Which season would you characterize as "Geno's best coaching job"?

[alexrgct]

This is a simple enough question: which season was Geno's best coaching job? It might be a year when Geno pulled a rabbit out of a hat and defied expectations, or perhaps it would be a year when Geno most comprehensively lived up to the loftiest of expectations.

Since there were only seven options for the poll, I could only come up with three categories of choices:

• Five of the NCs that were quite impressive coaching jobs.
• One of the remaining four NCs
• One of the other 20 seasons Geno coached when UConn didn't win a national championship

I do think winning the NC is a significant enough accomplishment that I wanted them to be some of the more obvious choices. To that end, I selected 1995 (the first national championship and the culmination of 10 amazing seasons), 2002 (quite possibly the best team Geno, or anyone for that matter, has ever fielded,), 2003 (withstanding the loss of the TASS Force and still going 37-1 for the NC), 2013 (a stunning recovery from four gut punching losses to win every NCAA tourney game by 18 or more points), and 2014 (a thorough and comprehensive delivery of the moon that everyone expected from the preseason on).

Having said that, you might (indirectly) vote for the 2009 coaching job that brought UConn back to being as dominant (or possibly more dominant) than 2002, or maybe we should tout 1991, the first time UConn punched a ticket to the Final Four. Or possibly 2011, which came within one questionably-officiated national semis from leading a depleted roster to the mountaintop...

What say you?

 

[VAUConnFan]

2006 - Almost got to the Final Four with a talented, but less than stellar UConn team.

 

[Vowelguy]

2003
Not just an NC but an undefeated season for a team dominated by newbies.

 

[VAUConnFan]

2003
Not just an NC but an undefeated season for a team dominated by newbies.

They lost to Villanova in the BET final. Only loss of the season. A surprising season for me as well.

 

[j66kicker]

To me Geno's coaching job in the 1995 NC GAME was enough to vote 1995

 

[ocoandasoc]

1991, hands down. Arguably, not a player on that team -- and I loved them all -- would start on any of UConn's recent NC teams, yet he took them to the Final Four where they gave favorite Virginia a hell of a game. If it weren't for foul trouble in the semis, they would have been a good match against Tenn in the finals.
Geno maximized every strength of that team, and minimized every weakness. A few weeks into the season UConn was unranked. But after beating highly-ranked Auburn they started moving up the Top 25. Still, as I remember, they were only a 3 seed in the Tourney and they had never won an NCAA Tourney game up to that point.
That team had a point guard who could defend and distribute but couldn’t shoot (Debbie Baer), a great three-point shooter albeit with a very slow release (Wendy Davis), an undersized forward who was a warrior on the boards (Meghyn Pattyson) , an undersized center who was asked to do it all – and usually did (Kerry Bascomb), a “sixth man” who was an Israeli national and averaged 20 minutes a game in her only season at UConn before playing professionally in Israel, and one of the smartest and most versatile athletes ever to hail from the Nutmeg State (Laura Lishness).
Synergy is an overused word, but this team had it. And Geno made the most of it.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

2004 or 2014!
In 2004 you had DT and no one else did and through her skill, leadership, force of will led an average team to a 3rd Championship in a row! But Geno had to pull the strings, like a maestro, putting the right players on the court so Taurasi could mold them into winners! He brought those inexperienced players along so they each contributed whatever skill level they had and a ferocious competitiveness not to fail!
In this past season, 2014, UCONN lost Tuck for the season, KML for long stretches with injury then illness, a short bench with Kiah Stokes the only viable sub, and still finished 40-0 and NCAA Champions! They defeated highly ranked opponents all season when a loss would have been understood for a lack of depth, not squeezing by but convincingly, 20+ points a game!

 

[Buzzyboy]

1991, hands down. Arguably, not a player on that team -- and I loved them all -- would start on any of UConn's recent NC teams, yet he took them to the Final Four where they gave favorite Virginia a hell of a game. If it weren't for foul trouble in the semis, they would have been a good match against Tenn in the finals.
Geno maximized every strength of that team, and minimized every weakness. A few weeks into the season UConn was unranked. But after beating highly-ranked Auburn they started moving up the Top 25. Still, as I remember, they were only a 3 seed in the Tourney and they had never won an NCAA Tourney game up to that point.
That team had a point guard who could defend and distribute but couldn’t shoot (Debbie Baer), a great three-point shooter albeit with a very slow release (Wendy Davis), an undersized forward who was a warrior on the boards (Meghyn Pattyson) , an undersized center who was asked to do it all – and usually did (Kerry Bascomb), a “sixth man” who was an Israeli national and averaged 20 minutes a game in her only season at UConn before playing professionally in Israel, and one of the smartest and most versatile athletes ever to hail from the Nutmeg State (Laura Lishness).
Synergy is an overused word, but this team had it. And Geno made the most of it.

I can't figure how you feel Kerry Bascomb wouldn't start on any of their recent NC teams. She was a remarkable player and she, even more so than Rebecca Lobo, is the reason UConn is the face of women's basketball. She carried UConn to that Final Four that gave the women's program credibility. That 1991 team changed the way UConn was viewed by everyone. Rebecca assuredly wouldn't have attended UConn had they not had the notoriety that that 1991 team provided. For her to be dismissed as not good enough to start on any of the recent NC teams shows absolutely no respect for how much she contributed to the UConn legacy. She was UConn's first superstar and was at least as accomplished as Rebecca was. Lobo had a much better supporting cast than did Kerry and if you swapped Kerry for Lobo on that 1995 squad, there's no doubt in my mind we would have had the same outcome. A national title.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Buzzyboy- - I agree Kerry was a great player and excelled at all aspects of the game! She became a leader the minute she stepped on campus!

 

[ocoandasoc]

I didn't say Kerry wasn't a great player. She was. And it was the 91 team that put UConn on the map.

But here's the starting lineup for the last UConn NC team: Dolson, Hartley, Jefferson, Mosqueda-Lewis, and Stewart.

Tell me who sits if Kerry starts.

 

[Buzzyboy]

I didn't say Kerry wasn't a great player. She was. And it was the 91 team that put UConn on the map.

But here's the starting lineup for the last UConn NC team: Dolson, Hartley, Jefferson, Mosqueda-Lewis, and Stewart.

Tell me who sits if Kerry starts.

She would get starter minutes on this team. She was a more talented player than Hartley and Dolson though she really isn't the absolute best replacement for either of them. She's obviously not a guard and with the size of players today, you'd probably prefer not to play her at the center position. She's probably a cross between a small forward and a power forward. She played the game in a very similar fashion (based on what I've heard, since I wasn't really following UConn at the time) to Maya Moore and Geno totally revers her. She's probably closest to KML though I think she may have been a little more of an inside player than KML is. She was a monster and as I've said, she'd be on the court in crunch time on this time that you've noted.

 

[01Neaggrad02]

Hard to say.. 95 was the season that push Geno to that national stage and he has rarely looked back since.. so that is huge.
2000 one loss, a one point game which some believe was because of a non-call at the end of the game... but whatever.... but this was the title where UCONN SCHOOLED Tennessee and made them look silly.
2002 is one of the best of all time...
2003, a single loss with no seniors?

2014 injures to KML and Tuck.... Banks back from ALC tear but not back to her normal self. This was a 6 person rotation towards the end of the season... Overly impressive... and there were games when the bench was only one or two people. I was always concerned about the lack of depth... and to go undefeated and winning the games by double digits.. if I am not mistaken not a single game was within 10. I think Baylor was the closest at 11... I will have to go back and check...

These are all huge!!!