'm going to be challenging you
and holding you accountable.
Paige got us together
and was kinda talking about, like,
how awful that Tennessee game was.
[Fudd] We don't usually get
that from Paige.
She's always trying
to stay positive and uplift.
She doesn't ever wanna show that…
that other side.
And so, uh, we knew that it was
basically crunch time in a sense.
Like, we needed to figure it out fast
because we had another big game coming up.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator 1]
18,000 here at Colonial Life Arena
for the Huskies and the Gamecocks.
[commentator 2] This has certainly become
one of the best rivalries
in women's college basketball.
[commentator 1]
Fifteenth meeting all-time.
South Carolina
has won five of the last six.
[Lobo] South Carolina, they are
the defending national champion
and the team that has had UConn's number
the past number of years.
The programs do not like one another.
The fan bases
do not particularly like one another.
I don't know that there's love lost
between Coach Auriemma and Dawn Staley.
[Stephen A. Smith]
We all love and respect Geno Auriemma
and the great job that he's done
throughout the decades,
but what Dawn Staley has done
in South Carolina has been special.
[commentator 2] And South Carolina
has won the national championship!
[commentator 3] South Carolina
has captured
its second national championship!
[commentator 3]
Dawn Staley now with three.
[Staley] UConn is not only a great team,
they're a great tradition.
They're a part
of our women's basketball history
that you really can't take
that away from them.
[inhales deeply] But it was divinely
ordered for us to be champions today.
[crowd cheering]
[Bueckers] The rise of South Carolina
and just their dominance
the past couple of years, it became, like,
"Oh, this is becoming the new dynasty,
and this is becoming
the team that competes
for a national championship
every single year."
So, you know that
in the back of your mind,
and it kinda plays mind games with you.
[commentator 1] UConn,
South Carolina from Columbia.
Margin for error in this game,
not much for the Huskies.
[commentator 2] The difficult part is
South Carolina has won 71
straight games at home.
[commentator 1] And here we go.
Bueckers on the attack.
Pull-up three, it is good,
Paige Bueckers is on the board
in Columbia.
[Fudd] I think that everyone could kinda
feel that extra sense of urgency.
It might be a bloodbath,
or we're gonna go in for a fight.
[commentator 1] El Alfy. Oh, nice handle!
And the finish. Okay, 6'5".
Everybody was locked in.
I was like, "Okay, um,
this is what I need to do.
Everything has to go exactly right."
[commentator 1] Shade…
Connecticut piping hot from three.
It is not often that you see
South Carolina down like this.
UConn, because of the way they played
from the jump,
totally took that home court advantage
and dynamic away from South Carolina.
[commentator 1] An absolutely
dominant opening half
from Connecticut here in Columbia.
We gotta stick to the fucking game plan
'cause this is what we do.
We play one good half,
and in the second half, we lose our shit.
So we gotta play a full 40 minutes.
Twenty more minutes, and they're done.
You know, you could see it
on their body language,
the way that they're running the floor,
not running the floor,
not helping each other, not huddling.
They're not together.
So let's stay together
and stay in our game plan.
[commentator 3]
Big mountain to climb for South Carolina.
[Strong] I would say I saw a change
in Paige in the South Carolina game.
She was more assertive
with her leadership.
Vocally or on the court,
she didn't really give us room for error.
[Auriemma] At some point in their careers,
all the really, really, really high-level
players, they get to that point.
When what they say is way more important
than what the coach said.
Way more important.
[commentator 1] A dominant performance
from the Connecticut Huskies.
[Auriemma]
And that was the first time, I think,
where all the pieces
sort of started to fit.
[commentator 1] Bueckers buries the three.
[Auriemma]
Now we know what we're capable of.
[commentator 1] And that will do it.
And South Carolina's 71-game
home winning streak
is going to end here today.
[cheering] Yeah!
Hey, in all seriousness,
if we play like this, full 40 minutes…
We play like this, we can win it all.
So don't… No drop-off from here.
There's, um… [sniffles]
…probably one of two feelings
that you can have.
What-What is it?
It's like a rewarding feeling.
- A rewarding feeling?
- Mm-hmm.
- Like you deserved it. Right?
- Mm-hmm.
When you deserve something
and you've worked your ass off for it,
feels really good.
Feels really good.
[inhales sharply]
The other way you can feel is,
"What the fuck? This is who we are.
This is what we do to people."
Now, you've never felt that.
A lot of you guys have never felt that.
Oh.
Every single person in this room right now
should feel
incredibly proud of yourselves.
Incredibly proud of yourselves.
Because you guys helped each other today.
[sighs] Somehow, I don't know why…
I, like, um, I don't know, this…
This whole trip, I just… I just thought
something like this was gonna happen.
I didn't wanna say it, and I think
you guys knew that too, right?
Yeah. You knew something like this
was gonna happen. Fuck yeah!
[cheering]
- Together on three. One, two, three.
- Together!
[Bueckers] Going into
my last NCAA tournament, I felt like,
"Damn, like this is the last chance
to win this whole thing."
