Dawn Staley came out to raucous applause at South Carolina's Garnet and Black Madness event Wednesday, marking the customary start of a new Gamecocks basketball season.
However, the South Carolina coach isn't quite ready to let go of last season, particularly her memorable Final Four clash with UConn women's basketball coach and longtime rival Geno Auriemma six months ago. Staley appeared on the Grey Matter with Declan Kelly podcast Wednesday, offering her perspective on the heated confrontation between the two Hall of Fame coaches.
"I'm going to speak about it right now because I haven't talked about it," Staley said. "I think Geno really thinks it's about the handshake, and it has very little to do with the handshake. I respect him. I respect what he's done for the game. I think he's a genius of a coach."
"Understand this: when we played UConn, whether I was at Temple or at South Carolina, and they were the overarching favorites and beat us by 20, 30, 40 points, I made a point to always, after the game, shake his hand, look him in his eye, congratulate him and move on. I did it purposefully; I made myself do that."
Tensions at the blue-blooded Final Four matchup boiled over by the end of the third quarter, as Auriemma gave an irate interview to Holly Rowe with his UConn squad trailing by five, railing against an officiating crew that hadn't whistled a foul against South Carolina since the first half. South Carolina pulled away for a 62-48 win, and Auriemma set off Staley in the postgame handshake line, leading to a heated confrontation that led to the coaches being separated.
Auriemma said in his postgame interview that he felt snubbed by Staley, alleging that the South Carolina coach left him waiting for a customary pregame handshake. After widespread criticism from national media figures and former players, Auriemma issued an apology statement to Staley.
Staley, meanwhile, largely glossed over the incident and expressed frustration that the controversy overshadowed her team's accomplishment. South Carolina then lost to UCLA 79-51 in the national championship game two days later.
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This article originally published at Dawn Staley says Final Four spat with Geno Auriemma was about more than a handshake.