STORRS, Conn. — Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma says he will continue coaching the Huskies while also taking over as coach of the U.S. women's basketball team.

Auriemma was introduced Wednesday as the national team coach for the next three years, through the 2012 Olympics in London.

The 55-year-old Auriemma just guided Connecticut to its sixth national championship and third perfect season. The opportunity to lead an Olympic team was a challenge he could not pass up.

"There's a lot of people who probably take it for granted that you get opportunities like this because you're born in this country and you feel a sense of entitlement. I wasn't and it means a lot to me and the people I grew up with," said Auriemma, who was born in Italy but came to the U.S. as a small child and later became a citizen.

"I can't imagine that there's anything I'll ever do in my coaching career that will be as meaningful as for me to win the gold medal," he said.

Auriemma is the first active college coach to head a women's Olympic team since Tara VanDerveer led the 1996 Olympic team to a gold medal in Atlanta. The Hall of Fame Stanford coach took a year off to lead that U.S. team, which won the gold medal at the Atlanta Games.

Auriemma says the only difference in his schedule will be no longer having any time off.

"The USA Basketball program is something that I will do in the way it needs to be done with the help of a lot of people," Auriemma said. "The only difference is that any time that I would have off from coaching UConn that used to be off, is now on."

One of his UConn star players was excited by the news.

"I've always had this dream and goal of playing on an Olympic team," Maya Moore said. "This doesn't change my goal, but it definitely makes it a more exciting goal to have another opportunity when I leave here to be coached by him."