HARTFORD, Conn. _ Geno Auriemma has been paying attention to what the UConn men are doing and, despite the recent struggles, he likes what he has seen from Dan Hurley's Huskies.
"I've gotten a chance to see parts, or most of a lot of the games," Auriemma told SNY's Justine Ward during the next taping of The Geno Auriemma Show. "It's a different look, It's a different mindset, it's an aggressiveness and an attitude that's reflective of who he is."
Auriemma's show, presented by UConn Health and back for its seventh season, debuts after the UConn women's game against Cincinnati and the postgame show on Wednesday night. It's the first of 10 episodes.
Hurley replaced Kevin Ollie after last season, and has been trying to get the men's team to play harder, tougher, take on his own intense personality. UConn (9-6) has lost three in a row, including the first two American Athletic Conference games, after a promising start that included a win over Syracuse in November.
"People sometimes forget, it's part of coaching, people say, 'the team is going to take on the coach's personality,' " Auriemma told Ward, "and sometimes that's true. Sometimes it's not. But in this case, I think it's true. The players on the team have embraced Dan's personality and they're responding to what he's teaching, and you can see it.
"For a new coach, that's step one and he's accomplished it in a hurry."
Hurley has watched some of Auriemma's practices, as coaches often visit one another and trade notes. Auriemma, 64, sees a lot of his younger self in Hurley, 46, who has displayed a relentlessness on the sidelines.
"I would want to be a lot like Danny Hurley," Auriemma said. "I used to be a lot like that when I was his age. He's a reminder, don't ever lose that aspect of it. I can't do what he does, because my body wouldn't hold up. But he's really reminded me, every time I see him work, that this is an emotional game, and you've got to put a lot of that emotion in it. ... You have to maintain that fighter in you."
The second episode of The Geno Auriemma Show is scheduled to air Jan. 16.
