Geno Auriemma Is Insufferable

Leave it to Geno Auriemma to use the most triumphant moment of his career to prove what an insufferable jerk he is.

Auriemma’s UConn women’s basketball team won its 88th straight game Sunday, tying the record set by the UCLA men from 1971-74. And there’s no better way to celebrate than saying this at your press conference:

I just know there wouldn’t be this many people in the room if we were chasing a woman’s record. The reason everybody is having a heart attack the last four or five days is a bunch of women are threatening to break a men’s record, and everybody is all up in arms about it.

All the women are happy as hell and they can’t wait to come in here and ask questions. All the guys that loved women’s basketball are all excited, and all the miserable bastards that follow men’s basketball and don’t want us to break the record are all here because they’re pissed. That’s just the way it is.

Because we’re breaking a men’s record, we’ve got a lot of people paying attention. If we were breaking a women’s record, everybody would go, ‘Aren’t those girls nice, let’s give them two paragraphs in USA Today, you know, give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and then let’s send them back where they belong, in the kitchen.’

Not sure who is upset about UConn breaking the record, or who thinks the players belong in the kitchen. But apparently Auriemma knows some people.

In Sunday’s column, I wrote that the Huskies’ streak is more impressive than UCLA’s. Meanwhile, Mechelle Voepel of ESPN.com says that Penn State’s 109-match streak in volleyball is a better comparison to UConn’s.

In the end, Auriemma only diverted attention away from his players and away from their remarkable accomplishment and placed it on himself. He just couldn’t allow a great moment to speak for itself, instead turning it into a showcase for just how insufferable he can be.