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South Carolina honored women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley this week with a statue unveiling on the Columbia campus. She took the moment to throw some shade at a rival.
Staley jabbed Geno Auriemma during her appreciation speech. He’s previously made comments some viewed as disrespect.
Auriemma spoke on UConn’s rich basketball history earlier this year, much of which can be attributed to his success. Across four decades, he’s led the Huskies to 12 national championships.
He took over a team that went 8-18 in 1985, quickly increasing that win total over the next six years. In 1995, he won his first title with the program. At the turn of the century, that number grew.
UConn cut down the nets 10 times between 2000 and 2016. Geno Auriemma added another by beating South Carolina this past season.
Prior to that latest triumph, he spoke on tradition at UConn in comparison to other stops.
“Most other places, if you win one national championship they build a statue to you outside the building. Here, they won’t let you get to the front of the bus.”
-Geno Auriemma
Dawn Staley referenced that comment while being honored by South Carolina.
The coach had a statue built on campus to go alongside superstar player A’ja Wilson this week. The piece shows her on a ladder cutting down a net, which she’s done three times in her tenure.
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While addressing the crowd, she brought Auriemma’s remarks back to light.
“This honor is an interesting one for me,” she said. “If I’m being completely honest, having a statue in my honor was never a goal, or even a thought… I wanted [Wilson’s] to be the only one, ever. Contrary to the belief of one of my coaching colleagues, her statue wasn’t in response to winning a national championship. It was in response to being a winner at life.”
A’ja Wilson helped guide the Gamecocks to the program’s first ever title in 2017. Dawn Staley has since gone on to win two more over the last four seasons while making five straight Final Four appearances.
She’s proud of her accomplishments, while admittedly shocked to have a statue of her image on the South Carolina campus. National titles certainly played a role. Still, she insists that Geno Auriemma was out of line.