UConn’s Geno Auriemma Says Some Coaches Are ‘Afraid’ Of Their Players

Just hours before his team was set to compete in the Women’s Final Four, University of Connecticut Women’s Basketball coach Geno Auriemma suggested some coaches are “afraid” of upsetting their players, according to ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel, in fear of the potential repercussions.

Auriemma accused a number of people of breeding such a culture in college athletics.

“The NCAA, the athletic directors and society has made (coaches) afraid of their players,” he said in a teleconference featuring the Final Four coaches Tuesday. “Every article you read: ‘This guy’s a bully. This woman’s a bully. This guy went over the line. This woman was inappropriate.'”

But the players, he says, get off “scot-free.”

“They can do whatever they want. They don’t like something you say to them, they transfer. Coaches, they have to coach with one hand behind their back.”

Why?

“Because some people have abused the role of a coach,” he said.

The issue of abuse in college athletics has been in the spotlight in recent years, with numerous coaches facing repercussions for alleged inappropriate or abusive behavior with their team. The most recent incident involves North Carolina Tar Heels’ Sylvia Hatchell and her staff, who were put on administrative leave Tuesday pending an independent investigation for “issues raised by student-athletes and others,” according to a news release from the school.

The line between passion and abuse can be hard to distinguish, Auriemma said, opening coaches up to additional criticism. The UConn Huskies coach doesn’t think coaches should have to care what anyone thinks about his actions besides the players he’s coaching.

Auriemma pointed to an incident on March 21 during which Michigan State Men’s Basketball coach Tom Izzo and freshman forward Aaron Henry got into a heated argument on the sidelines, claiming Izzo’s players “loved” how the coach handled the encounter. 

“If his players all transferred, if his players all quit on him, then he went over the line,” Auriemma said. “If his players play really hard for him, they keep winning, they love him, they keep coming back to the program, then that’s passion.”

The Final Four coaches agreed that tone is more important now than ever. As generations have grown less tolerant of poor treatment, they said, coaches have had to make some adjustments to their coaching style.

But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw.

“(B)ack in the day, coaches could pretty much do anything, say anything. Nobody really complained,” he said. “Now (players) know better. They’re demanding to be treated better.”

But kids are going to get yelled at, McGraw said. “They need to be able to take a little bit of that.”

Despite this, Auriemma finds it “disconcerting” that more and more coaches are being told that their coaching style is inappropriate. In the end, he said, “Everybody’s got to coach to their personality.”