[announcer] Paige Bueckers!
"How do I give everything
I have left to this last season?"
[commentator 1] Get ready
for a Sweet 16 matchup.
Bueckers pull-up, it is good!
Paige Bueckers taking over!
Tournament record, 40 points.
Been a different level of aggression,
which Geno Auriemma
has tried to get out of Paige for a while.
[commentator 2] There's something
different about this team.
The vibe about them.
[pundit]
But I don't have them as the favorite.
[commentator 3]
Is UConn really a championship contender?
[commentator 3] It's just hard to tell.
[commentator 5] The Huskies
have their work cut out for them,
but we've seen this team
has the talent to do it.
Final Four, let's go!
See you there, Paige.
[commentator 1] Final Four action.
A trip to the national championship
on the line.
[cheering]
[reporter] We've never seen
what we saw from UConn.
[commentator 2]
UConn advances to title game.
It's UConn and South Carolina.
They'll meet for the second time
for all the marbles.
- [speaks indistinctly]
- We good?
- Good?
- We good?
Good.
You got them in the right
place at the right time.
- No, you do.
- Look at these guys.
You do. You do.
- You do.
- How's it been?
It's hard, huh? The longer you're in it,
the harder it gets.
- I might be out before you. [laughs]
- No! No, no, no, no…
They'll throw me out
if we don't win tomorrow. [laughs]
- Have a good one, Geno.
- I'll see you.
[Philippou] Talking to Geno
going into that championship game,
I think he did want to
be able to prove to himself and to others
that he could win in this era.
South Carolina is the new face,
the new dynasty, more or less,
in women's basketball,
while UConn was the old guard trying
to finally get back on the mountaintop.
- It's going to be really physical.
- Yep.
Both ends. They're gonna try to bully you
and beat the shit out of you.
Plain and simple. They're gonna hold you.
They're gonna grab you.
They're gonna try to bully you.
And everything's going to be a contact.
And don't be bitching to the refs.
Just fuck with them in return, okay?
[Philippou]
But also at the end of the day,
he wanted to do it for Paige Bueckers.
If she didn't win the national
championship that season,
she would be the best UConn player
to never win a title.
Number one thing,
you gotta be able to punch these guys
in the mouth every fucking possession.
You gotta be able to punch them
in the face every possession.
Physically.
And offensively, we gotta punish them
by pushing the ball, pushing the ball,
pushing the ball,
- and don't stop, all right?
- Let's go.
[Auriemma] For Paige,
I don't know that any other player
has had that kind of journey,
where there's been that many…
you know, that many hurdles.
[fans cheering]
[Auriemma] Hopefully,
she'll ride off into the sunset.
A conquering hero.
But hope is not a strategy, right?
[commentator 1] Welcome to the NCAA
Women's Championship in Tampa, Florida.
[reporter 1] Showdown between two titans
going head to head.
The Huskies have won 11 NCAA titles
but haven't won it all since 2016.
[reporter 2] Paige Bueckers is starving
to be cutting down the nets.
[reporter 3] Anything less than a national
championship is a disappointment.
How much pressure is on her to get a win?
[Bueckers] Leading up to the game,
the emotions
of wanting it so bad got to me.
I had done all this work
mentally, physically.
How much I invested into that season,
how much at some points in the season
I didn't wanna do it anymore.
All those emotions just caught up to me,
and like…
If I did it like this
and we don't win, like…
I didn't know how I would react.
[player cheering] Let's go.
[Auriemma] I like where we are as a team.
I think the biggest thing that we've g…
we've gained
over the last month, especially…
an incredible trust in each other
that we didn't have
early in the season, right?
And that's gonna carry you today.
The trust and the belief in yourself
and that you believe in each other.
- So let's kick their ass. Let's go.
- [cheering]
- Together on three. One, two, three.
- Together.
Let's go. It says right here.
"Play hard. Play smart. Have fun."
Play hard, you play stupid,
there's no fun.
[commentator 1] And the national
championship game is underway.
Good denial here from South Carolina.
Bueckers. That pass stolen by Edwards.
[Bueckers] They came out
aggressive defensively.
They tried to kind of
take me out of the game.
[commentator 1] Fulwiley leads the break.
And Feagin lays it in.
I remember the first quarter just being
back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth.
[commentator 1] Johnson connects.
[commentator 2] That is an outstanding
sign for South Carolina.
But I just remember calling huddles,
and we were just calm.
[commentator 1] Chen, attacking, bouncing.
El Alfy lay.
[Bueckers] My teammates started
making plays for me.
[commentator 1] Fudd, leaning and hitting!
We just had this confidence
that nothing in that game
that was thrown our way could break us off
of who we are.
[commentator 1] In to Strong.
Bueckers to the corner. Shade… Connects!
Strong, eight points, eight boards.
Fulwiley again has Fudd steal it away.
Azzi Fudd to the cup!
[buzzer rings]
And that will do it for the first half.
Connecticut a ten-point lead
after two quarters.
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.
[Elliott] Twenty more minutes, man.
- Ay, ay, ay.
