Geno Auriemma chimes in again on Final Four clash with Dawn Staley
On April 7, Dawn Staley said it was “time to turn the page” from a late-game confrontation that happened with UConn head coach Geno Auriemma at the Final Four in Phoenix.
Staley’s plea was the second of three total statements about a heated exchange prompted by Auriemma in the closing seconds of South Carolina’s 62-48 win.
The two coaches had to be separated from each other after Auriemma confronted Staley about not shaking his hand in pregame, despite there being photo and video evidence of a handshake taking place. After the game, Auriemma alluded to a second pregame handshake that Staley didn’t participate in.
The kerfuffle was back in the news Monday after Auriemma was asked by local media in Connecticut if he’d wished he’d handled the situation differently.
“I think after every game, whether you’re a coach, whether you’re an official, whether you’re a player, the first thing you do is you analyze what you think went right, what you think didn’t go right,” Auriemma said. “You do things on the spur of the moment sometimes, but they usually come from things that have been building up for quite some time. So when I walked in the locker room afterwards with the coaches, it was, you’re just shaking your head going, five more seconds you couldn’t keep it in for five more seconds. So you just feel like a dumb a– for the way it played out. We’re all human and we all do dumb s–t.”
Auriemma’s initial prepared statement, released the day after South Carolina beat UConn to advance to the national title game, apologized for his actions but did not mention Staley by name.
Auriemma’s second apology, released the same day as Staley’s aforementioned statement, said the two coaches had talked. Auriemma said he apologized to Staley, her staff and the Gamecocks team and agreed to move on in hopes of shifting the focus back to women’s basketball.
The buzz around the situation had finally calmed down before it was brought up again to Auriemma on Monday. The exchange went viral in the days after it occurred. The general consensus among talking heads and pundits alike was praise for how Staley handled herself in the situation. Auriemma, on the other hand, received quite the opposite.
On Monday, Auriemma said he felt some of the criticism for his actions was warranted.
“I didn’t see a lot of it, but that’s to be expected,” Auriemma said. “I think that maybe some of it was warranted and some of it was people have been lying in the weeds, waiting for that moment. So it doesn’t matter what you’ve done for the game, it’s what you just did. And unfortunately, that’s the world that we live in today, you know?
“It usually is one-sided, but the people that understood what it was all about, in a different light, they’re not going to go on the air and say it, they’re not going to write about it, because now they’re going against major internet or media frenzy,” Auriemma continued. “They’re not going to do that. But again, some of it was warranted. I brought the criticism on myself. I didn’t bring the bulls--t that came after it on myself.”
The Final Four fiasco will likely come up again this November. South Carolina and UConn will play each other next season in the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase on Nov. 24 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 10:58 AM with the headline "Geno Auriemma chimes in again on Final Four clash with Dawn Staley."
