PHOENIX – Last week in Texas, during the Regionals of the women’s NCAA Tournament, I asked Geno Auriemma and his UConn players about how they prepare for adversity, considering how little they had faced on the court this season.”As far as adversity goes, I would say the adversity is me, right? Every day for five months they have to put up with me, so I try to be for them all the things that can happen at this time of the year that you need to be prepared for,” Auriemma said.On Friday night in Phoenix, South Carolina gave UConn a season’s worth of adversity in one game and ended the Huskies’ quest for a 13th title with a 62-48 drubbing in the national semifinal. UConn’s previously perfect season was gone and so was the team’s 54-game winning streak. And while all of the Huskies struggled with the Gamecocks’ stifling defense and clutch shooting, the person who looked least prepared for adversity was Auriemma himself.The coach gave a surprising in-game interview to ESPN’s Holly Rowe after the third quarter in which he complained about the officiating, criticized Gamecocks’ head coach Dawn Staley for the language she used with officials and accused the Gamecocks of ripping Sarah Strong’s jersey.
Then, while the game was wrapping up — but, notably, before the buzzer sounded — Auriemma approached Staley, presumably for a postgame handshake. He started yelling at her, had to get held back by his assistants and then, after the two sides were sent back to their benches so the clock could actually wind down to zero, he marched off to the tunnel without participating in the actual handshake line.
Geno Auriemma, Dawn Staley get into heated exchange after UConn’s Final Four loss: What we know
Jack Maloney
It was an embarrassing display of petulance from a legendary coach, and he somehow made it even worse in a meandering postgame press conference. That press conference began with him refusing to address what he said to Staley (“I just said what I had to say. Nothing. Nothing.”) and ended with him…
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2026-04-04 06:11:41
