HARTFORD — One of the first decisions Geno Auriemma made after he started as UConn women’s basketball coach in 1985 was hiring Chris Dailey to his staff. After winning his 1,200th career game on Wednesday night, he knows hitting a home run with that decision has helped define his ever-growing legacy.
“I knew very, very early, before we played our first game or I even had the job yet that if she would agree to come here and coach with me and us, we could be good,” Auriemma said after the 67-34 win over Seton Hall. “Obviously nobody envisioned this, but that decision I think made every other decision possible. … By getting that one right, we set ourselves for something like this to happen.”
Dailey has been Auriemma’s other half for all 39 seasons at UConn, three as an assistant and the last 36 as associate head coach. In fact, several of Auriemma’s 1,200 wins are technically Dailey’s: She has led the team to 17 victories when serving as head coach in his absence. Her perfect record includes wins in the 1989 and 1997 Big East Tournament championship games and in the first two rounds of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
Only two other coaches in college basketball history have surpassed 1,200 wins, Stanford women’s coach Tara Vanderveer (1,206) and former Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski (1,202). Auriemma and Dailey are the only pair to reach the milestone in fewer than 45 seasons and to do so with a single program. (Krzyzewski won 73 games as head coach at Army).
1,200 wins. SO many memories #BleedBlue pic.twitter.com/VKeeU5RgYz
— UConn Huskies (@UConnHuskies) February 8, 2024
A partnership as long — and successful — as Auriemma and Dailey’s is rare in college…