Somewhere much earlier in this thread it was said that, when you have a situation such as the one at Tennessee, that "You either change your players, or you change your players." I'd never heard that one before. And I think that the first part, changing attitudes, can be a daunting, or impossible, chore. This seems to be a lesson that the very best coaches, such as Geno, either knew instinctively from the beginning, or learned early on. That being that recruiting only the best talent without properly vetting the people for character will land you in serious trouble. In other words, Geno may have had something to do with making players like Kia, Gabby, Napheesa and the rest great people, but for the most part, they already were.
I coached volleyball for about fifteen years. High school level and J.O. Of all the things that surprised me, tops on the list was that I too often had to coach effort, to motivate. I had thought that the players who chose to play the sport would always give their best. I was wrong.
Geno said in a video that he, at UCONN, does not have to do this, while at many schools they do. This is a tremendous advantage, and one they gain by properly appraising the personalities and character of the girls that they recruit. They have been very, very good at this over the years. Other schools, it seems, not so much..