Two years ago, the NCAA women’s basketball championship game drew nearly 19 million viewers, surpassing the men’s championship total. The 2026 event leads into this year’s Final Four in Phoenix, already the third-most-watched Elite Eight ever. With ten days until the semifinals, the average asking price for a ticket to the women’s Final Four has already exceeded $800. Women’s sports have taken decades to achieve this kind of continued growth. Geno Auriemma’s 30-second collapse with less than 2 seconds left in South Carolina’s 62-48 victory in the Final Four on Friday night threatened to make people forget just how much growth and legitimacy the women’s game has achieved.
With 0.1 seconds left in the game and South Carolina leading by 14 points (62-48), Coach Auriemma walked to the sideline and shook Coach Staley’s hand for what appeared to be the end of the game, but instead he started yelling at her. Officials and assistants rushed in to separate the two coaches, and Staley was visibly angry as others worked to separate them. According to Staley, it was Auriemma who initiated the conversation. He then walked off the pitch without shaking anyone’s hand and disappeared alone into the tunnel.
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Auriemma certainly didn’t apologize during the postgame press conference. When pressed further for an explanation, Auriemma said he felt disrespected by not having a pregame handshake at halftime. “I’ve coached for 41 years and been to 25 Final Four games, and the agreement before the game was to meet at halftime,” he said. “I was waiting there for about three minutes. That’s what happened.” As for his yelling at Staley in the final seconds: “I said what I said, and obviously she didn’t like it.” The problem with that explanation is that video played by ESPN after the game showed the two coaches shaking hands before kickoff. She did shake his hand.
multiple outbreaks
It wasn’t the first time he lost his temper that night. Before the fourth quarter, with South Carolina taking the lead, Auriemma did a live sideline interview with ESPN reporter Holly Rowe and then took a load off his shoulders. “There were six fouls in that quarter, all against us. They were beating the shit out of our guys the whole game. I’m not making excuses because we couldn’t make a shot. But it was ridiculous. Their coach was yelling and snarling on the sideline and calling the officials some names you don’t want to hear. Now we’re six-0 and I have a kid with a torn jersey and they’re like, ‘I didn’t see that.’ “Come on man. This is for a national championship.”
Losing temper in public
Auriemma is the winningest coach in college basketball history with 12 national championships and sent 28 players to the WNBA in the first round. No one seriously discusses his legacy. It’s worth debating what it means when the most powerful male figure in the sport uses one of its most high-profile nights to publicly lose his temper on live television at one of the most accomplished Black female coaches in American sports history, who accepted a handshake but decided it didn’t count.
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Women’s basketball has spent decades proving that it belongs in the same conversation as any sport in this country. Historic ticket prices, ratings, attendance and investment are proof that growth and legitimacy are here to stay. But thanks to moments like this Friday night, none of that happened. Despite their desperation, things happened. The sport doesn’t need its most decorated ambassador to remind the nation that even in the midst of a decade-long surge to the Final Four, one man’s temper can still take up more space than the game itself.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
