Feb 2, 2023; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley disputes a call against the Kentucky Wildcats in the second half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

Dawn Staley has had it.

The South Carolina women’s basketball coach fired back at UConn coach Geno Auriemma after he made controversial comments after the Gamecocks’ 81-77 win over the Huskies this past Sunday.

The longtime UConn coach criticized South Carolina following the loss, alleging that the Gamecocks left bruises on Huskies Huskies star Lou Lopez-Senechal’s body.

“I didn’t say anything for a long, long, long time,” Auriemma said via Yahoo! Sports. “And I just felt like — you want me to bring Lou in and see the bruises? It’s just appalling what teams do to her now. It’s not basketball anymore. It’s not basketball anymore. So that was the problem.”

Staley took issue with Auriemma’s comments, later addressing them on her call-in radio show on Tuesday.

“They play the right way,” Staley said via the Associated Press, “and approach it the right way whether they win or lose. We don’t denounce anybody’s play. They are always uplifting the game of women’s basketball, and when we were getting our heads beat in by UConn for all those years, I said nothing.”

During Sunday’s loss, Auriemma lost his cool, slamming a water bottle on the court, after it appeared that Lopez-Senechal was held on a screen. He was unsurprisingly issued a technical and had to be restrained by his assistant coaches.

It’s clear that there’s been no love lost between these two teams, particularly the head coaches, for that matter.

“We’ve been called so many things and I’m sick of it,” Staley said. “I’m sick of it because I coach some of the best human beings the game has ever had.”

[Yahoo! Sports, Associated Press]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.