Great responses all, and Princeton did win one for Pete (and NIT back when it meant a little more than it does now.)
1. Forget for a moment the championships and think about the undefeated seasons. SIX - the next closest women's coach has 1. That is not just great players, Pat at TN used to collect 10-12 great players on her teams, but she could only finish one season undefeated. Geno, CD and co. teach respect for the game, respect for the opponent, and respect for the fans - demanding commitment towards excellence at all times, on and off the court, practice, travel, games, dining, and walking to class.
2. Development - there are only a few exceptional players in women's college basketball and only a few who have played at Uconn. Geno has taking a whole bunch of those other talented players and developed them into top flight college players and consummate professional players. And he has taken the few exceptional players and truly challenged them not to settle for being better than all their peers, but demanded they continue to grow their skills in a way no other women's coach has done.
3. Player recruiting - the coaching staff has almost always remained disciplined in who they recruit and who they pass up, and talent is only a minor part of what they evaluate. And they take input from current players which creates buy-in for the team before the recruit arrives for the first summer of school. The older players are thus forced to become responsible for the recruits - he can always say 'you said I should offer _____, well now you better help me fix her!'
4. Geno, CD, and whoever are the current assistants (and those assistants are typically long term) work as a team - CD talked about how if she or Geno was riding a player hard, the other would take on the supportive role for that player so no player ever walked out of the building feeling unsupported. And they passed the same philosophy to the assistants. It is an intense environment, and hard for the players, and they recognize that and the need for someone to be supportive.
5. It is not a static environment, nor a static system - it changes every year and adapts to the players available and their personalities. The expectations for every player are adjusted constantly, and the methods of working toward those expectations are tailored to each individual. There is often a 'precious' player who seems to do no wrong and there is often a 'worst player' at her position EVER - but those players are only ever identified when the player herself can handle those expectation and will respond positively to that motivation.
6. This is college sports, and it is important to recognize that the athletes enter really as children and exit as adults. It is a huge period of change and development not just physically but mentally as well. Geno, CD, and co. are not just coaching and teaching basketball, they are also providing guidance and structure during this transformation, and they are very good at that aspect of the job as well.
You can't win without talent so certainly the recruiting is essential, but you can develop talent, and you can put that talent into positions to excel, and you can build and develop teams around that talent to win. So coaching is also essential. Chicken and Egg. But unlike the professional sports, college is a constantly regenerating cast of characters on a four year sojourn so you do not have the TB vs. BB debate of the New England Patriots. Geno and CD are the only constants through three decade and their program has endured while the other members of the organization have come and gone.
But, often (but not always), when UConn won its titles, it was the best team by quite a bit, which was not the case when they were sophs through seniors.