STORRS, Conn. — South Dakota State’s Aaron Johnston and Connecticut’s Geno Aurriema are two of the longest tenured coaches in women’s college basketball.

Auriemma is the longest tenured coach with this being his 38th season and Johnston is the seventh-longest tenured in his 25th season at SDSU. Auriemma is the winningest coach in college basketball history, men’s and women’s, with 1,245 victories. Johnston is climbing up the women’s basketball ranks with 617 career wins.

While Auriemma has had more success on a national scale with 11 national titles and 23 Final Four appearances, he sees similarities between him and Johnston and the two programs that they lead.

“Coach and I have been at the same school for a long time, right?” Auriemma said. “... I think that creates consistency. I think if you go to South Dakota State or you go to UConn, you know exactly what you're getting. You know what you're in store for. You know what the expectations are.

“We tend to recruit similar-minded players. You look at his team, you look at our team, there's a connection between the players. They all kind of have that same stuff. So it's hard for somebody who doesn't have that to make their way in. And then if somebody is in and doesn't have that stuff, they probably don't stay.”

The Jackrabbits have made the NCAA Tournament 13 times in the past 17 seasons. This year was the sixth time that they made it to the second round and in 2019 they made it to the Sweet 16. Auriemma said he started to notice SDSU when the Jacks started to beat teams of UConn’s stature and then asked the Huskies to come play in Brookings.

“I think anybody that's followed our sport certainly knows about their success,” Auriemma said. “For me, it was as they were getting better and then beating teams that common sense would tell you, well, they're the underdog but they would always win. Then they hit it at home when they invited us to come and play in their tournament. And I said no way in hell am I coming up there.

“So I think everybody in women's basketball, and me personally, I have so much respect for them and the way they do it and the consistency that they do it. I don't care who you are, to do what they've done, it's just been really impressive to watch.

For Johnston, he’s always known about the success of UConn, as anyone who has paid attention to the sports world would in the past 30 years. He said the continued success of the Huskies is something that he has wanted to imitate at SDSU.

“I'm someone that just really, in everything, having done this for a long time, just appreciates the consistency of success. Like I said earlier, I think there are some teams that kind of peak and valley based on a couple of players, but I just have an unbelievable amount of respect for teams that can be there every single year. I just think that's really hard to do. There are so many variables outside of our control that impact how our teams do, to see somebody at that level for that long is just really impressive,” Johnston said.

Johnston added that Auriemma’s impact on women’s basketball isn’t only at the college level, but also nationally where he led Team USA to gold medals in the 2012 and 2020 Olympics.

“[His impact on the game is] pretty broad when you look at what's happened just here with Connecticut, but then, you also look at USA Basketball,” Johnston said. “When you look at what's happened with the professional game and the players who are elite in the professional level, I would say it's pretty broad. It's been a huge part of women's basketball for a long, long time, which is incredible. There are several teams that have runs where they have a couple of players that come through, but they just have a lot of those runs. That's really remarkable.

“To have that many national championships, to have been connected to that many gold medals and what that means, and then also have players who are continuing to elevate women's basketball professionally, that's pretty remarkable. It's sustainable. It impacts a lot of people in a positive way.”

The two coaches will meet on Monday night for the first time ever and Auriemma said the Jacks are someone that you don’t want to see as your opponent, especially in the NCAA Tournament.

“[In the NCAA Tournament] I want [to play] somebody that has no idea how we play or what we're trying to do and their style of play is completely different from ours. Unfortunately, we didn't get that, because these guys, they're incredibly disciplined. They've been together a long time, so they're experienced. … I just think that playing them is a challenge in that you have to beat them. You can't go in expecting that they're going to make enough mistakes to lose. Teams like that are dangerous in the NCAA Tournament,” Auriemma said.

SDSU and UConn will tip things off in the second round on Monday night at 7 p.m. Central time at Gampel Pavilion. The winner will head to Spokane to play in the Sweet 16 next weekend.