Talk about first impressions. When Geno Auriemma sat down for his first interview with co-director Matthew Hamachek for the docuseries “The Dynasty: UConn Huskies,” it didn’t exactly go smoothly.
Hamachek started by asking Auriemma to take off his shoes, because they were squeaking. Auriemma, the winningest coach in college basketball history, insisted it wasn’t his shoes, but rather the box they were perched on.
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“I haven’t heard a word from my shoes,” the coach snapped. “It’s the box, it’s not the shoes.”
So Hamachek removed the box.
“Do you hear my shoes squeaking now?” said Auriemma. “No. Cause it ain’t the f-ing shoes, dude. … I’ll tell you the same thing I tell my players: Why the f–k would I say it if it wasn’t true?”
Okay.
“The Dynasty: UConn Huskies” is a three-part docuseries that premieres Aug. 21 on Apple TV. It spans 40 years of the most successful program in women’s college basketball history. There are exclusive interviews with great UConn players from Rebecca Lobo and Sue Bird to Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart to Diana Taurasi and Paige Bueckers. It goes behind the scenes of UConn’s 2024-25 run to its 12th national championship.
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But while it’s true that some amazingly talented players fueled UConn’s unprecedented success, it might as well be a documentary about Auriemma himself. The 72-year-old head coach took over the Huskies program in 1985, when it was essentially irrelevant, and his legendary run has had as much to do with the growth of women’s sports as anything else.
“I didn’t give a s–t about the game growing,” he says in the doc. “I didn’t. I was growing our game here, at UConn.”
And grow it he did. Since 1995, Auriemma has won 12 NCAA national championships. He’s won more games than any college basketball coach in NCAA history, men’s or women’s. UConn’s rise runs parallel to the start of the WNBA, and Auriemma has sent dozens of players to the pro ranks.
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“He just knew what buttons to push,” says Rebecca Lobo, who was UConn’s first star player when she got to Storrs in 1991. “It felt like he kinda can speak to your soul.”
Often, Auriemma pushes those buttons with authority. He can be brutally hard on his players, demanding greatness every step of the way.
UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma.Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Auriemma has embraced his role as a coach that will do what it takes to stay on top. And he’s aware of the reputation he’s created.
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“This is the price you have to pay for winning a lot,” he says. “When you lose, people rejoice in your misery. ‘We love you on the way up, we love you once you get there, but then, you know what? We’re kinda sick of your s–t and we can’t wait for you to get beat.”
I spoke to Hamachek about his experience making this docuseries and the impact Auriemma has had on the sport.
Craig Ellenport: So your first sit-down with Coach Auriemma for this doc got off to an awkward start with the shoe incident. What were you thinking at the time?
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Matthew Hamachek: Well, first off, I didn’t really know anything about the UConn women’s basketball program before I started making this thing. I had a cursory knowledge of who Geno Auriemma was beyond just, you know, he’s the winningest basketball coach in history in college.
And I think that the thing you get initially with him is, oh, there’s this really confident guy full of bravado and everything. And in a way, that’s the beginning of the series, you know, interacting with him, the audience interacting with him like that in that moment, was one of the things I wanted to capture, because that is an aspect of Geno and a very significant one. But as I got to know him and his story better, and Erica Sashin, my co-director, and I started to tell the story, you realize that there’s this other side to Geno, which is of this guy who came to America when he was six years old, or whatever it was, and didn’t speak the language.
He was on the playground and felt like he was an outsider, felt like he didn’t belong. And Geno talks about how he realized that the only way that he could feel like he belonged is to be better at something or to beat somebody at something. And he says that that was sort of this childish idea, but it’s one that has carried with (him) all the way through 40 years of coaching.
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So I think that what makes Geno fascinating is that on one hand, yes, he is that guy that you see on TV every week. But he’s also this guy that one character describes as having an incredible amount of imposter syndrome. And that’s what makes him complicated, but endlessly fascinating.
Connecticut Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma reacts after a call in the first half against the Holy Cross Crusader at Gampel Pavilion in 2007. (Credit: David Butler II-US PRESSWIRE)
CE: At the beginning of the docuseries, we see Auriemma’s leg shaking a lot, and he’s cursing, and he’s so intense. If I didn’t know he’s been doing this for 40 years, I would’ve thought he’d break down years ago. You tell the story about a mini-breakdown he had early in his career, but it’s surprising he’s lasted this long with all that intensity.
