Just over two weeks ago, the sports world ground to a palpable and immutable stop. It was like the old Road Runner cartoon where the coyote is running along at Mach 1 chasing the bird and all of a sudden the road stops. His coyote legs just keep spinning in thin air for a few seconds and then he plummets, finally landing in a giant flat splat on the ground miles below.

When I first met Geno Auriemma, he was wearing a sport coat with the lapels turned up like ear muffs and Italian loafers with no socks. It was snowing sideways in Norman, Oklahoma -- a typically atypical weather day in the middle of October, which made a gym full of high school athletes as giddy as the reigning national championship coach was confused.