UConn's Auriemma and South Dakota State's Johnston have been in it for the long haul

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UConn's Auriemma and South Dakota State's Johnston have been in it for the long haul

2025-03-22 05:51 Last Updated At：06:01

STORRS, Conn. -- (AP) — There were no thoughts of winning national championships or making annual trips to the Final Four when Geno Auriemma left his job as an assistant coach at Virginia to take over a UConn women's basketball program that had a 27-56 record in the previous three seasons.

Fourteen years later, Aaron Johnston took over a South Dakota State team that was still playing at the Division II level.

Now, they are together at the NCAA Division I women's basketball subregional hosted by UConn.

They are two of the seven women's Division I head coaches in the same role as the year that Johnston was hired. If coaching experience counts for anything, perhaps the Huskies and Jackrabbits will both come away with wins in the first round on Saturday. UConn plays Arkansas State on Saturday followed by the matchup between Oklahoma State and South Dakota State.

“There certainly aren’t a lot of us left, right?” said Auriemma, the NCAA women's basketball all-time leader with 1,244 career victories and 11 national titles. "I guess we missed the note on the portal. We have to find out if there’s a portal for coaches.

“I’m sure when he started and when I started, once you find a place that’s comfortable and they like you, you like them and you have some success, you reach a point where there is nowhere to go. There is nowhere to go because you don’t want to.”

With All-American guard Paige Bueckers leading the way, the only place Auriemma is looking to go is to the Final Four in Tampa.

South Dakota State is in the tournament for the 13th time in the last 17 seasons. Johnston could have moved onto a bigger program but he has found a home with the Jackrabbits.

“There are a lot of things that go into these things, at least for us,” Johnston said. “It is not always specifically the job or what the next job is. There are a lot of things on the court and off the court that are important. South Dakota State has been a great place to be for my family and our extended families. Watching our team compete, there have been so many really great players. We just haven't had players in the transfer portal very often so it is just a place where we all try to figure out what's best for us and gives us the most joy. South Dakota State has been a great home for me but also the players over the years.”

Wynter Rogers couldn’t help but laugh when asked about any home visits from the Arkansas State women’s basketball coach when she landed in the transfer portal following her freshman season at West Virginia.

The Red Wolves head coach is none other than her older sister Destinee. No there was no drawn-out recruiting process to navigate. Wynter knew that nobody could get more out of her than the person who inspired her to become a basketball player.

“She is just a winner and I just wanted to play for her,” Wynter Rogers said. “I would say our relationship has gotten closer and closer. She is such a great coach. She has always pulled the best out of us and pushed us to be the best version of ourselves on and off the court.”

Destinee Rogers is 13 years older than Wynter. Little did they know during their days growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas that they would make history by becoming the first set of siblings to be head coach and star player in more than 40 years.

“This is a moment that we’ve talked about since she decided to come to Arkansas State,” Destinee Rogers said. “When she entered the transfer portal, immediately she said, I want to come play for you, and I want to help you win a championship.

“When we got an opportunity to raise that (Sun Belt tournament) trophy together and embrace each other and cry together, it just made it all worthwhile.”

Redshirt senior forward Aubrey Griffin had to wait until Jan. 19 to make her season debut for UConn. With three double-digit scoring games, she finally looked to get some good news in an injury-plagued career.

However, some pain in her knee resulted in Griffin missing the Big East tournament. Griffin was back on the court at Friday's practice and could play in the Huskies' NCAA tournament opener.

“It has been a little better than a couple of weeks ago,” said Griffin, who averaged 5.5 points and 3.9 rebounds in 11 games this season. "The season has been a roller coaster but I am grateful to still be playing. I am taking it day by day and soaking it in.

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Swollen rivers are flooding towns in the US South after a prolonged deluge of rain

2025-04-07 23:16 Last Updated At：23:21

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels Monday and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.

Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.

“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital along the swollen Kentucky River.

She said that as each new wave of rain arrived over the weekend, anxious residents hoped for a reprieve so they could just figure out how bad things would get. She and friends packed up her salon gear, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and took it to a nearby tap house up the hill.

“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.

Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest Monday.

Ashley Welsh and her husband and four children had to quickly depart their Frankfort home along the river Saturday evening, leaving a lifetime of belongings later submerged by floodwaters.

When she awoke to water coming into their house early Saturday, Welsh woke everyone up and they packed their truck. They alerted guests to leave an Airbnb they own down the road, packed up the Airbnb and then helped her sister, who lives next to the Airbnb, evacuate. After they took a short nap at their house, the water had risen.

“By the time we woke up, there was already three feet of water that we had to wade through to get out,” she said.

They packed a suitcase and escaped from the rising water and went to a local hotel. One daughter carried two cats through water to safety and their black Labrador dog had to swim, as they stayed close to make sure no one got swept away.

The water rose up to their second floor. By Sunday morning, she checked her house's cameras.

“My stuff was floating around in the living room. I was just heartbroken. Our life is up there,” Welsh said.

The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

The Kentucky River was cresting at Frankfort Lock at 48.27 feet (14.71 meters) on Monday morning, just shy of the record of 48.5 feet (14.78 meters) set there on Dec. 10, 1978, according to CJ Padgett, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Louisville, Kentucky, office. While other areas are in major flood stage, the forecasted crest for this location is closest to its record.

Carroll County Deputy Judge-Executive Michael Humphrey in Kentucky has ordered mandatory evacuations in some places, warning that a “significant flooding event of which history has never seen” is expected.

More than 100 structures were destroyed in McNairy County, Tennessee, where a tornado tore through the town of Selmer with winds estimated up to 160 mph (257 kph), local emergency management officials said. State officials have confirmed five people were killed by the severe weather in the county of roughly 26,100 residents.

The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.

Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.

Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.

“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi and Jonathan Mattise, in Nashville, Tennessee; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.