But the 12 that were named are a great combination of Olympic gold-medal experience, multiple gold medal winners and great leaders, there is also an influx of young players, which not only is going to be a great benefit to us this year, but I think it will set the stage going forward in two years for the world Championship and then in four years in Tokyo.

Geno Auriemma

Luigi "Geno" Auriemma is an Italian-born American college basketball coach and the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. He has led UConn to nine NCAA Division I national championships, and has won six national Naismith College Coach of the Year awards. Auriemma was also the head coach of the United States women's national basketball team from 2009 to 2014, during which time his teams won the 2010 and 2014 World Championships, and the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He emigrated with his family from Montella in southern Italy to Norristown, Pennsylvania, when he was seven years old, and spent the rest of his childhood there. After graduating from West Chester University of Pennsylvania in 1977, Auriemma was hired as an assistant coach at Saint Joseph's University, where he worked in 1978 and 1979. He then took a two-year absence from college basketball, serving as an assistant coach at his former high school, Bishop Kenrick, before assuming an assistant coaching position with the University of Virginia Cavaliers in 1981.

All Geno Auriemma quotes | Geno Auriemma Books