UConn coach Geno Auriemma offered another statement on his confrontation with Dawn Staley during last month’s NCAA Tournament.
Auriemma spoke to the media on Monday for the first time since his outburst at the end of the Huskies’ Final Four loss to South Carolina. He said he was not concerned with what people thought of him in light of the incident, but admitted that he had needlessly lost his cool.
“After every game, whether you’re a coach, official, player, the first thing you do is analyze what happened. 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,” Auriemma said, via Dom Amore of the Hartford Courant. “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 dumbass for the way it played out. We’re all human and we all do dumb (stuff).”
Auriemma got in Staley’s face at the end of South Carolina’s 62-48 win in the national semifinal (video here) and was widely criticized for his behavior. He drew further criticism after his initial apology failed to mention Staley by name, forcing him to issue a second, more specific apology.
Staley has called on everyone to move on from the incident. Auriemma knows he screwed up and has admitted to it, which should allow all involved to do just that.
