Geno Auriemma teared up after UConn survived a double-OT thriller to advance to its 14th-straight Final Four
- Geno Auriemma was overcome with emotion after UConn's double-OT Elite Eight victory.
- The Huskies head coach cried while speaking with ESPN's Holly Rowe after the win over NC State.
Geno Auriemma and his UConn Huskies are headed to their 14th straight Final Four.
And after his team survived a double-overtime Elite Eight thriller against the top-seeded NC State Wolfpack, following a season filled with injuries and uncharacteristic losses, the Hall of Fame head coach couldn't help but break down and cry.
In his on-court interview with ESPN's Holly Rowe, Auriemma wiped away his tears, shook his head in disbelief, and explained that "it's just been that kind of a year."
"When you're younger you think, 'I got a million of these left in me,'" he said. "You get to a certain age, then, when you go, 'I don't know how many of these I have left.' You don't know how many opportunities you're gonna get to be in this game."
"It means more," Auriemma added. "It means more because each time you do it, there's a new set of kids that have never been there, and they came to Connecticut for a chance to play in a Final Four. And it's just this overwhelming responsibility that you have to get them a chance. And we did. We did."
And they did in spectacular fashion. Despite missing 19 games during the regular season due to an injury and having yet to return to full strength, UConn superstar Paige Bueckers exploded for 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor to carry her Huskies to victory.
The sophomore point guard netted 23 of those game-high 27 points after halftime, with a whopping 15 coming over the two five-minute overtime periods.
"Thank God Paige [Bueckers] came back," Auriemma said. "She just gives everybody so much confidence and then everybody just ... took turns making plays."
Though UConn looked to be pulling away in the first half, NC State closed the gap with a massive third-quarter run and forced overtime after a neck-and-neck final stretch of regulation. Once again, when the Huskies looked to have victory in hand as the clock wound down in the first overtime period, Wolfpack star Jakia Brown-Turner drained a last-second three-pointer from the corner to buy an extra five minutes for Wes Moore's squad.
UConn closed it out from there, with senior guard Christyn Williams making two layups in the final 20 seconds to ice the game. She finished with 21 points on the night, and freshman Azzi Fudd added 19.
"It was just an amazing basketball game," Auriemma said. "It really was a great showcase for our sport."
"Like I told Wes [Moore] after the game — I wish we both could go," he added. "They had the game won in regulation probably. We had it won twice, and they just — they made us work for it."
Auriemma and company will now head to the Final Four in Minneapolis, Minn., to face the reigning-champion Stanford Cardinal in the national semifinal. Should the Huskies win, they'll advance to their first championship game since winning the title in 2016.
Check out the full video of Auriemma's emotional postgame interview with Rowe below: