The night Geno Auriemma snapped — and Dawn Staley showed the game has changed
PHOENIX – The confrontation wasn’t about a handshake. Beneath all that ego and pride, rage and obstinance, Geno Auriemma must know that. It was about control — a slipping, shifting, sport-changing control — and a kind of frustration that the best coach in women’s college basketball refused to keep hidden.
For four decades, Auriemma hasn’t just dominated the sport. He set the terms. He renovated the throne.
He stitched “One Size Fits Geno” on the crown. In this game, nothing can move without encountering him. Then Dawn Staley built her own galaxy.
Suddenly, there was more than one center of power. That’s the part you need to understand to make sense of the eruption that occurred in the closing seconds of the first national semifinal game Friday night. The barking and cursing, the undeniable disdain — it wasn’t as impulsive as it seemed.
The conflict had been intensifying for years. The sport has two dynasties now, one that endures, another that surges. But there is still only one universe.
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