PHOENIX — As the buzzer sounded on the third quarter of UConn’s national semifinal game against South Carolina, UConn sophomore Sarah Strong appeared to rip her jersey with two hands out of frustration. The usually cool-headed consensus national player of the year had to trade her No. 21 jersey for a replacement No. 55 for the rest of the previously unbeaten Huskies’ 62-48 loss to the Gamecocks.
Postgame, Strong called the ripped jersey “an accident.” But it was clear that the frustration of the game had gotten to her after the Huskies were outscored 20-13 in the third quarter.
In the moments after that quarter, Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma aired his frustrations about the officiating and Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley to ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe.
“There were six fouls called that quarter, all of them against us. And they’ve been beating the shit out of our guys down there the entire game,” Auriemma said. “I’m not making excuses, because we haven’t been able to make a shot, but this is ridiculous. Their coach rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referees some names you don’t want to hear. And now we get six [fouls] to zero and I got a kid with a ripped jersey and they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’
“Come on, man. This is for the national championship.”
Following the game, the tension escalated into shouting between Auriemma and Staley that required Huskies assistant coach Jamelle Elliot and the officials to intervene. Auriemma then left for the UConn locker room alone, without shaking the hands of the Gamecocks players and coaching staff.
In the postgame press conference, Staley redirected questions about the altercation: “You can ask Geno the question. He’s the one that initiated the conversation. I don’t want what happened there to dampen what we were able to accomplish today.”
When it was Auriemma’s turn, he told the room that he “just said what [he] had to say” and that he didn’t have “any regrets” about what he said to Rowe in his sideline interview.
He later elaborated on his frustrations: “I just want to make sure there’s not a double standard. I’m of the opinion that if I ever talk to an official like [Staley did], I would get tossed. So I just want to make sure there’s not a double standard, that some people are allowed to talk to officials like that and other people are not. That’s it.”
It was an icy finish to a freezing cold shooting night for UConn, which shot just 31% from the field. In her final game in a UConn uniform, fifth-year senior Azzi Fudd scored just 8 points on 3-for-15 shooting, and Strong shot 4-for-16. The Huskies led 26-24 at the half, but South Carolina used an 11-2 run to start the third quarter, putting the Huskies away for good.
“At the beginning of the third quarter, I think there was maybe three or four straight times where we came out with empty possessions,” Auriemma said. “[We] turned it over and that led to some easy buckets for them. …
“The game wasn’t played the way we want to play it. It was played the way South Carolina wanted to play it. I think they did a great job of doing that.”
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
With the loss, UConn dropped to 2-2 all time against South Carolina in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies defeated the Gamecocks in the 2018 Elite Eight and last year’s national title game, while South Carolina defeated UConn in the 2022 national title game and Friday’s national semifinal. This chapter of the rivalry was the most heated of them all.
In a media scrum following the press conference, Auriemma was asked whether he would describe Staley as a rival. He responded curtly: “Yeah, we’re rivals — that’s about it.”
The competition between the game’s premier programs boiled over on Friday and ended with UConn flying home empty-handed. The teams are set to face off in the next two regular seasons on neutral sites, adding more chapters to the growing rivalry.
‘It doesn’t define us’
For Fudd, Friday’s loss was a painful ending to a five-year career full of high highs and low lows. The No. 1 recruit nationally in the class of 2021 missed 11 games as a freshman due to a foot injury, missed 22 games as a sophomore with a knee injury, and tore her ACL in November of her junior season. At the same time, she has been to the Final Four all but one year of her college career and won a national title last season.
“Obviously, this isn’t how I wanted my career at UConn to end,” a teary-eyed Fudd told reporters postgame. “These five years, I have so much to be grateful for. I couldn’t have asked for better teammates, better coaches, a better experience. … Like I said, not how we wanted it to end. But it doesn’t define us, what this team is, what this season was.”
Auriemma told reporters in the press conference that there was nothing he could say in the moment to make his team feel better. At one point, he patted Fudd on the back as she held in tears.
With the unfortunate ending to his All-American guard’s career and a missed opportunity at a 13th national title, Auriemma joked that “after tonight, I don’t know that I want to continue coaching.” But then he said he still feels motivated, even with the painful lows of the job.
“If you’re going to be in that situation last year, where Azzi and [Ashlynn Shade] and Sarah and KK [Arnold] celebrated winning a national championship, you also have to be able to accept the fact that you’re going to lose a lot of times in these games,” Auriemma said. “99.9% of all the kids playing college basketball this year are going to go home without winning a national championship. Somebody out there Sunday night is going to win one. Everybody else, they’re not losers. …
“If you walk away when you’re losing, you’re never going to get another opportunity to win again. So I think that is my motivation right now.”
He also hinted that Strong will use this loss as fuel in the remaining years of her college career.
“An awful lot falls on [Sarah]. Tonight, she’ll be the first to tell you that she is not proud of how her game went today,” Auriemma said. “A lot of shots that you’ve seen her make for two years so easily today didn’t go in. She still got her 12 rebounds, did all the things she normally does and played 40 minutes.
“I don’t think Sarah Strong needs me to put any fire or motivation or anything into her. We’ll be back here next year. She’ll make sure of that.”
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Looking for more March Madness stories? Read all our NCAA Tournament coverage at The IX Sports.
