Geno Auriemma was back on the UConn campus and spoke with local reporters on Monday for the first time since his end-of-game brouhaha with South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley last month and summed it up this way:

"We’re all human and we all do dumb (expletive),”. Auriemma said.

Auriemma qnd Staley engaged in a spat following in their teams’ national semifinal game in the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. The then-undefeated Huskies lost to the Gamecocks 62-48 on April 3, denied a chance to attempt to repeat their 2025 national title.

And Auriemma admitted Monday that he lost something else – his cool – when the postgame handshake with Staley turned into a shouting match.

“After every game, whether you’re a coach, official, player, the first thing you do is analyze what happened,” he said. “And you do things on the spur of the moment sometimes, but they usually come from things that happened and built up for quite some time.

“So, when I walked in the locker room afterward, the coaches were shaking their heads, ‘You couldn’t hold it in for five more seconds?’ And you feel like a (expletive) for the way it played out."

Auriemma, 72, has won the national title 12 times in 25 trips to the Final Four. He’s the all-time winningest coach in college basketball – men or women – with a record of 1,288-166 (.886).

Auriemma finished his 42nd season as the head coach of UConn in a way that was uncharacteristic of him. He was critical of the officiating during an in-game interview with Holly Rowe of ESPN and added his displeasure with Staley over the way she handled the officials.

On the sidelines at the end of the game, Auriemma said something to Staley, a fellow member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, and their conversation grew animated. It is known that he confronted Staley, at least, over what he considered a breach of pregame protocol that night.

He apologized twice after the incident – first to the South Carolina program without mentioning Staley, and then to the coach.

The two spoke and agreed to put the incident aside and focus on growing the women’s game.

"This morning, Dawn Staley and I spoke about our interaction after the game last Friday. I apologized to Dawn, her staff and her team," Auriemma wrote in his second apology. "Those who know me know I have nothing but respect and admiration for the game and the coaches who coach it. Dawn and her team deserved to win, and they deserved better from me."

He drew significant criticism after his confrontation with Staley and his first attempt at an apology. Auriemma said he can't worry about the critics.

“For me, I’m at an age now, not to say you couldn’t care less what people think about you, because we’re all human beings and we all have feelings about what we did or what we could have done, what people think of you. That never goes away. But in terms of how I’m going to be viewed? I don’t give two (expletive) about it. I did what I did, I apologized for it and moved on.”

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