HARTFORD, Conn. — Geno Auriemma remembers one of the first times Gianna Bryant came to a UConn basketball game. He doesn’t recall the exact year, but he can vividly describe the look in her eyes.
“She was a little kid looking up at our players,” Auriemma said. “She was so excited. Imagine the absurdity of that. Your father is Kobe Bryant and the most excited you’ve been in a long time is being around college women’s basketball players. But that’s what it meant to her, what she aspired to be.
“You’ve got Gigi and her role models and people she looks up to, and then you’ve got our players looking at her dad.