HARTFORD, Conn. >> One of the first decisions Geno Auriemma made after he started as UConn women’s basketball coach in 1985 was hiring Chris Dailey to his staff. After winning his 1,200th career game on Wednesday night, he knows hitting a home run with that decision has helped define his ever-growing legacy.

“I knew very, very early, before we played our first game or I even had the job yet that if she would agree to come here and coach with me and us, we could be good,” Auriemma said after the 67-34 win over Seton Hall. “Obviously nobody envisioned this, but that decision I think made every other decision possible. … By getting that one right, we set ourselves for something like this to happen.”

Dailey has been Auriemma’s other half for all 39 seasons at UConn, three as an assistant and the last 36 as associate head coach. In fact, several of Auriemma’s 1,200 wins are technically Dailey’s: She has led the team to 17 victories when serving as head coach in his absence. Her perfect record includes wins in the 1989 and 1997 Big East Tournament championship games and in the first two rounds of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

Only two other coaches in college basketball history have surpassed 1,200 wins, Stanford women’s coach Tara Vanderveer (1,206) and former Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski (1,202). Auriemma and Dailey are the only pair to reach the milestone in fewer than 45 seasons and to do so with a single program. (Krzyzewski won 73 games as head coach at Army).

A partnership as long — and successful — as Auriemma and Dailey’s is rare in college sports. Dailey is one of only two assistant coaches in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, inducted alongside legendary Tennessee assistant Mickie DeMoss in 2018. Even DeMoss left the Lady Vols briefly for a head coaching stint at Kentucky, but Auriemma said Dailey has turned down plenty of chances to leave UConn for her own team.

“A lot of times these things don’t last very long, because somebody gets the idea that I want to do it on my own. If she had taken a couple of the opportunities that came her way, it would have been very, very difficult,” Auriemma said. “That continuity for so long, I think it gives a little bit of stability to the kids that come in. There’s a continuation of the same things that those young guys learned in ‘86, ‘87, ‘88. … Every great organization has that one person that’s the storyteller, the person in charge of the culture and legacy to pass it along to everybody else.”

Dailey has also been the overbearing “team mom” for generations of UConn players. Auriemma said Sue Bird still bemoans that Dailey made the team wear “pantyhose” when they dressed up for team dinners, and Bueckers said the longtime assistant scolded her before Wednesday’s game when the back of her jersey was untucked.

However, it was also Dailey who sat next to a visibly frustrated Bueckers and talked with her for several minutes on the bench during a first-half shooting slump. The star guard made just a single field goal in the first quarter before scoring 11 in the second half against Seton Hall.

“Even today the front of my jersey was tucked in but my back was sticking out a little bit, and she’s like ‘Tuck your jersey in, you look sloppy,’ ” Bueckers said, mimicking Dailey’s tone like teen to a nagging parent. “She demands professionalism out of every single one of us, and it’s habits we’ll carry on for the rest of our life from like what we wear to how we do everything as a team. … She keeps everybody together. She keeps everybody sane. She gets on everybody a lot, but we’re grateful for her.”

The on-court recognition for 1,200 wins was minimal, simply an announcement of congratulations to Auriemma and Dailey over the arena loudspeaker as the team greeted fans. The players made sure there was a proper celebration in the locker room with confetti, balloons and a piñata, but traditional candy wouldn’t suffice for their coaches. Instead, it was stuffed with sugar packets for Dailey’s tea, cough drops for Auriemma and tubes of flavored electrolyte powder.

“He’s very humble, very modest, doesn’t want to celebrate himself, but we kind of forced him to,” Bueckers said with a grin. “Being a part of this legacy and a part of the program he and CD have built, it’s a blessing. It’s what you dreamt of as a kid … I’m just very grateful, and it’s a testament to what they’ve built here and the longevity of maintaining greatness.”

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