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Friday’s women’s March Madness game between UConn and South Carolina noticed an eruption of tempers boiled over as two of the sport’s sport’s most legendary coaches bought into engaged in a heated sideline confrontation.
UConn’s Geno Auriemma and South Carolina’s Daybreak Staley have been seen shouting aggressively at one another within the closing second moments of the sport. South Carolina was on the verge of a 62-48 win within the Closing 4, when With South Carolina closing in on a 62-48 Closing 4 win, Auriemma approached Staley, and the alternate started to talk to her aggressively, earlier than the dialog devolved into shortly escalated into a visual shouting match.
After the sport, Auriemma didn’t shake Staley’s hand.
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UConn head coach Geno Auriemma watches a play late within the second half of a Candy 16 sport of the NCAA school basketball event in opposition to North Carolina in Fort Value, Texas, on March 27, 2026. (LM Otero/AP)
Staley addressed the incident in an interview with ESPN instantly afterward.
“I do not know, however I’ll let this, I am of integrity. I am of integrity,” Staley stated. “So if I did one thing flawed to Geno, I had no thought what I did, I suppose he thought I did not shake his hand at the start of the sport, I did not know, I went down there pregame, shook all people on his workers’s hand, I do not know what we got here with after the sport, however hey generally issues get heated. We transfer on.”
Auriemma was seen shaking Staley’s hand in ESPN footage earlier than the sport.
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UConn head coach Geno Auriemma reacts to a play through the first half of a Candy 16 sport of the NCAA school basketball event in opposition to North Carolina in Fort Value, Texas, on March 27, 2026. (Julio Cortez/AP Picture)
Auriemma addressed the incident within the postgame press convention.
“I do not need what occurred there to dampen what we have been capable of accomplish at the moment,” Staley stated.
In the meantime, Auriemma expressed displeasure with Staley and the referees throughout an in-game interview on ESPN.
“There have been six fouls referred to as that quarter — all of them in opposition to us,” Auriemma stated on the printed. “And so they’ve been beating the (expletive) out of our guys down there your complete sport. I’m not making excuses, ’trigger we haven’t been capable of make a shot. However that is ridiculous.
“Their coach rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referee some names you don’t wish to hear. And now we get 6 to 0, and I bought a child with a ripped jersey, and so they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’ Come on, man. It’s for a nationwide championship.”
After the sport, Auriemma declined to elaborate on the incident.
“I stated what I needed to say and… nothing… nothing,” he stated when requested what occurred with Staley, refusing to inform reporters what he stated.
“Why would I say it. I stated what I stated and clearly she did not prefer it. I simply informed the reality.”
Auriemma later addressed the hypothesis over the handshake pre-game and his mid-game interview.
“I haven’t got any regrets,” Auriemma stated of his mid-game interview.
“I have been teaching a very long time, I by no means had a child have to vary their jersey as a result of any person ripped it and the official stated they did not see it. There have been a number of issues that occurred in that sport. Except you are on that sideline you don’t have any thought what’s taking place on that sideline…
“The protocol is, earlier than the sport, you meet at halfcourt, anyone ever see that earlier than? The 2 coaches meet at halfcourt and so they shake arms… they announce it on the loud speaker. I waited there for like three minutes.”
Footage of the shouting alternate shortly went viral on social media, with many followers shocked to 2 of ladies’s basketball’s most revered figures conflict so publicly.
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Daybreak Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks argues with Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies through the second half of an NCAA Girls’s Closing 4 semifinal sport at Mortgage Matchup Middle in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 3, 2026. (C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Images by way of Getty Photos)
ESPN star Stephen A. Smith blasted Auriemma for the incident in an X publish.
“That was some straight B.S. from the GREAT Geno Auriemma. By no means — ever — thought I’d see the day when the best lady’s school coach in historical past would go down so CLASSLESSLY!!! Horrible look, and needs to be referred to as out for it. He bought OUTCOACHED,” Smith wrote. “Plain and easy. And will get in her face like she did one thing flawed to him as an alternative of being gracious. Had Daybreak Staley acted like that we might be throughout her.”
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