The No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks saw their NCAA tournament run end at the hands of No. 1 UCLA on Sunday. The national championship game wasn't much of a contest throughout, as the Bruins dominated the Gamecocks 79-51.Â
It was a disappointing end to a fun run for South Carolina during the tournament. But, the Gamecocks and head coach Dawn Staley will forge on, despite the loss.Â
After the game, Staley was asked whether or not she had heard from UConn head coach Geno Auriemma. The two legendary head coaches had a heated postgame exchange after the Gamecocks defeated the Huskies 62-48.Â
Coach Auriemma, although he issued a statement apologizing to South Carolina's players and coaching staff, he has not mentioned Coach Staley directly.Â
"It really is a Geno question," Staley said when asked if the Huskies coach has reached out to her. "I haven't heard from Geno, so... I have not. I got 800 text messages. I don't know if he texted or not."
"This is UCLA's day, right?" Staley continued. "Let's keep it UCLA, them winning the national championship. Again, I will address all of that at another time, just not this weekend. We're not going to damper UCLA's day with it. We talk about South Carolina, us losing, talk about UCLA winning the national championship, what's great about our game today."
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After South Carolina's loss to UConn, Coach Auriemma claimed it had something to Staley not shaking his hand during the former coach and player introductions pre-game. But Staley claimed that she wasn't entirely sure what happened, and there was plenty of images of them shaking hands pre-game before the moment Auriemma referred to .
The two head coaches have played each other 15 previous times, and there's even a UConn-South Carolina regular-season matchup on the books for the 2026-27 season.
So this likely isn't the last time we hear from these two coaches, but for now, the saga continues.