During his Thursday press conference ahead of Friday’s Final Four game against Notre Dame, Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma was asked a pretty silly question.
It all revolved around something Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey said about how it’s close to impossible to build close relationships in such a competitive environment.
“Sure. Listen, we would all be best friends if we weren’t coaching,” Mulkey said, per the Hartford Courant. “Hell, some of us may be married to each other if we weren’t coaching, right?”
Well, that triggered one reporter to ask Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw whether she could envision having a normal relationship with Auriemma.
Then, when it was Auriemma’s turn at the podium, he was asked about the same thing.
His response was pretty great.
Auriemma first said, “You think Tom Izzo has to deal with this crap? I don’t think so.”
Then he said he finds it “a little bit disconcerting” that there is so much attention taken away from the games themselves because the media wants to talk about the personalities of the coaches.
“It’s like when you watch a game on TV, a women’s basketball game, they talk more about the shoes that the coach is wearing. Who gives a damn? Really, c’mon. Let’s get over that. We want to be taken seriously. Let’s talk about sports, let’s talk about the game. Let’s not talk about the other nonsense that’s on TMZ. If we want to be taken seriously, let’s act seriously.”
There’s plenty of truth behind all that.
Interestingly, Auriemma’s upcoming opponent, McGraw, made quite the potent statement of her own on an entirely different topic, not minutes before he made his.