- Plus, we gotta talk about
what we not taking advantage of.
[Auriemma]
She just stands there! Get back.
Watch. Sarah's playing. You think
she would go set a screen for somebody?
[Valley] Okay.
- Christ almighty.
- [Valley] Thank you.
How do you go from Friday night
to this bullshit? Look at that play.
- She was about to chase her up there.
- Right.
Look. And now put your fucking hand up.
Run it back.
That's the problem.
Now we turning and watching.
Yes, we have to turn and box out.
[chattering]
[Valley] We are not boxing out,
and we need to box out to rebound.
Look, 20 minutes has gone. It's history.
Nothing we can do about it.
I thought our defense was fantastic.
Our rebounding sucked. Okay?
So now we play defense like we did.
We rebound the shit out of it.
Second half.
This is it. This is it.
- All right, let's go.
- Go! Let's go!
Together on three. One, two, three.
- Together!
- Together!
[commentator 1]
Connecticut seeking a 12th title,
and their first since 2016.
Here's Bueckers. Her jumper, it is good!
In the corner, Fudd. You bet!
Azzi Fudd is on fire!
Bueckers, backdoor. Puts it in!
It's raining blue in Tampa.
The lead is 30!
[Ralph] I remember watching them play
in that moment.
It just reminds me, as players at UConn
there is a heaviness that exists
when the expectations are just so high.
But there's something inside that program
that has made women's basketball better,
has made women better,
has made all of us better.
[Taurasi] I think in all these stories,
through the championships
and all the different classes,
all the workouts, all the practices,
all the moments
we have to look in the mirror
and face all the things
that you hate about yourself…
There's just this moment
of, like, "it is worth it."
It is… [stutters] It actually is worth it.
All of it's worth it. All of it.
[commentator 1] Bueckers gives it up.
Strong… You bet!
[Moore] I think one of the reasons
we have so much success is because
we're actually pursuing
that feeling of being great together.
And that's the-the drug, the high,
the feeling that you chase.
Coach has a very unique way
of getting the best out of his players.
And at times, it was difficult
being able to handle that burden.
But to be in that moment where
it all paid off on the biggest stage…
[commentator 1] UConn on the doorstep
of title number 12.
I think that just completely
changed my life.
[commentator 1] And there's the buzzer!
It's an even dozen
for Geno Auriemma and Connecticut!
The final page in the book of Bueckers!
Now I'm crying. [sniffles]
Now I'm crying. Now I'm crying.
I love you.
- [Bueckers crying] I hate you.
- I love you.
[blows]
Yeah, no, that was just, uh…
Everything that we had been through
up until that point,
like, just the emotions of it, and just
like everything coming together.
The times where we hated each other,
where we loved each other.
Everything that me and Coach
had been through up to that point,
it was just, like, embodied in that hug.
Coach Auriemma, it's been a while.
I mean, they've all been gratifying,
don't get me wrong,
but this one here,
because of the way it came about
and what's been involved,
it's been a long time
since I've been that emotional
when a player has walked
off the court. [sniffles]
We saw that hug with Paige.
All that she's been through.
All that she's fought through.
When you were in that hug, Coach,
what are you saying to her?
"I love you."
That's all I could say. "I love you."
- Hey.
- [laughs]
[Auriemma] It's pretty emotional.
- The journey just ended…
- Yay!
[Auriemma] …and you've
been part of that journey with her.
But those moments
are what you play for, really.
Those moments
are why you stay in coaching.
I think all my former players
that are here…
Um, you know when you cut down the nets
and everybody gets a little piece of it?
I wish we had enough nets
that every one of them got a piece of it
'cause that's how much they mean to us.
["Wrecking Ball" playing]
[MacMullan] You look back on
where this all started at UConn.
Hold. Hold it!
[MacMullan] Geno's methods,
they've been questioned.
If it was easy, everybody would be
undefeated and number one.
But the results can't be questioned.
[crowd cheering]
[MacMullan]
Geno breaks you down to nothing.
We are lazy!
[MacMullan] But it comes March,
and he says, "Hey, get up.
Here's your crown. Here's your scepter.
Go ahead, rule the world."
I really hope you know
- how much you mean to me.
- I know.
I'm so grateful for everything.
We're never gonna see another coach
at one school
win as many games as Coach Auriemma has.
See, all that getting yelled at
is not so bad?
- No, it's all worth it.
- [laughing]
It's just not gonna happen.
It's virtually, mathematically impossible.
Now the question is, "Are you retiring?"
Fuck yeah, I'm retiring.
We should.
If I was smart,
I would've said into the mic.
"I'm out. I'm done. See you.
Arrivederci."
["Wrecking Ball" continues]
And we fucking did it!
[players whooping]
[Auriemma] And a lot of people say,
"Well, what about two in a row?
You know you could do another one."
But when's it end?
It's gotta end sometime.
I don't have a voice, but, uh… [sniffles]
…it's hard to imagine all this, you know?
Question is, what makes it the end?
When does the actual story end?
You never know.
["Wrecking Ball" continues]