"Leave It All On The Floor"

UConn Head Coach Geno Auriemma
 "Give me everything you got!"



 Top-ranked Connecticut's record 90-game winning streak in women's basketball ended Thursday night when Stanford (No. 8 ESPN/USA Today, No. 9 AP) outplayed the Huskies from the start in a 71-59 victory at Maples Pavilion.

"At some point reality had to set in, and today reality set in," Auriemma said. "I'm not destroyed about it. Winning that many games in a row, it's unheard of."

Geno Auriemma is a class act all the way around. He knows how to win with dignity and also knows how to lose with it. During this whole process he was even tempered. He never got too high on his team and continued to demand excellence when he knew that  99% of the time his team was light years better than their competition. They weren't playing the competition, they were playing against their potential. If you're better than everyone else you have to find a way to compete even when the other team can't. Geno has done an unbelievable job of doing that.

It's like running track and naturally being faster than everyone out there. What do you learn to do? Race against the clock and not the other runners. The Lady Huskies have done that and that has made them more than just great basketball players but instead it will make them great people.They now have an understanding of what success truly is.

 How do we define it? Well in my opinion success is all relative. Everyone’s potential is different. We all have been given a base line portion of talent. Now it’s up the each of us to take that base line and maximize it. So depending on where you start and where you eventually end up should determine your level of success. For example, a person that starts with a high base line and only moves it minimally in my opinion has failed miserably. Doesn't matter that he becomes an area supervisor, makes a six figure salary, lives in a six bedroom home and drives a luxury vehicle; if we’re looking at this from a monetary standpoint. Success is taking your base line and moving it further than expected.

 Let's say a person should happen to start with a very low baseline. For example, if they had trouble learning or wasn’t very intelligent. The expectation for them to do anything with their life would be low. Then somehow they find a way to move that baseline very high for their perceived potential. Even if that only means making thirty thousand dollars a year and just being able to buy a simple home. In my opinion, that person has become far more successful than the person that started with a higher baseline that lives in the six bedroom home. The guy that was very smart or overly talented could’ve easily become a corporate CEO, living in a mansion and made millions of dollars. Success is all relative and we can’t be so quick to compare our lives(teams) to others.

By making the Lady Huskies maximize their potential, Geno Auriemma has been able to give those players the lesson of a lifetime. Don't compare your life to others because you'll cheat yourself out of a championship. What's your opinion? 

Jay Graves

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.