UConn and South Carolina announced in November that they would meet in the women’s basketball regular season in 2026 and again in 2027.

Circle your calendar right now for Nov. 24, when the two rivals will meet at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

It will be the next meeting between teams that ended the other’s season in the two most recent Final Fours. UConn defeated South Carolina in the national title game in 2025, and the Gamecocks ousted the Huskies Friday night in a national semifinal game in Phoenix.

It also will be the first time UConn’s legendary coach, Geno Auriemma, will share the court with South Carolina’s Dawn Staley since the clash in the semifinal.

And all eyes will be on them.

The two Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame members exchanged words at the end of South Carolina’s 62-48 victory. Auriemma appeared to say something that Staley did not like when they met at halfcourt as the game wound down, and as the conversation grew more heated, their assistant coaches stepped in to separate them.

In the postgame news conference, Auriemma didn’t share what he said to Staley.

“I said what I said,” Auriemma said. “And obviously she didn't like it. I just told the truth.”

In an interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe after the third quarter, Auriemma was livid with the officiating, noting the disparity of the fouls called on each team in the Gamecocks’ favor. He implied that Staley had ridden the officials so hard that the calls went her team’s way while also acknowledging that his team turned in a subpar performance.

It isn’t clear if he said something to Staley about the fouls or about his thoughts that she broke pregame tradition.

"I have no idea," Staley said when ESPN’s Rowe asked her what happened with Auriemma. "But I'm going to let you know this, I'm of integrity. I'm of integrity. So if I did something wrong to Geno, I have no idea what I did.

"I guess he thought I didn't shake his hand at the beginning of the game. I didn't know. I went down there pregame, shook everybody on his staff's hand.

"I don't know what he came with after the game, but, hey, sometimes things get heated. We move on."

Auriemma did address the pregame ritual in the postgame news conference, and said events also occur in a game that fans don’t know about.

“There are a lot of things that happened in that game. Unless you're on that sideline, you have no idea what's happening on this sideline,” he said.

“No, I mean, for 41 years I've been coaching and, I don't know, 25 Final Fours. The 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.”

Auriemma and Staley go back years. He was the head coach of the U.S. women’s basketball team – and Staley one of his assistants – and led the team to Olympic gold medals in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

He was asked in the media scrum later in the night if he and Staley had a relationship.

“No, not really. We don’t have a lot in common,” he said.

But, he added: “I have a tremendous amount of respect for her, for what’s she done at South Carolina. I remember when she got there and the program had basically fallen off the map, so for her to take her program, take it to where it is right now, I have a tremendous amount of respect for that.”

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