Dawn Staley and her South Carolina Gamecocks came out of their sixth straight Final Four appearance with a victory over Geno Auriemma’s undefeated UConn team and a trip to the National Championship game.
South Carolina handed UConn a 14-point beatdown that seemingly was a hard pill to swallow for their coach Auriemma, who exploded at Coach Staley at the end of the game. He alleged that she did not shake his hand at the start of the game; however, ESPN cameras replayed the team’s introductions and warm greetings, including Dawn’s acknowledgement of Geno.
Dawn did defend herself in her postgame interview and made sure to shutdown Geno’s claims.
“I have no idea. But I’m gonna let you know this: I’m of integrity. I’m of integrity,” Staley said. “So if I did something wrong to Geno — I don’t know 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. Sometimes, things get heated. We move on.”
Geno also took shots at Dawn during a broadcast in-game interview where he claimed that Coach Staley was being unprofessional with the refs and that his team was being unfairly officiated while the Gamecocks were being allowed to “beat the s***” out of his players.
“There were six fouls called that quarter – all of them against us. And they’ve been beating the s**t out of our guys down there the entire game. And I’m not making excuses because we haven’t been able to make a shot, but this is ridiculous,” Auriemma said. “Their coach [Staley] rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referees some names you don’t want to hear. And now we get six to zero and I’ve a kid with a ripped jersey, and they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’ C’mon man. This is for the national championship.”
Interesting choice of words to describe the actions of a Black woman head coach, no doubt.
Though all of his claims were debunked by ESPN replays, Coach Auriemma held fast to his theories in the postgame presser and had no remorse for the language he used, his refusal to shake the South Carolina players’ hands after the game or the way he treated his fellow coaching peer.
“For 41 years I’ve been coaching and, I don’t know, 25 Final Fours,” he said. “The protocol is before the game, you meet at halfcourt. Anybody see that before? Two coaches meet at halfcourt 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.”
Nonetheless, Dawn and her Gamecocks are vying for their fourth championship. Coach Staley gave her girls an inspiring speech after the game saying,
“I’m proud of y’all, incredible performance. Stay locked in, from a defensive standpoint, it was masterful.”
South Carolina will face UCLA in the National Championship game on Apr. 5 on ESPN.
