UConn coach Geno Auriemma breaks NCAA wins record, getting 1,217th career victory

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Geno Auriemma soaked in the moment. UConn's Hall of Fame coach now stands alone atop the NCAA basketball wins list.

Auriemma broke a tie with former Stanford women's coach Tara VanDerveer, earning his 1,217th career victory with an 85-41 win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday night.

“We never sat down and said hey, let's make a 40-year plan and see if we can make this happen," Auriemma said. “It's about coming here every day and trying to be better than we were yesterday.”

He has spent four decades building UConn into the standard for women’s college basketball. The school celebrated those 40 years Wednesday night.

“I know it means a lot to a lot of people here at UConn that worked really, really hard to make it possible,” Auriemma said. “You saw all the players here, means a lot to them. Every single person that had a hand in all this, means a lot to them to be a part of it, want to share in it. I'm sure when the season's over I'll be able to look back on it and think about it.”

Surrounded by the greatest players in UConn history, including Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Rebecca Lobo, Auriemma and longtime assistant Chris Dailey took in the incredible achievement in a postgame ceremony.

“It's not very often in life you get to experience something that's never been done before and that you get to experience something that will never be done again,” Lobo said.

More than 60 alums of the program were in attendance. Nearly two dozen of them played in the WNBA. The former UConn players were part of the record 11 national championships that the school has won. UConn has reached the Final Four 23 times, including in 15 of the past 16 seasons.

Before the game, the school presented the pair with ruby colored glass basketballs in honor of their 40 years at UConn. It was a day of celebrations for Auriemma and Dailey. There was a petting zoo with, fittingly, goats across from the arena as well as ice cream from the famous UConn Dairy Barn. They created a flavor “Legend-Berry Legacy” in honor of the two coaches.

The ceremony ended with a goat coming out on the red carpet and Auriemma taking a photo with it. He later said that he scratched himself while petting it.

Auriemma and Dailey received ladders from Nike and Connecticut governor Ned Lamont presented a sign that said “Welcome to Connecticut, home of the winningest coach in basketball history.”

His current team presented Auriemma with a framed jersey with the number 1,217 on it. The student section, during the final minute of the game, held up cards that spelled out 1,217.

“He gives credit to everybody around him, and he doesn’t really take it for himself,” Huskies star Paige Bueckers said. “But what he’s built here, it’s here because of him, so he definitely downplays it. He doesn’t want to do the whole thing: the celebration, the goats, the ice cream, it’s all extra to him. But he deserves it, and we want to celebrate him, because he doesn’t celebrate himself a lot. So everyone around him will make sure they do that job.”

Auriemma began his journey with UConn in 1985 and currently is 1,217-162 in his career. He has only had one losing season in his career — his first one with the Huskies. Before he came to the school from Virginia, the program had only one winning season.

VanDerveer offered her congratulations to Auriemma after the game.

“This is yet another outstanding milestone in a career filled with them for Geno Auriemma. The level of success he has maintained at UConn over four decades will never be duplicated,” she said in a statement. “But his tremendous legacy extends far beyond any number of wins. It lives in the lives of the countless young women he has positively influenced throughout his career. Congratulations to Geno and Chris on this incredible accomplishment.”

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Former UConn player Maya Moore Irons addresses the audience and UConn head coach Geno Auriemma during a post game ceremony for the most wins in college basketball history, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma poses for a photograph with his players past and present and coaches as he is honored for the most wins in college basketball history, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma smiles as he is honored for the most wins in college basketball history, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, center, stands with associate head coach Chris Dailey, left, and former players Diana Taurasi, second from left, and Maya Moore Irons, right, after defeating Fairleigh Dickinson to surpass Tara VanDerveer for the most wins in college basketball history, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma poses for a photograph with his players past and present and coaches as he is honored for the most wins in college basketball history, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma holds a jersey presented to him by players Paige Bueckers, left, Caroline Ducharme, and Azzi Fudd, right, as he is honored for the most wins in college basketball history, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma reacts as former player Diana Taurasi speaks as he is honored for the most wins in college basketball history, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea and Russia reached a new agreement for expanding economic cooperation following high-level talks in Pyongyang this week, the North’s state media said Thursday, as they continue to align in the face of their confrontations with Washington.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency didn’t elaborate on the details of the agreement signed Wednesday between its senior trade officials and a Russian delegation led by Alexandr Kozlov, the country’s minister of natural resources and ecology. The Russian news agency Tass on Tuesday said officials following an earlier round of talks agreed to increase the number of charter flights between the countries to promote tourism.

Kozlov, who arrived in North Korea on Sunday, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his top economic official, Premier Kim Tok Hun, before returning home on Wednesday, KCNA said. During Kozlov’s visit, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s gifted Pyongyang’s Central Zoo with more than 70 animals, including lions, bears and several species of birds, according to Tass, in another display of the countries’ growing ties.

Kim Jong Un in recent months has prioritized relations with Moscow as he attempts to break out of international isolation and strengthen his footing, actively supporting Putin’s war on Ukraine while portraying the North as a player in a united front against Washington.

Kim has yet to directly acknowledge that he has been providing military equipment and troops to Russia to support its fighting against Ukraine. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Wednesday that an estimated 11,000 North Korean soldiers in late October were moved to Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops seized parts of its territory this year, following their training in Russia’s northeast.

The spy agency believes the North Korean soldiers were assigned to Russia’s marine and airborne forces units and some of them have already begun fighting alongside the Russians on the frontlines, said Lee Seong Kweun, a lawmaker who attended the meeting. U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian officials have claimed that the North has also been supplying Russia with artillery systems, missiles and other equipment.

North Korea would be possibly getting anywhere between $320 million to $1.3 billion annually from Russia for sending its troops to Ukraine, considering the scale of the dispatch and the level of payments Russia has been providing to foreign mercenaries, according to a recent study by Lim Soo-ho, a South Korean analyst at an NIS-run think tank.

While that would be meaningful income for North Korea’s crippled and heavily sanctioned economy, it could be lower than the money the North earns from illicit coal exports or supplying military equipment to Russia, Lim said. This suggests that North Korea’s troop dispatch is less about money than acquiring key Russian technologies to further advance its nuclear weapons and missile program, which is a major concern in Seoul, Lim said.

Amid the stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations with Washington, Kim has been dialing up pressure on South Korea, abandoning his country’s long-standing goal of inter-Korean reconciliation and verbally threatening to attack the South with nukes if provoked. He has used Russia’s war on Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate the development of his nuclear-armed military, which now has various nuclear-capable systems targeting South Korea and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can potentially reach the U.S. mainland.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un pose for a photo during a signing ceremony of the new partnership in Pyongyang, North Korea, on June 19, 2024. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Russia's natural resources minister Alexander Kozlov, right, is greeted by Yun Jong Ho, minister of External Economic Relations, as the Russian delegation leave Pyongyang Airport in Pyongyang, on Nov. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File)