Wooden He Be Happy

"I always thought the repetitiveness of what they did, the fact that they looked the same and played the same every year, was admirable." - Geno Auriemma, women's basketball coach of NCAA-record Connecticut Huskies with longest consecutive game winning streak

"No matter what the game, we have a focus. If they're really good as shooting threes, we don't want them to get those off... it's always about the little things, about being as good as you can be on every possession. It's not about the score." - Maya Moore, star senior Connecticut player

"The Huskies almost always play with intensity and fundamental soundness. Everybody flashes to the ball, so they rarely get trapped. They play man-to-man defense but double-team and help so energetically that they appear to be playing a matchup zone. They box out so forcefully that opponents' misfires sometimes hit the court, and all of them hit the floor in pursuit of loose balls, after which they rush to help each other up with an urgency that suggests firemen getting victims out of a burning building. They even have a system to help bench players keep their heads in the game. Every season one reserve is charged with springing up and high-fiving the rest of the team after a made three-pointer."

Auriemma was talking about UCLA coach John Wooden's teams, who hold the men's record with 88 consecutive wins. It looks like he's built a pretty admirable program himself!