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 on a 62-48 win that ended the Huskies’ undefeated season.
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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 post-game 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 a freshman Paige Bueckers winning it in her hometown. The loss sparked her winding journey to an elusive title that went through South Carolina in a similar fashion last year in Tampa.
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That extended UConn’s record to 12 national championships for the dynasty that somehow keeps kicking three decades since its first. South Carolina is the new(ish) powerhouse on the block. The three-time champions will play in their fifth title game in six years on Sunday.
In a battle of heavyweights, the tension between the coaches and programs was palpable.
The Huskies were chasing an undefeated season, a narrative Auriemma said he was “never comfortable with.” They wanted to write one of their many storybook endings, this time in honor of fifth-year senior guard Azzi Fudd.
Then, Auriemma took issue with Staley not meeting him at center court during in-arena coach introductions after the starting lineups. Staley stayed in the Gamecocks’ huddle, while Auriemma hovered on his side near the table before retreating. ESPN showed video of the two shaking hands before that instance.
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“I waited there for like three minutes,” Auriemma said. “So it is what it is.”
In the second quarter, Staley lit into the referees heavily with some stern words for two foul calls on Raven Johnson within one minute. The first was while guarding National Player of the Year Sarah Strong. The second was chasing down a loose ball and slapping at Fudd.
An assistant stepped in between the refs and Staley, attempting to pull her away while she kept yelling.
Auriemma then came to center court and screamed toward them, “Is she allowed to talk to you like that? No.”
“I just want to make sure there’s not a double standard,” Auriemma said post-game. “I’m of the opinion that if I ever talk to an official like that, I would get tossed. So I just want to make sure there’s not a double standard, that some people are allowed to talk to officials like that and other people are not. That’s it. So yeah, I was pretty frustrated.”
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It began to rip open ahead of the fourth quarter when Auriemma called Staley out directly during the in-game interview with ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe.
“I don’t have any regrets about what I said to Holly Rowe,” Auriemma said after the game. “Why would I? Why would I? I’ve been coaching a long time.”
Staley made no comments related to either issue, instead telling reporters, “I think that’s a Geno question.”
The questions both coaches were more than willing to go long on were their top-five-ranked defenses. Staley told the Gamecocks theirs was a “masterclass.” They forced the Huskies to put the ball on the floor, avoiding catch-and-shoot opportunities for which Fudd is lethal, and limiting their ability to move the ball around the floor.
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UConn shot 31% as a team with particularly poor days by Strong (4 of 16), who looked out of sorts all night, and Fudd (3 of 15). They started the game 1-of-11 from 3-point range, usually an asset.
Staley was particularly proud of the Gamecocks’ ability to defend without fouling.
“It was actually far greater than I envisioned,” Staley said.
Again, they digressed.
“The biggest problem, I think, was the difference in the free throws, the free throw shooting,” Auriemma said.
South Carolina was 18 of 22 as a team with eight personal fouls called on them, while UConn went 4 of 6 with 17 fouls. Those 14 points are the margin.
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Auriemma didn’t shift blame away from his squad’s shortcomings. He took no particular issue with the overall physicality of the game, noting their own physicality held a high-powered offense to 62 points. He also knew coming into Phoenix that there were areas an opponent could exploit, even though they hadn’t yet.
The Gamecocks did.
South Carolina forced Strong and Fudd into difficult attempts, but UConn’s offense didn’t do itself any favors. They made poor decisions early in the shot clock. Jumpers dropped wide and untouched. Layups never even thought of grazing the rim.
It was a continuation of problems that poked in the Fort Worth regional. Their defense could no longer cover the hole, and made an egregious error leaving Ago Makeer all alone on the perimeter in the fourth quarter that began the separation.
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“We knew going in here to today that if we shoot the ball like we did in Fort Worth, you’re not going to pick these teams off, generally,” Auriemma said.
And that’s really how an undefeated season went up in flames, Auriemma’s smokescreen be damned.
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