Dawn Staley Heads to Championship Game, Geno Auriemma Crashes Out

NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament - Final Four - Phoenix — Source: C. Morgan Engel / Getty

As Dawn Staley and her South Carolina Gamecocks head to the fourth national championship under her tenure, the celebrations in Columbia, S.C. have begun. However, condemnations have also begun for UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who confronted Staley after the game in a bizarre incident that went viral.

The undefeated UConn Huskies hadn’t been held under 50 points since the 2022 Final Four, also against the Gamecocks. This year, they were run over by a coordinated game plan that included putting 5’9 Raven Jackson on 6’2 AP Player of the Year Sarah Strong.

The UConn sophomore was supposed to be the star of the night. Instead, she finished with 12 points on 4-of-16 shooting. Azzi Fudd struggled against stifling defense from Canadian rookie Agot Meer, scoring just 8 points on 3-of-15 shooting, including 2-of-9 from three-point range.

The Gamecocks triumphed 62 – 48. As Staley went for the traditional post-game handshake, she was met by an agitated Auriemma, who accused Staley of not shaking hands with him before the game and of berating the referees en route to the championship. He also said that Strong’s jersey was ripped, insinuating it was done by one of the Gamecocks, when TV footage shows she ripped it herself.

After Staley and Auriemma were blocked from further conversation by coaches from both sides, he then walked off the court to the locker room, without participating in the traditional handshakes with the players and coaches on the other team.

Afterward, Staley was asked what happened.

“You can ask Geno the question,” she said in the post-game interview. “He’s the one that initiated the conversation. I don’t want what happened there to dampen what we were able to accomplish today. I have no idea.”

But I’m gonna let you know this, I’m of integrity. I’m of integrity. So if I did something wrong, to Geno, I had no idea what I did.

She continued, “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.”

In an in-game interview with Holly Rowe after the third quarter, Auriemma was already angry, telling her, “There were six fouls called that quarter — all of them against us. And they’ve been beating the (expletive) 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.

He added, “Their coach rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referee some names you don’t want to hear. And now we get 6 to 0, and I got a kid with a ripped jersey, and they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’ Come on, man. It’s for a national championship.”

Staley, 55, is already in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and will likely also receive those accolades someday as a coach. In 17 years at the University of South Carolina, her teams have gone 463-108, she’s been to the Final Four seven times and won three national championships. She was honored as the National Coach of the Year five times.

Auriemma, 72, is the most successful women’s basketball coach in history with 12 national titles and a record six undefeated seasons. He’s been coaching at UConn since 1985.

The two coaches have exchanged victories in the last couple of years. In 2022, the Gamecocks defeated the Huskies in the championship 64-49. In 2025, UConn defeated the Gamecocks in the title game 82-59. Neither game ended with any hostilities.

Staley was Auriemma’s assistant coach in USA Basketball in 2008 and 2016, also working on his staff with FIBA Basketball in 2006. She succeeded Auriemma as the Olympic coach in 2021, leading the squad to its seventh consecutive gold medal in Tokyo.

In post-game interviews, Auriemma doubled down on his comments, saying he didn’t regret his words to Staley, saying they had “little” in common and that he considered her solely a “rival.”

“Why would I? Why would I? 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.

He continued, “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.”

Auriemma has since apologized for how he handled himself.

“There’s no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina,” the message begins. “It’s unlike what I do and what our standard is here at Connecticut,” Auriemma said 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.”

Still, Auriemma was roasted by a wide swatch of media and observers on social media. Check out their comments below.