“When you’re a dinosaur, you can say whatever you want”: When Geno Auriemma and Kim Mulkey boasted value of unparalleled experience

Kim Mulkey and Geno Auriemma have watched the rapid ascent of women’s basketball in recent seasons. This can partly be credited to the value of extensive experience, particularly from two of the most influential coaches in college women’s basketball.

During the Aspen Ideas Festival on June 27 this year, MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle spoke with women’s basketball head coaches Kim Mulkey of Louisiana State University and Geno Auriemma of the University of Connecticut.

The veteran coaches of the Tigers and the Huskies reflected on the struggles over the years that led to NCAA women’s basketball achieving record viewership in 2024, following a long period of striving to attract an audience.

The panel, titled The Tipping Point: How Women’s NCAA Basketball Captured the Nation’s Attention, featured Mulkey and Auriemma, who have each been involved in women’s college basketball for decades:

"He’s seen a hell of a lot more than I have now. I’ve played the game a long time and have witnessed a lot, but you’re looking at two dinosaurs here really," Mulkey joked. (36:48-37:42).

Auriemma added:

"You know, when you are a dinosaur, you can say whatever you want to say ‘coz you really don’t care what the blowback is gonna be, ‘coz you’ve already been hit so many times with so many different things that you get to a point where, like, you know, I’m gonna say it—I’m the messenger. You don’t like it? It’s your problem, not mine."

Women’s college basketball viewership has surged and Geno Auriemma saw it coming

Kim Mulkey and Geno Auriemma, two of the sport’s most iconic coaches, have seven undefeated seasons and multiple national championships. Despite their decades of influence, the surge in women’s college basketball viewership has been a recent phenomenon.

Mulkey and her LSU Tigers have played a significant role in this growth, led by stars Angel Reese, Hailey Van Lith, Aneesah Morrow, and Flau’jae Johnson. LSU’s 2023 national championship game against Iowa drew a record-breaking 9.9 million viewers, the largest audience in NCAA women’s basketball history at the time.

The Elite Eight rematch between Reese’s LSU and Caitlin Clark’s Iowa surpassed that mark with over 12 million viewers, placing both games among the 10 most-watched college basketball games ever.

Geno Auriemma, however, saw this coming. In April 2023, the legendary UConn coach predicted that if his star guard Paige Bueckers faced off against Clark in the 2024 title game, the matchup would set viewership records.

"Next year, if it's those two in the final, it won't be six million, it'll be 10 million," Auriemma said.

"Before the women's World Cup Final in the Rose Bowl, how many people in America thought that that was something that was going to be must-see TV? How about nobody? Look what one tournament did to galvanize the entire country behind women's soccer. So it takes a moment like that, a tournament like that," he added.

Geno Auriemma’s prediction came true. Iowa’s Final Four win over UConn in 2024 drew 14.43 million viewers, peaking at 17 million, breaking ESPN’s viewership records.

The Huskies have consistently boosted viewership as well. USC’s 72-70 victory over UConn on December 21 attracted 2.2 million viewers on FOX, while UConn’s December 12 loss to Notre Dame averaged 847,000 viewers, peaking at 915,000.

In April 2024, women’s basketball made history when the NCAA national championship between South Carolina and Iowa drew 18.9 million viewers, far outpacing the men’s title game between Connecticut and Purdue, which had 14.8 million viewers.