NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
Friday’s March Madness women’s game between UConn and South Carolina saw an explosion of anger as two of the sport’s most popular coaches clashed.
UConn’s Geno Auriemma and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley were seen yelling at each other during the closing moments of the game. South Carolina was on the verge of winning 62-48 in the Final Four, when South Carolina closed with a 62-48 Final Four win, Auriemma approached Staley, and the exchange began to speak to him violently, before the conversation quickly escalated into a virtual shouting match.
After the game, Auriemma did not shake Staley’s hand.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH ONE OF THE GAMES ON FOXNEWS.COM
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma watches play late in the second half of the Sweet 16 game of the NCAA college basketball tournament against North Carolina in Fort Worth, Texas, March 27, 2026. (LM Otero/AP)
Staley addressed the incident in an interview with ESPN soon after.
“I don’t know, but I’ll let you know this, I’m honest. I’m honest,” Staley said. “So if I did something wrong to Geno, I didn’t know what to do, I think he thought that I didn’t shake his hand at the beginning of the game, I didn’t know, I went down there before the game, I shook everyone’s hand with his staff, I don’t know what we did after the game, but hey sometimes things get tense. We’re moving on.”
Auriemma was seen shaking Staley’s hand in ESPN footage before the game.
MARYLAND BASKETBALL COACH HAS A GOOD TIME WITH A PLAYER DURING MASHI’S CRAZY GAME
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma reacts during the first half of the Sweet 16 game of the NCAA college basketball tournament 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 take away from what we were able to accomplish today,” Staley said.
Meanwhile, Auriemma expressed displeasure with Staley and the referee during a midgame interview on ESPN.
“There were six fouls called in that quarter — all against us,” Auriemma said on the radio. “And they kept hitting (expletive) on our guys there the whole game. I’m not making excuses, because we couldn’t shoot. But this is funny.
“Their coach is yelling and storming off to the sideline and calling the referee some words you don’t want to hear. And now we’re down 6 to 0, and I got a kid with a torn jersey, and they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’ Come on man. It’s for the national championship.”
After the game, Auriemma refused 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.
“What was I going to say. I said what I said, obviously he didn’t like it. I just told the truth.”
Auriemma later addressed the speculation about the pregame handshake and his midgame interview.
“I have no regrets,” Auriemma said of his midgame interview.
“I’ve been coaching, I’ve never had a child to change a jersey because someone tore it and the official said he didn’t see it. There are many things that happen in that game. Unless you’re on that side, you don’t know what’s happening on that field…
“The procedure is, before the game, you meet at halfcourt, has anyone seen that before? The two coaches meet at halfcourt and shake hands… they announce over the loud speaker. I waited there for three minutes.”
The photos of this scrimmage quickly spread on social media, many fans were shocked when two of the most respected figures of women’s basketball in the society collided.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM
Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks goes up against Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies in the second half of the NCAA Women’s Final Four semifinal game at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 3, 2026. (Photos by C. Morgan Engel/NCAA via Getty Images)
ESPN star Stephen A. Smith blasted Auriemma for the incident at X’s post.
“That was some straight up BS from the GREAT Geno Auriemma. I never – ever – thought I’d see the day when the greatest female college coach in history would go down SO MUCH!!! Horrible look, and it should be called out. You got OUTCOACHED,” Smith wrote. “Plain and simple. And it gets in her face like she did something bad to him instead of being kind. If Dawn Staley had done that we’d be on her.”
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on Xand register at the Fox News Sports Huddle.
