In the aftermath of Geno Auriemma’s Final Four blowup, when the longtime Connecticut coach confronted South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, former Huskies star Diana Taurasi was among the people who opined on the saga.
Taurasi, who played for Auriemma from 2000-04 and was teammates with Staley at the 2004 Olympics, didn’t necessarily take a side but rather cited the competitiveness of both coaches and called UConn-South Carolina a rivalry that’s “here to stay.”
“I know it’s two really competitive people from Philly,” Taurasi said during an interview with SiriusXM. “So you can put whatever label you want and you can say whatever you want about the situation last night, but to me it was two people competing at the highest level that have tremendous respect for each other.”
Everything unfolded when Auriemma confronted Staley in the handshake line after South Carolina defeated the Huskies in the Final Four.
Auriemma, who Taurasi said is “like a father to me,” accused Staley of not shaking her hand pregame, though video surfaced afterward that showed otherwise.
During an interview with ESPN in the fourth quarter Friday, Auriemma also accused South Carolina of “beating the s–t out of our guys” and said “their coach rants and raves on the sidelines and calls the referees some names you don’t want to hear.”
Auriemma apologized in a statement the next day, saying that there’s “no excuse” for his actions while not addressing Staley by name in his apology.
“Hey, look, it reminds me of when I was in college and Tennessee was at the top of the mountain,” Taurasi said when asked about rivalries in women’s basketball during the SiriusXM interview. “You want to knock them down. You want to be the better team. You want to be able to beat them in the biggest games.
“I think what Dawn has done at South Carolina is remarkable, amazing. The culture, that basketball program that she’s really built from the ground up. Connecticut’s still Connecticut. We get to the Final Four and lose and it’s a terrible year. So that’s where we’re at. It really is unfair, call it what you want to call it, but it’s a great rivalry. I think it’s here to stay.”
South Carolina, which lost to UConn in the national championship game last year, faces UCLA on Sunday to try and claim its third title across the last five years.
