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Geno and Dawn exchange heated words as South Carolina advances (0:34)
Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley exchange heated words as South Carolina advances to the national championship game. (0:34)
Andrea AdelsonApr 4, 2026, 02:12 PM ET
- ACC reporter.
- Joined ESPN.com in 2010.
- Graduate of the University of Florida.
PHOENIX -- UConn coach Geno Auriemma apologized to the South Carolina staff Saturday for his emotional outburst at Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley in the closing seconds of their national semifinal at the Women's Final Four.
"There's no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina," Auriemma said in a statement issued through the school. "It's unlike what I do and what our standard is here at Connecticut. I want to apologize to the staff and the team at South Carolina. It was uncalled for in how I reacted. The story should be how well South Carolina played, and I don't want my actions to detract from that. I've had a great relationship with their staff, and I sincerely want to apologize to them."
In the waning seconds of UConn's 62-48 loss to South Carolina, Auriemma approached Staley for a postgame handshake then angrily got in her face before Staley started firing back.
The two were separated, but Staley kept shouting toward the UConn bench before walking away. Auriemma walked off to the tunnel alone.
In his postgame news conference, Auriemma said he was frustrated that he waited three minutes for a pregame handshake with Staley and said he did not regret comments he made to ESPN's Holly Rowe during the broadcast in which he lamented the lack of fouls against South Carolina and said Staley "rants and raves" at the officials and "calls the referees some names you don't want to hear."
Staley said Saturday that she was focused on the title game against UCLA on Sunday and not what happened a night earlier.
"For me, no distractions at this time. I'm concentrating on winning a national championship, that's it," Staley said. "That's a little disheartening. This is sports. Sometimes things like this happen. Continue to focus on my team and ability to advance in this tournament and hopefully win another national championship."
She later said that she would address the incident with Auriemma at a later point.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
