What Dawn Staley said about Geno Auriemma confrontation, Gamecocks’ Final Four win
South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley was excited to talk about her team after the Gamecocks’ upset win Friday over UConn in the Final Four.
But she wasn’t interested in breaking down her heated end-of-game conversation with Huskies coach Geno Auriemma.
Auriemma confronted Staley in the midcourt handshake line during the final seconds of USC’s 62-48 win.
“You can ask Geno the question,” Staley said Friday. “He’s the one that initiated the conversation.”
Speaking from Mortgage Matchup Center, Staley deferred an initial question regarding her postgame exchange to Auriemma and said she didn’t want to “dampen” USC’s upset win over the previously undefeated Huskies.
Later in her news conference, Staley was asked about Auriemma’s previous comments during a midgame interview in which he said USC’s players were “beating the sh*t out of us” and complained that Staley “rants and raves” and “calls the referees some names you don’t want to hear.”
“I think that’s a Geno question,” Staley said politely.
In a postgame interview with ESPN, Staley said she had “no idea” why Auriemma was upset. Auriemma indicated postgame he was frustrated at how Staley handled a pregame coaches meeting, insinuating she didn’t shake his hand or took too long to come over and shake his hand. (He wouldn’t clarify his comments any further.)
“I’m of integrity,” Staley said postgame on the ESPN broadcast. “So if I did something wrong to Geno, I had no idea what I did. ... I don’t know what he came with after the game. Sometimes, things get heated and we move on.”
South Carolina advanced to Sunday’s national championship game and will play UCLA at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN. USC is seeking its fourth national title under Staley, all of which have come since 2017.
Here’s what else Staley said postgame:
On beating UConn after losing twice to them last year
“The difference is, I mean, experience. ... When you have losses that hurt, but you really understand the why, I think UConn was a really well-oiled machine. If you didn’t have disruption and consistent disruption, if you allow them to play as freely as they want to play ... they’re very efficient and very, very good.”
“Our whole objective was to get them to shoot as inefficiently as possible and make them put the ball on the floor. Don’t give them as many catch-and-shoot opportunities. I thought our kids really locked into that.”
“They were scrappy. ... UConn got back in the game. They were unbothered by it. They knew what they had to do.”
On last year’s UConn games vs. this year’s
“I’m just proud. Quite honestly, the first time we played them last year, which was in February (2025), then to come back and play them in the national championship game, I didn’t know how we could come up with 25 points because they beat us by 25 points the first time.”
“You know when you have an uphill battle, how you’re going to accumulate some points. We just didn’t have enough offensive firepower in the national championship game or the first time we played them in the regular season.”
“This time I thought we had enough firepower from an offensive standpoint. Then just from a defensive standpoint, this team has gotten better defensively in belief and utilizing their God-given abilities to lock in.”
“I thought it was a performance that makes you super proud. When they’re able to execute, you can see it as a coach. Sometimes the players don’t see it. What they did was just they filled in all the gaps that were created out there.”
On transfer G Ta’Niya Latson
“I mean, you see players where they just have a different look. When they have it, it gives you confidence to know that they’re ready. Some players, you got question marks about whether they’re ready to meet the moment.”
“For Ta’Niya in particular, I think that Ta’Niya just made huge sacrifices, individual sacrifices. Wasn’t an All-American this year. ... If she’s not going to get the individual awards, I want her to be part of a national championship team.”
On USC’s Raven Johnson defending Sarah Strong
“We went to a smaller lineup just to match what they were doing out there. I mean, Raven thrives on any matchup, right? Sarah Strong is not the tallest player that she guarded. We were put in the position where she guarded Kentucky’s big.”
“We know she’s fearless when it comes to who she’s guarding. She takes really great pride in not look people to score on her. When you have a guard like that that has elite defensive skills, you let them be great.”
On her halftime message
“You really don’t get these opportunities very often. You don’t. So you’ve got to meet the moment. If we lost this game, I know our players would have been mad at themselves because they’re very capable. Like, play to your capabilities. Play to the habits that we’ve had all season long.”
“If you can do that and end up losing, you can swallow it a little bit better. But when you don’t meet the moment and you don’t play to your ability, it always leaves you skeptical. ... You’ve got to get under their skin a little bit, because you got to jolt them out of the state that they’re in to get them back to who they are.”
On sitting Raven Johnson early in the fourth quarter
“I thought (backup guard) Maddy McDaniel did a really great job. Sometimes when you’re coaching a game, you’re looking for a unit that can play well together. The more time that we could have given Raven on the bench, the fresher she was going to be.”
“Raven’s the first one that will tell you, ‘Let her stay. She’s doing great.’ ... That’s the way we operate. It’s about what unit’s working together.”
“Once you have a strong enough culture, you can sit your All-American point guard for an extended period of time in the fourth quarter, and they really understand it is about winning. Raven’s the best at really understanding. She only wants to win.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 10:40 PM.
