“That team was unbelievable”: When Geno Auriemma and Diana Taurasi recalled 2016 Olympics’ Team USA and Breanna Stewart’s meteoric rise since

In the long list of legends who began their basketball careers at UConn, Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart would top the list. The two players won multiple championships with the Huskies and went on to perform exceptionally in their professional careers.

Apart from the WNBA, UConn alumni have left their mark on national pursuits, representing Team USA at the Olympics and FIBA games. Huskies coach Geno Auriemma, Taurasi and Stewart were part of the 2016 Rio Olympics roster when the U.S. won its sixth consecutive gold medal.

Talking about this during an Instagram live in May 2020, Auriemma said (55:47):

"That team was unbelievable because the further we went down the bench, the closer we were getting to Stewie (Stewart)."

"I know it's unbelievable, unbelievable," Taurasi said. "(It is a) scratch to surface (on) how good she is now and is gonna be."

Breanna Stewart graduated from UConn in 2016 and was picked No. 1 by the Seattle Storm. A few months later, she made her Olympics debut, and since the Rio games, Stewart has won three WNBA championships, two WNBA MVP awards and was the WNBA Rookie of the Year. With Team USA, Stewart won two more gold medals in Tokyo (2020) and Paris (2024).

Geno Auriemma once expressed anger at Breanna Stewart's attitude

Although Breanna Stewart is known to be one of the best players in the WNBA, her beginnings at UConn were rough. Like Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, Stewart was a hard-nosed player who only acted in the way she thought was right. This often put her at odds with the Huskies coaching staff.

After winning the NCAA championship as a freshman, Geno Auriemma and his staff had a tough time making Stewart listen to this. In an interview with SNY from November 2013, Auriemma and his staff were in a meeting when he said:

"Stewie doesn't listen to anything anybody says."

The clip then showed UConn associate coach Chris Dailey in practice with Stewart and other players.

"She's doing the same thing as last year," Dailey said. "She's trying to do it her way, and when she tried to do it her way last year, she struggled all that time until she started trying to do it our way."

Despite the initial friction, Breanna Stewart and Geno Auriemma went on to have the most successful run in women's basketball as they added three more consecutive championships. UConn still remains the only women's program with four straight NCAA championships.