Many sports fans hate those awkward interviews where a sideline reporter corners a coach right before or after a break in the action. They usually result in boring, obvious answers.
Then there’s what happened when ESPN reporter Holly Rowe asked UConn Huskies women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma about the second quarter Thursday night. Specifically, Rowe asked the 11-time national champion coach how he’d address his team allowing the Tennessee Lady Vols so many opportunities at the free-throw line.
“How do I address it? How do I address it? You don’t address it! This is what you get when you come down here,” Auriemma said.
“The game was called one way, and then changed! Nothing else changed. We didn’t change. Nothing else changed!”
Geno Auriemma was not happy with the officiating in the second quarter. pic.twitter.com/erA03SARxM
— ESPN (@espn) January 27, 2023
It was clear this wasn’t just another game for Auriemma. Heading into this matchup in Knoxville, the 68-year-old coach had compared UConn-Tennessee games to other great sports rivalries.
“It was probably the first and only classic women’s basketball rivalry on the level of North Carolina and Duke … Steelers-Cowboys, and Yankees-Red Sox, and Auburn-Alabama, and right there, UConn-Tennessee women’s basketball,” Auriemma said Wednesday (via the Knoxville News). “I mean to be put in that context with those other rivalries … it became something really special.”
Many fans who watched the interview bashed Auriemma for his response to Rowe.
Holly, you deserved better. Even if someone could OBJECTIVELY agree with his “opinion”, this was a classless way to conduct an interview with you. Especially on a night honoring someone who initiated agreed to a game between these 2 schools “for the good of the game.”
— John B. Cagle (@PapaJohnCagle) January 27, 2023
He’s a drama queen
— Matt Oates (@sub4miler) January 27, 2023
Dude was literally about to cry. Lmao.
— Josh Bishop (@jwbishop92) January 27, 2023
Cry me a river 😂
— Kelly Greco (@KGreco23) January 27, 2023
[ESPN]
