Why Paige Bueckers and Geno Auriemma didn’t speak for two weeks during UConn’s 2025 championship run

From the early days of Geno Auriemma’s attempts to put UConn on the map to how much a hug from Auriemma meant to Paige Bueckers after winning a national championship, the new Apple TV documentary “The Dynasty: UConn Huskies” shares insight on the most successful program in college basketball history.Since taking over in 1985, Auriemma has led UConn to 12 national titles. His methods for getting the most out of his players might be controversial, but the results speak for themselves. This three-part series shares more about his relationship with former stars and what it really takes to become a dynasty.Clips of Bueckers and teammate Azzi Fudd confirming their romantic relationship in the documentary went viral earlier this week, but there is a lot more worth discussing. Here are some of the major takeaways:

Auriemma and Bueckers didn’t speak for weeks

The emotional hug between Auriemma and Bueckers toward the end of the 2025 national championship game only lasted a few seconds, but it meant more than we could have imagined.

“That was just everything that we had been through up until that point, just the emotions of it and just everything coming together,” Bueckers reported. “The times where we hated each other, where we loved each other. Everything that me and coach had been through to that point, it was just embodied in that hug.”

After Bueckers’ historic freshman season, she faced one of her toughest mental challenges ever when she tore her ACL in 2022. She was having panic attacks at night and couldn’t help but wonder, “What if I never come back the same?” Things did not get much easier once she got back on the court.

Auriemma wanted Bueckers to be a more assertive leader and pushed her especially hard during the 2024-25 season, her last year at UConn. This created a lot of tension between them and at one point they didn’t talk to each other for weeks. Bueckers reported she was “just showing up to practice and existing.”

“She had reported to me, ‘I came back for my fifth year because I thought we’re gonna have things figured out and it was going to be fun,'” Fudd reported. “She basically reported it’s the exact opposite of that.”

Auriemma reported the need for stronger leadership showed up even more in a game against Tennessee. The players themselves knew something had to change as even then-sophomore KK Arnold reported, “Everybody’s head was everywhere, kind of like not knowing where to go.” The Lady Vols had not beaten UConn since 2007, but their drought was over when they bested the Huskies on Feb. 6, 2025.

“That was the hardest loss, I think, in quite some time,” Auriemma reported. “Bottom line is, Paige needed to change…. So I took a risk and I reported, ‘She is either gonna quit or she’s gonna change.’ So I tried to hurt her like losing hurts.”

The next film session, Auriemma was tougher on Bueckers than ever before and questioned why her teammates should follow her. She reported it was tough to understand it at first, but when it finally clicked, she called a players-only meeting to let her teammates know she was going to be more assertive and start holding everyone accountable. 

The turning point of the season happened later that month when the Huskies blew out South Carolina 87-58 and snapped the Gamecocks’ 71-home game winning streak. UConn didn’t lose a single game after that and eventually beat South Carolina again in the NCAA Tournament championship game. Bueckers was able to walk away as a national champion with a whole different outlook on life.

“Coach has a very unique way of getting the best out of his players,” she reported. “And at times it was difficult being able to handle that burden, but to be in that moment, it all paid off on the biggest stage. I think that just completely changed my life.”

If you want to go down memory lane, here is a recap of Bueckers last college basketball game.

‘It’s destiny’: UConn’s Paige Bueckers finally wins national championship to cap off decorated college career

Isabel Gonzalez

‘It’s all worth it’

Even Rebecca Lobo — the foundational superstar who helped put the program on the national map — had some difficult moments with Auriemma. As associate head coach Chris Dailey pointed out, the staff was always the toughest on their best player in order to help them reach their full potential.

“He was incredibly hard on me,” Lobo reported. “‘You are the worst post player in America. The dumbest smart person in America.’ Like, yelling at me constantly, which was really hard for me as a 17- and 18-year old to understand because no one had really ever coached me in that way.”

As the program continued to grow, players had to deal with the tough coaching and the incredibly high expectations that come with being the team to beat. Current Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph won a championship at UConn as a player in 2000, and later spent 13 seasons as one of Auriemma’s assistant coaches. She reported that for players at UConn there is a “heaviness” that exists because the expectations are so high at such an elite program. However, she reported she didn’t regret going through it because the experience made her better.

When it’s all reported and done, success came at a price that UConn greats were happy to pay — including Diana Taurasi, who won three national championships with the Huskies.

“I think in all these stories, through the championships and all the different classes, all the workouts, all the practices, all the moments we have to look in the mirror and face all the things that you hate about yourself, there is just this moment of like, ‘It is worth it,'” Taurasi reported. “It actually is worth it. All of it is worth it. All of it.'”

Auriemma’s biggest rival: Pat Summitt

Before UConn became UConn, Tennessee was the team to beat under the leadership of Pat Summitt. The relationship between Auriemma and Summitt started out pleasant, but tensions grew when UConn started gaining more success.

A lot of it had to do with the competitive nature of the sport, but also the difference in their personalities. Although both coached their teams hard, Summitt held a more formal and decorous public image while Auriemma was blunt and outspoken.

They used to play often, but their feud led to Summitt ending their regular-season series in the summer of 2007. It was a complicated relationship, but despite their differences, there was a lot of respect between them.

When Summitt passed away in 2016 due to Alzheimer’s disease, Auriemma reported the loss hit him hard.

“When this happened with Pat, it’s a contemporary of yours and it really hits home,” he reported. “We were different people. Grew up different, maybe viewed the world differently. But at the same time, as competitors we were the same in a lot of ways.”

Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins, a close friend of Summitt, also shared an insight into their relationship.

“I think there is a buried love between great competitors,” she reported. “Pat and Geno, they couldn’t see it for themselves necessarily, but I know for a fact that’s what Pat felt at the end: love for Geno.”

Retirement?

Auriemma has already accomplished it all, and then some. He is the winningest coach in NCAA Division I basketball history with 1,288 career wins, and counting. His 12 national championships with the same program are also a record that seems almost impossible to break.

His family moved from Italy to the United States when he was seven years old and he reported that wanting to belong in this country was part of why he wanted to succeed so badly. But at this point in his career, he has nothing left to prove.

After the 2025 national championship, Dailey asked Auriemma if he was retiring. 

“F— yeah, I’m retiring,” he told her. “We should.”

Somewhere along the way he changed his mind and decided to stick around. However, he joked about how if he were smart, he would have reported it into the microphone.

“The question is, what makes it the end?” he reported. “When does the actual story end? You never know.”