{"id":7486,"date":"2026-04-04T15:49:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/04\/dawn-staley-geno-auriemma-south-carolina-upset-uconn-final-four\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:49:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:49:54","slug":"dawn-staley-geno-auriemma-south-carolina-upset-uconn-final-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/04\/dawn-staley-geno-auriemma-south-carolina-upset-uconn-final-four\/","title":{"rendered":"We Ride For Dawn! Geno Auriemma Berates Dawn Staley Over South Carolina\u2019s Upset Over UConn In Final Four"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dawn Staley<\/a> and her South Carolina Gamecocks<\/a> came out of their sixth straight Final Four appearance with a victory over Geno Auriemma\u2019s undefeated UConn<\/a> team and a trip to the National Championship game. <\/p>\n

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Source: C. Morgan Engel \/ Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South Carolina handed UConn a 14-point beatdown that seemingly was a hard pill to swallow for their coach Auriemma, who exploded at Coach Staley at the end of the game. He alleged that she did not shake his hand at the start of the game; however, ESPN cameras replayed the team\u2019s introductions and warm greetings, including Dawn\u2019s acknowledgement of Geno. <\/p>\n

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Dawn did defend herself in her postgame interview and made sure to shutdown Geno\u2019s claims. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea. But I\u2019m gonna let you know this: I\u2019m of integrity. I\u2019m of integrity,\u201d\u00a0Staley said. \u201cSo if I did something wrong to Geno \u2014 I don\u2019t know what I did. I guess he thought I didn\u2019t shake his hand at the beginning of the game. I didn\u2019t know. I went down there pregame, shook everybody on his staff\u2019s hand. I don\u2019t know what he came with after the game. Sometimes, things get heated. We move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Geno also took shots at Dawn during a broadcast in-game interview where he claimed that Coach Staley was being unprofessional with the refs and that his team was being unfairly officiated while the Gamecocks were being allowed to \u201cbeat the s***\u201d out of his players. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThere were six fouls called that quarter \u2013 all of them against us. And they\u2019ve been beating the s**t out of our guys down there the entire game. And I\u2019m not making excuses because we haven\u2019t been able to make a shot, but this is ridiculous,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cTheir coach [Staley] rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referees some names you don\u2019t want to hear. And now we get six to zero and I\u2019ve a kid with a ripped jersey, and they go, \u2018I didn\u2019t see it.\u2019 C\u2019mon man. This is for the national championship.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Interesting choice of words to describe the actions of a Black woman head coach, no doubt. <\/p>\n

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Though all of his claims were debunked by ESPN replays, Coach Auriemma held fast to his theories in the postgame presser and had no remorse for the language he used, his refusal to shake the South Carolina players\u2019 hands after the game or the way he treated his fellow coaching peer. <\/p>\n

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\u201cFor 41 years I\u2019ve been coaching and, I don\u2019t know, 25 Final Fours,\u201d he said. \u201cThe protocol is before the game, you meet at halfcourt. Anybody see that before? Two coaches meet at halfcourt and they shake hands, correct? Ever see it? They announce it on the loudspeaker. I waited there for like three minutes. So it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Nonetheless, Dawn and her Gamecocks are vying for their fourth championship. Coach Staley gave her girls an inspiring speech after the game saying, <\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m proud of y\u2019all, incredible performance. Stay locked in, from a defensive standpoint, it was masterful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

South Carolina will face UCLA in the National Championship game on Apr. 5 on ESPN.<\/p>\n

The post We Ride For Dawn! Geno Auriemma Berates Dawn Staley Over South Carolina\u2019s Upset Over UConn In Final Four<\/a> appeared first on Bossip<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dawn Staley and her South Carolina Gamecocks came out of their sixth straight Final Four appearance with a victory over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14044,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-7486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-rss","tag-culture","tag-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14044"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}