Geno Auriemma, Dawn Staley make first statements following postgame kerfuffle

On Friday, we had ourselves two outstanding Final Four games in the women's college basketball tournament. The first saw UConn drop a 54-game winning streak at the hands of South Carolina, with the second featuring UCLA upsetting Texas to send the Bruins to their first-ever national title game. The on-court play was incredible from both teams, not to mention how well USC and UCLA played defensively. 

But instead, the overarching narrative stemming from Phoenix nearly 24 hours later continues to be what went down between South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley and UConn's Geno Auriemma. After the game was over, Staley and Auriemma's postgame handshake had some fireworks, with the two legendary coaches going at it. 

A day later when the dust settled some more, both coaches spoke on what happened. Auriemma issued an official statement on Saturday afternoon, both apologizing for his actions, as well as issuing apologies to the Gamecocks' team and coaching staff: 

Notice that there's one key name missing from that statement—Staley herself. While you can argue that including "South Carolina's staff" in the statement includes her, it's a bit eyebrow-raising as to her being left out of the statement entirely. 

As for Staley, she's not exactly dwelling on what happened. On Saturday, she appeared to have already moved on from the incident, crediting her tough Philadelphia upbringing as well: 

 "Yeah, for me no distractions at this time," Staley said when asked about Geno's statement. "Concentrating on winning the national championship. That's it."

Geno Auriemma's temper tantrum overshadows South Carolina's dominant victory

She added that what happened dominating the conversation from the game was disheartening, but that sometimes in sports these things happen. Staley was later asked how she as a head coach deals with "distractions" that undermine what she and her team is trying to accomplish. 

"One, I had a praying mother, right? Two, I grew up in the projects of North Philly, right, Philly, 215, 267, area code," Staley said. "So nothing, nothing can derail us, or me, from staying with the task at hand. There are a lot of distractions that are placed in your life. You either going to address them and let it overcome or you stick with the task at hand.

I'm choosing to stick to the task at hand. At some point everything is going to be addressed. Today, this weekend won't be one of them."

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Auriemma, whose team was dominated defensively by South Carolina, had previously complained to ESPN's Holly Rowe about the officiating during an in-game interview. He simultaneously threw jabs at Staley, accusing the three-time national title winning coach of saying things to the officials. 

It's unknown whether or not Auriemma has spoken to Staley personally since Friday night, and there is of course the possibility that he has reached out to her privately. But her absence in the official statement is pretty surprising, and it likely isn't the last we hear about the two coaches.  

The two women's basketball legends have faced each other 15 times, with Staley winning six out of the last eight meetings. They both coached Team USA women's team during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, winning gold together. 

This story may not die anytime soon, unfortunately for Geno. Don't be surprised if Staley uses this as even more motivation to win her fourth national championship either. My guess is she will have plenty to say about it all after the task at hand is completed.