‘The Dynasty: Uconn Huskies’ Packs 40 Years Into Two Chaotic Hours

“Winning is like a mist that covers you. And as the sun comes out it goes away quickly. Losing is like the entire universe is strapped around your head and it just sits there forever.”

When attempting to chronicle a legacy that spans four decades, brevity is rarely the best route. Especially when said legacy largely revolves around the author of the above quote, Geno Auriemma. Yet with just three episodes and a little over two hours to work with, ‘The Dynasty: Uconn Huskies’ is a buzzer-beater that just about finds the net.

The Apple TV docuseries – the second instalment following on from the premiere season dedicated to the New England Patriots – squeezes the 40 year journey the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball programme is taken on by the borderline psychotic winning mentality of coach Geno Auriemma.

Matthew Hamachek is once again in the director’s chair, as he was for 2024’s ‘Dynasty’ series on the Patriots. While Hamachek is joined by Erica Sashin (‘The Murdochs: Empire of Influence’ and ‘Harry & Meghan’), the pair also have far less time to work with than Hamachek had when flying solo in the chair for his 10-parter on the Pats two years ago.

Suitably, with just north of two hours to present an entire dynasty’s worth of history across three episodes, Hamachek and Sashin dunk us right into the thick of the 2025 National Championship game between the Huskies and the South Carolina Gamecocks.

A breakneck look at four decades of dominance

We are introduced to Auriemma – at this point an 11-time National Championship winning coach – as he is becoming apoplectic with rage over his team’s perceived shortcomings. An assistant coach attempts to calm the Italian born septuagenarian, who has dragged the Huskies from complete anonymity to almost merciless dominance over the course of the last 40 years.

A voice over from the man himself sets the tone for the series with the above quote. Quickly, former players, moulded by Auriemma’s extremely tough love, begin to share their experiences with the coach who has lifted more NCAA basketball championships than anybody else in history.

The series careers ahead at breakneck speed. Not much time is offered to Auriemma’s background, nor his first few years in charge of the Huskies before we arrive at the Cinderella story of the 1995 National Championship victory over the Tennessee Volunteers.

Fortunately, the archival footage is immersive enough to craft an engrossing narrative surrounding the meteoric rise of Uconn’s women’s programme. Auriemma serves as the series anchor. A procession of WNBA greats, from Rebecca Lobo to Diana Taurasi to Paige Bueckers appear, explaining their complex relationships with their relentless coach. Their words providing a startling outlook on the lengths an elite coach will go to in order to drive his players towards greatness and sporting immortality.

‘The Dynasty: Uconn Huskies’ deserves the MJ treatment

While footage of Lobo, Jennifer Rizzotti and Jamele Elliott sinking beers and letting loose during their weekends off at college is a relatively wholesome insight into the bond within the Huskies team in the early ‘90s, it is one of numerous highlights where you are left wanting more.

Auriemma’s fascination with Phil Jackson’s all-conquering Chicago Bulls is an apt spotlight to be shone on ‘The Dynasty’. Michael Jordan’s ‘Last Dance’ was played out over 10 mesmeric episodes in 2020. Uconn’s Huskies of the last four decades certainly deserve closer to this treatment, in order to properly delve into the stories surrounding each era’s phenomenal successes.

*Auriemma may be tough on his teams, but as ‘The Dynasty’ spotlights, his players love him for the success he leads them to Image: Getty Images*

Each episode clocking in at around the 40 minute mark doesn’t allow for any downtime, so we are kept gripped throughout. The years and championships rollicking along with the regularity of an Auriemma f-bomb. A fascinating insight into the psyche of one of basketball’s greatest coaches, for sure, but we could have still done with a lot more Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart. There are a dozen National Championships and a flurry of Hall of Famers to cover.

Double the number of episodes and you would be rewarded with an all-encompassing chronicle of arguably the most phenomenal success story in NCAA basketball history. What we get across the three episodes of ‘The Dynasty: Uconn Huskies’ is undoubtedly entertaining and, at times, unsettling when you see the vitriol that Auriemma is able to expel from the deep recesses of his being when things are not going his way.

In this respect, ‘The Dynasty’ does a terrific job with its delves into the Uconn archives as well as the access they were granted throughout production. Hamachek and Sashin draw illuminating answers and stories from their subjects, carefully crafting their arc around the obsessive nature of Auriemma and the champions the Italian born coach has sculpted over the last 40 years.

But when you are focusing on obsession and genius at such a level, sometimes there just needs to be more time dedicated to the true understanding and influence of it all. ‘The Dynasty: Uconn Huskies’ is an extremely worthwhile sophomore effort in Apple’s burgeoning documentary series. We would just like quite a lot more of it.

‘The Dynasty: Uconn Huskies’ is available to stream now on Apple TV.