Not a good look
Geno erupts. Will cooler heads prevail?
Good morning, all and happy Saturday!
It is not a happy Saturday for fans of the UConn women’s basketball team, as South Carolina avenged last season’s NCAA women’s championship game loss to the Huskies with a 62-48 victory last night in a Final Four semi-final contest. But the talk today is not about this rivalry, which is beginning to make Yankees-Red Sox look like two kids playing in a sandbox. It is about hall-of-fame coach Geno Auriemma having a Woody Hayes moment with his verbal tirade on South Carolina coach Dawn Staley with seconds remaining in the game. It is about his refusal to shake the hands of the SC players after the contest. That is the story. Pure and simple. And that is not a good look for the storied UConn women’s basketball program.
I did not watch the game, as I was broadcasting a Hartford Yard Goats game last night. But I can tell you, as the Yard Goats win over the Chesapeake Baysox entered the latter innings, the murmur through the crowd that undefeated UConn’s certain championship hopes had been derailed wasn’t the only story. The fact many were looking at their phones and watching the Geno eruption was the story.
We can talk until we are blue in the face about people now having to pay for their Jordan’s Furniture purchase or that UConn paid the price for playing in a weak women’s basketball conference or that it is never good to enter the Final Four undefeated. The reality is Auriemma’s outburst was what was the focus of everyone’s conversation in a baseball park and just about everywhere else. And that is not a good look for the storied UConn program that Auriemma has built.
On my drive home, scanning the dial of sports talk programs on satellite radio, the discussion was not about South Carolina knocking off UConn. It was about Auriemma’s sideline, emotional display.
We know South Carolina-UConn and Auriemma-Staley have a history. It’s Earl Weaver-Billy Martin II. The two have Philadelphia roots. Staley was a competitive player. I witnessed it firsthand, when she played for the Philadelphia Rage in the old ABL and UConn legend Jennifer Rizzoti played for the New England Blizzard. As the Blizzard broadcaster, I saw many an on court battle between those two. But Auriemma crossed the line last night, no matter how you slice it.
Whether Auriemma had a point about the discrepancy in fouls, Staley getting away with murder on the sidelines, or her stiffing him during the traditional pregame meeting of coaches, does not matter. What does matter is Auriemma comes off to a public, which now uses social media as its news resource, as everything he is not, a sore loser.
Sadly, what we are now going to read and hear about Auriemma are comments along the lines of “Is he too old for the job?” “The game has passed him by.” “Is it time to retire?” Blah! Blah! Blah!
Auriemma turned 72 last week. The game has not passed him by. He did take yet another undefeated UConn team to the Final Four, after all. But a well-honed image has been tarnished, and no matter how the legendary coach and his supporters try to spin it, no matter what animus may exist between Auriemma and Staley, no matter how good this intense rivalry is for women’s college basketball, Auriemma needs to engage in some damage control. And pronto. Simply stated, he owes Staley a public apology. It is the classy thing to do.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you for being a subscriber and have a splendid Saturday! And to the UConn fans, remember the words of the legendary Brooklyn Dodgers broadcaster Red Barber, after the New York Giants Bobby Thompson hit the “Shot heard ‘round the world,” “The sun will come up tomorrow!”
DAN