ESPN
Less than 24 hours after a controversial postgame altercation with South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, UConn Huskies women’s basketball coaching legend Geno Auriemma has now issued a public apology.
Auriemma confronted Staley at midcourt after his team’s stunning 64-48 loss to the Gamecocks in the Final Four. UConn entered the game with a perfect 38-0 record and had beaten all but one team by double-digits prior to the loss to the Gamecocks.
During the game, Auriemma had expressed his frustration with the physicality of the South Carolina players as well as the way Staley was interacting with referees.
Afterward, he approached Staley and yelled in her direction, allegedly claiming that she did not shake hands with him at midcourt prior to the contest.
“I’m of integrity,” Staley said of the incident. “I’m of integrity, so if I did something wrong to Geno, I had no idea what I did. I guess he thought I didn’t shake his hand at the beginning of the game. I didn’t know. I went down there pre-game and shook everybody on his staff’s hand. I don’t know where he came from after the game. But hey, sometimes things get heated. We move on.”
Auriemma then confirmed that was the source of his frustration.
“The protocol is, before the game, you meet at halfcourt. Has anybody ever seen that before? The two coaches meet at halfcourt, and they shake hands… they announce it on the loudspeaker. I waited there for like three minutes,” he said.
But video from before the game showed otherwise, as Staley did approach Auriemma and shake his hand.
Now, Auriemma is backtracking.
Geno Auriemma Issues Public Apology To Dawn Staley
On Saturday afternoon, Auriemma came out and issued a public apology both to Staley and the South Carolina program as a whole.
“There’s no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina,” Auriemma said. “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 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.”
Geno Auriemma has apologized: pic.twitter.com/PvhVsSuPJZ
— Rachel Bachman (@Bachscore) April 4, 2026
Interestingly enough, Auriemma did not specifically apologize to Staley. Whether that was intentional or not, only he knows.
The two teams are set to meet again next season on Nov. 24 in a non-conference matchup. It will be fascinating to see whether this has all blown over by that time.