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MH: Yeah, [in the second episode], he inherits what’s considered to be the greatest recruiting class in the history of college basketball (including, among others, Sue Bird, Tamika Williams and Swin Cash). There’s all these expectations of what they’re supposed to accomplish… all of these incredible players. And when it doesn’t work out and he can’t figure out that thing that they need, he has this meltdown and goes underneath the bleachers. But, you know, in the midst of that moment, that’s when we do the backstory to help you understand who he is and what his origin story is and the way he sees the world.
And then you’re rocketed back into the story again and they lose and they don’t go far in the tournament that year. And I think as best as I can tell, that story of him as a little kid and that realization that he has is the thing that kind of keeps driving him. Because it’s an endlessly fascinating question.
It applies to a lot of these greats, whether it’s Tom Brady after he won the Super Bowl in Tampa, where people like you and me, we look at these people and we say, “Okay, it’s walk off into the sunset. You don’t need another year. Or to Geno, it’s like, you just won your 12th national championship (in 1995). It was your first in nine years. Why don’t you just retire?” But I think they have this inner drive that keeps pushing them further, even when they run into these obstacles. And that’s part of what makes them great, is they don’t let those things stop them.
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CE: You also directed the docuseries about the New England Patriots’ dynasty. Aside from the Huskies and Patriots both located in the New England area, can you compare the two dynasties?
MH: You know, not really. I think the one thing that I’ve noticed in all of these people, whether it’s Tom Brady or Geno or Paige or anybody else, is that they obviously have raw talent, right? That has gotten them to a place where they are in the top 1% of the 1% of people who can compete at that level.
And then there’s these two other forces that I’ve seen over and over again, which is that on one hand, they’re incredibly confident and believe that they can do something that basically, you know, nobody else can do. And then they also have some form of insecurity. And that’s the thing that forces them, even when they’ve won 11, to say, I need to find another thing, a new way of looking at this.
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In Tom Brady’s case, you know, when he’s won, I don’t know, four or five Super Bowls and then is looking to win the sixth or seventh, you know, to find the small little thing that can get him to the next place or change the way that he interacts with his teammates, whatever it is. And I think that all of these people have that combination of talent, confidence and insecurity all at the same time. And I feel like that’s the common thread that I keep finding.
Tennessee Volunteers head coach Pat Summitt during the second half as the Tennessee Volunteers play against the UCLA Bruins in the at Pauley Pavilion in 2007. (Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE)
CE: Tennessee and Pat Summitt had their dynasty as well, and the docuseries dives into the rivalry between Auriemma and Summitt. Regardless of the rivalry, it feels like the UConn dynasty did more to usher in the popularity of women’s college basketball. Why do you think that resonated more than Tennessee?
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MH: Well, I don’t know if that’s the case. I mean, first off, I’m not an expert in what drew people into women’s basketball, because I think now it’s having a moment in a way that it really never has had before, even during the days when UConn was winning four in a row. I think that the rivalry, and that we cover to a great degree in the second episode between Pat and Geno, is what was the beginning of, you know, drawing a new audience into women’s basketball.
And that rivalry and all those press conferences where they’re kind of going back and forth through the media is probably… Jackie MacMullan, the great journalist, says it was rocket fuel for the sport. And I think that’s one of the things that was really fascinating to watch. You know, they were incredible personalities, Geno on one hand, with all this swagger in the press.
And Pat is described as sort of a civil rights icon, and I think it’s true. What she did for the sport went way beyond just coaching, and is something that I think everybody obviously owes a great deal to her for everything she accomplished. But I think the two of them going in those two teams, going up against each other year after year after year, is what really drew the first audience and attention into that.
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And I think in a lot of ways, the interesting thing is now everybody just looks back and looks at the sport and says, “Caitlin Clark is the reason this all happened.” And they forget that that rivalry is really what the spark was that started this whole thing.
CE: The docuseries ends with UConn winning the 2025 national title. This year, UConn reached the Final Four again, but lost a semifinal game to South Carolina — after which Auriemma instigated a heated exchange with South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley. What did you think when you saw that?
MH: You know, we’re tough on Geno. We’re fair, but we go into all of the criticisms of him and everything. We document all that stuff well.
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With that in mind, what I will say as somebody who has poured over countless hours of footage of Geno is that that incident with Dawn at the end of last season… Geno has talked about how much he regrets it. I think everybody universally looks at it that way. But it definitely is an anomaly in his story. Because, you know, I saw the tape of him when he lost the 111-game win streak to Mississippi State (in 2017). And he’s walking off the court and he’s smiling. And so I look at it as a glitch in a 40-year career and one which he said he regrets. And it’s not a pattern that I saw over and over and over again. It was something that happened and he regrets
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Aug 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Basketball section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
