After postgame clash, Geno Auriemma has little to say about 'rival' Dawn Staley, whose Gamecocks outplayed UConn
PHOENIX — The inadvertent consequence of dropping elite defensive squads into a Final Four in the desert is that the offense dries up. Add in the flint embedded on the sport’s grandest stage, and a brush fire is bound to spark somewhere. Which is how we found UConn head coach Geno Auriemma ripping into South Carolina’s Dawn Staley before the final buzzer had gone off in a 62-48 win that ended the Huskies’ undefeated season .
Auriemma, man of many words, remained pointed when asked about it. His typical 10-sentence-plus responses shrunk to 10 words when asked first about the moment, saying in part, “I just said what I had to say. ” Upon follow-up, he asked tersely why he would repeat it.
“I said what I said,” he said. “And obviously she didn't like it. I just told the truth.
” As for his relationship with Staley, he said he has a “tremendous amount of respect for what she’s done at South Carolina,” but they “don’t have a lot in common. ” “Yeah, we’re rivals,” he said in a smaller postgame scrum with reporters. Dawn Staley appeared shocked when Geno Auriemma approached her with some choice words as the game was winding down.
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) Christian Petersen via Getty Images It’s the third time Auriemma and Staley have met on the Final Four stage as head coaches of their respective programs. In the first meeting in 2022, South Carolina ran away with a 15-point victory. It came at the expense of freshman Paige Bueckers winning it in her hometown.
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