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Friday’s women’s March Madness game between UConn and South Carolina saw an eruption of tempers that boiled over as two of the game’s sport’s most legendary coaches engaged in a heated sideline confrontation.
UConn’s Geno Auriemma and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley were seen aggressively yelling at each other in the closing moments of the game. South Carolina was on the verge of a 62-48 Final Four victory when, with South Carolina closing in on a 62-48 Final Four victory, Auriemma approached Staley and the exchange began to speak aggressively to her before the conversation quickly escalated into a visible shouting match.
After the game, Auriemma did not shake Staley’s hand.
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UConn head coach Geno Auriemma watches a play late in the second half of an NCAA college basketball tournament Sweet 16 game against North Carolina in Fort Worth, Texas, March 27, 2026. (LM Otero/AP)
Staley addressed the incident in an interview with ESPN immediately afterward.
“I have no idea, but I’ll tell you, I’m of integrity. I’m of integrity,” Staley said. “So if I did something wrong against Geno, I had no idea what I was doing, I think he probably thought I didn’t shake his hand at the beginning of the game, I didn’t know, I went down there in the pregame, shook all his staff’s hands, I don’t know what we came up with after the game, but hey sometimes things get heated. We move on.”
Auriemma was seen shaking Staley’s hand in ESPN footage before the game.
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UConn head coach Geno Auriemma reacts to a play during the first half of an NCAA college basketball tournament Sweet 16 game against North Carolina in Fort Worth, Texas, March 27, 2026. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo)
Auriemma addressed the incident in the postgame press conference.
“I don’t want what happened there to dampen what we were able to accomplish today,” Staley said.
Meanwhile, Auriemma expressed displeasure with Staley and the refs during an in-game interview on ESPN.
“There were six fouls called that quarter — all against us,” Auriemma said on the broadcast. “And they’ve been (expletive) beating our guys down there the whole game. I’m not going to make excuses because we haven’t been able to make a shot. But this is ridiculous.
“Their coach is ranting and raving on the sidelines and calling the ref some names you don’t want to hear. And now we’re down 6-0 and I got a kid with a ripped jersey and they’re like, ‘I didn’t see that.’ Come on, man. It’s for a national championship.”
After the game, Auriemma declined to elaborate on the incident.
“I said what I had to say and … nothing … nothing,” he said when asked what happened to Staley, refusing to tell reporters what he said.
“Why would I say that. I said what I said and obviously she didn’t like it. I was just telling the truth.”
Auriemma later addressed the speculation over the pregame handshake and his midgame interview.
“I have no regrets,” Auriemma said of his midgame interview.
“I’ve been coaching for a long time, I’ve never had a kid change their jersey because someone tore it and the ref said they didn’t see it. There were a lot of things that happened in that game. Unless you’re on the sideline, you have no idea what’s going on on that sideline…
“The protocol is, before the game, you meet at halfcourt, has anyone ever seen that before? The two coaches meet at halfcourt and they shake hands … they announce it on the loudspeaker. I waited there for about three minutes.”
Footage of the shouting exchange quickly went viral on social media, with many fans shocked that two of women’s basketball’s most respected figures clashed so publicly.
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Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks tussles with Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies during the second half of an NCAA Women’s Final Four semifinal game at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Arizona on April 3, 2026. (C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Images via Getty Images)
ESPN star Stephen A. Smith blasted Auriemma for the incident in an X post.
“That was straight up BS from the GREAT Geno Auriemma. Never – ever – thought I’d see the day the greatest women’s college coach in history would go down so CLASSLESS!!! Terrible look and should be called out for it. He was OUTCOACHED,” Smith wrote. “Plain and simple. And getting in her face like she did something wrong to him instead of being gracious. Had Dawn Staley acted like that, we’d be over her.”
