Neag School alumna and UConn women’s basketball associate head coach Chris Dailey is featured.

UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey will coach the Huskies for the first time since 2019 for Sunday’s first-round NCAA Tournament game against High Point after it was announced Monday that head coach Geno Auriemma has to quarantine for 10 days due to a positive COVID-19 test. It’s not the first time she’s coached the Huskies in Auriemma’s absence.

For the last 34 seasons, Chris Dailey has worked closely with Geno Auriemma to build UConn women’s basketball into the dynasty it is today. Together, they’ve won over 1,000 games, 51 conference championships, and 11 national titles. But Dailey does have one trophy that Auriemma can’t claim: a 1982 AIAW championship with the Rutgers Lady Knights. The AIAW was the predecessor to the NCAA for women’s sports and that year was the first time the NCAA sponsored a women’s basketball championship. So it was the last year of the AIAW Tournament.

As part of her Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame acceptance speech Saturday night, UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey joked that coach Geno Auriemma sometimes accuses her of alerting referees to his use of foul language, thereby creating the possibility that he’ll get ejected so she can run the team. Not true, Dailey said. Also not true: “A lot of people think my full-time job is holding him back [on the sideline],” she said.

Chris Dailey, the conscience of the nation’s model college athletic program — UConn women’s basketball — will accept the Margo Dydek Award on Tuesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena, when the Sun play old friends Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart and Seattle

The Connecticut Sun will honor UConn women’s basketball associate head coach Chris Dailey with the Margo Dydek Award as its 2017 Woman of Inspiration on August 8th when Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird and the Seattle Storm return to Mohegan Sun Arena.