PHOENIX — Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma’s coaching rivalry has had something for everyone on and off the court. It reached a dramatic peak Friday night, and the heated exchange between them stirred all the elements that make their matchups must-see TV.
Auriemma said it started at the beginning of the game, but the ending is what everyone will talk about.
A visibly upset Auriemma went over to Staley in the waning seconds of South Carolina’s 62-48 victory over his UConn team in the Final Four and appeared to chastise her before the two shook hands. Staley responded with “don’t do that” while assistant coaches from both teams separated them.
Auriemma later said the exchange was about the lack of a traditional pregame handshake between the coaches. Staley said she was confused.
“I have no idea,” Staley said when asked what happened. “But I’m going to let you know this: I’m of integrity. So if I did something wrong to Geno, I had no idea what I did. I guess he thought I didn’t shake his hand at the beginning of the game. I didn’t know. I went down there pregame, shook everybody on his staff’s hand.
“I don’t know what he came with after the game, but, hey, sometimes things get heated. We move on.”
The Gamecocks on Sunday will play UCLA in their third straight title game, but not everyone was willing to move on from the exchange so quickly.
Auriemma, 72, immediately left the court without shaking hands when the game ended, and the moment quickly spread on social media.
Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie, a former Olympic teammate of Staley, posted on X: “It’s a real shame that #Geno took the low road! We have all had to lose with class! Geno of the @UConnWBB needs to start with an apology!!!”
There were no apologies Friday night, but Auriemma explained why he was frustrated before ultimately following up with an apology Saturday.
“For 41 years I’ve been coaching and, I don’t know, 25 Final Fours,” Auriemma said Friday night. “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? Ever see it? They announce it on the loudspeaker. I waited there for like three minutes. So it is what it is.”
After sleeping on it, he changed his tone.
“There’s no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina. It’s unlike what I do and what our standard is here at Connecticut,” the Hall of Fame coach said Saturday in a statement. “I want to apologize to the staff and the team at South Carolina. It was uncalled for in how I reacted. The story should be how well South Carolina played, and I don’t want my actions to detract from that. I’ve had a great relationship with their staff, and I sincerely want to apologize to them.”
Staley said Saturday morning that she was focused on the title game against UCLA on Sunday and not what happened a night earlier.
“For me, no distractions at this time. I’m concentrating on winning a national championship, that’s it,” Staley said. “That’s a little disheartening. This is sports, sometimes things like this happen. Continue to focus on my team and ability to advance in this tournament and hopefully win another national championship.”
Auriemma and Staley have been the gold standard in women’s basketball for years, and their battle for supremacy has produced some of the most thrilling moments in women’s college basketball over the last decade.
They’ve coached some of the greatest talent in the game. They have a combined 15 national championships and nearly 2,000 wins with their respective programs, and their teams have faced each other 15 times.
Despite the intensity on the court, Staley and Auriemma have typically exchanged public pleasantries, complimenting each others’ successes and importance to the women’s game. They sparked conversations in 2023 when Staley defended her team after Auriemma criticized the Gamecocks’ physicality — but their rivalry had never boiled over in the way it did on Friday.
Auriemma ripped the officiating in the third after the Gamecocks were not whistled for a foul in the quarter. He continued to voice his displeasure with how Staley spoke to the refs in his postgame news conference.
“I’m of the opinion that if I ever talk to an official like that, I would get tossed,” he said. “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.”
Staley did not want to talk about the exchange in her postgame news conference.
“You can ask Geno the question,” she said. “He’s the one that initiated the conversation. I don’t want what happened there to dampen what we were able to accomplish today.”
