PHOENIX — Geno Auriemma strode down the sideline as the final seconds wound down in Friday’s national semifinal, after UConn’s unbeaten season ended with a 62-48 loss to South Carolina. Approaching Dawn Staley for a postgame handshake, he unleashed an angry string of words while pointing his finger toward the floor.
Staley looked momentarily stunned before the two exchanged sharp words and had to be pulled apart. After Auriemma shook hands with several South Carolina assistants, Staley turned back toward him and continued the confrontation, shouting and stepping toward the UConn coach until her staff blocked her and formed a circle at the scorer’s table. She then directed more shouts toward the UConn bench before walking back to her sideline.
“I will beat Geno’s ass,” Staley was heard saying twice.
Afterward, Auriemma said he and Staley don’t have a relationship and described them as rivals.
“Nah, not really,” he said. “We don’t have a lot in common.”
Tensions had been apparent earlier. In a live interview before the fourth quarter with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, Auriemma criticized the officiating, lamenting the lack of fouls called on South Carolina and accusing Staley of “ranting and raving” at officials and calling them names. UConn was assessed 17 fouls in the game compared with South Carolina’s eight.
“They’ve been beating the s— out of our guys down there the entire game. I’m not making excuses, ’cause we haven’t been able to make a shot. But this is ridiculous,” Auriemma said during the broadcast.
The issue was highlighted when UConn’s Sarah Strong had to switch into a No. 55 jersey after her No. 21 was torn. Auriemma questioned how no foul was whistled against South Carolina in the third quarter on the play. One camera angle showed Strong pulling her own jersey, but it was unclear if it had been ripped earlier; Strong called it an accident.
“I just want to make sure there’s not a double standard,” Auriemma said of Staley’s sideline behavior. “I’m of the opinion that if I ever talk to an official like that, I would get tossed. So, I just want to make sure there’s not a double standard, that some people are allowed to talk to officials like that and other people are not. That’s it. So yeah, I was pretty frustrated.”
Staley declined to comment on the handshake incident or Auriemma’s accusations at South Carolina’s postgame news conference.
“You can ask Geno the question,” she said. “He’s the one that initiated the conversation. I don’t know what happened there to dampen what we were able to accomplish today.”
Auriemma also said there was tension before the game over the customary pregame handshake, saying he waited about three minutes at midcourt for Staley. He defended his on-air remarks and said he had no regrets.
“Why would I? Why would I?” he said. “I’ve been coaching a long time. I’ve never had a kid have to change their jersey because somebody ripped it and the official said, ‘I didn’t see it.’ There are a lot of things that happened in that game. Unless you’re on that sideline, you have no idea what’s happening on this sideline.
“For 41 years I’ve been coaching and, I don’t know, 25 Final Fours. The protocol is before the game you meet at half court. Anybody see that before? Two coaches meet at half court and they shake hands, correct? … I waited there for like three minutes. So, it is what it is.”
Despite questioning the officiating and the end-of-quarter exchange, Auriemma said he didn’t object to the game’s physicality, noting it goes both ways and that UConn “weren’t aggressive enough on the offensive end to match.”
Staley previously served as an assistant under Auriemma on the U.S. Olympic team in Rio in 2016. Auriemma credited her with building South Carolina into a powerhouse — a three-time national champion that has reached the title game four of the last five tournaments and advanced to six straight Final Fours — and said he has a “tremendous amount of respect” for her.
