Geno Auriemma unsure if broadcasting is his post-coaching future

Sam NeumannMon, Jul 6, 2026·3 min read

Geno Auriemma already has a podcast sitting in the can, and he still isn’t sure it’s the format he wants to build a second career around.

The UConn coach will step back into a broadcast booth on July 7, calling the Wings-Liberty game in New York alongside Robin Roberts for a 30th-anniversary WNBA broadcast on ESPN, which will also double as Auriemma’s first time back in the media spotlight since an altercation with rival coach Dawn Staley during the NCAA women’s Final Four in Phoenix this past spring. Auriemma confronted Staley near the end of a loss to her South Carolina Gamecocks over a seeming disagreement over pregame handshake protocol, then doubled down in blaming Staley, before ultimately apologizing and acknowledging he had created a distraction for the sport.

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The game will feature three former Huskies — Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd from the Wings, and Breanna Stewart of the Liberty — who won a national title under him, and it reunites two broadcasters who called the league’s very first ESPN telecast together in 1997. It is also, by Auriemma’s own account, a one-off rather than a pilot for anything permanent.

Appearing on the Sports Media Richard Deitsch podcast, Auriemma was asked point blank whether he saw himself doing this for a living once he’s done coaching.

“Kind of yes, and then at the same time, very like, how much is this going to require?” Auriemma said. “If I were to do this full-time down the road, is this another full-time job? Lots of travel, like all the things I’m doing now. Are you going from stadium to stadium doing games, and is that all you want to do? You know, go and do a bunch of WNBA games or do a bunch of college women’s games?”

“I’m very curious,” he continued. “I’ve always tried to be, you know, I probably have a relationship with more NBA coaches than I do WNBA coaches, and I probably have a relationship with more men’s college basketball coaches than I do women’s college basketball coaches. So there’s a lot of things that I would love to do, but again, it’s do I want to devote that much time to it? And that’s not something that I’ve decided yet fully.”

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While he sorts that out, he’s already recording. Auriemma said the podcast he’s producing with WME has roughly a dozen episodes done, and only two guests so far have come from basketball. The rest have been people he described as having reached “a certain level of excellence,” in fields with no connection to his own, built around drawing out lessons a viewer with no interest in basketball could still use. WME is targeting a fall launch with enough episodes banked to run weekly out of the gate.

What he did commit to, though, is the part of television that scratches the same itch coaching does.

“I would like to stay in the game, or I would like to stay in the competitive aspect of it, as in, ‘Let’s make sure we have a better show than so-and-so does,'” Auriemma said. “‘Let’s make sure we’re viewed as these guys are really, really good.’ And I certainly have enough players in that particular league and seen enough games and coached enough games. So yeah, if there was ever a time that the schedule would be something that I could handle, sure, absolutely, I would love to do it.”

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